Chapter 5
"Which in absence of…" Yada, yada, yada…
I swear, if your job was to present information to students so they could pass their exams and, hopefully, go out and make a difference in the world would you deliberately make your lectures as boring as possible? Well, I wouldn't, but, apparently, this view isn't shared by my professors. You know that expression 'I can see your lips moving, but all I'm getting is blah, blah, blah'? Well I never realised how true that can be until I came to university. Even my classes at high school weren't this bad because at least then we were usually given something to do rather than just sitting there.
I sighed heavily and began doodling on the corner of my lecture notes. I say notes, really it was just a load of gobbledegook that I'd scribbled down so I wouldn't walk out of the lecture with nothing. Nope, I would proudly walk out with notes that I wouldn't be able to read tomorrow, brilliant.
The guy next to me appeared to be asleep, lucky sod! As bored and tired as I was I couldn't imagine just dropping off in the middle of a lecture. This guy was either really tired or incredibly unselfconscious.
"In chapter 3 of the Australian Constitution Act 1901, the role of the judicature is examined…"
Wow! I actually heard each word distinctly then! I flipped the pages of my text book to the part concerning chapter 3 of the Constitution and looked to see what the lecturer was talking about. Unfortunately my enthusiasm ended there. My focus drifted off again and I found myself seeking out the clock, subsequently noticing we only had fifteen minutes left of the lecture. So why did I know they were going to be the longest fifteen minutes in history? I sighed again and propped my chin up with my hands as I gazed, albeit unfocusedly, at the lecturer.
"Regarding the duration of the appointment for a Justice of the Court…"
There was a long pause and, as it became awkward, I focussed back on what was going on. The lecturer appeared to be staring right at me! In panic I looked down at the book and saw that the passage he was referring to was at the top of the page my book was opened to. As I looked back up, the lecturer continued, "Well, perhaps the man asleep in the back row could tell us all about it as he obviously has a good enough grasp of this to not pay attention."
For a moment I was simply relieved that he wasn't catching me out on my seemingly drugged state, but then, as people in the lecture started staring and sniggering, I began to feel bad for the poor guy next to me. I nudged him surreptitiously with my elbow causing him to jerk awake and gaze blearily around the lecture hall.
"Ah, I see you've emerged from your slumber, how kind. Would you be able to tell us all the answer to my question?"
What a snarky prick that lecturer is!
The guy next to me stiffened and starting going red and the professor should really have accepted that he was the victor and moved on, but he continued to look expectantly up at the back row. Feeling a bit squirmy at the uncomfortable silence and the hostile looks being shot up towards me I waited until the lecturer looked pointedly at the clock and shoved my text book across the desks so it rested in front of the poor unfortunate next to me.
"There," I whispered pointing at the passage in my book that he was supposed to know. To his credit he immediately caught on and, without even seeming to read from my book, he quoted the section perfectly. I'd like to see you fault that Professor Gray, I thought triumphantly trying my hardest not to smirk down at the lecturer.
The professor pursed his lips looking extremely disappointed and snapped, "Well, that's the passage, yes, but your friend won’t be able to point out the appropriate parts of the textbook in the exam so I suggest you try and pay more attention in my lectures in future."
The guy next to me nodded contritely and murmured a, "Sorry."
I flushed at being included in the criticism and bowed my head over my notes to avoid the continued stares of my fellow students.
Finally the end of the lecture came and I quickly gathered my stuff off the desk and into my bag. Being in the back row, I managed to escape the majority of the crush as people virtually stampeded in their desire to leave the lecture hall. Throwing my bag onto my back I turned onto the path which led down to the large library situated pretty much smack bang in the middle of campus. I needed to research some cases for my tutorial on Monday, but, after that, it was the weekend for me.
I was just considering what I was going to do with the free time my split with Brad had afforded me, when I heard someone shout, "Hey!"
I turned my head to see if the shout was directed at me and saw the guy who had been asleep in the lecture hurtling down the path towards me.
"Wait up!" He called and so I stopped, although I wasn't completely sure it was me he was talking to. Barely a second later he arrived, panting, next to me. "God, you walk fast," he exclaimed with a wide grin as he pushed some floppy hair out of his eyes.
I shrugged. "I guess," I said, eyeing him somewhat suspiciously. Now I was seeing him without his cheek squished against the desk in the throes of sleep there was something about him that was very familiar. Where did I know him from? OK and, more pertinently, what did he want?
Seeming to sense my confusion he thrust something at me and, looking down, I saw that it was my textbook. I had completely forgotten that he had it in my haste to leave the hall.
"Oh," I said in recognition, "Thanks." I took the book and shoved it into my already crammed bag.
"No, thank you," he objected. "You saved my life back there. Professor Gray is a twisted old codger."
"I totally agree," I smiled. "But it was nothing, honestly."
He lifted his eyebrows unbelievingly. "I bet not many of those sycophants we share that lecture with would have helped me out. I'm Adam by the way." He held out his hand and, after only a tiny little pause, I took it.
"Talia," I replied before quickly dropping his hand. The memory of my last handshake was a little too fresh for me to want to extend the moment any longer than necessary. Hmm, that somewhat goes against the point of my lessons with Jack… If Adam noticed my quick withdrawal he didn't show it and instead continued,
"Nice to meet you, Talia. Hey, listen, do you have to rush off somewhere now or do you have time to let me buy you a thank you coffee?"
I opened my mouth to decline, but then hesitated as I thought it over. Why was I immediately going to say no? He seemed like a nice guy and there couldn't be any harm in getting a drink with him. Noting my hesitation he spread his hands out in a gesture of openness.
"Hey, if you're busy I totally understand. It's just that that was my last class of the day and I'm meeting up with a friend in about an hour so I have some time to kill."
I liked the way he gave me an excuse so I could get out of it if I wanted, plus a deadline showing he wasn't going to try and seriously crack onto me. Very gentleman-like. Switching into my somewhat disused flirty mode I put my hands on my hips.
"Oh so I'm just a stop-gap, is that it?" I teased.
He glanced at me as if to check that I was joking and, seeing my smile, nodded vigorously. "Yep, I'm afraid so. You saw right through my ploy. I just don't want to look like a Nigel-no-friends in case my street cred suffers."
"Well," I sighed seriously, "I'd hate to be responsible for your suffering street cred. Make it a smoothie instead of a coffee and you're on."
"Great." He smiled widely again and I found myself grinning just as warmly back.
We started walking slowly towards the uni café bitching about the long, long lecture we had just suffered through as we did so. He explained that he'd fallen asleep not only because the lecture was interminably boring, but also because he'd been up most of the night watching a Kung Fu movie marathon on TV.
He couldn't have said anything more endearing if he'd tried. I love Kung Fu movies.
"Oh my God, you watched them all last night?" I exclaimed in amazement and admiration. "I couldn’t because we had people over, but I totally wanted to."
"I was just going to watch a co
uple, but then I got sucked in and I'd be dammed if I was going to go to bed just to make Professor Gray happy."
There was a pause after he said this as I tried desperately to bite back a smile and he turned a brilliant shade of red. "That did not come out right," he said hurriedly as even his ears started glowing.
"I should hope not," I choked out. "Otherwise suspicions may arise as to how you're passing first year law!"
Arriving at the café, I ordered a mango smoothie and, after Adam insisted on paying, we snagged a table near the window making the most of the feeble, late winter sunshine. I took a moment as we both settled ourselves and took the first sips of our drinks to study him. He wasn't good-looking really. His nose was quite long, his ears stuck out a bit too much and, although I've heard some women find it attractive, his red hair and subsequent pale, white skin just didn't do it for me. However, he was friendly and open and had a great smile which made up for a lot. Not to mention I'm hardly Helen of Troy myself! The fact that I couldn't place his face was bugging me, though. Where did I know him from? I shied away from asking 'Have we met before?' because it just sounded too much like a cheesy pick up line. Maybe I was just remembering him from past lectures.
Sensing that the pause while I gave him a quick once over had gotten uncomfortably long, I searched about for something to say. Before I had time to think of anything, however, Adam brought up the paper we had to hand in next week and soon we were, once again, happily embroiled in conversation. It was good to talk to someone about uni. All my close friends were doing degrees in other faculties and the friends I'd made in Law all turned out to be the sort of people who didn't turn up to lectures and only rarely to tutes. Also, the girl I usually sat with in Friday's lecture was a friend of Allison's so it was no surprise that I had found myself alone that day.
To use a well-worn, but seriously truthful, cliché, time flew by as we chatted. Adam was incredibly easy going, fun to talk to and, probably because he knew it was his best feature, he smiled a lot, making me feel as if I was a truly entertaining and interesting person to talk to. Nothing like a bit of a self-esteem boost on a Friday morning!
We had just started discussing what we were planning to do with our law degrees, i.e. do good for the world or make pot loads of money, which seem to be the only avenues to take, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone striding towards our table. Glancing up, I was most displeased to see it was Micky and, from the look on his face, he wasn't too happy to see me either.
"Hey man, is it 11 already?" Adam asked, seeing Micky too, but not seeming to notice that Micky and I were glaring daggers at each other. Or maybe he did, but wisely decided not to mention it.
"No," Micky said curtly. "It's 11:30, the band has been waiting near the fountain." He paused significantly then added, "You know, where we agreed to meet."
Adam swore, downing the rest of his drink in one large gulp. "Sorry, mate." As he started to gather up his things, something clicked in my mind.
"Wait a minute, band?" I exclaimed. "I knew I knew you from somewhere, you're in the Wheelwrights!"
Adam looked over at me in surprise. "You've seen us play?" He asked unbelievingly.
"Yeah, a couple of times," I answered before slapping my hand down on the table. "Thank God I figured out where I'd seen you before, that would have driven me insane!"
"Like we’d have been able to tell the difference," Michael scoffed, looking over at Adam and adding, "She's only been to our gigs because she tags along after her brother all the time."
"Well, that would make two of us," I snapped.
Adam was looking a bit uncomfortable at our obvious animosity, but he did his best to reclaim some civility for the proceedings, asking, "What did you think of the band?"
"You were pretty good, apart from some crappy guitar playing." I glared at Michael who, as my slight sunk in, looked like he was going to sock me one.
"Adam, we should go," he growled starting to move towards the door, but Adam hung back.
"Hey, you know, we're playing a set at the uni bar tomorrow night, you should come," he said looking intently at me.
After glancing past him to where Micky was glowering at me I smiled prettily up at Adam and said sweetly, "Yeah, maybe I'll see you there. Thanks for the smoothie."
"Anytime, and I mean that. Thanks again for…" But Adam didn't get to finish as Michael, obviously having had enough of the goodbyes, grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him away from the table. He waved resignedly at me as he was dragged away and I waved back before grabbing my bag and also heading out of the café.
So Much to Learn Page 5