CAROL MEETS WORLD

Chapter Five

I woke up to loud knocking on the dorm door. It was way too early, before my 6:50am morning alarm and it was annoying. For the life of me, I couldn't come up with a guess of who was on the door. Mel wasn't in for about two days and wasn't coming back for the next three days.

I did what any not-a-morning-person would do in a situation like that - ignored the knocking and hoped that the person would get the hint and leave. Unfortunately for me, the more I ignored it, the more insistent the knocks became. I slipped out of my bed with mum's shawl wrapped around my shoulder and went to tell off whoever was at the door.

When the door opened, the words I'd planned to say disappeared as I looked at who was standing at the door. "Clive?"

He beamed at me. "Good morning."

He looked so put together. I couldn't comprehend why he was at my dorm, especially when Mel wasn't in. Not early in the morning. "What are you doing here?"

"Very many reasons," he replied. "May I come in?"

My cheeks burn in embarrassment upon realization that I was still blocking him from coming inside.
"I'm sorry," I said as I stood aside and held the door for him. "Please come in."

He placed his backpack on Mel's sofa and sat next to it. "So, Mel was right, huh?"

"About what?"

"You aren't a morning person. And you normally don't wake up early even if you set alarms to wake you."

I looked away and rubbed a spot on my neck. "I guess. But my alarm hasn't gone off yet."

"Really? It's 7am."

My eyes widened at that. 7am? Already? How did I keep missing my alarms no matter how loud I customized them? So, if Clive hadn't waken me up, I'd have been late for my 8:30am class!
I left him in the living room and rushed to the bathroom to get ready. Somehow, Clive was still there by the time I was finished with everything. I still had about forty minutes left, so, still enough time to make conversation.

"Hey," I started as I walked back in the living room. "So, what are you doing here?"

He let out a nervous laugh and reached for his backpack.
"First of all, Mel made me promise to wake you up because she knew that you wouldn't if nobody woke you up. And since none of us have your number, this was the only way."

Oh, that made so much sense. Mel was such an angel!

"Also, I brought you breakfast," he continued, getting a food flask from his backpack.

After tasting his baking, my mouth practically watered at the thought of eating something else made by him. "Thank you. You didn't have to."

"Y'know, I never really got to thank you for saving my phone the other night. Consider that my way of thanking you."

"Oh. Is that so?"

"Yeah. And also because I want to ask you for a favor."

Placing the food flask on the table, I turned to him. "What is it?"

"So, I'm the vice president of Red Cross Society and well, we are organizing a health camp in the university in partnership with the local hospital. What I need help with is mobilizing students to take part and also since you are in the faculty of health sciences, I think you'd be a great help to the cause. Will you help, please?"

It didn't come as surprise that he'd be involved in something like that. I'd seen him in a lot of volunteer projects. It was one thing I liked about him in the first place - he was too nice for this world.
"Wow. That's nice."