I'm Normally Perfect (re-upload)

Chapter Twenty-Five

I addressed the dog, 'Why? Why me? Your mother's right there,' I pointed at Alex. Cate continued to stare me down. 'All right. Geez.' I pushed my chair away from the table and after re-donning my frigid weather clothes I went into the back garden and cleared off a space for Cate and took her outside and set her in it. She sniffed around the perimeter and looked at me. I asked her, 'How much more room do you want?' I yelled back at Alex, who was standing just outside the patio door, 'Your dog is so bossy!' Alex laughed and, shaking her head, went back inside.

Needless to say, the weather was not clear the first day of Hilary, but we'd planned for that and got up early and took turns shovelling. On the drive in Alex said,

'The thing about strenuous exercise first thing is it really wakes you up.'

'Yeah. I prefer tea, thanks. Where I'm from if it snows more than an inch everything closes. Schools, banks, everything. Category four hurricanes we can deal with, but a hint of snow and everyone runs inside. That's the way it's supposed to be.'

In the car park we wished one another a good day and I said I most likely wouldn't be trekking over for tea, as I didn't relish the idea of slogging through a couple feet of snow. We kissed on the cheek goodbye and went our separate ways. When I reached the gate Mr Phipps called a cheery, 'Hullo, Miss Perfect!' and waved me through. I wasn't halfway to the library when a beaming Robert came bounding toward me. Well, he would have done if he hadn't been trudging through the snow.

'Cate!'

'Yeah?' I'm always wary when a smiling person greets me as if they were on uppers.

He finally reached me and stopped, panting, cheeks red. When he caught his breath his asked as though we'd just bumped into one another in the hallway, 'So, how was your break?'

'Brilliant, thanks. Yours?'

'Oh, cracking, just cracking.'

I took that to mean good and waited for him to tell me or ask me whatever he came over to tell me or ask me. When he just stood there, grinning down at me I finally said, 'Robert, it's sort of freezing and I'm not very accustomed to that, so what do you need?'

'Oh, nothing. I just wanted to say I had a great time. You know, at the party. Thanks for coming.'

I nodded, 'Not at all. It was...interesting.' I couldn't feel my feet. 'Do you mind if we get in out of this? I think I'm succumbing to frostbite.'

He chuckled good-naturedly and followed along as I made my way to the library. 'So, you think maybe we could do it again?'

'Uh, do something together again?'

'Yeah.'

The thought of that made my stomach knot up, and not in a good way, 'I don't know. I haven't been keeping up with my studies, I need to get on to it.' What a lie.

'Oh, right. You're one of those perpetually studying types. I almost never study myself.' We trudged on a bit and he opened the door to the library for me. My glasses immediately fogged up and I cleared them off with the little cloth I kept in my pocket.

'Yeah? Well, I've been busy doing other things and I've let myself get behind. Silly me.' We stamped our boots and squished into the building. I tried to change the subject, 'How do they know if you're walking on the grass when it's all covered?'

'What?'

'You know how you're not supposed to walk on the grass unless you're with a fellow of the college? Well, how can they tell if you're on the grass or not? Or does that rule only apply when the grass is actually visible?'