~~Young~~

Chapter Eight

   “Hey Sera!” the redhead by the window, Tasha, or Sasha maybe, greeted her cheerfully, “you heading to Van for the Muse concert too?”

   She could have sighed in relief, she had heard a few of her own girl’s talking about that too, “yeah,” she said slowly, “guess I wasn’t the only who thought to get an early start huh?”

   “Nope,” the darker skinned girl across from her grinned deviously, “we’re skipping out on classes today to make sure we’re in the front of the meet and greet line.”

   “Well I won’t tell the Dean if you won’t,” she said as slyly as she could muster.

   “Deal,” the girl’s said in unison, and as they began chattering amongst themselves she made her getaway.

   She didn’t see any yellow tape across the seats so she flopped into the empty bank sighing, “Shit that was close,” as her bags dropped on either side of her. Looking around she found she had been correct in her assumption as to why the booth was empty. There was a finger long crack on the bottom of the window emanating from a hole the size of a dime leaking in air.

   Whatever, she could deal with a little noise if it whistled and her coat would more than keep her warm if it was going to throw a draft. She was more than willing to trade the crack for the lack of bodies at the table. It was exactly what she wanted, more so since she managed to snag a window seat despite arriving as late as she did. It wasn’t the cab driver’s fault- or hers for once- that she was so close to missing her train. It was the moose who decided to play kamikaze on the Okanagan Highway that set them back. The moose was actually okay, but the little red truck didn’t fare so well and took out two more cars on its way off the embankment. Closed all four lanes down for almost half an hour and that was exactly why she tried to get out a little early.

   She waited to fully spread herself out until the conductor closed the doors, and when no one else made their way down her end of the car Sera actually grinned. She was never this lucky. Even with the extra room this car offered she still usually ended up crammed next to someone so large they should have bought two tickets. Or the guy with the small bladder that insisted on sitting by the window even if he had to get up every fifteen minutes. Or a kicker, or the drooling napper, pretty much if they were annoying, she was stuck next to them.

   As the conductor went through his last safety checks Sera began digging through her bag- that she could actually leave out in the seat next to her instead of balanced between her feet to keep it from getting stepped on- for her notebook. Her laptop notebook that was, and not her actual paper notebook. Though that’s what she had set her mind on completing on the ride to Vancouver, her highly neglected thesis outline, she needed to make sure Lacy hadn’t made any changes to their plans for tomorrow. You know, in case she had figured out a way to exclude her thanks to the suspension. She would get to her thesis eventually, she kind of had to. She hadn’t written a single word down since she was in the Dean’s office that morning, hadn’t even looked at the notebook since. Way too much had happened since then, and all those reasons were exactly why she expected she wouldn’t get a single thing done.

   But she had to try.

   She pulled her iPod out and stuck the buds in her ears as the train gave a jerk. Scrolling through to the P’s she selected Plum’s work in its entirety and focused on what was in front of her…for a second. When Plum’s “I can’t do this” came on Sera changed the song quickly, her pessimism really didn’t need any encouragement.

   No, no new emails since she checked it before leaving- at least none she was concerned about- though she wasn’t completely convinced that was good news. Guess that meant it was thesis time.