The Campus

The Upper-Class Men

'I had dinner with Summer, and that time last year when Harvard system was down, she mentioned to me that she had a thousand hits. Never knew she's considered hot in Harvard. They had this guy in campus who made male students rate female students' Lara informed Rachel.

'The days I appreciate we aren't in Harvard' Lara added, as she was fiddling the pages of her textbook.

'I cannot believe we are about to end our degrees, it's our final year and the recession is in full-swing.' Rachel was looking down to her fingers wondering which nail to bite with all the stress while talking to Lara. 'It is also becoming hard to find jobs that apply to our degrees, I want to get in to Harvard or Yale grad school or NYU' Lara didn't sound motivated aware of societal disruption. She is petite with long hair and have a beautiful face.

'I sent some media and journalism work applications and finished my book hoping that it would get picked up by publishers' Rachel was wondering whether that would even be enough to afford grad school. The two university best friends had met since their high school, and had helped each other.

'What do you think of Xander de Welt the basketball guy' Rachel finally grew the guts to change the topic.

'I heard he's the most handsome guy in court. I have a class with him, twenty first century playwrights... quite clever' Lara answered, 'why do you ask?'

Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and was contemplating on sending him a text.

August passed by with a sheer amount of confidence strutting along the corridor like a model on the runway. 'He's the new professor' Rachel shared the gossip, and Lara intuitively already hate him. 'I wonder why isn't he in Parsons or FIDM' Lara rolled her eyes, as it was the day that August wore a tiger print t-shirt and black skinny jeans accessorised with black leather bracelet.

'Because he isn't really fashionable' Rachel levelled with her 'besides he may have taken his inspiration from Nat Geo kids back issues'. They laughed aloud.

The two girls are what some would say academic snobs, they've attended private schools in New England and have relatives who were Ivy alumni and they read a lot in order to write their research papers as precisely and intelligently as possible. Although they dressed modestly, from Old Navy and Gap to Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan if they intend to dress up.

At campus, there are also the trendy students Lily and Charlotte. They care most about their vegetarian diets just to be able to post something on Facebook, which they use to get attention from other basketball jocks at their rival Crammond University.

The animal print tops of August were their style and if all else fails in their lives they can always try to label themselves artists without knowing Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko and without knowing the difference between acrylique et huile.

'For some reason my three point shoot is more accurate, free throws not much' Victor complained to Xander and Frank, as they were at the gym lifting eighty pounds free weights.

Victor, Xander and Frank are the seniors in the basketball team, and this season is their final time to play for NCAA. Giving their best shot, and busily building more camaraderie in the team. Although Victor and Xander had already been best friends since, and had been each others wingman.

They're catching up in the basketball court after finishing their strength training. Victor and Frank were talking while waiting for the team to arrive for their training, as Xander's head was somewhere else. 'Are my biceps and triceps big enough, my four packs and seven inch... seen Victor's... he's a hefty nine. I finally opened a Facebook account. Her ex-boyfriend is Sam Cohen... a Harvard rower, a national rower who competed in Beijing 2008, taller than me. Harvard grad, he is. I won't back down, I'm a fucking basketball captain.' They'll be preparing for the first game in the season, but the captain's head kept lingering around.

'Free throws are mainly just for the psyche, kinda like golf and tennis' Frank replied, who is a computer science major. 'The giant foam hands are such a distraction' Xander sounded frustrated, he is the senior who was weighing between academics or Olympics... but he's banking more on academics.

For quite some time, Xander has secretly liked Rachel. She isn't just an ordinary girl in campus - an academic achiever, Rachel and her friend Lara are those few women who don't care about the basketball athletes in campus because there is more to life. They care more about literature, society and culture. It occurred to him, twenty four hours had passed and no word from her.

One by one, the bench athletes in the freshman and sophomore of the team arrived. George, Ron and the coaches followed suit.

They started warming up, and it is these hours between six and ten in the evening when Charlotte, Lily, Francesca and many more would watch them train. Cheering for them, but sometimes they get ignored.

Meanwhile Lara and Rachel buried themselves with books in the library.