The sound that I despised most in this world was ringing loudly throughout my ears. A cliché, I know, but how else was I meant to be awoken for my first day of Uni ahead of me.
Obviously, it wasn't me who had set the alarm, no, I could never have been that responsible last night. Of course, it was Ivy, the one who seemed to be the ablest to make the crucial decisions no one else seemed capable of doing.
Loud groans repeated around the, on the smaller side, flat that we shared. Obvious it wasn't just me who wasn't feeling the consequences of last night in the form a pounding on my head, I joined in with the groans of protests the other girls were making, due to the fact that no one had turned off that stupid, loud, annoying beeping of the alarm.
After a few more painful minutes, the dreadful noise ceased and I stumbled up from the sofa and made my way to the bathroom. Putting on my outfit for the day, which was surprisingly summery, as the weather was actually hot for a change, and applying my moisturiser and makeup after my shower, I made my way back to our living room where Yara was cooking breakfast.
She was dressed in a bright yellow dress that complimented her skin perfectly, if I ever tried to wear anything like that, with my skin tone, it would just look awful, yet here Yara was looking like a Goddess. As usual.
Ivy came sauntering into the room and plopped down next to me on a stool in front of the island.
"Why did we even go out last night?" Yara groaned, whilst scrambling some eggs for us all.
"Because Ivy convinced us that it would be a good idea." I told her resentment clear in my tone.
"Yeah, well, Ivy once convinced us it would be a good idea to go skinny dipping in the sea once and when we came out that old couple were terrified and threatened to call the police." Yara exclaimed.
"Hey! It's not all my fault you could have said no."
"True" I grumbled. Yara began serving up the eggs onto three separate plates and also gave us an Ibuprofen each to help fix our morning hangover.
❧
All three of us were ecstatic for our first day. Last year we all decided to take a gap year, and we travelled around a lot of Europe mainly Greece, where we stayed with my grandparents most of the time.
At first, it was going to be just Ivy and Yara, however, that year my father passed away and I didn't really feel like going to University anymore, so Ivy and Yara asked me if I wanted to join them.
I thought that my mum wouldn't want me to go, but she was the one who encouraged me.
It wasn't that big of a shock when he died, unfortunately we could all see it was going to happen. Cancer. Stupid cancer. Even though it wasn't a shock that didn't stop the immense pain that came with it.
My mum stayed here in England with my older sister and my younger brother. However, they came to stay in Greece with us all for the whole summer. She said dad would've wanted me to be happy so that's what I was trying to do.
Most of my time was spent working, volunteering and, most importantly, reading, which my dad used to do to me all the time. That's why I chose to study English Literature and why I was so passionate about it.
Ivy was studying Psychology and Yara was studying Art History, both like they've always wanted to do. Their classes started earlier than mine, so I decided to go an get a coffee at the shop just next to campus. I was guessing I'd be spending a lot of time there.
❧
"Calista." The barista called out. Collecting my coffee, I was just about to head out of the shop when I heard a "Hey!" from behind me.
Looking around I noticed a familiar looking boy, around my age, flashing his pearly white at me with a grin.
"Hi." I replied cautiously as I was kind of confused, racking my brain as to where I'd seen him before. "Do I know you?"
"Yeah, it's Ezio from last night. You and you're friends were really drunk at the club and that girl Yara was doing some horrible dancing and I waited outside with you until your cab came because-"
"Oh yeah I remember." I cut off his rambling and smiled, because it seemed like he was gonna go on forever explaining what happened last night. "Thanks for that by the way."
"No problem!" he beamed. "Hey you said you go to Oxford didn't you? Wanna walk over there with me now?"
He seemed friendly and was rather attractive so I found myself agreeing to his request.
Chatting during the walk to class and taking the occasional sip of my coffee and him doing the same, but of his own coffee, of course, I came to know that he was also an English literature student and so we had the same class first.
Ezio was quite easy to talk to, I discovered that his the reason why he decided to study English literature is that his dad was a professor of it and I explained a rather short version of my story about my dad always reading to me and his passing.
I received the same response as always, an apology, it didn't bother me that much when people said that as it seemed to other people. It's an awkward conversation to be in, I don't really know what would be the right response .
Ezio and I chose our seats in the back of the class room. Something he insisted but I was unsure as to why.
The whole class had arrived now, I think at least because the room was almost full of students.
After a few more minutes of waiting and Ezio making jokes a man walked in, who must've been our teacher. He was quite an old man, not that old though, I'd probably place him at his mid to late fifties. His head covered in grey hair, the same being said for the lower half of his face too.
"Hello class, I'm Mr Andino I will be your English Lit teacher. If you're all ready to learn and follow my rules we will have no problem making sure you achieve the best of your abilities." he told us with a pleasant smile, making his crows feet become more prevalent.
"He seems nice" I murmured to Ezio, leaning slightly nearer to him so he could hear me.
"Yeah," he spoke with a tinge of indifference in his tone," That's my dad."
"He's your dad!" I exclaimed but still trying to keep my volume to a minimum. "Well I didn't expect that."
"No one ever does," he grumbled "I tried to see if there was any other English professors that I could have instead, didn't work out though, so guess I'm stuck with him."
"If I become friends with you does that mean that he'll give me better grades?"
He chuckled.
"So now you wanna be friends with me, just so you can get better grades" he looked at me with fake hurt. "For saying that I might tell him to lower your grades."
This time it was my turn to chuckle I then turned my attention back to class.
❧
The rest of the time went quicker than I had expected. Mr Andino told us his rules, we did a get to know each other session, where I talked briefly about my gap year in Greece and I learnt that Ezio was actually Greek himself too, and then Sir explained what he expected from us before we started to do some work in pairs. Me with Ezio obviously as he was the only one I sort of knew, whilst Mr Andino did whatever he was doing with the files on his desk.
The class was now finished and I was packing my books into my bag, trying not to drop my stuff as I had quite a few books and I had a tendency to be quite clumsy. Thankfully not today though.
"Miss Katapodis, can I talk to you for a minute please?" The teacher called out.
"Yeah, of course" I responded whilst making a beeline towards his rather cluttered desk.
"I'll see you around Calista." Ezio told me to which I replied with a smile.
"I wanted to talk to you about the assistant position that's come up. I heard that you spent a lot of time in Greece and that you speak-" Mr Andino explained, however, he was then cut off when someone burst into the room.
"Για τι θέλεις να μου μιλήσεις"
(what did you want to talk to me about?) A man's deep voice boomed making his way over to where we were stood. He seemed quite frustrated.
I turned to get a good look at him, he was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his tanned elbows. Tall, he was very tall probally at least 6"4 which towered over me. A light stubble framed his face and his grey eyes glanced down at me and he averted his gave to Mr Andino.
He was hot, there were no two ways about it. Very hot. Regardless, that all changed the moment he opened his mouth for the second time.
"Είμαι ήδη άρρωστος από όλους αυτούς τους νέους μαθητές, είναι όλοι ενοχλητικοί χαλασμένοι σκύλοι ή μαλάκες."
(I'm already sick of all these new students, they're all annoying spoiled bitches or assholes.) he deadpanned looking at me as he said it with a look of annoyance in his eyes, "πες της να φύγει." (tell her to leave)
I went to go and speak when Mr Andino spoke instead, "Can you please just give me a few minutes, stop being impatient for once."
Now it was the handsome man's time to talk again. "όχι τώρα. παρακαλώ πείτε σε αυτή τη μικρή σκύλα να σκατά και να ψωνίζετε με τα χρήματα του μπαμπά ή κάτι τέτοιο δεν με νοιάζει."
(No, now. Please tell this little bitch to fuck off and go shopping with daddy's money or something, I don't care.)
"Miss Katopodis, I am so sorry for his behaviour," My teacher spoke whilst glaring daggers at the other man, "This is my son, Valen Andino. Valen this is my student Calista Katopodis"
"Θα ήθελα να σας γνωρίσω, αλλά δεν είναι." I looked at him and smiled sarcastically, "Θα σας αφήσω μόνοι σας τώρα"
(I would say nice to meet you, but it's not. I'll leave you two alone now). I spoke in fluent Greek. The asshole's face faltered a tiny bit. Yeah didn't think I'd understand what you were saying about me, huh? "I'll talk with you another time sir." With that I made my way out of the classroom, leaving Mr Andino and his àsshole of a son to talk.
A/N
I spent ages trying to plan this and it still didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, however we've finally met Valen even if he's an asshole xo
The picture at the start of the chapter is the girls outfits and also I don't speak Greek so it's google translated so is probably all wrong.
Also I think I'm gonna do the next chapter in of this scene but in Valen's POV so you can get a glimpse of why he's so quick to judge and be rude.
Sorry if this sucked(which it most definitely did) xoxo