Notes:

Additional Cast:

Toru Uchikado as Ren Kurosawa

Booboo Stewart as Grant Simmons

Alice's POV

I feel like a character from the Walking Dead, when I wake up really early in the morning. What sadist makes the schedule and arranges classes at this kind of hour? It's freaking 9am! These hours should be abolished from the clock. If someone checks the history books will see that nothing important has happened on earth before 11.30 am. The sun is shining strong and the only thing that I want is going to bed. My sweet bed. Unfortunately my class is at 10, so I didn't have much of a choice. College is about studying and going to classes, even though the first thing that comes to mind is parties and having fun without being controlled.

I am walking through college campus,among others students who look pretty much in the same state as me, and I am heading to the cafeteria to buy the magic potion to every student,coffee. This is the only thing that keeps me going in the morning. If I haven't drunk coffee I warn people not to talk to me, because first, my brain can't process anything and second, they might cross some dangerous waters. To sum up if you're not coffee don't come close in the morning hours. I probably should warn Vanessa about this. We have been roommates for two days and she is a very sweet person. Like a marshmallow! So I don't want things to go off rails.

Suddenly I feel a vibration in my pocket. I take my mobile out and I've got a text from Ren.
Goodmorning! Did you manage to get up or still struggling with the sheets?

A smile crosses my face as I am reading. If I calculate correctly it has to be 10 pm in Tokyo.

Good evening. To your surprise I am up. Not 100% awake, but at least I am able to walk.

Not a second has passed and I receive his answer: College can really change people! I suppose you're following the smell of coffee?

If we hadn't grown up together, I'd swear he had put cameras on me.

Exactly! I can't fall asleep on my first class. Not the impression I want to give. I text him back.

The conversation went on like this until I reach the cafeteria.

This is at the centre of the campus,thus the biggest one and from my sources the one that makes the best coffee. It's quite big and modern. The primary colour on the walls is white, but there are some spots painted in pale blue. As I am going to the bar I see some students, sitting while drinking their coffee and chatting at the wooden tables,which some of them are in square and other are in circle shape. Others prefer the large red comfortable couches, while others sit at the isolated tables at the depth with their laptops.

I approach the bar that has all the essential for every student such as sandwiches,snacks, juices and tea. I order my coffee from a cute redhead guy with freckles.

"A double cappuccino and a bottle of water please," I say with a wide smile on my face and still have my mobile at hand waiting for Ren's reply.

He says that he has to choose courses for his second semester, since in Japan the academic year started in April. To be a video game designer needs a lot of effort, but I am sure Ren can pull it off.

My cappuccino is ready and I thank the bartender. It smells so good. Coffee's smell is like a drug. Then I am searching for sugar and I see a mini bar behind me with all the coffee staff, so I am heading over there as I put my purse in my bag. I like my coffee sweet, but I try not to overdo it with the sugar, but it's so difficult to resist. At that point it crosses my mind that I have to check where my class is held. I always think about things like that in the last minute, whereas Vanessa has everything under schedule. How does she even do that?

When I am done with the sugar I take my coffee and I start heading towards the exit,when in the meantime I am absorbed in my phone trying to download my faculty's schedule and talking to Ren simultaneously. I was not giving any attention to my surroundings and I was walking without looking where I was going, when suddenly I fell on someone and I spilled my coffee on him.

"HEY! Are you blind?" he yells at me. I raise my eyes from my cell to look the source of the angry voice, ready to apologise.

OH MY GOD! I can't believe it. Life is really playing a nasty game right now. The man in front of me is no other than the elevator jerk aka the man who was pulling a freakshow of sensations in front of me and got on my nerves. I stare at him frozen in my spot by the surprise and he is in the same state when he realizes who I was.

"It's YOU! The freaking-out cock blocker from the elevator." He shouts with his index pointing towards my direction.

"Wow you have a really good memory. You're winning a cruise to the Hell Lands." I smirk.

"What on earth are you doing here? You are so obsessed with me, that you've put all the effort to find me to take some stupid revenge by spilling coffee on me?" He hisses showing me his formerly white T-shirt now covered with coffee.

"Believe me the last thing I've ever wanted was to see your stupid face again. But since I did I am not even sorry for what happened. Karma is a bitch you know?" I quip at him raising my eyebrow.

"As I recall you were the one who made a fuss in the elevator."

"Maybe because you were the one who made me experience how to shoot a proper porn movie. My stomach hasn't recovered yet." I shoot back.

I can't believe this guy's trying to make it look like it's my fault since he was the one who couldn't restrain himself for 5 minutes.

"What can I say? I like to enlighten others with my knowledge, and I can see you need this knowledge desperately." He smirks and takes a step closer to my direction.

This time I am sure I won't hold myself. I will hit him. Why does he have to provoke me? He really has a death wish. The longest I look at his arrogant smile the hardest I find it to hold back. But I must.Alice you can't hit people at public places.

"Look smart ass, or better just ass. I have no intention on picking a fight with you, cause I don't want to spoil my criminal record and especially spoil it because of you. So do me the favor and get out of my face, before you get hurt." I say in a vicious voice and look at him intensively in the eyes.

"I think you are in no position to threaten me little girl, but because your obnoxious presence is ruining my eyesight I will let you be." He tells me, without removing his arrogant smile from his face.

"So kind of you, your Majesty." I say in an ironic tone. "I will take off now, because if I spend another minute with you, you will see the Kill Bill in action. Deleted scenes included!" I warn him and then I walk away from him.

The moment I get out of the cafeteria and I think I've got rid of him I feel a hand grabbing mine and turning me around.

My eyes immediately meet his...again! Of course it's him!

"I forgot to tell you. You have to wash my T-shirt, since you're the one, who made it this way."What did he say????

"Excuse me WHAT?" I yell. I couldn't believe in my ears.

"What you've heard. Are you deaf as well? You've soiled my T-shirt. You soil you wash." He talks to me like he's addressing to a retarded person.

Alice keep it cool, but I can sense my fingers tight together. Alice calm down.

"First you are in no position to give me orders! Capice? And second how do you propose to give me your T-shirt? Are you going to take it off right here?" I challenge him, anticipating what he's going to do.

"I would, but I am sure that you won't be able to handle the sight. And then I don't want to break your little heart by rejecting you." He smirks and lowers his face to mine.

That's it. Patience is over! All happened in flash forward. I don't remember when I took the bottle of water out of my bag, how fast I opened it and I splashed its content onto him.

He steps a bit back, looking surprised and his eyes are vacant. I still hold tight the empty bottle, squeezing it. 

"Your wish is now fulfilled! I cleaned your T-shirt!" I look at him with a hateful look, before I turn my back on him and start walking in my class' direction.

I rush into the amphitheater, without looking right or left. Thank God I have managed to make it on time. If that asshole made me be late for my first class, he would have found himself in a much worse situation.

I find a seat in the middle rows and I throw my bag at the right one. I am in no mood to attend the class, but I won't let him ruin my academic record,as well. I won't let him ruin anything. The professor starts speaking and I try to pay attention to him, but it's pointless. I am still holding the empty bottle and I can't believe this guy made me cross the lines.  He was provoking me so much and every word he was saying was bringing me closer to smashing his head on the wall. But all I did was what he asked. I cleaned his T-shirt, didn't I? 

Then I try to pay attention to the lecture again. This class is 'Introduction to Phonological Analysis' and mister 'I don't know his name, because I was thinking about the jackass' is showing something on one slide. Great I don't even know my teacher's name. Thank God I still remember the class I am in, and that I've also found the correct one.

GOD! This guy has taken my mind. What were the odds? I saw him in a freaking elevator once, in one hotel from the hundreds that there are in Long Beach and now I see him again thousand miles away, in my college. You gotta be kidding me. These things can't happen. It's impossible. The only guy that I've wished not to see again is in the same college with me. But that's not sure. Maybe he was just passing by. Who I am kidding? He's a student here. Fuck! My brain is going to explode. But then again, the college is so huge. So many students study here. It will be difficult to meet again. At least I hope.

Wait a minute! Who is this guy, that thinks he can scare me off? I am Alice Reynolds and this is the place I want to be. I will make the most of it. The best memories. I will not let this nuisance ruin it. I won't permit it. It will be like he never existed.

By making these thoughts a light smile makes its appearance on my face and I feel calmer. Then I take my pen and start taking notes, according to the professor's sayings.

Joseph's POV

I sweep in the amphitheatre,which is full of people, 5 minutes before the class starts. I look around and I see Grant waving at me from his seat, so I can join him. I go and sit next to him and I get my laptop out of my bag.

"Where are the coffees? Grant asks me when he sees me empty handed. "We made a deal! Remember? You get the coffees and I find us seats!" He tells me like I broke some kind of treaty.

Coffees! That's why I was at the cafeteria. To buy coffees and then go to class to attend another boring lecture! But the day turned out to be completely different. How can life surprise you sometimes? This time not in a good way.

I am in no mood to share what happened with Grant and I am not surprised either he didn't notice my T-shirt's new design. Well, he's not the most observant person in the world. You can put an elephant in the room and still he won't notice. In the end I decide to use the damning evidence on my T-shirt as an excuse.

"I did, as you can see, but I got distracted and spilled them all over me!" I explain by showing my T-shirt.

"Did the cheerleader squad pass before you?" He jokes observing the size of the mess on my T-shirt.

I crack a forced smile, but that isn't enough to lighten my mood.

"Something like that. Not my greatest moment!" I mutter and I pushed the laptop's power button to turn it on.

"So what was it? Freshman girls? By the size of the damage, THAT something caught your attention for good!" He comments eager to know more.

You have no idea!

That time the professor gets in and he saves me from Grant's interrogation. If he had kept it that way I would have shouted at him, without realizing it, but it wouldn't be his fault. Someone else got me in this position...AGAIN! The same culprit.

My T-shirt is still wet, from water and coffee combined. I must have taken a toll on her, but I couldn't resist. The more she kept throwing her quips at me the more I wanted to shoot them back at her. After our last "happy" encounter, I was really annoyed and wound up, but after a couple of days, I let it go. The odds of meeting her again were slim to non-existent. Even maths were in my favor in this game and yet she proved them wrong. I can't help but laugh at this irony.

That girl really knows how to irritate me. It must be her special ability. I don't know how else to describe it. I don't get mad very easily, yet it's like she knows which buttons to push. To be honest I didn't expect she would dare to do anything. I thought she was just throwing empty threats at me, but she didn't even hesitate. I just froze by the shock of the surprise, that she was capable of doing it so easily and not by the action itself. After the whole incident, I was this close to going after her and starting a new round, but I guessed it would have been better not to continue this intimidating contest. I guess it would be better not to meet her around anymore because as funny it is to push her over her limits it turns out to infuriate me and make me lose my chill. I will not let her have this control over me, because it seems that I won't get rid of her presence anytime soon. Anyway, the odds have proven that they are not on my side.

"Dude, we are not in this slide anymore." Grant's voice takes me out of my thoughts and I see him pointing at my laptop's screen.

Without showing any expression I scroll to the current slide.

"Are you ok?" He asks me and I understand a concern in his voice.

My face really does give me away, if Grant has to ask about my well-being.

"Yeah! It's just the first day and I have to get used to college again and morning classes and-"

"Oh Mr. Nelson, since I observe you're in a chatty mood, would you like to enlighten us with the answer to this problem or your problems are of more importance?" Mr. Martin suddenly questions me.

The whole amphitheatre turns to look towards my direction. One hundred eyes pierced on me.

God, this professor really hates me. We haven't gotten along since my first year, because he's so obnoxious and thinks he's some sort of Computer Science God-like Turing or something. He couldn't stand that I corrected him when I was even a freshman and since that day he provokes me and can't lose an opportunity to offend me in front of the whole class. Too bad it never goes his way, since I am able to answer any question and my score in his previous course was excellent. He wants to do the same now since he caught me distracted, but as always I know what he was talking about. I can multitask so easily.

"The answer is: 1 valid bit, 1 modify bit, 1 reference bit and 5 permission bits." I shoot back at my professor without blinking.

As it was natural he froze at his spot and he just mutters "And that is...the correct answer."

A victorious smile crosses my face.

As much as I hate this professor I didn't have a choice with this class. It was a required course for my specialty. But I still enjoy returning his shots.

Then I focus on my computer screen and tried to forget about today's events, even though a smirk crosses my face when I think of them.

A/N Note: Thanks for reading, any feedback is welcome. :)