Chapter six: Meeting

“It’s five to eight, my class starts AT eight, and I have no frickin’ idea how to get there”, Kirsten thought as she made her way through the maze of corridors beneath the campus buildings. A week before she had moved into the university’s residence and on this cold September day she was grateful that she could move through the warmth of the “dungeon” all the way from her dorm room to any of the school’s classrooms. Still, she did not want to be late for her first class of the semester. Checking a map she had printed just before leaving her dorm room, she confirmed that her class was around the next bend. She tucked the front of her shoulder length newly dyed brown hair under her black and red baseball cap, the sides behind her ears, and picked up her pace.

After her father went away, Kirsten’s school work had improved. Kirsten was not a perfect student but she was no demon either, all things considered. She made it through high school, though she figured that she probably drank too much and had been with a few too many boys.

She psyched herself up with a, “Here we go..”, and at two minutes to eight she opened the auditorium door for Biology 101.

As she searched for a seat, feeling a little sweaty and uncomfortable, Kirsten tugged at her baggy green hooded sweatshirt to pull it away from her body. Puberty had embarrassed her with wide hips and large breasts. Although she was still a far cry from her mother’s figure, Kirsten had also developed tummy that she detested. She wore her loose blue jeans low on her hips.

Kirsten made her way towards a seat in the back of the three hundred person hall next to a tall, dark, and handsome boy, who wore a tight black t-shirt, which showed off a broad chest and muscular arms. She had seen him around and, given the absence of a fall jacket, was pretty sure that he also lived on campus. As the professor began to introduce himself, she made her way past the guy with a mouthed, “Excuse me…” and a little smile. She pulled the seat down and settled in.



Taonga moved his books back to allow a girl to move into the seat beside him. As she slipped by, her large lip-glossed lips mouthed, “Excuse me…” and he noticed cute dimples on her lightly freckled cheeks as she smiled at him. Though she hid herself beneath baggy clothing, Taonga could tell that she had womanly curves in all the right places. She removed her hat and hung it on her knee and Taonga observed that she had beautiful brown hair all one length to her shoulders. A hint of her vanilla perfume wafted his way.

The droning of the professor explaining what percentage the weekly quizzes would play in their final grade allowed him to think a bit about the last week, which had been exciting. Taonga had decided to have his O.E, Overseas Experience, in Canada, because he heard that it was supposed to have a lot of beautiful nature. Although he’d flown through-out New Zealand, he was unprepared for the twenty-two hours in economy class on the flights to his new home. Luckily, he had brought a good book, an Anne Rice vampire novel.

His mother had been sad to see him go but excited for her son to experience another country. He was thrilled to be on a new adventure. He was an avid alpine skier and was looking forward to hitting the Canadian hills. Although he heard that it was cold here, he was surprised by how cool it got, even in the fall. He was used to winters which got to a bone-chilling windy five degrees Celsius but he had read that in the land of moose and beavers, it got down to thirty below some days. Though not reconsidering his choice of countries, he was not sure he looked forward to feeling that cold.

He turned his thoughts back towards the professor’s discourse, which now dealt with what to expect in the three hours of labs they would have this week.

His attention was again drawn away from the professor, when he felt eyes upon him. She went back to her note taking when he looked over, but he was happy to find that his seat mate’s large green eyes had been checking him out.

“Hey, I’m Taonga”, he whispered, sticking out his hand.

She looked up, “I’m Kirsten, but I’d rather be called Trillium”.

“Sounds good, Trillium. You think the class will go the whole three hours?”

“Dunno. I hope not. Although I’m excited to get started, it’d be better to start slowly”

He smiled at that. “So what are you majoring in?”

“Biology, you?”

“Same, but I’m taking it as an arts degree not science. I have pretty broad interests and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to take all the courses I wanted.”

“Where are you from? You have some kinda accent, eh? Are you from Australia?”, she asked excitedly.

He clutched at his heart as though he had been shot and slumped over in his seat. His eyes still closed and his neck tilted to the side, he said, “No, not Australia, I’m from New Zealand. That’d be like me thinking you were from America”

“Sorry”, she giggled.

“If you two are finished, I’d like to go on with my class. This is not high school anymore…if you don’t want to be here, leave!” bellowed the professor at the front of the class.

Feeling all three hundred student’s eyes upon them, Trillium shrunk down in her seat, and Taonga’s brown cheeks went pink.

“Sorry”, they both squeaked out in unison, causing them to exchange a smile as the professor looked away to continue to explaining the year’s syllabus to more attentive students.



The class was dismissed after an hour of instruction. Since neither had a class for another couple of hours, the two made their way to the campus bar for a drink.

As they made their way in the front door of the smoky bar, Trillium asked, “You think they serve beer at this time? Or is it coffee for us.”

Taonga smiled. “Can I get an Earl Grey tea and a coffee for my new mate here?” he asked the waitress at the bar.

They took their hot drinks and made their way to a table that did not look too sticky. Trillium hummed along to The Tragically Hip song “Bobcaygeon”, which played through the speaker hung from the post beside their table. “You know the Hip?”, she asked nodding towards the speaker.

“Nope, are they a Canadian band?”

“Ya…their great. What do you listen to?”

“Whatever’s on the radio usually…I like rap, rock, whatever.”

They sat quietly for a moment listening to the music. Trillium studied his face as he looked around the bar. He had brown eyes, wavy brown hair cut short, and cleanly cut side burns framed his face. He had a strong jaw and a relatively flat nose.

He met her eyes for a moment and she quickly lowered her gaze.

“So what brings you to Canada?”

“I guess adventure. I met a bloke from Vancouver and he said that Canada was sweet as and I wanted to check it out. Always wanted to travel and I figured going away to school was my chance.” He noticed her smile as he said “sweet as” and became self-conscious of his accent. “Why Biology?” he asked her.

“I’ve always loved nature…even from when I was a little kid. In high school I started the environmental club and I really enjoyed that. Campaigning for recycling and stuff. Dunno what I want to do with it but it’s something I know I’m interested in.”

“Hey, I was also in the environmental club in college…umm…I mean high school…and it was cool. We went on this crazy field trip, though, to a cattle slaughter house and it totally turned me off meat. Just watching someone saw an animal in half made me a sick. Now the only meat I eat is fish.”

“I’m a vegetarian too”, she said excitedly, “mostly cuz I don’t like the taste but I also read that if we didn’t eat meat, the grain that would have fed the cow would feed ten times as many people.”

“Wow we have a lot in common”, she thought to herself.

“Are there a lot of vegetarians in Canada?” asked Taonga

“No, not really, we are mostly carnivores”, she said and laughed. He laughed along with her.

When eleven o’clock came around they switched to beer. The waitress proudly informed them that this establishment held the record for the largest volume of beer sold between eleven and noon, in the province of Ontario. They did their best to contribute to beating that record.