Ok! First day of lecturing today. I am so totally prepared! "Ok, let's go through the list. Notes, check. Textbook, check. Pad of paper, check. Phone, check. Orange, check. Bottle of water, check-o! Uh, what am I missing? Hmmmmmm," my fingers snapped together. "Tea! Gotta move quickly!"

Grabbing my teaware from my designated tea shelf- or should I say shelves- I made a dash out my dorm room door and down the hall to the shared kitchen. Maybe here I should explain the layout of my college a little better. You see, each floor has its own wreck room and kitchen for residents of said floor. There isn't an oven or stove in that tiny kitchen, but there is a fridge, kettle, microwave, and toaster. The main kitchen for all college residence was in the basement, or ground floor as they called it. It was used by like a hundred and fifty of us. For quick trips, I stuck with our personal kitchen, despite its size.

I went there, got my water in my new temperature-controlled kettle boiling, and set my teaware up. "Gotta move! Gotta move!" I repeatedly reminded myself. There's no way I'm going to be late on my first day; so not going to happen. I guess I was too distracted to realize that I had put my key fob- complete with skull keychain- down on the counter. Instead, I snatched my fresh water and cooked the tea. It poured beautifully into my pink Corkcicle water container. Perfect! With that, I rushed out of the room, totally forgetting my key. That was a problem, as the kitchen door automatically locked behind us.

I didn't notice my missing key fob until I was outside my dorm door, ready to lock it. I was wearing my men's Superdry raincoat, along with wearing my full backpack and pink, lightly stained converses. It took me a second to remember that I'd left my key in the kitchen, causing me to gasp in horror. I ran to the kitchen door, frantically jiggling the doorknob.

"No….. no, no, no, no!" This can't be happening! Why now of all times? I never leave my key fob in there; this never happens! Now what the hell am I supposed to do? There's not enough time to go get the porter and get him to open the door for me. Class is supposed to start in thirty minutes for frik's sake! "Please open! I don't have time for this! Please open up!"

While I was struggling like mad with this, I once again failed to notice the presence approach from down the hall. It was a man, maybe a year or two older than me. I didn't look at him right away, with him gazing from my frustrated expression to the kitchen door. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was wrong. Soon enough, he cleared his throat, finally catching my attention. I paused to blink over at him, still keeping my hands on the door handle. I don't care how unspeakably hot he was- I needed that key fob right now!

But to my surprise and delight, he grinned- only very slightly, mind you- holding up an unfamiliar key fob of his own. As if to be reading his mind, I wordlessly stepped out of his way and he came in to unlock the door. Before he could go in, I made a mad dash inside, quick to seize my key. Suddenly full of relief, I set it in my coat pocket, careful to zip it up protectively. The man only watched me without saying anything, though that is not to say it was quiet for long. Within the minute, Steph rounded the corner, entering the kitchen alongside us.

"Hardin, I thought you'd…" Steph's sentence trailed off at the sight of me scrambling around with my coat and tea cannister. "Tessy?" "Hi, Steph! I gotta go! Thanks, whoever you are, for opening the door!" I ran towards the threshold. Steph seemed puzzled, turning her eyes in between the strange man and me. "Wait, Tessy? Have you met my friend, Hardin, yet?" Her skinny finger pointed at the stoic man in the room with us. "No! I gotta go! I'm gonna be late for my first day of class! Thanks again!"

They both simply observed as I scurried down the hall to the staircase; no time to wait for elevators. To be honest, I didn't think about the guy named Hardin for the rest of the day. I didn't make the connection in my brain that he was Steph's friend and that motorcycle I sometimes saw outside belonged to him. No, I had more important things to think about, such as lecturing to a bunch of first years and binge-watching Nickelodeon's Victorious tonight.

Hey, not every night can be an opera night, as much as I'd like that to be the case.