Chapter 10

The alarm took a second or two to wake Andrew with his headphones on, he would have to figure out something better. After his exercises he got dressed in his running gear then took a small backpack and stuffed in his swim gear and toiletries before heading out. He said good morning to the Porter at the lodge and headed through the Great Gate and started to run. Running with the pack took a bit of getting used to but Andrew set a good pace and finished up at the pool by 7.03. With an annual pass purchased the previous day he was in the pool within two minutes. There were only two other people there being watched by one guard. Andrew took one of the free lanes and started a slow steady back stroke. Day three at Cambridge and it had been an interesting weekend. Helena the night before had surprised him but then as he thought about it, for a lot of the students there was this sense of freedom, escaping from family control. Andrew could understand that, he had bought the flat for that exact reason. It had taken a lot of people repeatedly telling him he was attractive to women but finally he had started to realise that it was true. Andrew still had an instinctive ‘really, me?’ attitude but was no longer blindsided when situations like Sunday night happened. He hoped that Helena and Navya were going to be good friends and there seemed to be some decent blokes at the College, Nigel just needed to get some of his ‘away from home’ nerves out of his system. Other than the guy at the College family meeting there had been no one Andrew had found unbearable. The sporty types were always going to be a large clique but given that he planned to play hockey he may end up part of that clique. Andrew looked over at the clock and finished up, showered and changed, and headed back up Regent’s Street to Peggy’s Café. It was much busier than Sunday morning but fortunately the counter was empty. Andrew handed Peggy the money for the whole term, all £50, took the bowl from her surprised hands and went and found a table. The appearance of someone new, in a place that looked full of regulars, meant he was given the once over, even more so when they saw he was having a bowl of soup. There is also the fact that Andrew couldn’t really go anywhere unobtrusively, at 6’5” he stood out wherever he was. He sat quietly spooning the soup up steadily before returning the empty bowl to the counter.

“You have paid me for the whole term.”

Peggy sounded shocked.

“Yes, just easier that way. The soup was great, same time tomorrow?”

Peggy nodded. Andrew leaned over a bit.

“I’ll leave you to explain who the hell I am to all your regulars.” With a smile he was gone.

It was 8.05 when Andrew got back to his room and once again changed, this time into his other darker suit for the morning classes and events. Suits and gowns for this morning as there were photos being taken, individually and as a group as part of the matriculation process. After this morning he would be free of the requirement to change before breakfast but still had to be out of the College by 8.40 every day for classes, with no time to linger over breakfast. Andrew was heading round the Court when he heard his name and saw Nigel jogging to catch him up. He looked rough round the edges, and that was being nice about it.

“I am guessing that you closed the bar down last night?” Andrew ventured.

“Not sure to be honest. Woke up in my clothes from the Formal in the middle of the night. Threw up in my sink and then crawled back to bed. I am not sure how I got home and am amazed that I am up and awake. I need coffee and lots of it.”

He also needed a shower but Andrew refrained from piling on. At least he had cleaned his teeth.

“What about you? I didn’t see you much even in the parts of the night that I can remember.”

“I was there until about 10.30 but then headed off. You know me Nigel, I am not much of a drinker. Dinner was decent, I was with three other guys, who like me, found their College family to be a bit much. Stayed with them for a bit at the bar but again, it is too much beer for me. I will have my reputation as a boring git cemented by the end of the week.”

There was plenty of space in Hall at breakfast, a lot of people were not yet there. As Andrew sat down he saw Abigail look over at them but then turn back quickly before he could do or say anything. Andrew shrugged. She was a remote, and he thought lonely, person who Andrew had hardly seen since their first, and only, meeting. Nigel wasn’t saying much as he ate a small amount of food and drained his mug of coffee. Andrew ate in silence and they were finished inside 10 minutes.

“I am going to head back and try and grab a quick shower, I don’t smell good at all.”

Andrew nodded at Nigel’s honest assessment as he headed back to the rooms. Andrew was about to leave himself when Navya sat down in the spot that Nigel had occupied and gave him an odd look.

“Hey Navya, how are you today? Did you stay long at the bar, I didn’t see you again after you left me with Nigel.”

“I just passed him as I was coming in. He looks awful.”

“He is off to grab a shower, he doesn’t smell that great either. He is hitting the booze pretty hard so far. Hopefully he gets it out of his system and calms down because he was drunk when we saw him and he said he doesn’t remember getting home and threw up in the sink in the middle of the night.”

Andrew stopped and shook his head.

“Listen to me, I sound like his mother.”

Navya laughed but then appraised him again.

“So you went straight to your room after you left the bar?”

Andrew looked at her and saw that she was trying not to smile.

“Yes I did Navya. I was tired and so I went back to my room.”

He held her gaze.

“Why?”

“Just curiosity Andrew.”

They both knew the truth but he had spent the last four years being discreet and was not going to change now. Navya finished her breakfast and they walked back to the corridor. The rest of the morning was devoted to College events. Andrew met his Tutor, along with four other first years, in his tutorial room. His role was to provide guidance to Andrew the person as opposed to Andrew the student. Tutors were assigned from other disciplines so there was no confusion over an academic role. Andrew would keep the same Tutor over the four years at Trinity. He was with one other Engineer, two Maths guys and one NatSci Student. Their Tutor, Dr. Wakefield was a Reader in the Faculty of English. He barely even mentioned that to them, it was irrelevant for his role. They all gave the usual 20 second snapshot of their life and then Wakefield went through the different ways that he could help. He was a counsellor to them, and they were to bring their problems to him, financial, personal, academic, anything at all. His job was to help them cope and succeed at the College, and University. The passing of the actual courses they were on was not his responsibility. If any of them were struggling to cope then he would talk to the Department but at a general level not a subject specific level. He came across as a nice bloke and the hour passed quickly. After that the morning was full of talks, fire, safety, welfare, they went on and on. The photos were taken and then a stand up lunch under the Marquee involved more talks, the Master, Junior Bursar, apparently there was a Senior Bursar but he had nothing to do with students, various other senior staff from the College. They also had talks from several office holders within the Students Union as well. By 2.00 the students were all talked out. In keeping with the mentality of ‘if we don’t keep them busy they’ll just get up to mischief’ there was immediately activities on the South Paddock so they had the chance to bore the few remaining Freshers they had not yet met. Andrew tried to park his cynicism and be an enthusiastic participant but was more of a grudging participant. Still the afternoon passed and by 4.15 most people had started to drift away. Helena shyly came up to him as he was getting ready to walk back and they headed over the river and back into the College together.

“How are you today? You okay?”

She looked all out of sorts.

“I am fine Andrew. I had a great time, too great a time apparently. Abigail asked me if I was okay this morning. Can you imagine, she was worried about me based on the noise we, well mainly I, was making.”

“I got the same sense from Navya. She did not come out and say anything but did make a couple of pointed comments about going straight back to my room after the bar.”

Helena looked mortified.

“Relax, it is done now. What did you say to Abigail?”

“I was so taken aback that I am not sure what I said. I reassured her I was alright and then practically ran away.”

“Look at it this way, do you want quiet, bad sex or loud, good sex?”

Helena looked like she was going to smack him for a minute and then laughed.

“How about quiet, good sex?”

“Well then grab a pillow to muffle the screams.”

That did get him a whack but Helena seemed to calm down and laughed at herself. That evening Andrew finally met most of the other members of the corridor. As they turned the corner into the corridor he found the guys in rooms 2 and 3 standing talking as they were about to enter the rooms. Andrew had briefly met one of them that afternoon, Malcolm, an Architecture student from London. He was next to Navya in Room 2. Beside him was Justin, from just outside London, who was reading the History of Art. Andrew and Helena did the slightly longer version of their introductions. They were decent enough blokes but Malcolm had trouble focusing on Helena’s eyes. Goodness only knows what he would have been like with Suzanne. They arranged to meet for dinner at 5.30 and sit and chat with them. If they saw Navya, Nigel and Abigail then that would be most of the corridor together. Andrew set his alarm for 5.15 and lay on his bed dozing. As Helena had put it the previous evening night, it was tiring being ‘on’ the whole time. He had two days of Engineering department events to survive until classes started on the Thursday. When the alarm rang he went to the bathroom and cleaned up for dinner. He was the last one out his room and the four of them walked across to dinner. Andrew was listening, well half-listening to Justin as they walked round to Hall. When he was at school he had a tight group of friends but didn’t chat regularly to a large group of people. He and Suzanne were always together in the morning and other than chatting between classes with Don, Pete and a couple of others Andrew was usually on his own. Other than CCF Andrew was not a person with a wide social circle. He thought about all the people he had met already and was struck by the fact that he was not that bothered about them. This rather brought Andrew up short because one of the things about coming to university was to get a better understanding of himself, friendship and force himself to make more of an effort. As they got to the door he did wonder how many was enough? They saw Navya and she came and joined the five of them. The chat turned to the corridor.

“I have now met eight of the eleven of us, although I have not spoken to the South African in Room 8. Has anyone met the people in?”

Andrew stopped and thought for a second.

“Rooms four, seven and nine?”

Helena piped up.

“Emma is in number four, and she is doing Maths. There is a guy in nine but I don’t know his name and I haven’t met the person in number eight.”

Navya looked at her oddly.

“Have you not checked the board?”

“What board?”

Asked by at least three of them.

“The board downstairs with all our names on it.”

There was a collective ‘oh’ and blank stares.

“Really. Anyway, you have met the Pedro, who is in number seven.”

Shit, how could he have forgotten Pedro already?

“And the guy in number nine is David Castle, I met him this afternoon, another NatSci although he is more interested in the Bio side.”

So they knew the lot. In fact they saw Pedro sitting with Abigail, Nigel and another woman. Helena thought it was Emma but couldn’t be sure since she was sitting with her back to them. Navya pointed out David sitting with another group, but there was no sign of the South African. Other than a few fleeting glimpses on Saturday there had been no sign of him. After dinner Navya stopped David on the way out and he came and sat with them for a few minutes going through the introduction circle. He was a bland person, who appeared to have few distinguishing characteristics. Perfectly nice, but dull.

The Student Union had organised a trip to bowling lanes and there was a bus coming for them at 7.30. Now Andrew had not bowled since the debacle with Suzanne, Paula and her mother all those years ago but it was either that or another night in the pub, so bowling it was. A lot of the group bailed and were going to hit the bar later so it was just Navya and Andrew that went bowling from the group. They got there and were teamed up against a couple of Maths guys. They were okay to have limited chat, after three days of endless meet and greets it was nice just to be low key. The conversation was desultory and after one game they sat and chatted but it quickly paired up as the two Maths guys starting talking Maths, and although Navya and Andrew could follow along they had little interest in doing so. They escaped to the vending machine, managing to avoid being dragged into another game by the hopelessly enthusiastic Student Union helpers.

“What did you think College would be like Andrew?”

He stopped and thought before answering.

“Some parts of it are exactly as I envisioned but a lot of it is not at all what I expected. I walked over with Justin to Hall and I was sort of listening to him but also thinking about how many people we are meeting. I doubt I interacted with 11 pupils daily when I was at school. It was the same regular four to six and then the rest were occasional. I met people through the Combined Cadet Force but there were three of us for several years that were at the same level and we always were together. I was a prefect for the last two years at school and there were less than 35 of us in total but even then, it tended to be the same couple of people that I chatted with there. As I was walking tonight I thought that I needed to stop trying to get to know everyone and instead have a handful of close friendships. I have spent time with you and Helena over the last three days and it has been good. I don’t know how the two of you are getting on but I enjoy the both of your company. Without being presumptuous I would like to think we will be friends over the years, we are not competing against each other.”

“No, you are not presuming, I do think that the three of us will be friends. For someone who sounds so ruddy posh Helena is a nice person. The three of us are like some scriptwriter’s ideal of a trio of students though. Handsome Scottish bloke, tall and according to the gossip, muscly. Posh English girl, all pretty and bossy. And the Indian girl, to add some diversity, the funny and sarcastic one in the group.”

She sat there looking pleased with herself.

“Muscly?”

She flushed but held his eyes.

“Okay, I saw you and Helena walking back this afternoon and you getting what were clearly well deserved whacks. Once you went to your room I sat with Helena and was a right nosy bitch. You did a number on her, that’s for sure Andrew.”

He laughed ruefully.

“I have already told you I have no idea what you are talking about. What you and Helena talk about is up to you. You won’t get any confirmations from me.”

Bold as brass, Navya put her hands on his chest and rubbed him all over.

“Hmm, she wasn’t lying. Nice.”

The impudent smile on Navya’s face made Andrew laugh and he couldn’t be mad. It was time to get his own back.

“Well soon Rupashi will be able to describe them to you as well.”

“Bastard. I deserved that but bastard.”

She was laughing as well. The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing and chatting away. Navya was not giving off any kind of vibe and they were two friends enjoying a night out. On the bus back to Trinity Navya asked if he was going to head to the bar.

“I don’t think so. I am at the Engineering Department until 3pm tomorrow so I am going to head back to my room.”

The following morning Andrew opened his door and the smell of sick assaulted his nostrils. There was sick on the wall and floor between Rooms 3 & 4 and it smelled awful. Covering his nose and mouth to stop his gag reflex Andrew stepped round the evidence from the night before thinking he was glad of the headphones to block out the sound of that joyous event. He shuddered in the cold morning air, and with a smile and a wave at the Porter was off. The routine was the same as the day before and it already felt comfortable. His soup was in a bowl and ready on the counter when he walked into Peggy’s and with a smile and word of thanks Andrew sat at an empty table and tucked in. There was still looks of enquiry, tinged with suspicion but less than the day before. He hoped by the end of the week he would just be another morning regular. Back at Angel Court, the sick was still lying there splashed on the floor and wall so Andrew had to run the gauntlet both ways. Sitting at breakfast there were even fewer people than the day before. Malcolm came and joined him as they ate breakfast.

“Didn’t see you last night, you missed all the excitement.”

“I saw the evidence this morning, who did it?”

“Nigel. Pedro and Justin were helping him back to his room when that happened. Emma, the girl in Room 4, was really mad at him. I am surprised you didn’t hear the racket.”

“I sleep with headphones on for the noise in the street. Never heard a thing.”

“Hmm, that might be a good idea during term time. I can see how between the corridor and the street it will be noisy.”

They both finished and set off down the street to class, Architecture was right beside the Engineering Department. When he wasn’t perving at women’s tits Malcolm seemed a nice bloke. One more sheltered school kid sent out into the big bad world.

“You don’t seem to be much into the social scene at College Andrew. Not my place to care, but it is surprising.”

“Oh, I am into the social scene, I am just not going to get like Nigel every night doing it. It has only been three days so far Malcolm. How many more people can you meet, have a hope of remembering? I am about to meet the rest of the Engineering first years, the other Colleges as well as Trinity. I am going over to the Reserve Centre tonight to find out about the Officer Training Corp, there are hockey tryouts on Saturday and there is the University Engineering Society. The 11 of us are going to be more than passing acquaintances, well maybe 10 as I have not seen the South African since Saturday. I went bowling with Navya last night and by the end we gave up bowling and just chatted.”

He shrugged as usual.

“I am hardly a hermit.”

“When you look at it that way, I see what you mean. Most people associate the Fresher’s activities as always involving the bar. There were some people out clubbing last night I think as well.”

They parted and Andrew went through another six hours of the same as the previous three days. It wasn’t as bad as all that because there were lab tours and a tour round the Department but it was the same as before, lots of meets and greets. It was also pretty depressingly to see how male dominated Engineering was as an undergraduate subject. He would guess less than a quarter of the students were women. A lot of people looked pretty run down and there were several that picked over the lunch without much enthusiasm. Andrew stood around with the rest of the Freshers listening to the head of the Department ramble on. There were four of them grouped round a table listening to him. Once the Professor was finished they did another quick meet and greet, but nobody’s heart was in it. One of the four was a braying fool, going on about how he was going to get a First and that this was going to be so easy. Andrew was taken aback at his attitude, no one he had met in any subject was approaching this with anything other than cautious concern. Everyone by definition had done well at school to get there but Cambridge was a whole different level, but not as far as ‘Johnno’ was concerned. He was the kind of person Andrew was worried about meeting but he was at St. Johns and Andrew hoped their paths would not cross often. As with the guy at the College family meeting he loved the sound of his own voice and Andrew was able to drift away; he didn’t even notice.

Andrew thought about his balance goal. He was definitely going to have to think and work on that almost daily. Already he could feel himself being detached, just wanting classes to get started so that he could ‘hide’ and focus on studying, always his default setting. Between the course, College, Hockey and the UOTC Andrew was going to meet hundreds of people, and was searching for the balance of not being remote and a studying automaton and not dismissing meeting people. It was only day four and he was already bored of the meet and greets. Finally the first day of Engineering events were over and Andrew was free to walk back to College. There were a large group of them, Engineering is one of the largest Departments at the University and so there was this collection of mainly 18 year olds walking back up Trumpington Street. St. John’s is beyond Trinity as you walk north and Andrew could hear the braying buffoon even although he was several groups behind him. Andrew shook his head and the two guys walking with him looked over.

“Sorry, I was trying to tune out that loudmouth behind us. I was beside him during one of the speeches and he has a voice that could cut concrete, and on top of that he is convinced that he will breeze the course and get a First.”

One of the guys Luke, who was at Gonville and Caius, nodded.

“Yeah I veered away from a group that he was dominating. I could see a bunch of people looking bored by him. His father is a senior civil servant and his mother is at the Times, so he thinks his farts don’t smell. And I only know that because he was telling everyone, loudly.”

The other guy, Martin, looked thoughtful. He was at Girton, jokingly referred to as Siberia because it was out of the town centre; by at least half a mile.

“Everyone has to be both clever and to have worked hard to get here. Most of us were among the smartest people in our years at school, particularly at maths and science. You go from being a comparative big fish in a tiny pond to this place where everyone is in exactly the same situation. Even if you are confident, you don’t go around mouthing off about it. The first misstep and you are going to be the laughing stock of the course. I don’t see the point of it.”

The three of them were in complete agreement. Maybe some people were not put off by this kind of attitude but the three of them seemed more common in treading carefully at the start, at least until they had seen the workload. Luke headed off into his College and Martin waved as he carried onto Girton. He was planning on getting a bike in the next couple of days, Girton was just too far to walk. When Andrew got back to Angel Court the floor and wall were clean and smelled of disinfectant which was only marginally better than the vomit smell. He got to his room and lay on the bed listening to some Zeppelin and thinking about how he wanted to meet people without it becoming overwhelming. Part of it was being able to relax and just chat with people. He did not make male friends very easily, that was clear. It tended to be slow acquaintance that grew into friendship. He seemed to make friends easier with women than men, already he was better friends with Navya and Helena than he was with any guy. He would think about that tonight at the OTC. It was over by the airport and it would be the longest walk so far, about 45 minutes. Hopefully he could get a lift back or share a cab but he was going to walk there. At 4.45 there was a knock at the door and Andrew let Pedro in. He had heard the music and so they sat and chatted about the various gigs they had seen. Ferrol was out of the way in the north west corner of Spain and so Pedro had seen very few big name bands live, it was one of the things that he was looking forward to while at Cambridge. He had seen a whole bunch of local bands but none that Andrew had heard of. The international big name bands that Andrew was familiar with, especially the British and American ones, did not normally play Ferrol. Pedro liked rock, the same as Andrew, but had seen very few of them.