Meeting The Chancellor

The girls make room for her to sit and she sits.

"Okay, so here is number one" Diane said to Elizabeth.

"Just some random hot guy who isn't worth number one" Diane added as she flipped the page.

"And number two"

"Still a random hot guy who nobody cares about" she added.

"And then there's number three!" She said with excitement written all over her face.

"Nicholas Wilson" The squeaky voiced girl interrupted.

"Damn!" Elizabeth admitted as she looked at the photo.

He is worth all the yells and screams she's been hearing the whole time. She examines the picture further.

"Is he in a boy band?" Elizabeth asked feeling excited.

The whole room went silent when Elizabeth's question was heard.

"No, Elizabeth. You don't find hot businessmen in boy bands" Diane answered with her eyes on Elizabeth.

"Oh well, too bad. I prefer boys in boy bands so i just had to ask" Elizabeth answered.

The eyes of the girls were on her but as soon as she flipped a page their eyes went back to the magazine.

Elizabeth continues looking at Nicholas's picture in the magazine.

He has a black velvet suit on, and his stare at the camera is effortless. If she were the person taking the photo, she would die the moment he stares at her like that. As they say, if looks could kill… Elizabeth would certainly be dead by now.

His beautiful black hair with its curly tips is impeccable. He definitely got looks.

The longer she stared at the picture the longer she fell in love with it.

"You love it, right?" Diane asked with her eyes intently at Elizabeth.

"Definitely!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"So much better than boy bands" Diane whispered to no one's hearing.

"But you let me look at it for too long, I think I prefer number two" Elizabeth admitted.

She honestly thinks number two is the best.

"I'm disappointed Elizabeth" Diane said rather ironically.

Elizabeth noticed everyone looking disappointedly at her.

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"Perhaps if you stare at number two as much as you stared at number three you'd understand what I'm saying" Elizabeth added.

"And besides, I've told you girls several times to end all the thoughts of Nicholas. He'll never notice the real you" Tracy joined in the conversation with her eyes still fixed on her book.

"Whatever Tracy, people change. Don't you read romance novel or watch romance movies?" Diane asked.

"What are you guys talking about?" a confused Elizabeth asked.

"Nicholas attends Hiddlestone University" The squeaky voiced girl said.

"The fact that he doesn't notice us doesn't mean we shouldn't notice him" Diane retorted.

"You're hopeless" Tracy shrugged.

"He's a 3rd year business student" another girl added.

Diane and Tracy have their conversation while the other girls tell Elizabeth about Nicholas even when she didn't ask.

"I have few friends in the 2nd and 3rd year. And they all told me that Nicholas is not the kinda guy you would want to take home to mama" Tracy said.

Everyone remained silent and listened to what Tracy. It looks as though she's telling them a folklore.

"He's incredibly rude, proud and he absolutely wants nothing to do with girls. But he still sleeps with them and after that he forgets who they are" Tracy added.

"He doesn't sleep with every girl he meets, just the ones he feels like sleeping with" Tracy said.

Elizabeth stands up and goes to her bed while Tracy continues telling the others things about Nicholas they should know.

Elizabeth does not know him.

At first she loved his picture. And when she heard he goes to the same University as she does, she was more interested.

But when she heard how he treats ladies and how rude and proud he is she suddenly became uninterested and continued liking his picture alone.

She shuts down her laptop and keeps it aside. Then she quickly dozed off.

A Saturday morning, Elizabeth is strolling the school environment trying to discover more fascinating things about the place. She puts on black thigh-high shorts, a yellow crop-top and a black baseball hat over her red hair. Its summer and she has no intention of stressing herself with heavy outfits.

Ahead of her is a football field. Some of the guys from the university gather and train together.

Among the guys training is Nicholas, he plays it to get his mind away from deep thoughts. But somehow the obtrusive girls at the university make it annoying for him.

He's tired and wants to stop playing because the girls keep calling his name and it annoys him.

He is putting on maroon shorts and the sweet morning summer breeze rest on his bare legs. Even that doesn't calm him down.

His closest buddy, Derek throws the ovoid ball to him. He quickly jumps and catches it. He tightens his grip around the ball and gently exhales.

"Oh damn, Nicholas!" he hears some girls exclaim after witnessing the way he caught the ball.

Out of agitation he grimaces and energetically projects the ball to no one in particular. The ball flew out of the field.

A carefree Elizabeth who is walking past the field, admiring the school building suddenly feels a sharp pain in her abdomen.

Her hands involuntarily hold her abdominal area and she feels something there.

She looks down and sees a football on her stomach and between her hands. The pain was immense and it caused her to fall on her back. She holds her stomach trying to ease the unbearable pain. She knows the ball came from the football field but she doesn't know who threw it.

"Nicholas, look what you've done" Derek cautioned Nicholas upon seeing the effect of Nicholas's hard throw.

"Go get the ball" Derek added.

Nicholas reluctantly walks to where the ball fell. He knows it hit someone and he's glad it's a girl. After all they are the ones making him so angry.

He takes out his phone from a Derek's sport bag which was lying on the field.

Nicholas's hard throw is his queue to leave the training session.

He dials his uncle number as he reached where the football fell.

Elizabeth who is in pain looks up and sees someone standing in front of her with his phone resting on his ear. She expected him to stretch his hands and help her up. Perhaps even pick up the ball which is directly beside her.

But no! Nicholas raises his right leg and the sole of his blue Nike's touched Elizabeth's stomach as he kicked the ball away from her and then kicked it back to the field. He turns around and looks at her on the floor with his phone still on his ear.

Elizabeth looks closely at his face. His angelic face made her think he would help her up.

It took her a while to realize that she was staring directly at Nicholas Wilson. The guy whose photo made the girls squeal the other night. His hair didn't make her realize he is Nicholas Wilson because his hair is a bit wet.

His eyes did, she remembers the hazel eyes from the photo last night.

As she realizes this her eyes quickly widen.

Unlike Elizabeth who is studying Nicholas's face as he spoke on the phone. Nicholas looks at the weird red-haired girl on the floor and walks past her to the chancellor's office.

As he walked right passed her, she forgot she was hit on her abdomen.

The pain was replaced by the fact that the moron didn't help her up. She gently helps herself up, with one hand on her right abdominal area.

Everyone there saw her but no one cared to help her up. Feeling a bit nauseous, she goes to the school clinic and gets herself checked up.

Instead of exploring the school environment as planned Elizabeth explored the walls of the school clinic. The nurse laid her there for a while to study the after effect of the football hitting her abdomen. The football was thrown with a lot of force and it may have damaged something.

Fortunately, there's nothing serious but the nurse still prescribed drugs to Elizabeth to make her feel better. The place is already dark and she can't continue exploring because she needs rest.

Upon getting to her hostel, she meets her roommates doing what they usually do.

Diane on her phone, Tracy scrolling through her laptop probably reading. And Jane, lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Wanna watch a movie Elizabeth?" Tracy asked with her eyes still on the laptop screen.

"No" Elizabeth answered quite energetically.

Elizabeth was obviously wrong, Tracy isn't reading.

"No problem" Tracy answered.

Elizabeth stands there with the drugs in her hand hoping her roommates would notice her.

"Well, guess what happened today" Elizabeth started off dramatically.

"What?" Tracy asked.

She raised her eyes from the laptop screen and looks at Elizabeth. Diane also stares at Elizabeth to hear what she has to say.

"Your little Mr. handsome, almost killed me today" Elizabeth said in a pretty choked up tone.

"Who is that?" Diane asked.

"That Wilson guy, the one you girls admired the other night" Elizabeth said.

"Nicholas? What happened?" Tracy asked as she finally notices the drugs in Elizabeth's hands.

"He threw a goddamn football at me and it hit my abdominal area and almost killed me" Elizabeth exaggerated.

"Oh my Gosh" Tracy exclaimed.

"No freaking way, why would he throw something at you? He wouldn't notice you even if you were standing right in front of him" Diane countered.

"How am I supposed to know?" Elizabeth asked.

"I was admiring everything around me and minding my own business when a freaking football almost claimed my life" Elizabeth exhaled.

"And that's not even the worst part, he didn't help me up. He stepped on me and kicked the ball and then walked away. I mean, am I freaking invisible?" Elizabeth asked with widened eyes.

"To him you are" Tracy responded.

"Well how's that supposed to be my fault?" Elizabeth asked.

Elizabeth looks at her bed which is the top bunk. She's in too much pain to get up there.

"Hey Jane, can you take the top bunk? My abdomen will start hurting if I trying getting up there" Elizabeth pleaded with Jane.

Jane's eyes are still on the ceiling. Elizabeth looks up to the ceiling to see exactly what Jane was looking at but all she saw was the ceiling.

"How amazing the ceiling looks tonight, huh?" Elizabeth ironically said hoping it would make Jane respond positively.

Elizabeth stands and waits for an answer from Jane but she gets none. She knows Jane does not want the top bunk. So she climbs the wooden ladder that leads to her bunk.

"Ugh!" Elizabeth silently grunts as she tries scaling through the ladder.

"You can take my bed for the night" Tracy said to Elizabeth.

"Oh, my God Tracy you're a life saver" Elizabeth said as moved towards Tracy's bunk.

Tracy moves to Elizabeth's bunk. While Elizabeth gulped down her drugs, all she could think of was reporting what happened today to the school chancellor. What ever measure that can be taken to prevent such actions from him again should be taken.

"I'll see the chancellor about this issue" she said to her roommates who said nothing back.

She's going to the chancellor's office tomorrow.

Nicholas's eyes slowly open as he inhales the Sunday morning's fresh breeze which flew in through his open window.

He gently sits up and looks at the time, its 7:09.

He has no intention of going to the chapel today because he has to be at the chancellor's office this morning.

He has a hostel here in school which he occupies alone. Being the chancellor's nephew and a rich man's son helped him acquire a hostel for himself alone.

He freshens up and puts on a white T shirt and white pants. After that he finds his way to his uncle's office, the chancellor.

The chancellor is his mother's elder brother. Sometimes Chancellor Richard would call Nicholas to his office to fill in for him while he does other important things. Today he has to be at an event in a church.

Chancellor Richard prefers it when Nicholas fills in for him instead of the Vice Chancellor.

To him Nicholas would do a great job running things before he gets back. He knows Nicholas to be a rational person.

Nicholas calmly walked to his uncle's office. He opens the door and finds that his uncle isn't there. He probably must have left.

Nicholas gently sits on the chancellor's office chair behind the table.

He picks up his uncle's laptop and starts thinking of plans to boost the company his father is about to handover to them. He wants to be ready the very moment his father gives them the company.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth who is determined to meet the chancellor today dresses up for chapel. She puts on a pink floral dress and she packs her red-hair in a scruffy bun. Her hair isn't red, it's orange with a little bit of red. She doesn't get why it's called red hair.

Anyways, the cliché of her hair color isn't what she's after this morning. All she wants right now is a meeting with the chancellor and after that she'll head right to the chapel.

Her roommates already left, including Jane. Honestly, she was shocked when she saw Jane leaving for the chapel. She didn't think Jane is that kind of person, considering her behavior.

Elizabeth picks up her phone and heads right to the chancellor's office.

She gently knocks on the door, at first there was no response.

Then she knocked on it again, and she heard a muffled voice telling her to come in.

She whispers her story to herself to make sure there are no mistakes.

She pushed the door and it creaked open.

"Good morning Chancellor" Elizabeth greeted.

She looks at the office chair quizzically. Nicholas faced towards the window behind the chancellor's seat to get a glimpse of nature. Perhaps it would help him think of good ideas for the business.

The back of the chair is faced towards Elizabeth and she has no idea who is sitting in it. She's of the impression that the chancellor is the one on the seat.

"Take a seat" Nicholas said in a deep tone and then cleared his throat.

Elizabeth looks at the chair with more curiosity as she sat down. As far as she can remember the chancellor's voice didn't sound like that the last time they spoke,

Perhaps he caught a cold.

Because the rate at which people come down with a cold during summer is amusing. One would expect winter season to cause these minor illnesses but for some reason it's the hot season.

Nicholas sat there in silence trying to think and also waiting for her to speak. His fingers were twined in each other and he rested his nose on them. His brows were a bit furrowed.

"I was mistreated yesterday..." Elizabeth started off.

Nicholas sat there, unmoving and listening to what Elizabeth had to say.

"I was strolling around the school premises when someone projected a football with full force and it hit me right in my abdominal area" Elizabeth said.

"I fell and then I find out the person who threw the football at me is Nicholas Wilson"

At the sound of his name his furrowed brows suddenly went neutral. He wants to turn around and let this girl know that she's reporting him to him. But instead he listened to what she said in silence.

"He steps on me and doesn't help me up. I learned he behaves that way with girls and I think he needs to be called out" Elizabeth added.

"He looked at me like a disgusting germ and walked away… I spent the whole of the day at the school clinic. Because of what he did" she added.

She remained silent for a while hoping the chancellor would say something but he said nothing.

"Sir, are you listening?" she asked. Perhaps he fell asleep during her boring monologue.

"I am" Nicholas said in a deep husky tone.

"I'm waiting for you to finish your monologue" he said.

Gently, he rotated the office chair towards her and his hazel eyes meet her chestnut brown eyes.

Shock instantly grips Elizabeth as she widened her eyes.