Dorm Norm - 2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Early next morning there was a knock on the door. Daniel opened the door to see Mark outside.

“How come you guys are not ready yet? The tour around campus is starting from 9 and its 15 to 8 now!” Mark reminded.

“What? But my alarm clock says its 7am,” Daniel said.

“Nope. See,” Mark showed his wristwatch to Daniel.

Daniel rushed to his cupboard and took out his wristwatch and saw that it was indeed 8.45am.

“Samuel! Get up! Or you will be late,” Daniel shouted.

Sam didn’t budge.

“I don’t care,” Daniel said as she hurried out of the room to get bathed and changed.

Unlike Daniel, Mark knew the way to wake Sam up. He climbed up to Sam’s bed and kissed his forehead. Sam’s forehead creased for a second and then returned to normal again.

“Sammy, get up baby…”Mark whispered. Sam’s eyes flicked open within a moment.

“Mark! It’s not funny!” Sam glared.

“Oh but it is! And what’s more funny is that I will tell Dan all about your… ahem ahem if you don’t get ready in 10 minutes. By the looks of it he isn’t umm…enamoured by you,” Mark said.

“I don’t care,” Sam said.

“Okay so I will take the liberty to tell Dan about all your adventures today itself,” Mark said.

“Oh dude fine,” Sam said sitting up, “I’m up. I don’t really wanna hear lectures on behavior and blah blah for the entire year, so okay…I am getting ready.”

Sam got down to the floor and dug out a t-shirt and a pair of jeans from his open suitcases, put them on and went off to freshen up.

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The freshers were being shown around the campus by a senior.

Daniel had his notebook in hand and was copying down whatever the person guiding them around was saying.

“You don’t need to write this stuff down. Just look around so that you know your way around,” the person said as he saw Daniel scribbling into his notebook.

The others started laughing.

“I’m more comfortable with all the information written down for reference,” Daniel said.

“Do as you please then,” the person said as he continued with the tour and the others around Daniel continued to snicker.

“This guy is a total nut job I think,” Sam whispered.

“He’s just a bit awkward I guess,” Mark replied.

“And way too uptight! Like who the hell sets ‘ground rules’ on the very first day. That dude is way beyond crazy. Like who gets stressed over your alarm clock not working properly?” Sam said.

“You know Daniel did seem a little stressed this morning. Apparently his alarm clock slowed down,” Mark said.

“Ya I know. Afterall that’s my doing. Serves him right for thinking that he owns the world. By the way are you getting along with your roommate?” Sam smirked.

“He seems a bit reserved but we are great friends already. He even let me use a part of his cupboard for my stuff. Look there he is,” Mark said.

“Michael! Here, here!” Mark called out waving to Michael.

Michael turned back to see who was calling out his name. When he saw it was Mark he nonchalantly looked away.

“See he is a bit shy,” Mark explained.

‘Or maybe he is not able to handle the hyperactive Mark,’ Sam thought.

“That might be it,” Sam said nodding.

“How is everyone at home?” Mark asked.

“Like I would know,” Sam said.

“They are your family Sam. You shouldn’t have an attitude of this sort regarding your own family,” Mark said.

“Family—they sure don’t act like it,” Sam snorted.

“You’re gonna be coming for your dad’s birthday party next month right?” Mark asked.

“I didn’t even remember that my old man’s has his birthday next month. I guess I’m gonna skip it. It’s not like its gonna matter to him whether I’m there or not,” Sam said.

“You know that he loves you a lot. It would hurt him if you didn’t attend his birthday party,” Mark said.

“I don’t give a damn about the way he feels.”

“You say he doesn’t care about you but do you think that you would have the lifestyle you do if not for him?”

“Whatever he does for me it’s all part of his duty, not love. He just does it all to show the world that he is doing what a father should—providing for his child. He just loves himself, his wife and her son.”

“You’re his son too. He loves you as much as he loves Thomas.”

“Okay. Let us consider for the sake of this argument that Mr. William loves me—regardless, the fact that I do not love him remains. He is not my father. She is not my mother. And even if Thomas was Thomas the tank engine, he would not become my brother.”

“I don’t know anything! You will be coming with me to uncle’s birthday.”

“I wish you good luck in your attempt to make this impossible event come true,” Sam challenged.

“Please register your names along with that of your chosen partner for tomorrow’s trekking expedition,” the person guiding them around said.

“I will go and register our names,” Mark said.

‘Samuel was constantly chatting throughout the tour. Can’t he be serious for even a second?’ Daniel thought.

When Daniel finally got to the registration counter the person there was ready to go.

“Excuse me, please wait. I am Daniel Smith. I would like to…” he said.

“Daniel Smith? Wait,” the man said checking the names on his list.

“Your name has been registered,” the man said as he closed the counter and walked out.

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That evening there was another knock on the door of Sam and Daniel’s room. It was Michael.

“Come in,” Sam said.

“No. I’m fine. I just came to tell you that Mark has registered you as his partner and me and Daniel as partners for tomorrow,” Michael said.

“Okay!” Sam said.

Michael returned back to his room.

“I told them, so quit pestering me,” he said.

“Oh Michael! Being so shy won’t help you. You gotta be more open, interact with people,” Mark said.

Michael looked at Mark for a moment with the ‘Mind your own business’ look and then went to bed.