Alkalians Read Online Free Page A

her drink and says, “I would like to unpack my belongings,
get some rest, and be ready for classes tomorrow.”
    “ I couldn’t agree more!”
Jumping up from the couch, Sean takes the last sip of his vodka,
tosses the bottle expertly into the garbage can near the kitchen
fridge, and exclaims while grabbing the rest of his bags, “If
there’s nothing more to do, then I bid you adieu !” He opens the door into the
bedroom near the kitchen, enters it, and kicks the door closed
behind him, leaving a bewildered Matt and Rose in the living
room.
    After a moment of staring at each
other, as if they actually saw each other for the first time, Rose
clears her throat before saying, “So, have you picked out your room
yet?”
    Slow to respond, Matt jolts before
admitting, “Oh, yeah, the room upstairs, on the left. The last
bedroom is the one across from it.”
    “ I see.” After tossing her
own bottle into the garbage just like Sean had done, she goes for
her bags, picks them up, and heads for the stairs, stopping to tell
Matt, “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”
    “ Oh, right! Good night,
uh, Rose.”
    “ Good night, Matt.” With a
smile still on her face, she turns and walks up the stairs,
disappearing into the hall above. After hearing a door open and
close, Matt breaths out a calming sigh, finishes off his vodka, and
tosses it toward the garbage can. Instead of falling in it, it
bounces off its rim and lands on the floor with a clink. Startled
by missing the shot, Matt retrieves the bottle and drops it into
the bin, a little embarrassed, and flicks the lights off in the
room before going upstairs to his bedroom.
     
    ***
     
    Morning comes, and with it the first
day of school. Students soon flock into the college buildings, and
Matt, completely unused to such a high level of traffic in such
confined spaces, is dragged and shoved along with the flow of
students down the halls and eventually finds himself in what
appears to look like a cafeteria. However, to his mounting
confusion, most of the students, as they retrieved breakfast foods
like pastries, fruit, or juices, took their food with them out of
the cafeteria and back into the halls as they hustled off to their
classes. Going with the flow, he gets his own food, a blueberry
muffin and a bottle of orange juice, and consumes them on the go as
the river of students gradually dwindles down further into the main
halls of the building. Soon realizing he is lost, he tries to
remain calm as he looks for and finds a map of the building’s halls
and room numbers. He locates the room he believes is his first
class of the day, and takes a few minutes to hurry down the
corridors and up some stairs to the room, hesitating before he
opens the door.
    As he comes into the room, Matt is
instantly blushing from the many faces of other students, some
freshmen like him and others of higher classes, turning about to
stare at him. However, any further symptoms of embarrassment and
shyness are denied as he detects peculiar, calming features about
the room. The walls are brightly colored, a pleasant scent is in
the atmosphere, and the person he figured might be the professor,
rather than being some old, gray-haired man, is a young lady,
pretty to look at with her long orange hair, shimmering green
dress, sparkling green eyes, and cheerful smile as she looks back
at him.
    “ Ah, welcome to biology!”
she warmly greets him. “I just did roll-call, and there was just
one missing, so you must be Matthew Calamos?”
    “ Uh, yeah, that’s me. I’m
Matt.”
    “ Wonderful! Please come
in, take the empty seat over here.” She gestures to a seat at the
front of the room, and Matt hastily makes his way there, trying to
avoid eye-contact with the other students as their eyes follow him
before looking back to the professor. “I am Professor Amanda
Malkia, and we were just talking about everyone’s favorite kind of
plant or animal. Do you have any plants or animals you’re fond