Longing

Coeur de Cher

During the school period, Huckleberry alike the other four travel dormitories saw a huge reduction of travellers. So while the university students were away, there were only eight travellers in room 5. Sarah was one of those eight. Sarah was in grade 12 and like the other Southeastern Academy high schoolers at Huckleberry, she walked to school every school day.

Going to high school was not a happy occasion for Sarah . Sarah was from the 60s and so her manner of speech among other traits made it difficult to fit in with the students. She was at Southeastern since the 10th grade in 1982 when she first arrived in the 80s. It had been a while but she still had not fully caught on to the slang, manner of speech and trends among teenagers of the 80s. As a result, she was ridiculed for everything she said or did. Giggles and chuckles followed every word she uttered and every move she made. She found comfort in other travellers from Huckleberry who went to school with her. They were also very good at keeping Sarah's school experiences a secret from others at Huckleberry.

Not every high school student at Huckleberry was at Southeastern Academy. Travel dormitories always made sure that travellers of school going age did not all go to the same school. This was because they would interact more in public and the risk of time travellers being exposed would be high. So Huckleberry high school students were enrolled in different high schools across the capital. Elementary students and middle schoolers were also enrolled in different schools across the capital. University students were not only limited to the capital but were enrolled in universities across the nation. There were no children too young for elementary school in these travel dorms. They were handled differently by the overseeing world.

July would mark Sarah's third year at Huckleberry and she had just turned 18. Sarah had already met the requirements to move out of Huckleberry but was no where near being financially stable to do so. She planned to stay at Huckleberry a little longer.

The 12th graders applied to universities in January 1985. For travellers, the decisions was made by the overseeing world through their travel dormitories as they tried to spread the students across the nation as much as possible. It was decided that Sarah would attend Cher national University in the capital. Of course, Sarah was not happy with that. She wanted to be at Birchmount, she wanted to be with Faith.

Sarah contacted her over watcher so that she could get the overseeing world to change their decision through him. Her over watcher consulted with those in charge of assigning schools to travellers and told her that if she could find someone who was assigned to Birchmount who would not mind swapping universities before the end of March, it would not be too late to make that change.

Finding students who were assigned to Birchmount was not hard. The problem was that none of them wanted to change their university. Birchmount University was one of the most respected universities in the country. Eventually, she met a certain Michael from room 6 who did not want to go to university at all so the university he was assigned did not really matter to him. He agreed to switch universities as long as Sarah gave him some of her February allowance. Travellers in the dormitory were given an allowance by the overseeing world.

So it was decided. Sarah was going to Birchmount University that September to start her first year. She couldn't wait to leave high school. She couldn't wait to attend the Traveller's Global Competitions in the summer and she couldn't wait to start university in September and share a room with Faith.

***************************************************************************

Birchmount

It had been a few rough weeks for Faith. She was still the talk of the campus. But she didn't let that stop her from having fun. She usually went to the travel club with Banji and Keisha to have some fun. Faith got Keisha's address and they always took her home in a taxi if she was drunk, leaving her car in the parking lot of a nearby supermarket. They tried to have fun without being an inconvenience to their over watchers.

Midterms had just ended so Banji and Faith were at the travel club to celebrate. Keisha was there too. The club's atmosphere was calm that day. These were Faith's favourite days. The playlist was filled with sentimental ballads and instead of people jumping up and down on the dance floor, they all sat at their tables, swaying their heads and hands to the music. It seemed like the ballads took everyone to a world in their heads. Everyone seemed immersed in the imaginary world they created, one without any hardships or sadness. The ballads took Faith back to her family. They took her to her parents and siblings, the games they played and the pranks they pulled on each other. When Faith came back to reality with a short pause of the music due to an announcement, her face was wet with tears. She broke down and her sobs got louder.

"Faith what is wrong? Are you okay? What is wrong?" Banji asked, Keisha too drunk to care.

Faith was not fine. She missed her family and she hated being the centre of attention at school. Banji wiped Faith's tears and decided it was time to go.

When Faith got to her room, Trisha was there. She hadn't been there in a long time. Not since she asked Faith for a favour but that evening, she was in the room going through a fashion magazine with Gwen and swooning over hot men.

"Well if it isn't the boyfriend thief. Only interested in someone after their friend shows interest." Trisha welcomed Faith rudely.

Faith was in no mood to reply. Faith had another meltdown in the shower. It was loud enough for the girls in the room to hear over the running shower.

"What's wrong with you? Did you get abused while you were out partying or what?" Trisha asked when Faith got out of the shower.

"Trisha!!" Gwen expressed her disapproval and led Trisha out of the room.

"I am sorry if she offended you. I can turn off the lights if you want to sleep." Gwen said to Faith who was already buried in her sheets and comforters.

Gwen shut the lights off.