With teary goodbyes and strong resolves, Harvey Goldshaw set out for the University in the Capital.
"Ask Michael... wh-where was I wrong!" Drusilla had been crying still, at the rate of three handkerchiefs per hour, and Harvey had clicked his tongue.
"If someone should apologise, it's him! Not you!"
But after everything was said and done, an eighteen year old Harvey set foot out of the coaches, right into the conveyance station of the Capital, where he'd soon join some jolly classmates of his.
"Excuse me," He walked over to a small unit of three young men, just like him, but clearly mismatched and looking like a group forced to be together, just like him, "are you all new students too?"
They all had a suitcase and a large bag, just like him.
"Oh yea! Jolly ya to come 'ere! Me friends and I were just finding the more of the fellas!"
"Yes," Harvey shook his head, "Harvey Goldshaw. And you are?"
"Jubilant O'Sullivan. Nice to meet ya, ol' chap!" The very tall man shook Harvey's hand in a warm handshake, rigourously shaking up and down, until the other boy thought his hand would detach.
Huh, thought Harvey. He was clearly younger than this fella!
"And this is Fane O'Sullivan, me bro, and that is," Jubilant stopped himself- gesturing to a man standing next to him, with a look on his face screaming, I am rich, peasant.
"Harvey Goldshaw." Harvey decided not to judge and held out his hand instead, "Well, you must be honoured that I hold your hand, and to grace you with my name- Faizal Mohammed Karem Yilmaz the Fifth, although I prefer Your Grace."
He was wearing silk, surely some kind of novelty, his tan skin standing contrast to the rest of the boys, beautifully decorated by a thick gold chain and bracelets. The fedora on his head was embroidered with plum flowers, instead of the other boys- who wearing plain black wool.
And he was small- standing against Harvey and Jubilant, he looked comically small.
"We call 'im Faiz," Jubilant added, snickering silently, "pompous ol' Faiz. Some rich Prince of Turkey he is."
"Ahh..." Harvey shook his hand, plastering a fake smile straight up. "Nice to meet you, Faiz."
Faizal Mohammed Karem Yilmaz the Fifth took out a handkerchief and wiped his hand shamelessly, still standing infront of Harvey, and threw the silk handkerchief away on spot.
"You know I saw that, right?" Harvey couldn't understand whether to feel offended of make a laugh of it.
"Get me a coach, you-" The small Prince pointed his finger at the large, bulky Jubilant, "whatever your name is."
"Ya wish me command, Faizy!" Jubilant snickered, slapping the Prince's back, and Faizal literally flew into Fane, tumbling down and falling face first if Jubilant's brother had not caught him.
Harvey pressed his lips in a thin line, and sat quietly, while the coach ride, Faizal couldn't shut up.
"Sharing this... you tiny pests... no shame and no ettiqutes-"
At some point, he switched over to blabber in French, then Persian, then Hindi, after some unrecognizable languages later, he came back to English.
"- share rooms with you..."
"What ya say mate? Shush tis one up?" Jubilant had to crouch his shoulders down, the horse carriage not spacious enough for his larhe build.
"I will not say a no." Harvey was crouching down too, just not as much.
Fane hadn't uttered a word since Harvey had seen him, perhaps, the silent one he must be.
"Say Jubilant, can I call you Jubilant?" Harvey asked.
"Ya can call me whatever mate! Juby sounds fun too."
"Yes Jubilant, what age are you?"
"Me? Oh, I turn eighteen this month. You?" Jubilant smiled- his light blue eyes lighting up.
"I am eighteen. I will be studying mathematics. You?"
"Math? You an Fane 'here are same. Ol' chaps you two- both in math and both eighteen. Me is in taxonomy."
"Taxonomy?" Harvey was surprised. He had thought that this brute would be in some brutish subject, "Tough choice-" he looked at Jubilant's smiling eyes, "mate." Cringed, but still... that word felt nice.
______________________________________
Harvey had low expectations already, but the Central University seemed to exceed them. A three storey stone castle, with four towers on each corner, surrounding a central clearing. Harvey was shocked; in a positive way. Obviously, his department was on the second floor and it was smaller than- say taxonomy and life sciences, or even cartography for that matter, but Harvey liked it.
There were about a hundred and fifty new students this year, from all over the continent and colonies, already having split up in smaller groups of friends.
Jubilant was on the first floor, and Faizal Yilmaz got the topmost floor, after Harvey learnt that he was studying four languages, all at once, and happened to be the youngest son of the King of Turkey.
Apparantly, Turkey was not just a bird and a country too- Harvey took a note of it.
Faizal's screams upon finding that he would have a room mate, could be heard a floor below and Harvey wished him luck silently.
His dorm room was assigned, and his room mate happened to be Fane O'Sullivan, the pensive boy, and after settling his luggage down under his four poster bed, Harvey started turning the cogs of his brain.
He leapt up, running down to the common area, where he would find anyone who could answer a few of his questions.
"Good Sir, do you have some time to spare?" Harvey stopped a young man, with his nose in a fat book.
"Yes?"
"Would you mind directing me to the Surgery department?"
"Are you a lost student, my dear?" The man asked.
"No... I need to meet someone from there-"
"Well it's night already, and it's past the hours to visit someone, child. I suggest you go back to bed and try again the next morning, alright?"
"It's important-"
"Go back student. Let's talk first thing in the morning."
Dejected, and drooping shoulders, Harvey turned back towards his dorm. The next morning, he decided, he would catch a hold of this Michael Fletcher and teach him a good lesson.
For making my sister cry... Harvey thought, you messed with the wrong person.
MICHAEL FLETCHER
Michael Francis Fletcher
Age : 23
Height : 5'10"
Subject Major: Surgery
Personality : always tired, caring and friendly.
Likes : food, Drusilla and Sundays
Dislikes: emergency duties
Love interest : set to be married to Drusilla Goldshaw when he graduates. (Has never really talked to any other woman, really- he is unsociable)