Mistakenly Fallen

7. Oh! Sorry Professor

Camila exhaled a thick breath out of her mouth, standing in the middle of the large ground and looking at the columned building structure in front of her.

The large white gates of the building, felt like they called upon her, as she wore a dress pant and had her white shirt with a built in tie, knotted into a bow, as she wore wide heels to match with her outfit.

She couldn’t have felt more zest in her body than she was feeling in that moment.

All of her life’s hard work and compromises laid straight in front of her.

“Welcome to our new class!”

The board lifted up on the gate of the building seemed to be calling specifically for Camila, who felt a push on her shoulder by two boys and two girls passing her towards the building.

“Oh I am sorry!”

Spoke one of the girls.

Camila looked at her and noticed that she was wearing a casual t shirt with a pair of faded blue jeans and noticed Camila’s attire, roaming a gaze from head to toe.

“Oh, sorry professor.”

With that she made her way inside with what Camila could only assume to be her friends.

“Professor?”

Camila looked at her entire attire and grunted to her own self, that she was obviously over dressed for the event, in the name of excitement.

Placing her glasses sharp over her face, she made her way ahead and inside the building, getting in to the auditorium and finding a row to sit in with the rest of the students.

Each row she looked at, had people dressed up in entirely casual outfits and she obviously stood out with her formal clothing, until her eyes landed on a row with people sitting in formal clothes.

She sighed, walking down the stairs of the hallway to take up that seat but paused as she noticed that all those were actually professors and if she needed one last confirmation over why someone had to call her a professor, she definitely had that final confirmation, then and there.

Camila sighed and looked to her right, seeing the same group of students from before who had called her a professor and there was no way, she was ever going to sit with them.

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder and looked up to see a girl with a curly hair and slightly tanned skin, looking back at Camila with a wide smile resting on her face.

“Come sit with me.”

She pulled Camila along with her and helped her get seated on a row or two below the ones with the students who presumed Camila to be a professor.

“Umm… you are?”

Camila asked looking at the girl, who wore a simple floral dress, donning over her healthy body, with her skin glowing under the yellow lights of the auditorium.

“Selena Ozan.”

“You’re half Turkish and half Latin?” Camila immediately reached the conclusion.

“Ah! Look at you, with your smart mouth, proving how you got in to Stanford.”

Camila laughed out loud.

“I am sorry, if I offended you but you are extremely pretty.” She told Selena, who had a huge smile on her lips listening to Camila’s sweet words.

“Aww, I usually hate compliments but seeing the way you have dressed up, I will let it pass over. I am going to assume that you are a little weak in socializing.”

“Oh! Now you are proving that you are smart and how you got in to Stanford.”

Selena laughed back at Camila’s smart choice of words.

Soon, one of the senior students took over the microphone on the stage and began the orientation of the new students.

“By the way, thank you for saving my ass. I over dressed.”

Camila whispered at Selena who snickered back at her.

“It is fine! In high school, I was over dressed on my orientation as well and everybody gave me a tough time over it. So, I don’t want any other person to suffer the way I did, which is part of my resolution that I made when I got in to college. You just helped me fulfill my first resolution, so you are cool and I guess we can be passing buddies.”

“Passing buddies?”

Camila inquired.

“You know, two people who pass by each other and smile at one another?” Selena suggested and Camila felt slightly disappointed. She was looking forward to start a good friendship with Selena but whatever she had to offer, Camila was ready to take it.

“Of course, passing buddies, it is. So, what is your major?”

Camila asked, wanting to get to know more about Selena.

“Oh, I am a nutrition major and you?”

“A psychology major.”

“Cool! They are probably going to ask you to choose a field of major by your second year.”

“Criminal psychology!”

Camila spoke right away, showing how determined she was with her plans.

“That’s even more awesome…” Selena whispered gently. “I am thinking clinic nutrition.”

“My Mom’s a nutritionist too!” Camila told Selena, who was completely mesmerized by Camila to that point.

“Wow! I knew you came from money. You are wearing Versace shirt, aren’t you? So, how does your mother make on a weekly basis? Does she have a clinic of her own? Oh! She must be very experienced. Can I get her number to talk to her?”

Before Camila could’ve said another word, the host of the orientation announced the end of the ceremony, asking students to go to their respective buildings and enjoy a tour around the campus and their buildings.

“Ops! Time to go but the next time we walk past one another, I am totally going to get your Mom’s number.”

Selena pushed past Camila on her seat, who also got up and walked towards the respective board of her department, getting the brochure from one of the girls standing in front of the board that had psychology department written in front of it.

Taking the brochure and following the directions, Camila made her way towards the department’s building, joining the conference hall where most of the major’s classes took place and listened to the head of her department, a woman of grace and great qualifications, with short bob cut in to a messy style with bangs resting on her forehead, speaking to a room full of people with poise and casual confidence.

Of course, she was an incredibly experienced woman, wearing a badge of Dr. Fowler, representing her name and her qualification as a philosophy doctorate.

“By the end of your third year, as you go in to your research and write down a dissertation, you will be allotted supervisors and given to your performance that you will show throughout your academia in these upcoming three years, you will be allotted your supervisors and the top students will be definitely working with me. So, I wish you folks all the very best of luck for these upcoming four years, hoping nothing but for you guys to achieve great success and always know that my room is just right across the hall and I sit there on weekdays, from twelve to four. I am not just your professor but consider me as a confidante as well.”

With that she exited the room, leaving behind the rest of the professors of the department to introduce themselves.

Getting in to groups, Camila went ahead with one of them, as a senior gave them a tour around the university finally bringing them to the main ground, where many clubs and societies had their kiosks set up, in order to invite the new students to join their activities and become a part of their cult – just kidding.

Looking at the long rows of the stalls, Camila knew right away which club she was going to join in, on.

Walking through the unpaved way, she passed down many students and finally made her way towards the Health club, that unlike other stalls, didn’t have much students to invite.

Walking ahead, Camila was greeted by a short heighted, skinny boy, standing next to a same heightened girl but her body type was quite opposite to the boy. Her black skin shined brightly, reflecting back to Camila’s eyes.

They both were lazily sitting back on their seats, fanning themselves in the heat by their own brochures.

Seeing Camila approached them, the girl looked at her attire for once and pointed out next to her.

“The business club is over there.”

She told Camila, who laughed at her presumptions.

“I am here to join your club.”

The girl jumped out of her seat and kicked her partner up as well.

The boy felt startled, as he was sleeping lowly, shielding his eyes from the bright sun, by keeping an open brochure over his face.

“Sal! She is here to join our club.”

She told him with excitement, as he adjusted his glasses and stood up straight on the stall.

His eyes went wide for a second, as he saw someone as seemingly good looking as Camila, wanting to join his club.

“Are you sure you didn’t confuse us for, business club or acapella club or a debate club?”

Camila shook her head, “No! I know you guys are the health club folks and that is why I am here.”

“You do you know that even the big doctors are not interested in our club, right?” Sal inquired, wanting to make sure that Camila had ended up in the right spot.

“So, why is the club still operational? My high school’s health club wasn’t in the best shape either when I joined my school but I made it the best, even making it a sponsor for the school’s football team medics and equipping it right, until it ended up being the top club of the school. So, I know how to run things for health clubs.”

“Yeah! But as I said, it is not the best club and nobody wants to join us.”

“Dude! Do you want her in or what?” his female partner argued with him, making Camila look between the two in an awkward manner.

“I don’t want to waste my time with someone for six months, until they realize the next semester that they are better off being in another club, Aibileen!” Sal counter argued.

“Don’t worry! I have a severe commitment therapy case. Once, I am committed to something, I stick up with it to the very end. And by the looks of the other clubs, I am pretty sure they make us do dangerous stuff in front of mics and podiums and I get huge levels of anxiety and stomach aches, followed by an upset stomach if I end up in a public place. So, my introvert self has chosen your club.”

Camila finally admitted the truth on why she wanted to join the Health club and as much as Sal wanted to still oppose her joining to the club, Aibileen, extended her hand forward and welcomed Camila in.

“Our orientation will be next week, please leave your number and email address with us. We will send you the reminder and the location for the orientation.”

“Great!”

After writing down her information, Camila made her way out of the campus and finally ended up in front of her parent’s car, who were waiting for her, just outside the campus’s gates.

“How long were you guys here for?”

She asked, keeping her head low and shielding her face with the many brochures that she had collected over the entire day.

“Not long enough!” her mother chimed, “Come on now! It is time to see you off at your sorority!”

“Mom! I told you I will go on my own and besides, Dad’s guards took care of all of my stuff.” She reminded her mother, who was in no mood to bid her daughter a farewell any time soon.

“Yes, but your father and I still have to see you off and take a closer look at the place in which you will be staying and we also have to make sure that the place is safe for you.”

“You guys are going to embarrass me, aren’t you?”

She grunted in agony, getting inside the car and all it took was a drive of five minutes, passing through two blocks, away from the campus, until they finally ended up in front of an old designed mansion that had its exterior painted well in to a mahogany color.

Many houses, some almost the same size and some slightly smaller, lined up in the entire block, representing different sororities and fraternities.

The Greek letters; Κ v ƛ, representing Kappa Nu Lambda hung on top of the hoofed roof of the mansion.

“Oh, it is still the same as it was during my days.”

“Yes! But you don’t get to be as wild as your mother told her days were at the sorority.”

Alejandro stepped out of the guard and signaled at his guard’s who were in the car behind him to keep a close eye on his family.

“What wild days?” Rachel snorted at her husband, “I didn’t lie to Camila about anything and simply told her that I just studied hard in College.”

“Good! Do that and we will keep visiting you every week and…”

“Every week?” Camila shrieked at her father.

“Fine! Every two weeks…”

Alejandro suggested and Camila simply shook her head.

“No!”

“Every Month?”

“You are not going to come to Stanford, unless and until, I don’t ask you to and I will come home during every semester break! Didn’t we already have that deal?”

Camila looked at her mother for help and Rachel simply winked at her.

“Your father is trying his best to get to see you every week. If he could, he would definitely breach the deal between you two.”

“Dad! I know this is hard for you but it is equally hard for me as well. I haven’t spent a single day away from you guys, except for when you guys were on conferences and also went on vacations, leaving me to deal with Lucas and Nicholas, which seemed more like a punishment…”

“Your point is?” Rachel interrupted her daughter, breaking her away from her trance that took her back to the moment when she would have to tolerate her brothers’ insolent behavior.

“My point is, Mom and Dad, especially you Dad! I will talk to you guys ever week in fact, twice a week on video call okay? And I will come home during ever semester break! So, please, don’t get too nervous about me. Take care of yourselves and your health. I love you guys! Don’t miss me too much.”

She hugged her parents for once and patted their backs, trying her best to give them a sense of stability and emotional strength so that they wouldn’t feel too depressed by her departure from the house.

“Eat well and don’t miss me a lot.”

“Stop saying that!” Rachel felt irritated that Camila kept on repeating the same order again and again.

“Then we might as well completely forget about you. We can miss you every now and then.” Alejandro told Camila, making her smile at her parents words.

“Fine! Miss me a little, then.”

She laughed and collected her bag from the car, as her parents finally got back inside the car and she waved them a goodbye.

She sighed to her own self, a feeling of unknowningness and gloominess developed around her heart for once.

Deep down she was saddened from moving out of her house but at the same time, as she turned around, she felt excited that she would be starting a new chapter in her life.

Her father’s assistants had already delivered all of her luggage in to her designated room that she would get to know about through the head of the sorority, who had just been appointed recently and by the conversation that Camila had with her during her acceptance interview and post acceptance process, she seemed like a polite and a helping girl.

Having all positive hopes inside her heart, Camila decided to walk inside but paused when she heard someone calling her name out.

She turned around and saw her favorite uncle Anthony, holding a rider’s bicycle with training wheels attached to it, even though it was an adult sized back, brought the bicycle towards Camila.

“Uncle Anthony! What are you doing here?”

Camila couldn’t have contained her happiness, as she jumped forward, pushing past the bicycle and hugged Anthony.

Anthony laughed out heartily and held the bicycle firmly, preventing it from falling down.

“Careful!”

“Oh! I am sorry.” She pulled back and looked down at the purple colors bike, that had a small basket attached to it, with its handling containing sparkling tassels attached and hanging low on each side.

Camila knew exactly that the bike was for her.

“Uncle Anthony…”

“You really thought that I wouldn’t get you something. My niece is going to Stanford, I am the proudest uncle in this whole world! I got you, your first bike. Even though you never learned to ride without the training wheels, now you will ride this, every day to your college and always remember your uncle Anthony.”

“You know, I will miss you the most.”

Anthony smiled and nodded.

“But please just don’t tell this to Mom and Dad! They’ll get mad at me.”

Anthony laughed out loud.

“Of course, I know your father. He is incredibly jealous that I am more closer to you than him.”

“Just don’t tell him that.” She extended her hand forward and held out her pinky finger and Anthony crossed his pinky finger with hers, forming a small unsigned promise with him.

“Thank you for this bike.”

She hugged Anthony once again as he got inside his Ford truck and finally drove away.

Parking the bike next to some other ones, already present outside the house, Camila finally made her way inside the sorority, knocking on the door at once.

When she didn’t receive any response, she was about to knock on the door again, when it opened up on its own and all she saw was girls with multi colored hair, standing in front of her, belonging to a range of ethnicities, wearing white shirts that had the sorority’s symbols printed on them in pink, red and blue, standing ahead and chanting out loud.

“Welcome to Kappa Nu Lambda!”

They all clapped together and one of them stepped ahead and blew a party horn out to welcome Camila.

Among the two split rows of girls, an older woman stepped ahead, wearing a knee length skirt underneath a black coat, that showed her maturity and status as someone important in the house.

“I am Elizabeth Vermont. But you can call me Betty. I am the sorority mother. I don’t live in the house but I visit every day and stay in my office on the second floor, third door to the your left from the main stairs, every day from eight till ten in the night. So, if you have any worries, come to me there. Okay?”

Camila smiled at the woman and nodded.

“Now, can I see your admission papers?”

“Oh!”

Sensing the change of her tone from sweet to strict professionalism, Camila immediately picked out her admission papers from her hand bag and passed them down to Betty, who grabbed them and moved up the stairs, going ahead and already putting Camila in to the sorority’s system.

“My room?”

She was about to ask for help from someone but just as she turned around, she saw every disappearing in to the house, making Camila realize that they weren’t actually happy to greet her and were in fact, forced by Betty to welcome the new members.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned back to saw a tall, petite girl, with her brown hair, resting in a mid parted bob cut.

She smiled at Camila and extended her hand forward for her to shake.

“Hi! I am Charlie! The president of this sorority. You must be, Camila Santiago, right?”

Camila nodded with excitement, recognizing Charlie as the head girl of the sorority.

“I am a junior, majoring in biotech! Welcome to Stanford. Come, I’ll show you, your room.”

Camila felt excited, seeing how friendly and warm, Charlie’s personality was.

“You came late, I was expecting you yesterday.”

She asked Camila, as they both climbed up the stairs, that was placed right next to the front door.

“Oh, actually I went straight for the orientation.”

“Yeah, someone from your father’s company came and delivered your luggage.”

“Yeah, must be my father’s guards.”

Camila laughed to herself, knowing very well that her father had sent in some of his top goons, to take a survey of the place and make sure that it was safe, in the name of delivering her luggage.

“This is your room.’

She opened up the door to a small cubicle room for Camila, who was stunned to find the fact that she got a room with a large window, beautiful sunlight and on top of all a single room.

“I figured that you will like a single room better?”

Charlie suggested and Camila shook her head, “No! I don’t mind sharing a room and…”

“Please! Don’t share a room with these newbies, they are pretty weird. I interviewed them with Miss Betty, and Oh by the way, she will tell you to call her Betty because my seniors told me that she has a complex, where she tries to remain just as young as the students here, asking every new student to call her by her nick name but don’t forget to add Miss, before it or she goes like bonkers at times!”

Camila laughed and nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

A knock on the door startled both Camila and Charlie, who turned around and saw one of the new students, standing by the door, “Hey! Charlie, can you tell us about the dinner times, I think they missed it in our schedules that they gave us.”

She stated in a very profound and polite manner and Camila couldn’t be happy but feel enlightened to see such graceful people gracing her sorority, but what came next startled her out of her mind.

“Then go down by the hall! The dinner schedules are posted by the dining hall. I am not here to serve you for every single need of yours.”

Walking towards the door, Charlie smashed the door close right on to the poor student’s face, turning around at once and smiling, as she looked at Camila, who definitely sensed a wave of horror in Charlie’s obnoxious at once, yet polite at the other second, behavior.

“As I said, these newbies are super annoying and they have been nagging me about things ever since they arrived, I can only bear till a moment, right?”

Camila nodded at Charlie. Even though a part of her understood the fact that Charlie must have felt irritated by other girls, on the other hand she also felt alerted by Charlie’s two faced behavior.

“Anyways, when I interviewed you, I knew it right away that you are not like the rest. You are definitely, incredibly sensible. That’s why I put you in a separate room and my room, is literally next to you. Next week, we have vice president’s selection and we usually pick them from the freshmen and sophomore. Wish you all the best for those.”

She giggled, making her way towards the door but turned back at once and threw a smile at Camila.

“Oh, by the way! Don’t forget, dinner is at eight, in the dining hall. I will give you a tour after dinner.”

With that she stomped her feet out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Camila couldn’t figure the reason behind Charlie’s distorted behavior.

She was definitely pretty rude to the other girl but at the same time, she was very polite to her.

Maybe, Charlie was nagged by that girl to the point that it drove Charlie to be rude towards that girl.

With that thought Camila, began unpacking her things and once she had placed all of her stuff out and organized her room, she smiled to her own self.

Taking her phone out, she began clicking pictures of the entire room.

From the brown closet, to the matching bed set, that was covered with clean and plain purple sheets and a matching lavender colored duvet, to the small study table, set up right in front of the window, with Camila’s family’s portraits, framed in silver and wooden frames.

She was proud of what she was able to do with the small cubicle place that she was given.

Opening up her phone, she began sending those pictures to her mother and slumped back down on her bed, typing in a text message.

“I miss you guys already but I think I am going to have a great time here.”

She placed her phone down over her chest and looked up at the ceiling, still unable to believe that she had been able to achieve her dreams so far.

Extending her hand towards the head board of the bed, she grabbed her diary that she had placed over the wide headboard piece of the bed and opened it up, going through her list of the things that she wanted to achieve.

She had finally been able to close down the high school chapter, that at the end of it had ‘Go To Stanford’, struck through it. She smiled to her own self and saw that she had a page folded in to make it in to a new separator and had ‘Stanford’ written on it.

She opened the page next to it and grabbed a pen, out of her pen holder placed on her study table.

She began scribbling down the list of the things that she wanted to achieve at Stanford.

‘Get Top and the Best Grades’

‘Make many friends at the sorority.’

‘Make the Health club as the best club in the entire university.’

‘Have Dr. Fowler as my thesis supervisor.’

As she continued writing her little list, her phone buzzed and she picked it up to see her mother’s message, where she had sent a picture of her father, eating Camila’s favorite burger, just to commemorate his daughter’s memory, along which Rachel had written a small message.

Rachel: ‘Your father is going to grow fat due to depression.’

Camila: Keep a check on his diet and tell him to not to forget to do fifty set of push ups every morning.

Soon, Camila heard a rush of footsteps outside her room, so she immediately went towards the door and opened it up to see all the girls of the sorority, rushing down towards the stairs.

She turned back and looked at the clock on her wall and noticed that it was almost eight.

Realizing that it was dinner time, Camila made her way out of the room and down towards the dining hall.

Entering inside the hall, she felt lost looking around at the surge of all the girls, sitting together in groups.

Her eyes landed at once at Charlie, who waved her hands at Camila and urged her to join her at the dinner table.

Many freshers noticed how Charlie was partially inclined towards Camila and wanted to make friends with her for sure.

Grabbing her tray, she walked up towards the table over which Charlie and rest of her friends were sitting.

As she reached near the table, Camila’s footsteps halted at once, looking at one of the girls who was sitting on that table.

Her feet froze right on the spot, as she noticed the familiar face, that also turned back to look at her and throw a sinister smile at her.

Sensing the wicked grin, the girl’s face, Camila knew right away that she was screwed.

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Welp!

Do you think Camila's wish list is all set to go down the drain?

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