SageSpeak - Take That Step - II

Flik Jones was one of those young and brash kids one sees in college [the Oldest Member said], who always believes that the first step to success is to have a good, long, undisturbed sleep in the dormitory and eventually skip the first hour of the day. It probably started off as an accident, but as time went by, he had made it his passion and had perfected it so much that even the alarms clocks stopped ringing knowing the futility of these exercises.

Flik was not tall, was most definitely dark and according to a select band of girls, was handsome too. As young as he was, he was never short of polite gestures and forth-right statements of purpose, inviting him to join them in blissful courtship. But flik wasn't falling for it. No, not that he was averse to women, his registrations to dating services would be ample proof and his antics in his home-town with women were legendary. Just that he was stuck to this cool-sounding phrase, "waiting for the right girl".

She joined college a year later. Jasmine "Jess" Gardner was an anti-thesis to Flik. She came there to study, she did not bunk classes and most importantly, she was sensible. If there was one thing that connected Jess and Flik, it was the fact that both of them had had proposals from the most abominable of folks, from their respective batches. It is never mentioned in recorded history as to when flik fell. But his folks swear that they heard a grand THUD when jess crossed by flik's seat for the first time.

Like every successful commander, flik had two trusted lieutenants. Woody and Fiona Ferguson. As everyone who is really in love, flik laughed it off everytime woody and fiona brought it up. By the time college was getting over, flik was drowned in his love for even the three blind mice to see. He was in a limbo now. He needed a reason to run into jess, make it look like an accident, but at the same time lay a strong foundation for the rest of the things to come. He couldn't ask her about anything related to studies for the simple reason that he would be stumped if she asked something back and he was positively sure that he could not pull a conversation on cricket with her for more than 45 seconds.

It is at those times that one profusely thanks people up above. No, not God. But otherwise-scorned seniors and always-hated professors. If not for them, no college could have a cultural-fest. The general conception was that such fests were organised to brew inter-collegiate camarederie and ignite sporting spirits. Although they failed miserably on the "igniting sporting spirits" part, they succeeded overwhelmingly on the "brewing inter-collegiate camarederie" part. No one is sure if the words "strictly between men and women" were intentionally missed. No one is complaining though.

So under the grand auspices of the annual fest, flik moved closer to jess and bombarded her with his usual nonsensical wit. Being the city-bred, soft-spoken dame that she was, jess would probably keep a conversation with even a mountain troll. Although flik would give a tough fight to a troll on his day, jess showed no signs of disapproval. flik had his own problems though. Women from other colleges. But finally, after all the euphoria subsided and the other women promised that they would introduce him to their football-playing boyfriends soon, flik resigned to his fate. "It was jess, no matter even if her boyfriend was a wrestler.", he told himself.