Chapter 128 Just Golden Nixon
Chapter 128: Just Golden Nixon
2 years later...
Golden rode her bicycle to the library and locked it to the stand.
One of the first things she noticed about Northbridge was that students commuted with bicycles.
Although an avid lover of cars, when Golden decided to accept the offer, she let go of so many things.
In Northbridge, she wasn't a billionaire heiress with fancy cars and designer clothes. She was simply Golden Nixon.
Her bicycle was purple with a white basket in front which normally held her books. She had a matching purple helmet and protective gloves she wore when riding.
At first glance, it looked like a normal bicycle, but only people into automobiles knew it wasn't just the regular kind of bicycle.
Northbridge had presented Golden the opportunity to start afresh and choose a new life and identity.
She didn't lie about who she was, but she didn't have to show off either. She was like every other normal student.
What people knew was that she was a transfer student on scholarship.
At first, her coursemates were polite and spoke to her warmly. They weren't overly friendly because she was new and most of them had known themselves since their first year.
Gradually they began to warm up to her when they realized that she was really intelligent and was ready to teach anyone who needed help.
The one good thing that Golden liked about Northbridge was the fact that she wasn't the golden girl.
By the end of her first year, although Golden made very good grades, she was the sixth highest in her class of 40.
That was humbling for her. It humanized her, and for once she didn't compete to get the best grade but to truly learn and study to become an outstanding doctor.
Golden stepped into The Rutherford Medical Library. It was enormous with five floors of quiet study space.
The top floor had huge arched windows overlooking the River Northbridge and students were sitting with textbooks piled high, headphones on, and scribbling notes.
Some were sleeping on their books.
Others were arguing softly about case studies. Just a normal day at Northbridge.
The first day, Golden noticed a plaque near the entrance: “Medicine is not memorized. It is lived.” She had let those words sink in and it became a constant reminder to keep her on track whenever she came to the library to study.
She was meeting up with her flatmates. They decided to meet up at the library before heading back to the dorm. They made a pact to keep intense studying outside the residence expect in cases of exams and tests. So most of their studying was done in the library.
Golden shared her flat with Elsa, a dentistry student, Grace, a physiotherapy student, and Kayla, a fellow medical student.
They were all in their second year, except for Elsa who was in her third year.
Golden met Elsa trying to memorize teeth structure and complaining about a denture.
Elsa was a typical perfectionist and everything just had to be in place. Even in the apartment, the way she did things was almost perfect.
“Hey guys, are we ready to go? I'm starving. I'm thinking of something fancy.” Golden said as she sat down on one of the chairs.
“There's this new fancy restaurant that opened up in town. It's about 30 minutes from school. I've been wanting to try it out. I think we should go there.” Kayla said.
“Just give me a second guys, I just need to perfect this diagram.” Elsa said.
“Girl please! Do that at the residence. We all know that second can take us another one hour.” Grace said to Elsa as stood up and packed her bag.
It was Friday and Golden was feeling a little homesick. She proposed going to a fancy restaurant because she missed her restaurant outtings with Alex and Fab.
Because of their busy schedules and time difference, she missed her besties a whole lot.
Northbridge was very demanding. Even Saturdays were no different from weekdays as they were either in class or on hospital rotation.
Then talk about the time difference. When Golden is in her dorm was probably when Alex was in class.
The first year, they all used it to try and settle into their new lives. Golden in Northbridge, Alex, Fab, and Allan in St. Theresa's Teaching Hospital back home.
They still messaged each other every now and then, but it wasn't the same. Some Saturdays when Golden was less busy, they video called and spent hours on the phone catching up because they didn't know when they would have another opportunity like that.
Although Golden was cool with her flatmates, they made living in Northbridge bearable, they couldn't replace her friends.
Elsa was a Californian, while Grace and Kayla both grew up in London. They were really sweet and they tried to make sure that Golden settled in well and didn't feel homesick.
They had all started schooling in Northbridge from their first year so they were very conversant with the environment.
They could tell that Golden was rich from the quality of things she possessed, but they didn't have any idea how rich she was.
They spent the first year getting to know each other and trying to help Golden settle into the Northbridge life.
They hadn't really discussed in depth about family and life outside Northbridge.
They just knew that she had two besties that she spoke to for hours on some Saturdays and that she had a boyfriend back home.
Just as Golden finished dressing up, she received a call from Allan. She was very excited and rushed to pick the call.
She and Allan had stayed in touch and he had been pretty amazing. He always made sure to drop her a message twice a day. Once in the morning, and once at night despite their time difference.
They had missed Christmas the year before. Alex and Fab had flown out to London with Varney and Allan was supposed to have joined them.
He cancelled last minute because Rema fell ill and his mum too was a bit down so he had to stay back and take care of his family.