Clara was walking home from classes at The University of Edinburgh. She was a first year Civil Engineering student and enjoying her time at University. Autumn was in full bloom and she walked quickly in the cold. Her backpack was heavy with books and she was eager to get home and finish her homework.
Clara lived on her own, as did most students. She loved her life, with its freedom and independence, and was determined not to get married or have kids, and definitely not get stuck in a dead end job. She worked hard to get where she was today, and she wouldn’t give that up easily.
She turned onto her street, smiling to herself at how pretty it was. The houses were all large and well kept. There were no signs of graffiti or tagging and the grass in the gardens was well cut and green. It was the kind of neighbourhood where people would be happy to live and she smiled, remembering the years she’d lived there when she was a child.
She walked up the path to her front door and turned the handle, opening it and letting herself in. She always locked it behind her. Her flat was on the top floor of a Victorian terraced house and she made her way up the stairs. She placed her books on her dining table and went to the kitchen to make herself something to eat.
She took out a carton of milk and opened it, pouring it into a glass. She added a dash of milk from her fridge, then reached for the tin opener, cutting through the top of the can. She opened a cupboard and pulled out a small bowl. She reached for the tin, taking it from the milk, pouring the contents into the bowl and then poured milk into the bowl to dilute it. She took a carton of yoghurt from her fridge and tipped it into the bowl, stirring it with her finger. She scooped some fruit from the bowl, placing it on a plate and added some bread from a plastic bag in the cupboard, placing the plate in the microwave. She added some salt and pepper and waited while the timer went off. She removed the plate and served herself a portion, taking a sip of orange juice from her fridge to wash it down. She ate quickly, chewing her food quickly, wanting to get back to her homework.
Clara loved her work. She loved engineering. She was good at maths, which she used in her courses, and enjoyed the challenge of her course work. She had many friends who shared the same interests as her, but none of them were studying Civil Engineering. They were studying law or medicine and she had never understood why they wanted to be lawyers or doctors. She thought engineers made a better living. They were respected and well paid. And she had never understood the attraction of studying so she had never tried to fit in with her friends.
She finished eating and sat at her desk, going straight to her laptop, typing in her password and logging in. She pulled up her email and began sorting through the hundreds of emails that had arrived that day. Most were spam and she deleted them unread. She found one from one of her friends at university, a girl called Maria, who was in the same class as Clara. She had emailed to say she had finished her assignments for the year and to see if Clara needed any help with hers.
Clara sent an email back to say she was fine and Maria replied, saying she hoped Clara was doing ok and that she was getting a little bored with her work, having finished most of the projects. Clara smiled at that, remembering how boring her first year of university had been, trying to find her feet in her first degree.
She looked through the emails that had come in from friends in other classes, mostly people asking how she was getting on. One of them was from another classmate who was studying Geography, wanting to know if Clara could help her with a project she was working on for the end of term exams.
Clara read Maria’s email again, thinking that this would be a good opportunity to help Maria out. She decided to write back to say that she would be happy to help her out if she had time.
Clara didn’t know anything about Geography, so she Googled some websites on Google maps, looking at satellite images of the country, then looked at some maps and charts. She decided she needed more information about the UK before she could help Maria out properly. She found some more sites online and wrote a note for Maria to read later on, explaining that she couldn’t do it that night but would look at it tomorrow.
She looked up information on the British Government and the House of Commons, noting down the name of the Prime Minister and other members of government. She also found the website for the House of Commons, which she browsed, looking at pictures of members of Parliament. She liked looking at the pictures; some were very attractive, but she didn’t have time to go through them all tonight. She saved them as favourites and closed the site down.
She turned back to her laptop, and decided to take some time off from studying. One of her hobbies was casino gambling and even if she wasn’t proud of it, she was good. A part time crypto trader, Clara liked to play in the online casinos that accepted cryptocurrency, and blackjack was her game. She had won a lot of Litecoin playing blackjack, and used the winnings to treat her and her girlfriends to pints at the pub.
She opened a new window on her screen and opened a website for online casinos accepting cryptocurrency. The site listed all the popular casinos online that allowed people to deposit cryptocurrency as well as using it for gambling. She chose one that looked like it might have some nice games. The site had reviews from users so she opened that tab, looking at the comments about how good the casino was. It was easy to find blackjack games on there so she opened one and began playing.
The game was quick, but it was easy to win, so she started betting higher stakes and winning more. After twenty minutes of playing she had a balance of 6 BTC. The machine had taken Litecoin as currency and paid out in Bitcoin when Clara had won. She felt a little guilty for not paying tax on her wins, but then again she wasn’t a real gambler. She just played to have fun with her friends, or sometimes just for herself if she felt like it.
She took out her Litecoin wallet app from her phone and sent the coins to her wallet address for the casino, keeping the winnings in her wallet for the time being.
She kept playing for an hour or two more and eventually got tired and turned off the machine, leaving her balance at 16 BTC. She was pleased with how much she’d won and felt happy knowing she could treat her friends to a good night out when she wanted.
Clara always had lots of friends; it seemed as though most of them were girls. They were all in different classes and she didn’t really socialise with any of them outside of class or club activities. It was a little weird to have friends that you didn’t hang out with outside of school or University. It felt strange but nice at the same time and she had never really questioned it. It was just who she was, and she didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
Clara woke early the following morning, looking at her phone for messages from Maria. She found one from her asking if she could look at the project again and Clara said she would look at it as soon as she woke up. She didn’t get any further than that as she fell asleep again, waking again at midday and getting ready for work. She had a quick lunch and went straight back to her flat after that, spending the afternoon doing her work before going back home around 7 pm.
She had a quick shower before sitting at her dining table and beginning her assignment. It was only a short project, so she knew it wouldn’t take long but she was still enjoying the challenge of solving a real-world problem with an engineering solution. She read over the brief on the project and made notes on how it would be best to approach it. She put a few questions on paper and then began searching through the internet for ideas, hoping to find some ideas or inspiration for the project. She spent an hour researching different ideas before deciding on a solution she thought would work well. She wrote a couple of pages on her laptop before shutting it down and turning off her monitor, ready for bed.
Clara got ready for bed, but lay awake for some time thinking about the project she had been working on earlier that day. She thought about the problem she’d been trying to solve for Maria and realised that it would be a great project for an engineering final year student to undertake, so she emailed Maria telling her about it, asking if she wanted to take it on next year for extra credit. She couldn’t wait to see Maria’s face when she told her she had solved it for her.
She fell asleep quickly but woke again at 11 pm, thinking about what she would do tomorrow. She was pleased that her friends were coming over for dinner tonight and that they were bringing their boyfriends. She would enjoy their company, but she was getting tired of all the attention being paid to her. She was more of a background figure than anything else in their relationships, so she decided it would be fun to have a boyfriend for a change. She had no intention of falling in love again, just wanted someone to spend some time with every now and then.
Clara had been invited to an evening party by one of her friends who was doing a final year course in business management. She hadn’t known Clara that well at University, but they had been friends on Facebook since graduating from high school and kept in touch via chat groups on there.
Clara had looked forward to going out with her friends; she hadn’t been out much since they’d started university and felt as though they should be getting out more. She’d been invited to parties before, but had never gone to them due to a lack of interest in the people who attended, as well as not wanting to be seen out with people from school or university when they weren’t studying or working together anymore.
It had been ages since she’d met any of her friends in person so she was looking forward to the evening out with them. They had agreed to meet at 7:00 pm at the bar on the top floor of their pub in Edinburgh, where they could all order drinks before heading to a nightclub nearby afterwards.
Clara had woken early that morning and dressed in her favourite pair of jeans and a pink top with a little black leather jacket thrown over the top. She liked to wear something a little bit different when she went out, and it seemed to be a hit with most of her friends so it suited her fine.
At 7:00 pm Clara walked through the door into the pub and made her way up to the bar, ordering herself a vodka tonic from the bartender who smiled at her before pouring her drink and placing it on the counter top. Clara smiled back and turned to head towards the rest of the group who were sat at a table at the far end of the bar, making small talk with their boyfriends as she walked towards them.
As she approached, they stood up and came over to meet her. It was as if they had all been waiting for her to arrive. They each introduced themselves to Clara, telling her what they did for a living and how they were enjoying their final year of University. Clara nodded politely as she listened to them talk, feeling more and more uncomfortable as they talked about their work.
She sipped her drink while the boys ordered another round of drinks for the group, watching them while trying to make some small talk of her own with her friends. She was hoping someone would say something about her new haircut, or how she’d been looking after herself so much better recently, but no one seemed interested in talking to her beyond introducing themselves again. She felt like an outsider in her own life; like everyone had forgotten how to have fun because they were too busy studying and working. It seemed as though she’d joined the wrong university course as the one thing everyone could agree upon was that they were all miserable.
At 9 pm everyone decided to leave the pub and head towards the nightclub where they would spend most of the evening dancing and drinking. Clara looked at her friends as they said their goodbyes; none of them looked happy or excited about heading out for a night on the town. They just wanted to get in out of the cold and drink themselves into a stupor; they didn’t care where they ended up or what happened to them. Clara was glad that she’d decided to go out with them, even if they weren’t much fun company at the moment.
As they walked to the club, Clara told them that she wanted to catch up with one of her friends first, so she would be going on ahead with them as she wanted to spend time with one of her friends who wasn’t there. The group accepted her explanation but she knew they thought she was being rude by leaving them behind. They were all just happy to go home with someone; none of them cared about spending time with Clara by herself.
Clara waited for her friends at the end of the street while they went to find a taxi to take them there, standing by herself in the cold, watching everyone go in to the club as they chatted and laughed amongst themselves. Eventually, one of them came back out and told Clara to follow him to the taxi rank as they didn’t know where Clara’s friend was and would have to leave her behind if she didn’t come with them.
Clara was about to protest when the others had all gone inside and it was only herself and one of the guys who’d been with the group when they’d gone out. She looked at him as he spoke, wondering why he was bothering to be kind to her; he’d barely spoken to her all night and seemed quite happy to go inside and have a good time without her. She was grateful that he’d offered to take her there though, and was happy enough to be going anywhere with him rather than going home on her own in the cold.
She followed him back towards the club, leaving her jacket on the steps outside the pub with a goodbye message on it for whoever found it. Inside the club there was already a party going on and the DJ was playing loud dance music; Clara looked around as she entered and found herself surrounded by a group of girls who seemed to recognise her from somewhere and began walking towards her, smiling at her and welcoming her to the party with open arms.
Clara was happy enough to be joining them, but still felt out of place as they started dancing together and laughing at the same jokes as they moved around in a circle, grabbing at each other and hugging each other tight. It didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with their behaviour as they seemed to be having fun together, but Clara wasn’t sure she fitted in with them at all. She didn’t really like dancing; it wasn’t really her thing, so she decided to go over and ask them if there was somewhere else she could go to have a drink instead. She had to admit that she was feeling quite thirsty after the walk from the taxi rank, so it wasn’t a bad idea in any case.
The group of girls who were dancing with Clara looked at her and asked her if she needed anything; they’d heard she wanted to leave and didn’t understand why they couldn’t let her go if that’s what she wanted. Clara smiled at them, feeling awkward about what they’d said; they were being so kind and welcoming but it just made her feel uncomfortable. She thanked them for letting her join them for a little bit but said that she’d just go sit down and have a drink by herself until one of them came back and asked if she was sure. They smiled at each other and nodded as they walked off together into the crowd, still laughing amongst themselves as they headed towards the bar.
Clara found a seat in one of the dark corners of the club where she could see the dance floor clearly but nobody would see her sitting there. She ordered herself a vodka and coke from the bartender and took it over to the table where she was sat, sipping slowly at it as she watched the people on the dance floor move to the beat of the music and smiled at how much fun they were having. She didn’t really enjoy the music at all, but the people around her seemed happy enough so she supposed that she could do what they were doing for now and just have fun with them until she found somewhere else to go.
The drinks were starting to get to her by this point so she decided she would head out into the main part of the club to see what was happening there. She walked over towards the bar where the bartender was serving drinks and ordered another drink, knowing that it was only going to be served in a plastic cup. As she sipped at it she made her way towards the dance floor and watched as people started grinding up against each other; their faces were flushed and their eyes were glazed over as they moved to the music in each other’s arms. It was as if they were all drunk, which was probably why they were enjoying themselves so much.
She looked around the room for someone she recognised as she finished her drink, trying to work out why she had come here in the first place and where she had met these people who seemed so happy right now. She had no idea where any of these people had come from, but they all seemed so happy together and seemed to like each other so much. It wasn’t hard to see why some people would find themselves attracted to such a lifestyle as it seemed so inviting.
She wondered whether these new friends would even want to speak to her again once they realised she’d left them behind at the pub and had decided not to come along with them when they went out. They had probably already forgotten that she existed by now anyway as they had their own lives to live. She felt like an outsider looking in on a party that she really had no right to be there at.
Clara was just about to leave the club when one of the girls who’d been dancing with her earlier came over and asked her if she was going home now. Clara told her that she had already left with her friends, but she had felt a bit weird about leaving by herself so she was just heading back to the pub for a few minutes to see if one of them was there.
The girl nodded and told Clara not to worry about it; they’d all just been having fun together and hadn’t realised that Clara had left with one of them, so she had decided that they should just carry on without her for now and come back when one of them got hungry enough for more drinks. Clara smiled at her, grateful that she’d let her come back with her even though she wasn’t really sure where Clara lived or where her friends lived either. She asked if she could wait with her for a while until her friend returned; the girl seemed happy enough to offer Clara a place to stay for a little bit longer before she had to go home.
Clara agreed to stay with the girl for a few more minutes and waited with her while she finished her drink. They were both tired after standing so much of the night so they decided to go home together in the taxi that was waiting outside the club.