1 CHAPTER ONE: A NEW BEGINNING

OUR GOVERNOR WAS BRUTALLY KILLED BY AN UNKNOWN KILLER. THE POLICE ARE NOW SUSPECTING NONE OTHER THAN ALIAS 'JOE'...

I sighed in disbelief. I'd just read some of my dad's newspapers, and the news was about...some criminal who was randomly hurting everyone...like a psychopath.

"Lara, you should be careful out there. Contact me from time to time" dad said. I rolled my eyes, that's the nth time he'd said that,

"Dad, that's the [nth] fiftieth time you said that. “Enough! I'm fine," I answered. I quickly jumped out from the stool chair and faced him. Now, he looks very upset,

"Lara, I am just worried. You will be out of the house...for a whole year. How am I supposed to protect you?"

I sighed again and held his hands. Aww. My Dad is acting like a baby.

"Dad, I'm not the only child you have. You honestly have six, well, now it's five, I'm leaving this house anyway. But Dad...Trust me" I sighed as I looked deep into his eyes. My dad sighed and nodded.

"Fine. But whenever your friends are hosting parties, you should go and join them; the criminal is attacking his target when they are alone. So as long as you're with your friends...you're safe"

"Yes, Dad," I answered with a big smile on my face, but of course, it was a lie.

The thing is, I'm not a party-goer. Or maybe I should say...I'm an introvert? Well, whatever. The most important thing right now is that I want to be able to travel and live alone independently.

I had been looking forward to this opportunity for ages...to live alone and do everything for myself. A practice, right?

As I put my things into my bag, my little sister Basha suddenly came into my room and pouted. She looks sad to see me go,

"What's wrong?" I ask her, even though I already know the answer.

Well, Basha is my mortal enemy, we always fight and she always...ALWAYS...makes me mad.

"You're leaving!!" she says, dramatically.

"And...??" I reply, busy packing my things, Basha doesn't answer, so I stare back at her,

She's now staring at the floor and I can see that she's pouting,

"I'm gonna miss you, Lara," she says and looks up at me. Even from this distance, I can see her tears are welling up in her eyes...The sadness is overwhelming,

"Why?? Are you not happy to see me off? Your mortal enemy will be gone, Basha"

"But you're still my sister" she snaps back, and now she's crying. I put a little smile on my face and hug her, tenderly.

"Aww, Basha. I know that you're sad, I'm just teasing you... Of course, Lara will be sad because I'm leaving Basha, my mortal enemy", I said as I chuckled, hoping she would laugh, and stop crying. But Basha cried and sobbed even more.

I don't hate her and I'm not feeling happy, because I'm finally out of here, and feeling independent. It also made me sad to be leaving this house. I'm gonna miss this house. And, since I am the eldest of the Williams, I feel bad for leaving my siblings behind. After all, I was the one who took care of them while our mom is out at work.

And now that I am going to college I had to leave them because the university is miles and miles from here.

"Lara! We have to go!", shouts mommy, from downstairs.

When Basha hears what mom said, she hugs me even more tightly. My siblings, who were hiding behind the door, suddenly come out and hug me. They are also crying. I faked my laugh, pretending that I am okay. That it's okay for me to leave...

Suddenly, I am seriously doubting whether I should leave or stay. I know I shall miss them. And their hugs!

"Alright kids, Lara has to leave." mommy explains. But instead of listening to our mother, the kids just cry, and hug me so tightly that I can barely breathe!

"Okay! Okay! that's enough!" I shout. At last...they let go of the hug and stare into my teary eyes.

"Lara, please, please, don't leave us. We promise to be good to you, and we promise to wash the dishes for you..." pleads Lorraine. She's just twelve, the second-born of the Williams kids.

"Oh stop it, Lorraine! You can't even wash your own plate. But you'll have to learn and do it now that I'm leaving"

"Me too Lara, I will be cutting the firewood for you”, added Dylan, my nine-year-old brother.

"Behave, Dylan! Don't lie! You're even afraid of cutting your nails!"

"Lara! Lara! I will be doing your chores!", Doris shouted. She's only seven.

I rolled my eyes and gave her a ‘stop’ look. "You're just seven. You can't understand basic math"

"What about me Lara? I will make your bed every morning”, Ben added. He's five and is Basha's twin.

"Ben, that's okay; just make your bed and eat cereals"

"Lara..." Basha called. All of us turn to look at her. Everybody in the house knows that she is my mortal enemy.

Basha pouted and rubbed her eyes, which are now full of tears. "I promise not to annoy you..." she said, and then cried. Mom quickly ran to hug Basha.

The thing is, Basha is a very soft-hearted kid. She cries really quickly.

"Basha," I call to her. She turns her gaze to me and pouts "You can annoy me whenever you want; I won't mind. But Lara has to leave for school. But I will be back, for Christmas and holidays"

"You promise?" she asks. Aww. She's too cute. I nod and give her a genuine smile,

"And Lorraine" I call the second-born Williams, "you're now in charge of the other kids, take care of them"

Lorraine cries and runs back to her room. I stand up and pick up my things, I don't wanna look at my siblings' faces for fear of changing my mind.

Dad helps me with my things. I have only one big piece of luggage and my backpack, where all my gadgets are. Dad puts the luggage in the back of the car and closes it,

He turns to me, and suddenly he hugs me.

"Take care, Lara," he said, softly. He's trying hard not to show it. But I know that he's crying.

"Come on cry baby; it's not as though I'm going to die," I said jokingly. He chuckled and released his embrace.

"My first precious," he said, while shaking his head, and hugged me again. I just smiled and managed to hold back my tears.

"We have to go”, mom said, as she slapped dad's hand. That's cute, I think to myself. They are teasing each other.

When I was about to hop into the car, I looked up at the balcony and saw my siblings waving their goodbyes to me. I smiled and waved back to them.

"Let's go", I said, desperately trying to hold back my tears. I quickly hopped into the car and closed the door.

"You can cry now," mommy joked. I laughed and cried. Isn't it crazy? Having first laughed at my mom after she had teased me, I immediately burst into tears!

I should soon be studying at the university where my parents graduated. Their Alma mater, mom, decided to send me there because she likes it, and she's sure that I'll be safe.

The time passes quickly and we soon arrive at the school. My eyes are sore from crying the whole time.

I jumped out of the car and took my luggage. Mom helped me because it was so big, I am not really surprised when someone approaches her and hugs her. She explains that she was once a campus crush and that my daddy is a hottie guy who has a lot of girls.

"So glad to see you here again, Margarita!" the woman shouts in excitement, and hugs my mommy who is so happy at seeing her, too.

I pouted and eyed the place.

Well, this is a freaking huge campus, a huge parking lot with high buildings, and a very green field, Gosh, is this even a school?

I look around and I see a lot of students wandering around. They look as if they've just arrived too, they're hugging their friends as though they haven't seen each other for decades.

"And this is my daughter, my eldest, Lara Kassandra Ford Williams"

I quickly turn my gaze to them, when I hear my mom introducing me to her...

"and Lara, this is my bestie, your dean...Ilya Makcovan"

“...best friend, okay?”

I smiled and nodded. The dean then reached out her hands. I do the same, and we're shaking each other's hand,

"Oh God, Margarita, your daughter is like a mini version of you...she will be a campus crush! Trust me!", the Dean remarks. I give her a shy smile in return, of course. But I'm shy; I'm not used to compliments.

My mom laughed and patted her hands to my shoulder, "of course, Ilya, she is my daughter. I and my husband took the hearts of everyone on our batch" mom replied, and they both laughed.

Me? Well, I was just standing there, feeling awkward.

The dean turns to me and smiles.

"So, wanna have a tour?" she offered. I nodded and looked at my mom,

"oh, sweetie. I'm sorry, I won't be able to join you on this tour. I badly need to be in my office" mom said. I just nodded and smiled.

"That's okay, Mom. I understand"

She smiled and hugged me. "Take care of yourself honey, and no boyfriends please," she said while hugging me, I chuckled and let go of the hug.

"No boyfriend, mom", I declared, as though I knew the future. Well, I am not planning to date someone, anyway!

The dean then smiles at me, I took my luggage and started to walk away with my luggage. Meanwhile, the dean is giving a lovely smile to every student who greets her.

I try not to look back at my mom, because I know that I'm just gonna change my mind when I see her "I love you" expression. She's my mom, she could so change my mind.

I survive entering the building without looking back at my mom. I look around and see many students staring at me. Others are smiling and some are waving their hands at me, too,

When we reached the front office table, the dean called her secretary who quickly ran towards us,

"My secretary will take your luggage to your dorm. We'll be having a tour, and you might get tired of lugging it around" Dean Ilya explained.

"We'll be starting with this building, dear, and then we'll proceed to the dorms," she said, smiling. I smiled back and nodded.

As the Dean showed me around, my mind was still on my family. I’m wondering how my siblings are doing right now; are they still crying, or are they happy for me?

I am also wondering if I will be able to adapt to the environment here? Would I make friends easily?

"...so I guess you knew this building already, Lara. We will not go upstairs any further; it has 10 floors and it will just tire you out", the Dean said after we reached the end of the hallway. I nodded as though I already really knew the all about of this building,

"So, we're going to have a tour of the next building, the students' dormitory," she said, smiling. I nodded and followed her.

But again, my mind is preoccupied. After the tour, Dean Ilya faced me and asked, “So, do you know everything now?" I nodded and still felt confused. Even though my mind was preoccupied earlier, I heard her saying something about the dorm. But I feel confused, so I called her and said,

"Ahm Dean…" She raised both of her eyebrows, quizically. [a sign that she asks me what's wrong,]

"About the dorm. Did you mean...I… er… might have a boy roommate?" I asked, unbelieving the Dean's word.

"No!" she answers and looks at me in disbelief. "I just said it’s random, like maybe...you'll have a neighbor who is a guy? But I didn't say you'll have a male roommate," she said clearly, I nodded, faking a smile

Oops! That was unexpected and embarrassing.

"I guess you know everything about this building now...so here's the key" she utters.

“Here's a spare key to your dorm. You have two roommates and they have spare keys too. Please take a look at the back of your keychain, you'll see your door number and floor" she explained. I nodded again and thanked her.

The dean decided to go back to her office and I was left alone in the garden beside the dormitory building.

I don't yet go to my dorm; I feel exhausted from walking around this huge school where I didn't even know the location of the cafeteria. Comfortably seated on a bench, I spend a while looking around at this garden that’s full of lovely flowers and tall trees.

I looked up to the sky and I saw clouds in the shape of a bear. I chuckled as I remember my sister Doris. She would love to see these skies, she's a fan of cloud-staring.

I stood up and picked up my backpack. I decided to go to my dorm because I feel really tired.

As I enter the building, everyone starts to look and turned their gaze towards me. I feel shivers and nervousness inside my body. I guess it's my social anxiety

I prefer not to make eye contact with them or else I might start a fight.

When I reached the front door of my dorm. I sighed and looked up to confirm it's the right one. I took out the key from my pocket and unlocked the door.

I was really surprised when I entered the room. One bed very neat and girly. But the other one is messy, and one has no attractive design. I guess that's gonna be my bed.

-TO BE CONTINUED...