Chapter 3

I don't know when I fell asleep but I woke up to the shrilling sound of my alarm in my ears. I got up and started getting ready. After a long refreshing warm bath, I went to my dressing table and patted on light makeup. Not too much to make it obvious that I have my makeup on and not less to show my bare skin. Though my skin is soft and clean untouched by any marks and blemishes, I liked the glassy effect makeup gave to my face, so I loved wearing them. I put on the neatly ironed uniform, applied my nude lip gloss, picked up my bag, and gave a final look at myself in the mirror. I gave a satisfied smile to my reflection and went out straight to my kitchen where I was greeted by my mom. She was already packing our lunch box and preparing breakfast. “Good Morning sweetheart!”

“Good Morning Mom!”

“Are you excited for your first day?”

“Just excited to meet my friends after a long time.”

“Alright! Here, have your breakfast.”

She made my favorite cheese pie. I always drool over it. It makes me full until lunch. Dad also joined me in having a quick breakfast. Mom went ahead to wake my brother up and get him ready for school too. After having the scrumptious and satisfying breakfast I bid my parents adieu, put my lunch box in my bag, and left for school. The school was a twenty minutes walking distance from my place. And the distance never mattered when I had to cover it with my 3 best friends. We covered the distance with a snap talking about anything and everything.

I got out of my house and went around the small front yard which we had and crossed the fence to the neighboring house and banged the door. My neighbor was Wyola. Lizeth and Naomi stayed 2 houses down the lane. Wyatt opened the door. He is Wyola’s elder brother. And my first crush. He is tall, muscular, and t-shirt so body fit that it looked like his muscles would just tear the t-shirt and bulge right out.

“Hey Kitten!”

“Hey Wyatt”

“Good morning.”

“Good morning to you too”

“Fancy seeing you after such a long time.”

“Same goes to you”

He had a warm smile on his face. Kitten is the nickname he gave me as I was the youngest of the 4 and he would say I was as cute as a kitten. I had grown fond of that nickname. He opened the door wide for me to enter. Before I could, I saw Wyola rushing out and pushing over Wyatt to the side to make her way out towards me. She had a toast in her mouth holding between her teeth. Her lunch box in one hand and few books on the other and backpack swinging on one arm. It was as if she woke up late and ran a marathon to get ready on time. That is so her.

“Move knucklehead”

“Language lady and good morning. Have a nice day”

She eye-rolled and waved at her brother and tucked her arm which held the lunch box around my arm and pulled me out to the lane.

Wyola Cooper- pronounced as V-ola, we called her V. She was 163 cm. A perfect body figure of 36-24-36. The boys always gawking at her. The face of an angel but deeds of a devil. She had her hairs till mid-way of her back. She loved dying her color brown. Her natural hair color was black. We were friends since the time I remember. Our parents were also kind of best friends as we were neighbors. She is someone who could never remain quiet even for a minute. She knew I had a crush on her brother but she never approved of it. She would always say that I deserve someone much better than him. She had few flings but never got into any kind of serious relationship. She was like the hot chick of our group.

Her father Mr. Cooper, Stephan is a businessman and a client of my dad. He was very cheerful and always enjoyed taking us all to parks and small rides and amusement parks during our weekends and holidays. Her mother Mrs. Cooper, Eva is a lawyer too like my mom. But she is a criminal lawyer. They both know each other since their college days and had been best of friends though Aunt Eva was my mom’s senior. Aunt Eva and Uncle Stephan met in one of their family gatherings and it was like love at first sight for them. Mom and aunt Eva are still best of friends and neighbors. They had made a pact in college that they would be together even after college and that they would get married and settle down nearby each other so that their kids can also be good friends. Turns out V and I are also best of friends.

“You know you should get a boyfriend or a new crush at least. It is high time you stop crushing on my brother,” said V matter of factly. I never told her about my secret crush. But I guess my face and expression give it all. I don't know how to be subtle when it comes to expressing the fondness I have for Wyatt. I did not reply to V just hung my head low.

“You know that idiot has already got a girlfriend right?” she asked. And I just nodded. “If he had any feelings for you, trust me he would have approached you by now. I know he knows that you like him.” I widened my eyes looking up at her. “No I did not tell him, but it is written all over your face, so he should know by now if he is not dumb. He is just a knucklehead and ignoring the fact and going out with someone else.”

I hung my head low and replied with “I never expected him to like me back or something.” She gave me a concerned look and said “Will you please at least befriend another guy who you think would be better than that dickhead? Or else I am setting you up with someone of my choice.” Her choice is nowhere close to the choices which I like so I immediately replied with “ No Thanks! I will surely move on and get at least a new crush” By her looks it seemed she was not satisfied with the answer but she still nodded and kept quiet.

V was busy tucking away her loose shirt inside her skirt and putting the lunch box and books inside her backpack. When we reached Lizeth and Naomi’s place. They were already out and waiting for us. Lizeth saw us and screamed with excitement and came running towards us and jumped and got into a big embrace that almost knocked me and V out of our balance but we somehow managed to not fall.

All we could hear was V and Liz shouting “Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! I missed you guys! By now Naomi had walked over towards me looked at V and Liz gave an eye roll and then gave me a warm smile with a warm hug greeting me with “ Hello there! Good Morning!” to which I replied, “ Hey there Nao, Good Morning!”

Lizeth Creed, or as we called her Liz, was 160 cm and didn't have a perfect figure like V but she was perfect in her own way. She had curly long hair down till her lower back and the hair color was jet black. Due to the curls, her hair would bounce with each step she took. She was too loud and just as chatterbox as V. But she would talk all nonsense just for the sake of talking. Her dad is a single parent as they lost her mom to cancer when she was just 10 years old. But she instead had 3 moms now, V’s, Nao’s, and mine. They always pampered her like her mother would do so that she doesn't miss her mom. She was more close to Nao’s mom as they were neighbors like V and me. She was like the mother of our group, always taking care of us.

Her father Mr. Creed, Elijah is a police sheriff. Her Mother Mrs. Creed, Nadine was a nurse. Theirs was an arranged marriage as her mom did not believe in love stories and had never had time for a love story besides working and studying hard. But after their marriage, they fell in love and had been staying like a cute couple. Mom would say nobody believed them when they said it was not their love marriage but an arranged one. After Aunt Nadine passed away Uncle Elijah never dated anyone else as he has still not moved on. Though he shows he is happy on the outer side for the sake of Liz, but everybody can see that inside he still misses Aunt Nadine.

Naomi Lemont, or as we called her Nao, was also 160 cm and had a round angelic face. She was the nerd of our group, always into books. Well, even I liked reading books but it would mostly be novels or storybooks. But she was a complete nerd. Even now she was holding a book in her hand. She had bob hair as she found it quite a struggle to maintain long hairs. If it wasn't our uniform, she always wore baggy tracks and hoods and her face was always adorned by huge specs. She looked cute with them though.

Her father Mr. Lemont, James was a carpenter and now runs his own furniture business. Her mother Mrs. Lemont, Inez is a nurse. Aunt Inez and Aunt Nadine were friends since they were kids. Even Aunt Inez couldn't take the loss of her friend quite well. She is very much attached to Liz and pampers her more than Aunt Nadine would ever do with Liz. Nao also has a younger sister named Nadine Lemont. Aunt Inez was pregnant when Aunt Nadine passed away, so when they got to know its a girl Aunt Inez decided to name her Nadine. We call her Naya.

We were so engrossed in catching up with each other that we didn't realize that we were already at the front gate of our school building. There it was, a five-storey building with the name ‘St. Marie’s High School ’ illuminating in the front at the entrance.

“Let us go, don't wanna get late on the first day right?” said Liz

“Would very much like to turn the time and go back to my summer vacation” said V letting out a huge sigh.

“Let's get going,” said Nao and started walking inside.

We just looked at each other took a deep breath and walked inside. The first day of our school begins.