Chapter 1: The Announcement

Althea awoke with a yawn and stretched her arms wide. Her alarm was set to go off at six o'clock in the morning. She usually gets up at seven o'clock, but she skipped some assignments that needed to be completed last night. She wasn't a bad student, and she wasn't about to slack off on her grades anytime soon.

She took out her bulky white and black binder and began working on her math and history homework. Ten pages in an hour are pretty good considering the majority of them are lousy math problems and some history that needs research.

She then stands up and looks in her full-body mirror. She didn't look that bad; nothing out of the ordinary, like some makeup and clothes that wouldn't fit in a minute. A few small, red mosquito bites were noticeable, which bothered her because they were inching like f**k. She took out her large makeup bag and applied her standard concealer, powder, eye shadow, and tints. For her, the simplest of the simplistic is anything less than what she would acknowledge and she prefers this kind of look too.

Althea dressed down in a nude brown puff sleep crop top, high-waist mom jeans, and white Korean shoes. Her phone rang just as she took a step outside the door, while she was straightening her jeans. She then answers the phone and flops onto her bed, having given up on breakfast. Anthony, her best friend since middle school, always called her and she always answered him.

He Is been suicidal since his mother discovered his father was having an affair, and she searches his body for cuts every day just to be sure. They became best friends since they could relate to each other because they both came from broken families. He thinks she is overly protective at times, but she just doesn't want him to hurt himself. It isn't worth it.

"Hello?" she said as she tapped her phone case with her pointer finger.

He remained silent for a brief moment before speaking up. "Can I come over and walk with you to school today?" he inquired, a little shyly.

Althea smiled and replied, "of course," and she could almost hear him smile at her response. He always asked her to accompany him to school. "Oh, thank you so much! I'll be right over. See you later, "he says as he hangs up the phone. She then decided to go snack while waiting for him, so she grabbed her backpack and went to the kitchen.

"Thea, come here and eat your breakfast first," her mother said as she set the table for them.

"Thank you, Mom, but I think this sandwich will be enough; I'm running late," she said as she hurriedly picked the sandwich.

As she takes the final bite of her sandwich, the doorbell rings. "I need to go, Mom. Bye," she said.

"Okay, take care, hon," her mother said as she dashed into the living room and opened the door to see Anthony dressed in his usual oversized hoodie and jeans. Anthony was found with hoodies that were too big, and at the age of 20, he was already six feet tall. "At long last, you've arrived, "she said, smiling at him.

"Shall we proceed, my Queen?"He scoffs as he holds out her bag.

Althea then nods and says, "Okay, let's go," as they step outside, locking the door behind them and making their way to school.

At the front of the school, Althea and Anthony parted ways because she needed to go to the psychology department and Anthony needed to go to the nursing department. "Let's meet later in the canteen," Anthony said as he walked away. They had the same lunch hour. She then went straight to her classroom as she walked over to her classmates and took a seat.

She took her seat in the back of the classroom, where she had been assigned. Althea had to wear her glasses because she doesn't have good eyesight.

"Hello, everyone! I'm glad to see so many of you here today. This is an introductory psychology course. I'm Professor Ana Sue, and I am your new professor on this subject for the second semester. So, if it's not on your subject Timeline schedule you are not in the right class," The professor paused for a few moments, allowing anyone who had accidentally walked into the wrong class to leave. Professor Sue let out a simple sigh when no one moved to leave.

"Hmm, that's good! you know it's embarrassing for that one person who is in the wrong class," she said, as the class laughed except Althea. The professor then talks about the syllabus and says that for the rest of the class, she'll go over the assignments for the course and then begin teaching Chapter One as she flips to a new page in her notes and starts writing down what's on the Powerpoint presentation as her pen runs out of ink about five minutes into the lecture.

She shakes her pen in a bid to extract any nonexistent ink from within, but nothing happens. She huffed a sigh and threw the pen down on her desk, feverishly looking for a new pen. She stuffed all of her school supplies, but only one pen was packed. She continues to search the small pocket of her bag, hoping for a pen to show up out of thin air. She then felt a poke on her shoulder and turned to see a beautiful girl holding out a pen and smiling. "She's so adorable," she thought to herself. The girl was beautiful, with curly brown hair and warm brown eyes that drew her in right away.

She returned her smile and said, 'thank you,' as she gratefully accepted the pen and continued writing down the class notes. She writes faster than she has ever written in an hour.

~

Althea packs everything when class is over except for the pen and turns in her seat, relieved to see that the lovely lady is still behind her. The girl then stands up to leave, "Wait!" Althea yelled as the girl becomes tense and turns to face her. She winces as a few stray eyes look at her, perplexed as to why she just yelled. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to return your pen," She gave her a shy smile, embarrassed by the attention, and the girl chuckles back at her, grabbing the pen and putting it in her bag. "No problem," she says.

"Thank you all still here. Attention, guys," Professor Sue said when she entered the room again, as everyone's attention was drawn to her; "Today, I have an important announcement for all of you," she said with a serious look on her face, which was unusual.

"The Dean decided that we are having a school field trip to the strongest prison in the country next week," she said, as people around her gasped. "Wait, ma'am, isn't it dangerous?" The girl next to her inquired.

"No, since there are still so many guards and police in that prison, but to make sure just watch all your action since that place was full of criminals," Professor Sue responded.

"Then, what is the purpose of that in our subject?" Another student inquired.

"We're just observing their emotions or we can ask their opinion so that we can know what their perspective in their life is since they're criminals and how they managed to change their life but still we need to be careful and we can connect it to our subject which is psychology, since we are going to observe their behavior," Professor Sue explained as everyone nodded.

"But only if your parents agree to sign a five-page permission slip for you; this is for educational purposes only, So to those who agreed with their parents about this just tell me in my office," Professor Sue said as she exited the room. Then students began to whisper about how cool or scary it was going to be.

"I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure if my parents would agree since the famous rapist and murderer Allan was held there. Some said he was so handsome, but when you looked into his eyes, he was so scary."

"I know he's so handsome, but he's still a criminal. What do you think of this school field trip? Is it cool or scary? But I can't deny I'm so excited," the girl behind her said, her heart racing as she overheard them discussing the criminals. Althea don't know hearing that name gave her a shiver.