Caroline

Getting a job would have eased my parent's stress of paying tuition fees. It was starting to seem like they could not afford me anymore.

At that moment, I lost all hope and was not open to any form of motivation because I wasn't ready to be inspired by anything.

Right now, it's 10:09 am and all I crave is a medium size box of pizza and a cup of cappuccino while I read through my favorite book "love works wonder"

The thought of it dropped a bunch of butterflies inside me and a wide smile crawled up my face.

I hurried out of the lobby to make my present cravings come true, causing me to smile so hard like I had gotten the job.

A few minutes later, I was curling under my duvet with the book I was engrossed with sitting uncomfortably between my thumb and my ring finger, with my index finger and my middle finger holding it well to my face.

My eyes scanned through the lines word by word, enjoying every bit of it.

I raised my head a bit from my pillow and took a huge bite of the pizza I had ordered a few minutes back, washing it down with a sip of my coffee.

This was like a dream come true, I thought and smiled to myself.

A description of nature caught my attention in the book and I immediately sat upright as multiple inspirations flow through me.

An idea for a painting struck my mind and I got up immediately.

I laid out my painting palette and set aside the paint and brushes. I held down the drawing paper pads with masking tape to outline the drawing.

I sketched out a daisy attached with a rose. The background illustrated thorns.

I stared at the drawing for a while and still couldn't get a hold of what to portray but my thoughts were disrupted by a knock.

The knock sounded again.

"Who's there?" I asked but no one answered.

I walked to the door and opened it but I found an unfamiliar face.

"Hi," she said with an extremely beautiful smile.

"Hi," I answered with a questioning look.

"May I come in?" she asked and I was immediately taken back.

The audacity was beyond me but still, I let her in. Her smile was really beautiful.

She had this fun demeanor demonstrated in every of her act. Though, she looked a little stylish and girly. She had nerdy glasses attached to her eyes and a pixel-cut hairstyle tinted in pink. She's probably around 5,5 or 5'6, a little taller than I was and a little slimmer.

She wore a pink crop top revealing a reasonable amount of her lower belly. She complemented it with cargo pants and pink crocs. She looked like she knew a few right things about fashion.

"You have a nice apartment," she complimented after looking around like she had been in my room before now and was looking for a thing she had lost.

"Uhmm... Thanks but who are..." I was cut short by her scream.

"OMG! You paint? This is a very beautiful piece. What does this illustrate?" she pointed to the paint I had shown at my job interview.

"Hold on. Who are you again?" I finally asked.

"Oh my... Pardon my courtesy," she said like such a nonchalant attitude could be pardoned.

"I'm Clara, Clara Jones. I just moved in. I am your next-door neighbor. I never knew I could get apartments off-campus. I have lived all my life in the dorm," she explained with a scowl and I still could not point out how I should be affected.

"I'm Caroline Twain," I replied, trying so hard to play nice to the stranger.

"Now that we've gotten past the introductory part. Could you explain to me what this painting means, Carol?" she said and I immediately disliked her.

Who enters a person's apartment unannounced and calls them Carol?

I scoffed and walked past her, packing my stuff back to its compartment.

"Did I say anything wrong, Carol?" she asked. Still never learned her lesson.

"You can stop calling my name if at all you need to call me," I said with a little frown and she smiled.

"Carol? That's what this is about?" she asked. "Come on! Everyone knows Caroline is Carol. You shouldn't have opted in for a long name if you wouldn't like it shortened, Carol," she said, sitting on my bed and opening the box of pizza. She took out a slice and bit on it before smiling at me.

Okay, that's it!

"You seem to be in a good mood. You could probably use that mood to unpack," I said, taking the pizza away from her.

I am beyond astounded by her act. I have met no one as free-spirited; if I must be nice with my words __as her.

"OMG! You're reading "love works wonder"? She asked, closing up the page where I stopped.

Oh, God!

I snatched the book from her, trying to open through the pages to get back to where I was but I couldn't.

Damn!

We met a few minutes ago and she's already a pain in the ass.

"Get up!" I half screamed.

"But why..." I shut her up by pulling her towards the door.

"You seem to be in a bad mood today. I'd come back tomorrow to get the meaning to the painting," she said with the most annoying smile I had ever seen anyone labeled on their lips.

I shut the door and almost immediately, I heard a knock again and I opened it.

"What?"

"Do you really think Pauline should make atonement for her revenge? I don't think she should. But I kind of felt happy after Sir Oswald's death, don't you?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Can you not drop a spoiler, for heaven's sake?!" I screamed at her before slamming the door.

Heaven knows I haven't in my 20 years of living met anyone as annoying as she was.