1
The strong smell of caffeine filled the space. The girl trying to polish her shoes frowned on her brows when she realized the left shoe wasn’t the same as the right shoe. “Shit!” she cursed away under her breath, throwing the shoe and getting off the plastic stool.
She rushed into the house and up the stairs to get the right one. She had twenty minutes before her dad would come to pick her up for school. Her first day as a senior and she hadn’t got ready yet. “Where is it?! Where the fuck is it?!”
She searched through the boxes underneath her bed. She has yet to clean up her closet and arrange it with the new stuff she bought last night. “Jesus.” She found the shoe and rushed down.
When she was done polishing the shoes, she wandered inside to wash her hands and have breakfast. There was a post-it stuck on the kitchen island besides her breakfast plate.
“Happy senior year, my baby!
Mumma loves you and misses you so much!”
A smile broke on her face looking at her dad’s handwriting. She shook her head, knowing too well, her mum must’ve told her dad to leave a post-it in the morning. She had received a handwritten letter last week from her mum. She got emotional and missed her mum. But she knew she would be meeting her mum soon.
Both of her parents are in the marines. Her mother is a marine doctor posted in some confidential place while her father is on leave. She started eating her scrambled eggs when her grandma walked in. “Honey, can you please remove this pin code? That stupid thing doesn’t work at times.”
“Sure, gram gram.” She took the iPad from her grandma and went to the settings.
“Where’s your dad? Wasn’t he going to drop you at school?”
“Dad went to hand over the fruit basket to Mr Ford. He will be back in five minutes.”
“Tsk.”
“Here, all done.” She handed the iPad to her grandma. “Which series are you watching now?” She sipped her coffee.
“Oh, I’m watching the Spanish series Elite.”
An amused chuckle left her mouth. “Elite?”
“Yeah, I need to know what kind of things and gossip goes on in your private schools.” Grandma sassed and shared a laugh with her granddaughter. “We used to go to an all-girls school and to public colleges, but now...”
“Yeah... Yeah... That’s the reason you got knocked by grandpa when you were eighteen, right?”
“Tsk... Tsk...”
“What do I say? Your grandpa didn’t like the concept of condoms from the very beginning.”
“Aria!” They both turned their heads when they heard Olson’s voice. Olson walked in holding a freshly baked muffin box.
“Oh, hey mum. Good morning,” Olson greeted.
“Good morning, are they for me?” Georgia questioned, looking at the muffins.
“Yes.” Olson placed one box on the island and handed the other to Aria.
“Thank you, dad.”
“Are you ready for school, darling?” Olson asked, taking a seat beside Georgia on the high stool.
“Yes, five minutes.”
“Sure, finish your breakfast, no hurry.” Then Olson turned to his mother. “Why didn’t you go for the morning walk?”
“I was having a migraine.”
“Oh? Then why are you playing the episode on your iPad?” Georgia rolled her lips into her mouth, keeping the iPad on the island.
“I wasn’t.”
“Mum, you need to go for the morning walks to control your sugar levels.”
*
Aria smiled and waved her hand when she found her best friend Sage in the crowd. “Girl! I have been waiting for you at your fucking dormitory. Why didn’t you tell me that you weren’t there?!”
“Woah! Hi there, I text you saying I’m at home not in the dormitory.”
Sage’s brows frowned in confusion. “You did.”
“Yes.” Sage pulled up her phone and checked her Snapchat. She is always active on Snapchat. “Damnit.”
“Did something happen?” Aria asks pulling her new textbooks from her locker.
Sage breathed out through her nose as she crossed her arms and thought about what happened ten minutes ago. “Fucking Gideon and his stupid friends.”
Aria’s expression changed, knowing how Sage hates the kid and his group. “Did he do something?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He threw his stupid sandwich on my feet.” Sage huffed, looking at her lacy short socks which now had stains. “Which idiot wastes their sandwich by throwing it.”
“Do you have an extra pair?” Aria asked.
“I don’t have one at present.”
“It’s fine, wear mine.” Aria pulled out one of the extra pairs she keeps in her locker.
“Bless you, babe.” Sage took the socks from Aria. “I will go to the restroom.”
“Sure, I will wait for you.”
“Cool.” Aria leaned against her locker and went through Twitter.
@SageBaker “Oops, didn’t your parents teach that sandwich goes into your mouth, not on your feet?”
replying to @GideonJames “They taught me other things like how to flip off bastards.”
Aria chuckled going through the Tweet fight between her best friend and her neighbour Gideon.
Aria had known Sage since she was nine years old. They have been best friends since then and shared dormitories. Now that they are in their senior year, they have got their own single bedrooms as per school rules. Aria was born in Texas but her roots were in London.
She shifted to London when she was eight years old. Her parents were out of the country and they moved her to London where her parental grandparents and uncles live. After a few months, her parents decided it would be best if Aria went to boarding school.
Aria was sad when she was a kid but eventually, she got habituated to boarding school. She made amazing friends and she wouldn’t trade that for anything.
“Hey, Aria.” She looked up to see Rhett and Indigo.
“Hey.” Aria hugged them both.
“Where have you been? I called you two and none responded.” Indigo’s cheeks warmed up and Aria smirked.
“Details or lie?” Rhett joked and Aria shook her head.
“Better not.”
“See...” Rhett wrapped his arm around Indigo’s shoulders. “I don’t have any problem letting you know but I know you wouldn’t be happy hearing it.”
Indigo slapped Rhett and looked at Aria. “Where’s Sage?”
“Restroom.”
“Gideon has done it already?”
“Yeah...”
“Lord help us.”
Aria was reading the Latin notes when there was a knock and everyone looked at the door. The door opened and in walked ‘Tariq’
“What is he doing here?” Sage whispered.
“Attention everyone, Mr Corbyn has changed the section. He will be having his classes with your section from now on,” Mr Chapmen said.
Tariq gave a nod to Mr Chapmen before looking at us. He didn’t say anything as he searched for an empty seat. He found one at last. Everyone watched his moves like a hawk, including Aria.
Tariq ignored the looks he was getting and made a beeline towards the end. He didn’t like this section as it only consisted of elite and top-ranked kids. He was happy in the ‘B-section’, but no― Mrs Taylor had enough of his absence in class and decided to throw him into the ‘A- section.’
Now he knew, he was stuck. He cannot bunk classes or just call it sick. He has to be there or else they will be calling his parents. He should’ve thought about it.
Aria shook her head and looked down at her book. She couldn’t shake off the image of Tariq from her head. He might not be the golden boy of ‘King Edwards’, but he sure ruled the school with his voice and fingers. Fingers that played the guitar...
Aria had a crush on him since sophomore when he shifted from Tokyo. She didn’t know the story but everyone said it. His parents were travel photographers and took him everywhere they went. That’s how he lived in Tokyo for four years.
“Babe, are you listening?” Sage tapped her best friend’s thigh when she didn’t respond to her. Aria snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Sage.
“You were saying?” Sage huffed, looking at Aria.
“You didn’t listen to me, did you?” Aria gave out a guilt expression. “Sorry.”
“Fine, I was saying―”
