First Sight

How did Serena and I meet? Truthfully, I don't really know where to begin. You see, how we met is kind of complicated and there really isn't one correct answer. Ok, I'll start with eight years ago, back when we were still at the university. Well to be exact, I was starting my sophomore year while she was getting ready to start her freshman year…

I had just finished moving my things into the apartment the university had assigned me. The apartment had four separate bedrooms and bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. I was sharing it with three of my best friends, Susan Maturitas, Heather Callaghan, and Amara Morita. Both Susan and Heather have already moved and settled in the day before, so they were helping me unpack my things.

"Do we know when she'll be here?" Susan asked while she helped me hang up my clothes.

"Last I heard she was supposed to be here by now," Heather responded. "Michelle, where do you want me to put these books?"

"You can leave them on top of the desk for now until I go out and buy a bookshelf," I said. "I talked to Amara last night and she said she'll be here before dinner. She mentioned something about waiting on her cousin."

"Oh! That's right, I forgot that Serena will be attending our university this year," Susan said.

"I still can't believe that she's starting college a year early," Heather said. "I remember back when she barely passed 7th grade!"

"Well, I'm not surprised, especially after the accident," Susan responded.

While listening to my two friends reminisce about Serena's study habits, it made me realized that I am the only one in this room that hasn't met Serena. It was somewhat shocking really considering I've known Amara for nearly six years now.

"I can't believe you two met her and I haven't! I've known Amara since high school and she's talked about Serena all the time but I have yet to meet her," I commented out loud.

Susan and Heather stops their chatter and turns to look at me. I had to contain myself from laughing when I noticed that their faces were of surprise and shock. I guess they just realized this matter also. "What?" I asked when neither of them said anything.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to go over in my head the many times that we've seen Serena and why you weren't there," Susan answered.

"There was that one time last year when Serena visited the campus to decide on whether or not she wanted to go here," Heather said.

"I had to fly to New York for a concert that week," I responded.

"What about last summer when we all went to California?" Susan asked. "Serena had flown in for a four day weekend."

"I think that was when I had to fly back home last minute because my mom thought my dad had a heart attack," I said.

"Hm… Now that I think about it, every time Serena is around you seem to have some other commitment to attend to. Either that or you two just miss each other by a couple of seconds," Heather commented.

Now that I think about it, it's funny really, every time Amara try to set up a time to introduce her cousin to me something would happen where either I can't be there or she can't. Even though I haven't met her yet, I seem to know everything there is to know about her. According to Amara, Serena is seventeen, very smart and talented in music and art similar to me. Susan mentioned that Serena is an outstanding dancer. Heather and she had the opportunity to go see one of Serena's performance in high school. I was invited to that performance as well; however, surprise, surprise I couldn't go that night. There was a charity event that my agent had signed me up for so while my friends got to go see Serena dance her heart out, I was performing in front of Bostonian's Elites.

After we spent another hour unpacking my things that afternoon, we decided to migrate into the living room to discuss how we were going to decorate the living room and kitchen. The year before, the four of us was assigned to the school's dormitory, where Amara and I were paired off as roommates and we shared a bathroom with Heather and Susan. The setup was pretty nice, but I'm glad that we were able to get one of the on campus apartments. Let me tell you, nothing is better than being able to have some privacy in your own room when you need it. Oops, I think I've managed to catch Serena's rambling habits.

While we were discussing how we should decorate the living room, our front door was thrown open. Want to guess who threw it open? "Can I get some help here?" My bonehead friend, who is hidden behind boxes, Amara asked.

"Cutting it close this year aren't we?" Susan teased as she walks over to Amara and relieves her with some of the boxes.

"Ugh thanks!" Amara responded. "I had to drop Serena off at her dormitory and help her move her things in."

"Why didn't you call? We could have helped," Heather said while getting up from the sofa and heads over to the front door and grabbed a box that was sitting in the hall.

"I thought about it, but her dormitory is on the other side of the campus. It was quicker to help her unload instead of waiting for you three to arrive and help," Amara answered. "There are a few more boxes downstairs in my car."

"You left her to unpack by herself?" I asked as I follow them downstairs.

"I offered to stay and help her unpack, but she insisted that I should go unload and unpack myself," Amara said. "I told her we'll swing by to pick her up for dinner in three hours."

And so, we spent the next three hours helping Amara unload her car and unpack. While we were helping her unpack, we used that opportunity to catch up on how we had spent the summer. It was the first summer that the four of us didn't get a chance to spend any time together. We had somehow signed up for different things to do that summer and it put us all in different cities. Heather had spent her summer working at a clinic back home in Fairfax, Virginia. Susan was interning at an interior design company in Boston. Amara was all over the country working for Formula 1 (F1). I was busy traveling because my agent had decided to set up a summer tour.

I'm sorry, excuse me? Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I thought you might have wanted to know why we didn't spend that summer together, but I guess it's a bit off topic. Like I've mentioned, Serena's habits are rubbing off on me. Ok, let's get back on topic then?

When it was time for us to head out and pick up Serena for dinner, we all decided to ride in Susan's car since it's bigger and will be more comfortable with the five of us. "Serena texted me earlier saying she's at the dance studio," Amara said as she got into the passenger seat. "You sure you don't want me to drive?"

"Not going to happen," Susan said, while starting the engine. "Fiona is your baby, Chronos is mine."

"What is she doing in the studio? I thought she would be in her room unpacking," Heather asked.

Amara shrugged her shoulders and buckled her seatbelt. "I don't know."

"Maybe she got bored and wanted to check out the dance studio?" I said.

"Either way, did you call her to let her know that we're on our way?" Susan asked.

"I tried, but she didn't pick up," Amara responded. "Knowing her, she probably has her IPod turned on very loudly so she can't hear the phone or anything around her."

Less than ten minutes later, we pulled up to the dance studio's parking lot. Surprisingly enough, we weren't the only car there; there was at least five other cars in the parking lot. I guess everyone was eager to get back. "Did she tell you which room?' I asked.

"Her text message said dance studio number 4," Amara responded.

As we walked down the dance studio's hall, we were bombarded with different types of music playing. It made me wonder how they can focus on their music when others are fighting to drown it out. "Hm… I guess these people wanted to get a head start on the school year," Heather commented.

"Ok! Here's room 4," Susan said while pointing to the door on the right. As we walked towards the door, we were all surprised to not hear any music coming from it. Amara pushed ahead of us and went ahead and opened the door. "Hey Serena, we're here," she announced.

Amara didn't get a response back though. Instead, we were all graced with a graceful figure dancing. She didn't seem to notice Amara nor notice us at the doorway. We didn't mind it either, considering her dance moves are very captivating. I was entranced by it and couldn't take my eyes off of her. You've seen her dance before so you understand what I'm talking about. It is like watching an angel gliding across the room. Her feet barely touched the ground and her moves were flawless. Her face held such emotion and passion. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. What surprised me the most though, was that her hair was left down while she was dancing. Usually dancers put their hair up in a bun or ponytail so that it doesn't get in the way while they dance. However, this angel, she had left it down and didn't seem to have any trouble with it. It's like her hair were ribbons flowing along with her moves adding to that mystical feel. It was truly captivating…

"Oh! Hi! When did you all get here?" The angel asked.

"Only a few minutes ago," Amara answered.

"Hi Serena," Susan said.

"Hi Serena," Heather echoed.

The angel or Serena smiled and went up to hug each of them. Afterwards, she paused and looked over at me. I couldn't help but stare at her. She looked so petite, like a little pixie fairy. Her eyes are bluer than Amara and her hair is a lot lighter, it was like she had silver highlights added to her hair. Her cheeks were flushed from dancing; it made her look very cute.

"Serena, I'd like to finally introduce you to Michelle," Amara said. "Michelle this is my cousin Serena."

I smiled and held out my hand to shake. "Hello Serena, it is great to finally meet you."

"Hi Michelle Nereid, nice to meet you," she said as she responded to my smile with a smile of her own and had taken my hand in hers to shake. When our hands touched, there was an electric shock that went through me. It reminded me of the first time that I had felt an electric shock; it was back when I was nine. "... Again."

"Again? You two have met before?" Susan asked, while looking back and forth at us.

"But didn't you mention earlier that you haven't met Serena before Michelle?" Heather asked.

Truthfully, I was as lost and confuse as they were. "Yes, this is the first time that I've ever met Serena," I responded.

"Serena?" Amara asked.

Serena smile and responded with, "It's the truth. Michelle has never met me, Serena, before."

"Ok, now I'm officially lost," Amara said. "Can you please explain Rena?"

Serena giggled and shook her head, "It's nothing. I was just teasing since you've tried so hard to get us to meet each other for so long now and finally nearly six years later you've accomplished it."

After that we all headed out to dinner and get ourselves reacquainted. I know I'm not that good at telling stories, that's Serena's forte. But that was how I met Serena. However, she may think I didn't remember this back then and it may have taken me almost a year since we met to realize this but I managed to put the pieces together on that comment of hers.

You see, while it was true that that was the first time I had met Serena, it was also true that that was not the first time Serena had met me. Are you confused yet?

Ok good! Now I'll explain…

As you know Serena's full name is Serenity Lunaire, however she goes by Serena ever since she started middle school. Well, Serenity Lunaire and I had met back when we were kids. It was at her seventh birthday party. Does that explain the confusion? Or should I put it in laymen's term?

The End.