Chapter 1 - Beginnings

As I walked down the paved pathway, I felt butterflies flutter inside me as I was about to meet those who I'd only seen pictures of. The people I would spend the next two years of my life with. The path seemed to stretch on forever as if it felt the doubt eating at me. What if they hate me? What if I got something wrong? Then, I steeled myself. "Worrying about it won't make it go away, Alice," I told myself. From the weird looks I was attracting, I deduced that I had accidently said that louder than I had meant to. With a nervous giggle, I hurried away.

The blossoming trees that ran alongside the path, waved in the wind as I looked around, smiling as I admired the staggering beauty of the park. Surprisingly, there weren't too many people considering that it was a bright, sunny Saturday. There were a few families and couples dotted around, enjoying the summer sun. I felt a twinge of sadness as I walked, missing these times with my family which seemed like a lifetime ago despite really being only 1 or 2 years ago.

As I neared the meeting point, I noted that, thankfully, I wasn't the first to arrive. I recognised Hannah from her picture, with her shoulder length chestnut brown hair, her youthful-looking face and, most of all, her adorable cat-eared beanie that she seemed to always wear, even during the perfect weather we were currently experiencing. I also noticed how she seemed to buzz with energy and seemed incapable of keeping herself still for even a second. Even from here, I saw her playing with her hair and constantly tapping the wooden bench she was sitting on. Looks like I've found my alarm clock.

As I got closer, she noticed me and waved excitedly, her eyes lighting up as I approached. I walked up to her, the butterflies intensifying with every step.

We stood next to each other, both wanting to break the silence but not knowing the right way to do it. Hannah went first.

"Hi, Alice. I'm Hannah, as you already know. I may be a little…" she paused as she looked for a word "…excitable, but I'm going to try to be the best roommate ever!"

She looked expectantly me and I took that as my cue to introduce myself.

"Well… My name is Alice. I… uh… study design technology and I love physics. Uh... That's about it." Hannah seems satisfied and started talking about her favourite subject, music, and I, fascinated by the conversation, listened to Hannah talk passionately and proudly about it.

After around five minutes, Hannah offered to play one of her songs to me. I agreed out of curiosity, after listening to her talk so fervently about it. She pulled a well-kept acoustic guitar out of a bag she had slung on her back and started strumming. I had few words for what I experienced next. The tune of the guitar was soft and melodious, her lyrics completely betrayed her energetic behaviour and instantly struck me as heartfelt and showed me a glimpse at who Hannah was underneath, a warm, empathetic person. As the song came to a close, Hannah turned back to me, after carefully putting her guitar away, and I immediately exploded with compliments and she started blushing.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it. Do you play an instrument?" she asked.

"I used to play piano at GCSE but haven't played in years. I wasn't that good, to be honest, nothing like you." I replied. This caused Hannah to redden even more.

We lapsed into another silence until Hannah spotted another one of our roommates down the path. Charlotte was instantly recognisable, with her stunning, cinnamon red hair that flowed down over her shoulders and her faded, lilac ball cap that sat on top of her wavy hair. As she got closer, we realised that she looked worried and I could tell from a glance how shy she was.

"Hi, Charlotte. I'm Alice and this is Hannah." I welcomed her and she visibly relaxed thanks to the friendly introduction.

"Hello." She replied quietly. A silence followed the quick reply and we fell back into an awkward silence. I tried to break the ice by telling the two about myself.

"Well, I guess I'll tell you about myself first. I am a DT student, my favourite franchise is Star Wars and I love books." I informed the two.

Hannah went next. "I am a music student, my favourite franchise is RWBY and I live to devour cookies." Hannah giggled after she said the last bit.

Charlotte, nervously, said "I am a military history student, my favourite franchise is Total War and I love strategy games."

Hannah immediately asked "Why did you choose military history?"

Charlotte, hesitant at first, answered "My dad was in the army and he introduced me to historical battles when I was a child. Instead of bedtime stories, he would tell me of the strategies of leaders like Caesar and Lawrence of Arabia. I grew up surrounded by the history and I loved it. I would lie awake at night and recount the stories in my head and analyse their strategies. It was because of this that I started the classes at A-Level and ended up here." Charlotte now looked completely relaxed and, for the next forty five minutes talked to Hannah about Lawrence of Arabia's tactics, with me joining in from time to time. It wasn't until then that I realised how late our fourth member was; she was almost an hour late and she hadn't been heard from. I gave Hannah and Charlotte my number so that they could contact me and went out to look for Katherine.

At first, I almost mistook Katherine for royalty, if it weren't for the flawless, snow white skin and long, midnight black hair from her photo, I wouldn't have thought she was my roommate. I was attracted by the noise of a helicopter and looked toward where the police were clearing a landing zone. It was then that I realised that I recognised Kat's last name; Regalia. The Regalia family were in the top one percent of the top one percent, they owned most of the fortune five hundred and were the advisors to several world leaders. As she stepped off the helicopter, she recognised me and strolled over. She politely introduced herself with the most archetypical British accent I've ever heard.

"Hello, Alice. Please, don't let my family name change your attitude toward me. I would prefer it if you treat me the same as any other."

"Of course, but why are you so late?" I asked, trying to be as polite as possible.

"I am so sorry for making you wait, we were swarmed by paparazzi as soon as we stepped out of our house." She answered coolly, as if it happened all the time.

"Well, I guess that must be really annoying. Would you like to meet your other two roommates? They are waiting." I replied, not forgetting about Charlotte and Hannah.

"Lead on, I can't wait to meet them." She said excitedly. As we walked toward the others, Katherine, or Kat as she preferred to be called, talked about how she has been looking forward to university because she could finally be treated normally, instead of like a prized doll being put on show. I fully sympathised with her and she seemed very comfortable with talking to me and kept asking me questions about my life. I told her about my parents (an architect and a primary school teacher) and my experiences with our two other roommates. I, in turn, learnt about her subject, food technology, and her life: homeschooled by the most expensive private tutors, some sort of event every weekend, where she was put on show for the other rich families, and her desire to live a normal life, as opposed her father, who wants her to be his heir.

We met the other two and Kat and Hannah immediately hit it off, with Hannah bombarding her with questions and Kat, after answering, returning with questions of her own. I chatted with Charlotte a bit more and, whilst it was mainly about our favourite films, I managed to learn that her parents where both history lecturers in two different universities, thankfully not ours, and that she had, with some exceptions, the same tastes as me in films and music, and that we shared the same favourite musical artist. We, however, differed on favourite song. We all chatted for another hour and began to walk to the university.

That was when they came…

Note

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