"Hurry up, Rose! Why are you never on time for anything?!"
I groaned and buried my head further into the pillow. Stupid mornings. Stupid Lissa and her insistence that we're punctual to everything.
"Rose!" Lissa screamed, and when I gave an animalistic growl of protest in response, she grabbed my ankle from under the covers and yanked me out of the bed, causing me to collapse the floor with an unceremonious thump.
"Christ almighty! What the hell?" I yelled, rubbing my eyes. I was definitely awake now, and boy, was I pissed.
"'What the hell?' Have you forgotten?" Lissa cried, a panicked expression on her face. It's the first day of college and we start in forty minutes! .
I sat up, "Forty minutes?!"
She nodded, a sigh of relief escaping her lips as she thought I was finally grasping the urgency of the situation.
"Godamn, Liss! That's a whole 'nother 30 minutes of sleep I could've have had".
She rolled her eyes "You don't care about getting ready in time? Having a shower and fixing yourself a nutritional breakfast?"
I shrugged nonchalantly "I can grab a candy bar from the fridge, and..."
I sniffed my armpit and winced a little.
"Eh, it will do with some perfume" I shrugged.
Lisa looked ready to throw up. We were extreme opposites in a way. She was the quiet, staying in type whose idea of a fun Saturday night included watching a nature documentary in matching, freshly ironed pyjamas. She was always meticulously dressed and had enough OCD that made living with me a hell on earth. Me, on the other hand? Why, I enjoyed going out and getting hammered to the point of no return. I once woke up in a tree with the word 'PENIS' written across my forehead in permanent marker and a live chicken in my handbag. What made it even more baffling was that we lived in the city, not a farm in sight for miles.
"Fine." Lissa sighed, exasperated. "It's very evident you care little about yourself, but at least try for all the guys that will be there. Don't you want to make a good first impression?" She waggled her eyebrows at me and smirked when she saw my ears prick up at the mention of men.
I straightened up. She knew my weakness. My mind wandered to all the hot men that would be in my class.
With long, dark hair- so dark it looked black in a certain light, olive skin, big brown eyes and a hourglass figure, I was no stranger to the advances of men, and man, did I like the attention.
Lisa, on the other hand, was much taller than me, maybe 5'10, and had the super slim figure of a runway model. With blonde hair and bright green eyes, she had her fair share of male admirers, and the fact we looked like chalk and cheese meant eyes followed us wherever we were.
I rolled my eyes and conceded. "Fine. You win. I'll hop in the shower on the condition that YOU make me breakfast.
Lissa sighed, and I kissed her on the cheek before grabbing my towel. "Love ya, Liss!"
I quickly hopped in the shower before she could protest and braided my hair in two. I chose a cute little crop top on that showed off my waist and paired it with skinny jeans. I didn't want to try too hard and besides, I wasn't sure what the dress code for college is.
I touched up my lips with gloss and dabbed a little mascara on. I wasn't one for too much makeup and I didn't have the time anyway. I glanced in the mirror.
"Not too shabby, rose, not too shabby".
Deciding I looked half decent, I picked up my rucksack and shoved my laptop inside. I walked into the kitchen to an impatient Lissa tapping her foot irritably.
"For God's sakes, Rose, we have just twenty minutes to get there."
"Relax, don't get your panties in a twist". I slung my rucksack over my shoulder and reached for the breakfast Lisa prepared for me.
It was a fruit salad.
I narrowed my eyes at it and swore under my breath. Fruit. My arch nemesis.
I pulled a face and Lissa scolded me. "Your eating habits are dire! I promise, swapping your usual chocolate bar for a healthy fruit bowl will make you feel so much better. This is important for your first day of college".
I felt like throwing the damn thing at her. She knew healthy was not my style but seeing as she went out of her way to prepare it, I thought I would entertain her.
I took a hesitant slurp off the spoon and held back the gagging at the back of my throat. "Mmmm" I said, trying to be as convincing as possible. She gave a satisfied 'I told you so' humph and turned around to pick up her key and unlock the apartment door.
No way was I going to eat this.
I panicked and threw the bowl in my rucksack. Fuck. That was gonna go everywhere. Ah well. I'll worry about it later.
"Liss, that was amazing". I said, with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.
She looked over her shoulder and shot me a sceptical look, eyebrow raised.
"Already?"
"Yeah, it was so good I just couldn't help myself" I replied.
"See?! I told you! Don't you feel better for it?"
"Oh yeah, my skin feels glowing, I think I just lost 5lbs and, woah, would you look at that? I've grown 2 inches." I winked at her suggestively, and she scowled at me.
"I don't have time for you and your sarcasm. I'm leaving now, with or without you." And with that she stormed out of the door. I hurriedly slipped on my pumps and chased after her, making sure I grabbed a bar of chocolate on the way.
"So, this is it, eh? The hell on earth I'll have to endure for the next few years." I sighed, stepping out of Lissa's car, looking over at the sign that read "St Anselm College".
The building was grand and seemed to stretch on for miles. Students gathered in groups outside of it, brimming with excitement and eagerness at the prospect of learning. I couldn't help but feel out of place. Don't get me wrong, I was smart in my own way, I just didn't have the patience or concentration to withstand sitting down in a lecture for hours; reading out of a book or listening to some deadbeat, washed-up middle-aged bloke drone on for hours and hours.
Lissa locked the car and came to my side. "Hell on earth, are you kidding?! Think about how much we'll learn here! And all of the people we'll get to meet. God, I've been looking forward to college since I was 5" She said, excitedly, her jade green eyes lighting up at the prospect.
I groaned and rubbed my face. "Yeah, it's ok for you, Liss. You're hella smart and people love you."
She rolled her eyes at me. "Where's this self-pitying come from? You know you're smart, you got into this place, didn't you?"
"Yeah, only cos you helped me cram at the last minute."
"Regardless of that, you're here because you earned it. And you're popular with a lot of people".
I scoffed, "By people, you mean men. Women hate me."
"That's only because you try to steal their boyfriends."
I smirked, that was true at least. "That's beside the point. I am not sure I'm cut out for this, Liss."
She linked arms with me and sighed. "This is just first day nerves, I promise. As soon as we get into the routine, you'll love it here. You'll meet cute guys, go to awesome parties and throughout all of this, we have each other."
I couldn't help but smile with her. This is why I loved her so much. She was one of the kindest, sweetest, most optimistic people I had ever met. Despite everything she has gone through, she remained positive and strong, and I admired her so much for it.
I decided to cut out the pity party and humour Lissa. "You're right, we do have each other, Liss. Come on, let's go and check out the goods college has to over."
We made our way along the path to the entrance, when my eyes were suddenly drawn to a gorgeous specimen of a man standing a hundred yards or so away from me to the right.
College did indeed deliver, and within just 5 minutes of being in the place.
He was tall and blonde, with grey/ blue eyes and a lean, muscular build. He had a cocky smirk on his handsome face, and when he caught eyes with me, I saw them roam over my body, the smile on his face widening. He winked at me and was caught off guard when I winked back and gave him my maneater smile. Two could play at that game.
His attention was torn away from me as a very pissed off doll-lookalike tugged on his shirt. The tiny girl next to him, with blonde ringlets and bright blue eyes was glaring at me. I shrugged and waved at the man, who gave me a devilish smirk in return and waved back, further angering the small doll beside him.
Because I was so distracted, however, I knocked into something and stumbled backwards, grazing my arm on the tree behind me as I grappled for support. I looked over to the hot blonde who had been staring, only to find that he and the short blonde girl were now laughing at me.
I steadied myself and stood upright, eyeing the thing, or rather, person that caused me to fall. "What the hell, man?! Watch where you're going, asshole." I exclaimed, pissed off that they had made me look like an idiot in front of a hot guy.
The guy looked disinterested. His ice blue eyes instead fixating on Lissa, who had suddenly gone bright red. She seemed to be eyeing him up, just as much as he was her. I looked between the two, baffled. Sure, he wasn't a bad looking guy- with raven black hair that lay lopsided over his face and strong jawline, I wouldn't usually disapprove. But something about the man, maybe it was the way he was hunched over and had his hands in his pockets, or possibly the weird intensity with which he stared at Lissa… I wasn't sure. Something about him was just off. Besides, she already had a boyfriend.
"Hey, creep. I'm talking to you." I yelled, hands on my hips.
His piercing blue eyes snapped back to me and narrowed with clear annoyance.
"What's the matter with you? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" He jested.
My eyes shot to Lissa pointedly, who scratched the back of her head meekly.
She wasn't that godamn shy this morning when she hauled my ass out of bed with the strength of a WWE fighter.
"None of your fucking business what I do in bed, pervert." I shot back, waiting for him to shrink down as people often did when dealing with one very aggressive Hathaway.
Instead, however, he scoffed and blew his hair out of his face with an air of nonchalance that riled me up further.
"Trust me, you're not my type anyway." And with that, he shot one last look at Lissa, who was giggling like a schoolgirl, and stalked off towards the main entrance.
I stared at the back of him, gobsmacked. Just who in the hell did he think he is?
"Did you see that, Liss? What a jackass. Arrogant son of a bitch."
I expected some degree of agreement from her, only to find that she wasn't even listening to me rant. Her eyes were following the boy who had just stalked off.
"Urgh, whatever, man. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait for class." I started walking, and a few moments later, Lissa caught up to me and linked arms again.
"Sorry, Rose. I got a little bit distracted there…" Lissa sighed dreamily, and I shook my head despairingly. We hadn't even stepped in the building and we already had our sights on two men.
If college had this to offer outside of the premises, imagine what the rest of the place held for us. Hell, maybe even the teachers were hot...
Author's Note
Ok, so this is the first FF I have written for years. So please go easy on me! This is just something I wanted to write to ease myself into writing again. I promise I have not forgotten about Rags and Riches. I had a whole chapter written up and lost it when I switched phones over. Since then, I've tried re-writing it but it just doesn't read the same as the first draft that I lost, so hence the warm up I'm attempting with this story.
I hoped you all enjoyed the chapter! I wanna keep this light-hearted for the most part and I am just writing this as it comes to me. I want to leave some choice to you, the readers, this time.
What direction would you like this to take?
All human?
Some vampires?
To my past readers, I am so excited to catch up with you all again. Let me know what you've been up to the past few years. And to new readers, tell me a bit about yourself.
Sorry I have been AWOL for quite some time. I struggled a lot with balancing class work and writing, amongst other things. I'm back now though! And making full use of the time off lockdown has bestowed to us.
P.S: DW, we shall be meeting Dimitri very shortly….
Love,
Emma xxx