THIRD PERSON'S POV
Knocking on the table, the professor clears his throat for somebody's attention.
"Rose!" Millie whisper-yells at the unconscious person sleeping with her head down.
"Ms Stephany!" The autocratic voice snatches back Rose to reality and with heavy eyes, she raises her head, meeting her eyes with a strict person.
She almost jumps in her seat and, without looking around, speaks,
"Here's my assignment, sir." She hurriedly takes the notes out of her bag and shoves them into the professor's face.
Surprised by the sudden action, he backs off a little but manages to maintain the poker face.
"You've been sleeping all this time, Rose,"
"Would you mind telling me what is going on?" His tone reflected concern, and why won't he be? Rose is among the bright students of the class, and such careless behaviour from her is shocking and unacceptable.
"I just, I just couldn't sleep last night, my neighbours were partying too hard." Rose immediately makes up. Not able to find any lie in the statement, the professor nods and turns around to leave.
"I'm letting this go this time,"
"Remember, only this time." With this, he leaves the classroom and Rose falls back in the seat while taking a big breath of relief.
"Rose, Malika-" Millie was interrupted by Rose's phone. Her phone rings the fifth time since now, only this time the ringing reaches her ears.
She takes her phone out and ignores it as the number is unknown to her. She holds her head and lies down again.
Indeed, Rose couldn't sleep last night, she came back home at around 3 and right after started to complete her assignments.
Without getting any rest in between, she had to go back to the mansion to prepare King's breakfast, and her next stop was university.
"Rose, Malika wants to have a word with you," Millie speaks, Rose looks up, and only then does she realize that not a single person is present in the room except for them.
"God, she's going to be so mad at me!" Rose replies, speaking to herself more.
"I'm going, got a date with Joseph, Malika must be in the stadium,"
"Just let her scold you, you know how she is!" Millie rubs her shoulder, maybe a gesture of giving her courage to face another, yet, dangerous teacher.
Rose hums in response.
"Have a great time, Millie," Rose speaks and bows her head again, her severe headache and tiredness aren't letting her do much.
She takes her phone out after a while and calls Lily. Lily is departing today for Greece, in the evening.
"Hey- give me my money back!" Lily yells on the phone.
"In my hands, it's mine now!" A childish voice yells back.
"You little brat-" Rose pulls away from the phone. She recalls Lily telling her about her siblings' arrival. Devil siblings.
"Lily," She calls out after a short while, giving them enough time to exchange more arguments.
"Hey, Rose, what's up?"
"How is everything going?" Rose asks.
"Everything's cool, and I'm so excited," Rose rolls her eyes off. Just yesterday she was babbling about how she will miss school and her friends, look at her now. Rose thinks.
"Your food is here, Lil," Rose hears her mom yelling from a distance.
"I WILL EAT THAT PIZZA!" One of her siblings yells out loud, which makes Lily drop her phone and sprint to the door to get her pizza before they lay their hands on it.
"You won't get a bite, it's all mine- share it with us, you big pig!"
"Yeah!"
Rose huffs and hangs up the call, she drops the text of arriving at her home before they'll depart.
Rose smiles to herself. At least some is fighting over food, I'll hit the canteen after meeting Malika, she thinks to herself.
She gets up and heads straight towards the stadium. Her nervousness can easily be seen from her eyes. She looks all around and finally finds that one person sitting on the bench, drinking water or some energy drink or whatever, only she can tell.
With heavy feet, Rose approaches the coach. Her mind is busy thinking about all the worst-case scenarios when she will be in front of her.
"Hey- Good afternoon, Coach!" Rose tries to be extra polite.
Malika looks up and gets sarcastically astonished by seeing who's standing in front of her.
For that moment, all the irritation, all that severe headache, sprints away from Rose. The impact of Malika's look.
"Hello, Rose," Malika matches Rose's extra polite tone. Danger alert!
"What are you doing here?" She asks, putting her bottle down and taking the towel instead.
"Uh, Millie told me you wanted to have a word with me, coach."
The coach pauses for an uncomfortably short while. Her eyes now reflect great anger.
"So, Millie told you that's why you're here, you've got no intention of meeting me and telling me what's going on, on your own, Rose?"
"You said that you'll let me let know in three days."
"You think the rest of the team is a fool? They come here daily and practice their asses off, and what the hell you were doing all this time?"
"Coach, I-"
"You were my favourite cheerleader, girl, and this irresponsibility from your side has pissed me off so much!"
"Coach, I was stuck in some things, but now everything is okay, and-"
"Are you Rose?" Rose gets interrupted by a university staff member, she turns her head to him and nods while saying yes.
"You need to come out now!" A hint of fear is evident in his voice. But why?
Her eyebrows collide in confusion, she shares a stare with Malika before turning her head back to the guy.
"Out where?"
"At the university's main gate, hurry up!"
Ignored by everyone in the conversation, the hustle and bustle rapidly go up as if some celebrity has entered the university.
"Okay, I'll be there,"
"No, you don't understand. They are too intimidating, and they are seriously asking for Rose Stephany-"
"Rose!" Rose almost jumps in her place at the sudden, loud call.
"Ms Stephany," She shoots her eyes at the entrance, hearing a familiar voice.
Her eyes sprout out of her sockets, and all the confusion converts into shock and unreasonable fear.
YOU ARE READING
Flower He Couldn't Pluck
General FictionIt's a story of two people living on different sides of the same dimension. She dreaded his world, and he envied hers. She reminded him of a life he had loved once, cherished once. And he reminded her of a life she escaped once, feared once. A pret...
