Clan Of Mist

Chapter 1

A New Beginning

So. Where to begin?

I guess you can say our love story began like any other. Boy meets girl. Girl falls for boy and yet is incredibly irritated by boy, though can't blame him too much since he saved her life. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. To be completely honest, the story is kind of hilarious by how impossible it would sound in the modern world, but it is what it is. If I hadn't lived it I wouldn't have believed it myself.

Okay let me start from the somewhat beginning.

My name is Jasmine Yvonne Sinclaire. I was born in a small town known as Flagstaff, Georgia. If you were to take a tour, you'd see the two local schools: Jackson and Rillesville. Both schools go from Pre-K to 12th grade. The town is generally split down the middle with half of the younger population divided between the two. As you can imagine, not much happens in Flagstaff. So the school rivalry is taken extremely serious around there. It's practically like joining a gang and typically carries through adulthood. I've known some pretty dramatic love stories taken place that would give Romeo and Juliet a run for their money. Families refusing to speak to one another for years because two members from opposites schools decided to marry, or date one another. Ridiculous.

Continuing on with our tour...

There's the one and only bank in town, the local supermarket, Herb's gas and dinner (gas station and dinner rolled into one) and the two local hangout spots. The local theatre with only three theatre rooms, and our decent sized skating rink. Outside of that you would be venturing into the larger towns in Georgia that take about twenty minutes to reach in both directions.

I attended Rillesville ever since I could walk. I joined the spelling bee club in third grade and from there dance club, French club, Yearbook, Poetry Club and Cheer leading. My best friends Nina and Derrik are practically family to me. We've seen each other through everything. Literally everything. The time in fifth grade when Nina lost her father in a tragic car accident, and also when Derrik broke up with his first girlfriend because he finally admitted to himself that he was attracted to guys.

You can probably imagine the struggles Derrik faced growing up in a small, gossip ridden, town with very rigid and traditional ideals. To this day, he is still ostracized within the community. His family is the epicenter of poorly constructed lies, constantly demonized, and treated like trash. I always wondered why they chose to stay in Flagstaff and endure the cruelty of such ignorant people. I mean my family and a few others in town don't participate in the backward ass views and homophobia, but unfortunately we aren't the majority. Despite it all, Derrik's parents refused to leave. They made no apologies for their son or their continued love and support for him. Derrik takes after his parents (and to be honest) you have to be completely out of your mind to pick a fight with him. Despite never trying out for the football team my bestie is built like a linebacker with the heart of a teddy bear. He's the sweetest and most caring guy you can ever meet. Although, he will lay a bitch out if he has to. We became best friends in the first grade when he knocked out the bully in our class with his tin lunch box. The bully pushed me into the dirt because I wouldn't give him my animal crackers.

Nina has always been considered the odd ball in our town because of her family. Her mom has always been a free spirited soul, and everyone was shocked when she got married. She loves crystals and wears them all the time. Her entire backyard is a garden full of fruit, vegetables, and herbs. She hand makes wind chimes and herbal remedies, as well as does Tarot card readings on the side. She raised her daughter to be strong, independent, unapologetic, outspoken, and always follow her heart. Plus Nina is an Aquarius (like me!) so that probably tells you all you need to know about her. Her signature style would be gypsy skirts of patchwork design that are vibrant and bright with color. Her hair was now down to about the midway point of her back. She wore hoop earrings (the bigger the better) and is a hopeless romantic at heart.

The three of us stood in this weird limbo when it came to high school hierarchy. We weren't popular but we obviously knew the popular kids because we grew up with all of them. We were outsiders, unpopular, and yet still cool with everyone. It's kind of hard to explain.

Anyway.

Senior year finally came after what felt like forever.

Derrik was accepted into NYU for film making.

Nina was accepted to Hawaii Pacific University for marine biology.

And I was going to be studying two years at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. I managed to get picked out of thousands of applicants, plus acing an interview, in order to be accepted into the Katahira Exchange Program. Only twenty students were chosen from the United States for Freshmen and Sophomore year enrollment. The program was catered to students studying Japanese culture and the advances in various scientific fields. There is a possibility to be accepted into the University for the remaining 2-3 years (depending on your major) if you excel. If not, it looks amazing on resumes and can guarantee you a place in even the most prestigious universities back in the States.

I was over the moon about getting chosen!

However. Now that graduation was done and I would be leaving in a week...reality was beginning to set in. First came terror. Followed by self-doubt. Now I was beginning to feel homesickness from the mere thought of being so far away from everyone and everything I had ever known.

I was going to be living in a new country, with people who definitely didn't look like me, probably the only black person so there was no telling the racism I could potentially face. Needless to say, I was starting to ask myself...

Was I really going to go through with this?

Maybe I should back out?

...But then what? What was I going to do with my life? I hadn't thought about any other plans ever since that acceptance letter arrived in the mail.

I shook my head vigorously, hoping that it would somehow physically remove the thoughts from my head. I couldn't afford to think like that. I had given so much into making this dream a reality. Was I really going to waste it by giving into my self doubts and fears?

The answer: No.