The Program

Chapter 1

HELLO. I hope you enjoy my first chapter of this book. Please leave me feedback and maybe some things you would love to see. Thank you ❤️

It's a Tuesday afternoon, and I'm sitting across the bleak desk in my counselor's office. I fiddled with my fingers while Mr. Gallagher sat behind the computer checking my acceptance to the one program I've been dreaming about ever since I applied to NYU.

The Study Abroad Program.

In a school of over hundreds of thousands of students, only a select few can choose to study abroad based on grades, work, and merit. Of course getting into NYU was a huge accomplishment in itself, I've always been a 5-star student, involved in clubs, multiple dance organizations, and it also helped that my dad was on the board of course. Acceptance was easy.

Julius Montgomery–successful academic that studied at NYU, North Western, and Georgetown, and also my father. He was a real stickler growing up, always making sure I was top of my class and destined for greatness. Never let me hang with my friends across the river (Even though I still did). But he could only hope that I would get into NYU to study law or biology. I can only laugh now as I sit here two years into my dance degree.

"How's classes going Kit?" Gallagher said, waking me up out of my own thoughts. I could tell him that I'm depressed and tired because I am overworked dancing almost 12 hours out of the day.

"They're going great actually, just got my midterm grades back and I did pretty good."

"Good, Good. I can see you're keeping up your GPA here, there's no doubt you will get into the program. Have you picked out your desired locations?" he said while still typing away on his computer.

Locations? I'll just be glad to get out of New York at this point. Although my father is well off, he has only ever taken us on vacation twice. Once for a panel he did in Washington D.C., and the other in Greece, where he spent most of the vacation with his girlfriend at the time. It fills me with joy just to get on the train to New Jersey, or even a quick drive with friends to Philly.

"I thought the program picked our location for us?" I asked, running my fingers through my long black hair that I just got blown out this morning.

"Well they give you the chance to pick between 3 available locations, but it's always nice to hope for the one you want." He smiled at me. "I have your decision up right now, would you like me to print it out or just lay it on you?".

"Please just take me out of my misery," I sigh, putting my head in my hands, dreading the decision. What if my grades weren't good enough? My extracurriculars? Charity work?

....

"Congratulations Kit, you got in and you're only 1 one of the selected 5 in your program." He goes to his printer and gets a couple of papers and then lays it down in front of me.

"Wow." I am at a loss of words. I am so happy I can't even begin to think about enjoying a whole semester in another country doing the one thing I love in this world. I peer down at the paper to look at my options. Written in bold letters are "Spain, Italy, and Korea."

All such great places, but I certainly think I have to choose the one farthest away right? I wonder how mad my father will be. I just wanna be somewhere completely different, and not have to be stuck doing everything for my fathers approval.

"Sign me up for Korea Mr. Gallagher." I said sternly but with a big smile on my face. He looked at me stunned, like I just said something out of the ordinary.

"So fast miss Montgomery? Why not take a week to think about it. You still have time to choose."

"Nope, I know for sure. Seoul is the city for me." Before he could even say anything else, I grabbed the papers off the desk and started jetting for the door. I can't wait to tell Mateo–My best friend.

"Thank you so much, Bye!" I yell back as I slam the door behind me and start heading to the elevator and out the building.

–

As I sit waiting outside my friend's apartment. I look down at my feet, going up and down on my toes trying to contain my happiness. I'm wearing my Yeezy 500s with tan sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt. I try to dress more pretty and nice when I go to campus but today I was too nervous to even care about my outfit.

I go to knock one more time because this dude is taking forever, and as soon as I knock once, the door swings open and Mateo comes into view.

"Hi cutie! I can't wait to tell you what I just found out!" I gleamed at him, walking right past him to go sit on his futon in the middle of the room. He closes the door and starts slightly jogging over next to me getting just as excited as me.

"Please tell me you got into the study abroad program," he said while pulling my legs up over his so he could massage my legs. I always loved how touchy he was. It made me feel safe and warm whenever he was holding me. We have always been just friends, ever since I met him at our dance company when we were kids. I used to have a little crush on him before, but in high school he always kept a girlfriend whether it would be 2 weeks or 6 months, so I just stopped all together.

I look over to him feeling more calm now that I'm here with him. No wonder he always kept a girlfriend, Mateo has always been handsome. Short brown curly hair, light brown eyes, plump pink lips, and his button nose, like how could you not fall for this guy! I sit up more and grab his head and start shaking it.

"YES MATEO! I finally fucking did it!" I screamed in his face and laughed. He starts laughing along with me with a big smile on his face. "I'm so proud of you hun, please tell me you're not going somewhere far."

His eyes started looking sad, almost like a puppy.

"Well, I only had 3 options and studying abroad is far basically anywhere you go.." I try not to catch eye contact anymore as I start looking around the room.

"I'm going to Korea" I let out, still not looking at him.

He suddenly stops rubbing my legs and I look over to see him with a short smile. I know he's happy for me, but we are really close friends and have never gone over one week without seeing each other.

"Jeez Kit that's on the other side of the world, how will I be able to visit you?"

"With a passport dummy, it will take you no more than 20 hours so it's not too bad." Who am I kidding. This guy freaks out over 4 hour plane rides, I can't even imagine how he could survive almost 15.

"You know how I feel about being on that flying death machine, you lucky I love you." he sighs. I must be the luckiest girl in the world to have such a friend like him.

"I love you too."

End Chapter

*I did not want to necessarily describe Kit as I think it would be more easier to picture her as yourself. I will be making sure she is described in different hairstyles(short, long, curly, straight, braids, wigs) so everyone can relate.