A New Beginning

Chapter 3

Apologies for the delay, let's start right away!

ATHENA PARKS

The first week on campus was harder than I thought it would be. I entered a few classes late, tripped over a lot of bags, rocks and over simply nothing. However I always managed to catch myself before hitting the ground. Maybe I wasn't as clumsy as I thought I was. Even though I was walking on a flat surface, I would always find something to trip over. I had a new friend, Mackenzie Wood. The kindest and sweetest girl I have ever met. She was a head shorter than me, her reddish brown hair was cut straight to her neck with bluebell eyes. She was simply dressed and girly to the highest level. She was a law student and had high hopes of increasing women empowerment in the working industry and reducing domestic violence. She was an ambitious and innovative girl.

She came from Atlanta and like most students, she was accompanied by her boyfriend, Aiden Thompson, who studied at the university too. Magic was like a second nature to him. He was once able to make my notebooks catch fire. I remembered the fright I had, not knowing what to do, but in a snap, the fire was put out and none of my notebooks were damaged! It was mind blowing! Something which I didn't miss to compliment him about! He laughed at my amazement. I couldn't stop staring at my notebooks which should have been ash. He was a good guy, I was happy for Mackenzie to have found him.

On my first day, stress was making me lose my appetite, I was scared to go to the canteen. I was asking myself thousands of questions. Where to sit? Where to queue up? What do you do when you finish eating? Am I going to sit alone today? What is the procedure? Is it like high school? It went on and on...when I finally arrived, I saw Bree who called out for me. She was waving her hand and pointed to a chair just in front of her. Without thinking twice, I just grabbed a few sandwiches and a bowl of salads and walked towards her. It was only when I sat down that I realised that I did it! I was overthinking about the whole situation for no reason. We talked and learned more about each other. We were completely different. We didn't even have one thing in common, apart from the fact that we were both med students. And yet...it felt so easy!

The food was not as bad as I thought, the canteen started to fill up but none of us really cared, we were just too absorbed in our conversation and comparing our time tables. The table just in front of us was James and his girlfriend Heather, he shot me one of his irresistible smiles, this time I was certain that it was destined to me since Bree was sitting her back at him, in return I mimicked shooting Heather in the head. He laughed and murmured something to his girlfriend. My heart stopped, was he telling her what I had just done? I didn't want any trouble! What if she kicked me out of the house? Was she- but a sudden cry made me get out of my dilemma. James was dripping with coke and Heather was catwalking out of the canteen followed by her disciples, Lauren and Rosalia Hernandez, or as I would call them, blondie and brunette. I just thought it was funny, since they looked too much like Amazonian queens. Beauty seemed to be common around here after all. 

James soon joined us to our table and asked,

-How was it?

-Golden! I replied giggling as we high fived.

Mackenzie and Aiden came to sit next to us too, and I introduced James to everyone. The party was apparently not completed yet though as James called out his friends who had just entered, Austin Williams and Theo Jovan. Austin was a well-built man, enough to look as if he was twenty five, it was surprising that he was only nineteen. He had amazing grey eyes, it was so easy to get lost in them.It didn't take me long to recognise the blond guy that I had seen in the administrative office. Theo was a chummy cute short boy. I liked him, he was even nerdier than James, he studied mechanical engineering and was, from some sources, a pro at video games.

That all happened so fast! The next minute we were all enjoying ourselves, talking and laughing as if we had known each other for decades! It was unusual, strange, unbelievable! I remembered how long it took me to make a friend when I was a kid and now...the first day, over lunch...I had earned six friends? Was it possible? Was I living in a sitcom? That kind of thing only happened in movies. "Shut up and enjoy." said a voice in my head.

My favourite moments of the day were lunch, of course, but most importantly the mornings. I was neither a morning bird nor a night owl, to be honest I never knew which one I was in, I guess it just depended on the days! Prior to my first day, I couldn't sleep mostly because of the voice in my head yelling, "Get up! Get up! Let's go for a run! We'll get coffee and probably get lost! It will be fun!" Adrenaline shot me straight up and without a second thought, I grabbed my shoes and went out. I was instantly glad that I had listened to the voice for once. I felt free. The sky was of different shades of yellow and purple. The clouds were slightly pink, invading that colourful breathtaking sky. It was a difficult sight to imagine. I always thought that the way authors described it, it must have been part of their imagination but I was wrong. It did exist and I was looking straight at it.

I started running, feeling the wind in my hair, just like Rapunzel would have sung. My headphones on, I ran as quickly as I could. I wasn't the fastest of superheroes but that didn't mean that I didn't like to run. It was just the feeling of running that made me love it so much, running made me feel free, escaping reality, not just in my mind but in the real world. Escaping for real. Escaping because that was the only thing I could do. Escaping because what other choice did I have? It was like running without having any goal, without having anything to wait for. It was simple, I was running because at that moment, I felt complete.

But also to get a Starbucks...as I was running, the smell of coffee in the morning could be smelt from a mile away. The perfume was divine! I was ready to die for it! After all, waking up every morning and running in the cold just to get a coffee and a croissant, seemed pretty worth it. I had a goal after all! A prize for making my body suffer and get covered with sticky and stinky sweat.

 My courses were interesting...I was used to change, which was an odd thing to say but yes, university was not so bad. I had a neurobiology course which was one of my favourites, it was taught by Professor Carman, he was a hilarious and friendly teacher. Laughter was always guaranteed in his classes and I loved them! I also loved my physics courses, which was also an odd thing to say as Professor Briggs was a horror! She was a short middle-aged lady whose favourite colour seemed to be pink. Her clothes were pink, as well as her shoes, her bag, her nails...everything! She was strict and severe. For Harry Potter fans who thought that Umbridge couldn't exist, watch out! The demon is well and alive!

There was something I hated though...my feelings. It all felt too good to be true, I loved it here, I felt valued and incredible! It was only the first week and I also felt...jealous and full of envy. However, from the person I expected it the most, Bree. She was amazing, that was the issue. Not a single flaw, if they were flaws, they could be compared to cute and lovely quirks. She was smart and passionate, in love with cardiology! Compared to me with neurology, I liked it, but I could say not as much as her with cardiology.

I was glad that she had a straight road, that she knew where she was going, that she had planned her life since she was five, compared to me who was obviously lost and was just taking any road just hoping that it was the good one. No matter how much planning I did, I had a lot of obstacles which prevented me from taking the road I truly wanted. If the road I was taking was wrong, well...my only argument was what my father used to say, "You can't do everything you want in life", however I preferred Lily Aldrin's quote from "How I met your mother", "You cannot design your life like a building. It does not work that way. You just have to live it instead and it will design itself."

Pushing everything aside, all I wanted to do was enjoy my coming years at Stanford and live my life to the best! Attend Mackenzie's and Aiden's predicted wedding, waiting to see Bree and James finally become a couple (those matching blushes were not coming out of nowhere!), wait for Austin to open up and tell the world his true and amazing nature and finally among others, see Heather fall on her heels while catwalking! For me? Nothing. Seeing everyone ecstatic and crazy was enough for me. I was just a spectator watching the show after all.

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Until next time!