The Lost Girl

Chapter 1

Julia

"Julia, how many times have I told you that our teacher did not mean it to be this way. SPCA is not meant to be our project's main theme. It is animal protection rights!" Cynthia; my group project's mate, exclaimed. While saying this, her extremely big nostrills flared.

My name is Julia, I am a Singaporean girl with a pair of brown eyes and my newly dyed hazel brown long hair. I can be known to be quite clumsy at times as I tripped over things easily and tend to miss out on details. I am a final year student in SIM, a school that offers distant learning, studying a mass communications' course from Australia's RMIT. I had a tough time adapting there due to my lacklustre ability in creative writing and languages. However, I decided to persevere till the end since I chosed this path. It is certainly a path of tears and sweat. My group mates were mostly from a well to do family, carrying branded goods, wearing branded dresses from head to toes. Meanwhile, I am an average girl from an average family. My father is an accountant whereas my mother is a housewife. I have to work part time while studying to earn my extra keeps and I rarely buy branded stuff. Sometimes, I tend to feel left out in their conversations. Thank god there is no peer evaluation, if not I will definitely score badly for my project's peer evaluation due to my not-so-good relations with my classmates.

Feeling so tired due to yesterday's part time job, I could not barely open my eyes when Cynthia chided me. "I am sorry," I muttered weakly. "I hope you stopped being such a cluckhead and fool next time," Cynthia said in a mean manner while flicking her long expensive carefully maintained tresses. "Alright," I grumbled. After that, Cynthia turned to Annabelle, Prissy and Vanessa; my other groupmates, to continue their chats about the latest Abercrombie and Fitch's shirt that they could purchase for their boyfriends. Great, the fact that I am single, serves as another factor to make me feel distanced from them.

After giving a wrap up on our communications' strategy project, we said our goodbyes and I dragged my heavy foot to the school's busstop. Having to rush to work at Novena Square shopping centre's Times bookshop is like a drag. Sometimes I wish time could just pass faster and I could graduate and get a full time job fast. I wish I could give my parents a better life and helped earn my little brother's university fees.

"Hi Julia!" Lawrence and Janice said in unison to me when i entered the Times bookshop. I clocked in at 6pm, hoping time would pass faster to 10pm, where I can clock out. Lawrence and Janice are part timers working at Times. The three of us are the only part timers and we get along well. Both Lawrence and Janice are polytechnic students in their 2nd year. I love the young and innocent energy bursting out from them. Innocence is hard to find as one grows older, especially when we hit 20s.

Work was not busy. There were few customers today. I guessed Singaporeans do not really love reading that much. I dusted the shelves and arrange the new stocks. Time passed pretty fast today.

After closing the shop, we hanged out at MacDonalds' to chill before saying our goodbyes. I realized that I missed my last bus to Toa Payoh at Novena's bus-stop. This is my first time missing the last bus. My mum mentioned before that there is another later bus.  I have to cross the street and walk two bus-stops ahead. I think I know where is it...I thought to myself and walked to the said directions.

I checked my watch. It was already 1230 AM. My mum would be so worried if I did not reach home as early as possible. I have walked for so long and did not see a single bus-stop or so. All I saw were rows of terrace houses and the path ahead of me seemed pitch black except for a few dim lightings. I could feel my anxieties gushing through my entire body. I felt cold and my limbs started to tremble. I knelt down and cried helplessly. I felt a warm hand landed on my right shoulder. "Do you need my help, miss? A gentle yet manly voice penetrated my ears.