When We Were Young (JACHAELA AU)

-Chapter 1-

I arrived at my dorm room at the Academy. It was Day 1 out of the 3 years I'd be here to work towards my dream of becoming a police officer for the NYPD. Today and the rest of this week were for unpacking and getting situated. A week from now is orientation.

I made dinner and ate while watching TV, then went to sleep and repeated that cycle every day for the next week. Now it was finally the day.

I woke up that morning, made breakfast, got ready, and headed to the training building.

The classroom was very blank. Surrounding me were plain white walls with about 40 wooden desks. I looked for my name tag and sat at the table it was at once I found it, next to a tall guy with short black hair. He had a relatively short scruff on his face, barely even visible.

"Good morning, trainees." The Captain said as she walked in to which the students responded. "Good morning, Captain." The Captain began introducing herself and talked about the program. "Your first assignment will be to face your shoulder partner to your right." 

Everyone was confused but they all listened. My partner just so happened to be the guy with short black hair. I looked down at his name tag; "Vasquez"

"Introduce yourselves and talk, you have 5 minutes. Get to know one another. Go."  Vasquez turned to me and we made eye contact.  His eyes were a brown color and I could stare at them all day. "Hey, I'm Jared, Jared Vasquez." He smiled. "Hi, I'm Michaela Stone."

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"Okay, Michaela Stone, Tell me about yourself." She looked at me and chuckled. I'm assuming that caught her off guard. "Well, I was born in New York. I'm 19. I love to run and the grilled cheese/ tomato soup combination. Tell me about you now."

"First of all, Grilled cheese is oddly specific," I said all while laughing. "It's so easy to make and so delicious." She justified. "Okay, I believe you." She smiled. Michaela was so beautiful. "Anyways. I was born in Cuba. I came here when I was a baby. I'm 20. I also love to run and I like to travel a lot."

We continued to talk for the next 5 minutes until the Captain raised her voice. "I hope you all got comfortable with one another because these are your partners for the next 3 years you'll be here. I'm going to hand out these forms to all of you. 2 weeks from now, you'll be taking the service exam and you must pass to continue. You will use your partners to study."

Hearing that she'll be my partner for such a long time was great. It gave me a chance to get to know her and I would like nothing more. "Thank you. You're dismissed."

"I guess we should probably study right, Vasquez?"She looked up at me. "Call me Jared and Yeah, we should. I say we get breakfast tomorrow and then you can come to my dorm and study or I can go to yours or vice versa only if you're okay with that of course." 

It was bold of me to ask her to breakfast but I couldn't help myself. "Perfect."

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We exchanged numbers and then went our separate ways. I went to the store to buy strawberries and I'm assuming that Jared went home.  Once I got home, I spent the rest of the day cleaning. I looked outside and saw that the sun was setting so I thought it'd be nice to go for a run.

I put on some workout clothes and left my dorm. On the way down, a guy who was also in running attire held the door for me. "Thank you," I said to the guy. "You're welcome." That's when I knew exactly who it was.