Chapter 1

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It's incredible how quickly summer passes. One day you finish classes and you're making all sorts of different plans, and suddenly you're buying pens and pencils, your mother is ironing your uniform, and your father is writing a check to pay for tuition. The ridiculously expensive tuition.

You close your eyes and open them, and you're not at the pool. You're not having a milkshake with the pretty girls from your neighborhood, the ones who laugh at your jokes even though you know they weren't really that funny. No, you weren't in those oases. Charlie blinked and opened his eyes, and he was standing in front of Welton. Another year. Another year in those four brick walls that suffocated him and separated him from the open air.

He frowned, blinded by the intense sun on that early September day. He didn't know if the headache was from the sun's rays seeming to pierce his sinuses or because his tie was so tight it felt like he was choking.

He decided to loosen it a bit.

"Charlie, honey, your tie," Mrs. Dalton, his mother, grabbed his shoulders and turned him towards her. She adjusted it even tighter than before. Now he really felt like he was choking.

"Mom, please..." Charlie grumbled.

Mrs. Dalton simply patted his cheek twice and turned to talk to her husband, who was finishing his seventh phone call of the day. He was the boss, he had to answer them all, it was his duty (that was the excuse Charlie had heard his whole life).

Suddenly, a somewhat sweet smell pulled him out of his reverie. Was it a fruit? No. A flower, maybe? He didn't know what he was smelling, but it had completely captivated him.

It wasn't his mother's perfume. That one was too heavy, at times even unbearable.

His head swiveled frantically, searching for the source of that overwhelming, much-needed aroma.

There, just a few meters away, was what he was looking for. What surprised him wasn't that he had become obsessed with a simple perfume. What surprised him was that the person wearing it had what seemed to him to be the silkiest, most wonderful hair he had ever seen. It radiated youth and vivacity; it was impossible that she was a student's mother. A sister, perhaps?

The mysterious young woman shifted to one side, revealing another girl who had been hiding behind her. It was then that he noticed what they were wearing. The crest on their sweaters was unmistakable; it was the same one he had worn since he was very young. In fact, it was the same crest on his own sweater.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Girls at Welton?

The first girl, the one with the long, loose, and wonderful hair, started to laugh. Charlie thought he had never heard such a captivating laugh in his life. He had to meet her.

He began to stride towards the girl when a crowd of people started walking towards the institution's auditorium, blocking his view of her. He bit the inside of his cheek, standing on tiptoes to see beyond the thousands of heads moving in one direction.

When the courtyard finally cleared, he felt a wave of disappointment when he realized there was no one there. He was completely alone. Where had she gone?

His mother's hand on his shoulder startled him.

"Charlie, sweetheart, what are you doing?" She pulled her son's forearm into the auditorium. "Mr. Nolan is about to start!"

He cast one last glance around and, resignedly, followed his mother.
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If you had to describe Sharon Green with one word, it would be 'dreamer.' It was undeniable that she always had her head in the clouds, in imaginary worlds. She constantly pictured scenarios in her mind, conversations with people she knew (conversations that never happened).

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⏰ Last updated: Jul 13 ⏰

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