Ecie & Esme III: Forever and a Day

Two

Ecie walked into the large hall with fifty other students and found herself a seat towards the back. She placed her bag at her feet and crossed her ankles as she unpacked her bag and took out a blue folder and her pencil case. Ecie saw as more students trickled into the hall and found their seats while she waited for her first lecture.

'Is this seat taken?'

Ecie looked to her left and saw a girl with short dark brown hair. 'Oh, no.'

'Thanks,' the girl sat down next the Ecie and started unloading her bag. 'I thought I'd be so late to my first class.'

Ecie nodded as this girl started talking to her.

'I'm Lauren by the way, Lauren Holliday.'

'Ecie,' Ecie replied. 'Where are you from originally?'

'Salt Lake City,' Lauren replied. 'I am so glad to be out of there and living on my own. Are you staying in the dorms?'

'No,' Ecie replied. 'I've got an apartment over on Wilshire Boulevard. I'm sharing it with my sister.'

'Isn't that right next to UCLA?' Lauren asked looking at Ecie. 'You've got to choose which side you're on.'

'Right,' Ecie nodded. 'Well I guess there wasn't really anywhere good around here. I think most of the places were gone.'

'So how old is your sister?'

'We're twins,' Ecie replied.

'And you both came here?' Lauren said impressed. 'That's really cool. Are you guys like best friends?'

'I wouldn't say that we're best friends,' Ecie replied. 'But we're really close.'

'That's cool,' Lauren nodded. 'So where are you from originally? Did you have to move far?'

'Oh no,' Ecie said shaking her head. 'We're from Malibu so it was a short drive. We came over last week.'

'Lucky you,' Lauren said. 'Isn't Malibu supposed to be where loads of rich and famous people live?'

'I don't know,' Ecie shrugged. 'I always just saw Malibu as home.'

'That's cool,' Lauren nodded. 'My mom's a teacher and my dad owns the local mini market. I guess that's as famous as I get.'

'Well both my parents are writers and they do other stuff,' Ecie replied. 'It's kind of embarrassing to talk about.'

'Go on,' Lauren said. 'I promise I won't make a really big deal about it.'

'Promise?'

'Pinky promise,' Lauren said offering her little finger.

Ecie nodded. 'Pinky promise.' She held up her own little finger and they swore.

'So spill,' Lauren grinned. 'I'm kind of excited now.'

'Well my parents are Sofie Thurgood and Jonathon Woodrow,' Ecie said uncomfortably. '"If you want to win an Oscar then you need to be in one of their movies". They've won loads of stuff, but I don't know.'

'That is totally cool,' Lauren said. 'Why are you embarrassed by that? If I were you, I'd stand up on this desk and yell it to everyone.'

'People tend to get a bit weird about it,' Ecie said shaking her head. 'They get these presumptions and things.'

'So I take it that you didn't inherit their flair with the pen,' Lauren said. 'Who even needs to write anyway?'

Ecie laughed. 'Yeah.'