Roommates | Cashton

Chapter One

Football = Soccer :)

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Calum looked out the car window at the campus before him, a small smile on his face. He was finally here. His dream of playing football at the University of Melbourne had finally come true and it was all starting to feel real. It was so surreal that he had just been wandering the halls of his private high school and now he was a freshman at his dream university. It wasn't like he hadn't expected to get into Melbourne because his grades were nearly a 4.0 because he paid his best friend to do it for him. He just had never thought that he would get that far. 

"Close your mouth, sweetie. You're drooling," Joy giggled from the front seat, knocking Calum back into reality. 

"I wasn't drooling, mum," Calum denied, though he most likely was. 

"This campus is the most beautiful thing. It makes me want to go back," David said and then laughed. "Do you mind if I go to school with you, Cal? We could be roomies." 

"I mean, if you want, go for it. But I'm going to be moving into a fraternity soon," Calum told him, even if he knew that his dad was just joking.

"So you're going to be one of those douche bag frat boys that is only in uni for the booze and girls? I should've guessed you would be," his older sister Mali scoffed, rolling her eyes. 

"No, he's not going to be the stereotypical frat boy. He's going to be a good student that lives in a fraternity, does his work, and plays his football. I'm not paying for you to come here and goof around, Calum. I'm paying for you to get a good and solid education so you can be successful in life," David stated sternly, his eyes narrowing at Calum in the rearview mirror. 

"Dad, you know that I'm going to become a professional footballer. Coach said that I had potential. Don't you remember that he brought that scout all the way from Brazil to watch?! He was impressed, but wanted to watch again in college when I would be of age," Calum told him, gushing about his hopes and dreams. 

"And apparently my head is in the clouds. At least I have a somewhat solid record deal," Mali smarted. 

"You know, if you would bother to go to one of my games, you would know that I'm very good at what I do and my dreams aren't that out of reach. I could be going to Brazil, Mali. And you'll back home in Sydney, wishing that you would've believed me while bathing in your own tears because your record label is jacked and won't get you anywhere," Calum snapped. 

"Calum Thomas! Mali didn't bash your dreams, that doesn't give you any right to crush hers! She has every bit of chance of making her dreams successful as you do," Joy scolded. "Now, can we please not argue anymore? I don't want to leave you here with the last family conversation being a fight."

Everyone in the vehicle went quiet, not wanting to protest Joy's request. Calum knew that she was an emotional wreck, despite her positivity and wide smile. She was leaving her baby boy at a college that was across the country. Even with Mali being older, she had only went to uni in Sydney, so she wasn't as far from home. Calum wasn't within an ten minute drive of his parents - it was more or less ten hours. 

It was a big step for anyone to be leaving to university and being that far away from home fresh out of school. But Calum felt that he was ready to be independent and start working on his life. Plus, if he were going to be getting signed to a professional football team, he was going to have to be over a continent away from his family. Better to start getting used to it now rather than later. 

David found a parking spot that was close to Calum's temporary dorm building and pulled in. The Hood family all got out of the vehicle in silence, going to the trunk of the car to start getting his things out and up to his room.