C2

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"Guess who was at the diner last night?" Chelsea asked her bestfriend on their way back to the locker room.

Jessica Quinn, Chelsea's friend since middle school, stopped on her tracks and looked at her. She pretended to be thinking before opening her mouth.

"Bradley Cooper."

" Whatever, silly!" She said and laughed. Jessica also joined her in laughing at her own joke before speaking.

"Seriously, who was it, Chels?"

"Wilson and Nina"

Jessica's lips formed an "o" before speaking again. "Chels, you still aren't over him, are you?"

Chelsea avoided Jessica's stare and reached for the towel inside her locker.

"I am Jess."

Jessica looked at her again and decided to stop asking. Chelsea was more than happy that Jessica finally stopped with her interrogation. She doesn't like explaining how she exactly feels about the whole thing.

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Nina lazily opened her eyes. She could feel the sunlight already burning her skin. Who on earth would even forget to close the curtains over the French door?

She softly growled when she felt something heavy over her waist. She grunted when she saw Wilson's arm resting over her body. But the grunts were quickly replaced with soft chuckles when she saw his bottom slightly uncovered by the thick comforter.

She gently removed his arm and pulled the heavy cloth to cover Wilson's nakedness. Reaching for the silk robe lying on the chair beside the bed, she covered her own nakedness and reached for the curtains to block the sun from passing through the frozen glass. Feeling slight pangs of hunger, she went downstairs to get something to eat.

She opened the small fridge and found some salad. She took it and settled on a bar stool to eat.

This is her last year in Ridgewood High. Finally, she can get away from this place which she considers nothing from what she is used to. One more year and she can access her bank accounts and get into a fancy ivy league university.

Nina frowned at the reality that shocked her since last year. After almost two decades, the marriage between Katharine and Nathan finally ended. Nina scoffed at the decision of the court. The decision was long overdue. She knew eversince she was four that her parents' marriage was a charade. It was a sham she has to live with up until she was 12 when her parents decided to live separately.

Katharine Aoki was, is and never would belong to her father, Nathan Greene. Her mother lives for the limelight. She is always on Page Six of the newspaper and even at her age of 40, her soul is that of a bird, never captured and is always free.

On the other hand, her father has always been a lover of solitude. He would stay inside his library, reading and writing things and books that her mother, Katharine barely understands. It's not that she is uneducated. Katharine is in fact, a cultured woman, but Nathan is an intellect. Aside from that, he likes to travel to different places where he learns about anthropology and archaeology. Such things bore her mother, Katharine. And Nina can clearly remember the tantrums that her mother threw one time over a similar topic.

"No, sweetheart. I told you that Nina is going with me to Africa. We will be visiting a tribe-"

"I already informed you that my daughter is going with me to the Hamptons!" Katharine's voice rose. "Don't you ever turn Nina into a carbon copy of yourself, Nathan! I am warning you!"

That was neither the first nor the last time that her parents argued on how she should be raised. In the end however, she grew up more like Katharine since Nathan got too enmeshed in his writing. She got to wear the most expensive and up to date wardrobes, play polo with or race against the sultan's grandchildren, shake hands with the royal family of London, exchange few chitchats with the members of the first family all because Katharine Aoki was doing the same thing. Honestly, Nina never missed her father all the time she was growing up, though she would usually visit his library during the short time she spends in their villa.

When she was 12, Nathan came home from one of his long trips and without informing her or Katharine, took all of his things and decided to live in a rented apartment all by himself. Katharine seemed to be unaffected and that was the time that Nina knew that she has seen life at its fullest. She has seen the glamour life has to offer during gatherings outside their home and saw life's failure behind closed doors.

When her parents formally but not yet legally separated, she was left at the mercy of her grandparents' care, Katharine's very own parents. They turned out to be more attentive to her needs. She was finally sent to a boarding school for formal schooling at last. She was not homeschooled anymore. She needed to follow a strict regimen of schedules, deadlines and classes.

On her first year in St. Catherine's, her nana or grandmother died. Three years after, her grandfather died as well. Nina eventually understood what devastation really meant. Both her parents practically abandoned her, and now, her grandparents are literally gone. She has nowhere else to go.

She tried to keep in touch with her mother, but Katharine was only able to tell her, I'm sorry to hear that, Nina. Please try to contact Nathan.

And here she is now. Absorbed in the public school system, for her father thinks that it is the best decision for her to understand the world better. You have been sheltered for too long, sweetheart, Nathan told her when she visited him in his apartment. Don't worry. Heed to my advice first and when you're 18, you can practically do whatever you want. I personally alloted a lot of my earnings in your college education and I'm sure that your mom and grandparents already have something for you when you reach that age.

She was lost for words but she was able to convince herself that knowing her parents, she should not be that surprised anymore.

Nina sighed and placed the last piece of salad in her mouth. Her tongue licked the sweet taste of the salad dressing on the metallic fork before finally standing and placing the bowl in the sink.

She has done a lot of things she would admit she wasn't proud of for the last ten months or so. She is navigating new things on her own and she has to survive. As she remembered Sis. Jennifer's lecture in one of her Biology classes, only the fittest creature survives, and to survive means to adapt.

And Nina has decided that by all means,she will do that.

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