New Beginnings

Chapter Three

<LAUREN POV>

Lauren packed up her last trunk into the back of her dad's SUV and hopped in the back of the vehicle making sure to get comfortable for the 16-hour drive to Chicago. She had made it, she was finally getting out of this damn town full of people she didn't give a fuck about (besides her parents and younger brother Chris).

"Ready for college kiddo?!" Her father Mike excitedly asked as he got into the diver's seat and started the car.

"More than you can imagine." Lauren muttered as they pulled out of the driveway and began the six state journey north to Illinois. Lauren had been dreaming of this day since her first day of high school when no one wanted to attempt to befriend or even talk to her. They drove until Mike could barely keep his eyes open and pulled off the interstate to settle in a hotel somewhere in Kentucky.

<NORMANI POV>

Normani's parents did not feel like making an 18-hour trek to take their daughter to college so they opted instead to fly to Illinois and have all of Normani's things shipped to school for her. She was arriving a day early, which gave her time to unpack and get settled then take a quick train to from Northwestern to Chicago and explore the city. Her parents were only spending the day with her to help unpack then they had to fly back ASAP so Derek could get back to work.

Their flight landed around 10 am and it was only a 40-minute drive from the airport in Chicago to school. When their cab pulled up to the dorm building where Normani would be living for her next year the brown-eyed girl looked in awe. She was really here, her dream school. The moving truck was already there and the Hamilton's worked quickly moving her items into the room. After a good three hours of unpacking Normani's side of the room was complete and all it needed was her roommate's things, whom Normani still did not know because she chose to go with a random roommate the school picked for her.

Derek and Andrea stayed the night in a hotel before heading off early the next morning making sure to kiss Normani goodbye as she met them for breakfast before she headed to the city. She thought it would be best to be out of the room anyway as her roommate was set to move in today and she didn't want to get in her way. She really hoped they would get along and her roommate wasn't anything like Leighton Meester's creepy character from the Roommate that basically stalked her and got matching tattoos and shit.

Normani arrived at the train station and hopped on the train finding a comfy seat in an empty car before getting out a magazine to read for the short ride. This was the new start she was looking for.

<LAURENS POV>

The Jauregui's woke up the next morning early and piled back in the car to finish the 6 hour drive they had left. Chris had been acting bratty after being woken up before his usual time of 11 but Lauren just put in her headphones and turned up her music to drown out his constant whining for the next six hours. After what seemed like forever they finally pulled into the parking lot of the dormitory and went immediately to the front desk to get Lauren's dorm number and key.

"Ms. Jar-war-gwee? You're in room 307!" The housing assistant said as Lauren rolled her eyes at the mispronunciation of her last name.

She gave a slight smirk and snatched the keys before helping Chris and her parents unload the car and bring her stuff up to her room. As she opened the door she was scared by a short blonde haired girl with a bad highlight job squealing, "ROOMY!!!!" The girl yelled in an annoyingly positive mood.

Lauren had no time to respond as the small girl enveloped her in a tight hug which Lauren was tempted to push her away from. "Um, hi I'm Lauren." The taller girl said much less enthusiastically.

"Oh my goodness how rude of me, my name is Ally these must be your parents and your brother!" the shorter girl said. Man she sure was...something Lauren thought.

Suddenly Lauren was less excited for college.

<NORMANI POV>

Normani spent her afternoon exploring Chicago. She felt like a kid on Christmas in the new city. She did all the typical "tourist" activities like visiting Navy Pier, taking a picture with the bean sculpture in Millennium Park, going to the very top of Willis Tower (even though it took a good 10 minutes of convincing herself before she could step foot on the glass overlook).

When she got hungry in the afternoon she stopped in a cute rustic pizza restaurant called Lou Malnati's and ordered one of their famous Chicago deep-dish pizzas. She almost had an orgasm when she took the first bite. Yeah, she could definitely get used to this city. After her stomach was full she headed down to Michigan Avenue to partake in one of her favorite activities, shopping. She was in awe of all the designer stores up and down Michigan Avenue. The curly haired girl window shopped at most of them because they were WAY out of her price range (which was already pretty high). After about 3 hours of shopping she was exhausted with tons of new outfits and shoes to wear for the school year she left with a smile on her face.

For once in her life she was happy to not be surrounded by a bunch of people expecting her to do everything (metaphorically of course because she was surrounded by tons of people in the crowded streets of Chicago). It was so liberating to be on her own, she didn't have to worry about pleasing her friends, her family, Kevin, she could just focus on being happy herself.

Kevin.

She hadn't talked to him at all today and she totally forgot, in fact she hadn't even checked her phone in hours, he probably called her. She pulled out her phone to see 15 new text messages. Several were from her other friends back home, one from her mom asking her how her day had been, and three from Kevin.

She opened the messages and read them as she waited for a bus to take her to the nearest train.

Kevin 😘: hey babygirl, how did moving go? {Read 3:46pm}

Kevin 😘: hope you like your new roommate, miss you already! {Read 3:46pm}

Kevin 😘: you're probably busy getting settled so I won't bother you anymore, call me when you get the chance. Love you Moniboo💞 {Read 3:47pm}

Normani felt a little guilty for leaving her boyfriend hanging but she was really enjoying time to herself right now so instead of texting or calling him back she just put her phone back in her pocket. She would call him later, he would understand, he's a pretty chill guy.

A/N: Sorry this was kind of a filler chapter just continuing to set up the eventual Laurmani reunion. I hope the constant switching of viewpoints doesn't annoy you too much it will get better the next few chapters but for now I think of it as like a tv show that switches between the two keeping everything in relatively the same time frame. Let me know you questions or comments about where the story is going so far! :) -Jauredramatic