I cried and cried the whole flight there and 22 hours later I was standing in the London International Airport waiting to be picked up.
A professional looking women with a friendly smile was holding a board that said " Ms Caverly" I walked up to her smiled, she shook my hand and helped me with my luggage "Good Morning Ms Caverly. I am Clara Parker" I greeted her back and we continued to walk to her car. The drive was silent, I was scared, excited and sad all at the same time. I looked out of my window to get a view of the unfamiliar city that we were driving pass.
"London is a big city for a young lady like you, but I assure you, soon it will be just as cosy as your city back home" I just smiled at her, uncertain of what to say.
When she began to slow down, my insides were doing twist. I was about to go to the best modelling school in the world. I did not know anyone here. I was never really good with making new friends. She stopped the car infront of a huge gate. When it opened my jaw dropped, sure I had seen this school in photographs but being in front of it was like a dream. I saw hundred of beautiful girls walking around with their luggage and their parents hugging them goodbye. I felt sad that my family wasn't here to say goodbye to me, but the sadness wore off quickly when I saw the head mistress Miranda Rose walk up to our car. Miranda was the greatest supermodel of her time and she is my biggest role model ever. I suddenly felt insecure, not quite sure how I look after that long flight. I hope I was at least presentable.
I got out of the car and walked up to her.
"Ms Leandra Caverly, it is such a pleasure to have you attend Face of The Universe Academy, I hope you are as excited to be here as we are to have you" she said with a strict yet sincere voice.
"Mrs Rose, It is such an honour to be standing here in front of you, I am so lucky to have such an amazing opportunity and I am certainly over the moon the be here." I said trying to be as polite as possible. I tried not to let here notice how I was freaking out inside.
" I am pleased to see such enthusiasm, Very well then Ms Caverly, i have other learners to attend to and I hope you have a welcoming stay" She smiled and walked off.
I took a breath and turned around to help get my luggage out the trunk.
After getting our dorm room details and schedules we had a tour of the Academy. It was huge and it was everything that I expected it to be, I just couldn't help but think how lucky I am to be here.
FOTUA - is an academy for aspiring models, you have to have the technique, look and attitude to get in this school. Only the best gets accepted. It is the greatest modelling school in the world and cost a fortune to attend. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship - Mrs Rose had 5 scholarships to give away , and when I heard of this I sent out a video application, when I heard I made it to the top 20 and that they had to fly us over to LA to get an interview done i was so psyched. And when the Agency called my mom and told her that I made the top 5 and I had to pack up and move her in a 21 days, I literally passed out.
A few months ago I was just a normal girl going to a normal school in small suburb in Sydney, now its like everything changed, and it changed for the better.
Once the tour was completed I carried my bags and walked towards my new dorm room, before I entered I took a long breath not quite sure what to expect when I opened the door.
When the door opened I saw a girl standing on one of the beds wearing a Ramone's top while sticking a GreenDay poster on the wall, she was absolutely beautiful, she had dirty blonde shoulder length hair. he was tall and skinny - but not too skinny.
"Hiiii! You must be my new room mate! I'm Madeleine, but you can call me Mady" she said with a huge smile. She seems like really nice girl, I thought to myself. I'm so thankful she isn't some stuck up b*tch that would like shave my eyebrows off in my sleep.
"Hey, I'm Leandra, but you can call me Lea" I said, wanting to shake her hand but instead she hugged me.
"Wow! That's a really cool accent, where are you from?" She asked, still smiling.
"I'm from Sydney, Australia" I said.
"Whoaa, that's the fudging cool! I've never met an Aussie person before" she said now grinning.
We carried on speaking and she is a really nice girl, she is hilarious too. We have a lot in common, we like the same music, same books, we even have the same type of fashion sense.
This is her second year at FOTUA. She is from Manchester and has the same ambitions as me - to be a professional runway model.
We helped each other unpack and set our rooms up. At the end I looked around and mentally hi-fived myself for how awesome of room looked.
"This looks great!" Mandy said. I couldn't have agreed more.
After we had welcoming ceremony, Mrs Rose announced that supper would be served.
Mady and I walked to the cafeteria and took a seat at a table towards the door, just as we sat down two stunning girls came up to us
"Mady! Stupid hoe! We missed you so much" They both screamed hugging her.
"Sup Sluts! I missed you too" she said hugging them back.
"Lea, meet Kendra, Kendra meet Lea" Mady said pointing to a tall girl with extremely short strawberry blonde hair.
She hugged me and told me that I should just call her. 'Ken'
Next was the girl with dark hair and tan skin her name was Amelia and she was just as friendly as Ken.
Ken, Amelia and Mady were all freshmans together, so they were pretty close.
We had supper and then got instructed to get to bed early because tomorrow would be a hectic day.
