A Chance Someday

Prologue

"True love is when you find another heart

 to care for as much as your own."

**

11 years ago

I sat at the far most corner of the field, watching the others in my class play a game of tag. I doodled a few shapes in the sand with a stick that I found, all the while trying to suppress my sadness.

To say that I didn't want to play along would be a lie. I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to get along too.

Sadly, I was and still is very shy.

This was how every single day went by in elementary school. I'd be the odd one out, too shy to interact with the other kids. It was worse in kindergarten but it remains one of my biggest flaws to this day. I'd be alone, just hoping someday that one of the kids would come up to me and ask me to play.

Just wishing that maybe one day, they'd approach me.

I poked at a snail's shell, feeling worse than before that I had to find company in a snail. In the end, I chose to play with the ends of my black hair, pulling at the pink hairband my brother gave to me for my seventh birthday last week.

My seventh birthday came and gone in a blink of an eye- just like any normal day. I did quite a great job at hiding my disappointment when no one in my class remembered my birthday although it didn't go unnoticed by my brother. Its just that I wasn't like the others.

I'm not like Ivy Johannah, the outgoing girl in my class, who everyone wants to be friends with and I certainly as hell couldn't announce to the whole class that its my birthday like Ivy did yesterday. She invited everyone to her birthday party, even asked me to it herself, but I knew I couldn't- even if I really wanted to.

My brother, Cameron, wouldn't let me.

When Ivy invited me, I was speechless. I couldn't even form a proper sentence. But when I finally did, it was full of stuttering. Ivy merely chuckled and said goodbye to me. I was left to drown in shame just because I couldn't properly say, "Sorry, I can't but thanks."

I shook my head to get rid of the embarrassing moment from my head, my eyes landing back on the ongoing game of tag. I sighed, about to poke the snail again when the bell rang loudly. The whole class cheered, running for the cafeteria as the teacher gave up trying to control them. Leaving my hair down, I walked towards the cafeteria at the other end of the school.

When I entered the cafeteria, it was rowdier than usual. It sparked my curiosity as to why while I took my food from the lady and sought for my usual seat. A huge group of older kids- only older by a year- were crowding around an unfamiliar boy. The boy had a wide grin on his face, answering their questions and laughing at their jokes.

I assumed that he's probably new since I've never seen him around.

"Is that the new boy?" A girl asked her friend as I passed their table. I glanced over my shoulder to them while I made my way to my usual seat, just a table across. I sat down and started munching on my sandwich.

"Yeah, that's him. I heard he's the son of Vincent and Jessica Luke."

My eyes widened and I whipped my head towards him. He's the son of Vincent Luke? The owner of one of the biggest timber tycoons in the world? And Jessica Luke? One of the most renowned chefs in culinary? Not to mention that Vincent Luke is also a famous architect.