International Schooling and Bonding Project

Chapter 1 - Drop the act Catarina!

Chapter 1 - Drop the act Catarina!

"Are you ready?"

"Coming!" I scream to the guy behind the door, probably João. Amazing how much your relationship with someone can improve after a nine hour flight, a two hours wait in the New York airport, another five hours flight and a two hours drive to the school grounds... Yeah, now we actually get along and we almost look like friends.

I finished unpacking almost an hour ago. Now I'm just sitting in my new bed, and looking around. It's a very plain bedroom, with two beds, two closets, two desks, two bookshelves and a full-body mirror. I haven't started putting my photos on the walls and the big flag that I bought because my roommate only arrives tomorrow or the day after, and I don't know how she will be like and if she will be alright with all of that. Will she like me? Will she be okay with me putting around memories from my times at home? Where will she be from? And so many other questions come into my mind that I just decide to leave.

When I open the door, I find João, as I thought, waiting for me.

"What took you so long?" he asks me with an annoyed face and starts walking, with such a speed that I'm forced to jog a bit to be next to him again "I want to look around, meet people, and discover places... Don't you?"

"Not really..." I say and he looks at me like I just murdered someone "Let me rephrase it... It's not that I don't want to, it's that there is no one here yet! Most of the other students will only arrived during the night or tomorrow, and we will have a tour around soon after that! Why can we just stay put?" I say as we reach the school entrance. Lame right, I now live in my school...

"Where is your sense of adventure Cat?" did I forget to mention that that's how he calls me now "Don't you want to see the things that they won't show us?"

"Alright, alright! You are really strange, hasn't anyone told you that yet? ..." I say while he is looking at me with a strange, yet hilarious face "Let's go before I change my mind about this..." I say but I don't really mean it, I just want to make him happy... and because of that he starts to drag me around the whole school.

It's a nice place, I have to give them that. It's modern and with many open spaces, and it's placed right next to the ocean. It's not the cold Atlantic, but I guess it's better than nothing...

"Isn't this beautiful?!" João says with his eyes glowing with the joy of seeing the ocean again.

"Yeah! Very..." I make an effort not to sound like I'm not being honest

"Alright! I'm sick of this..." he turns his face to me with a serious expression "What's going on with you? You have been acting like this since Lisbon's airport... What's your problem? I really thought that you were starting to warm up to me..." he just burst out like that

"Whoa, never thought that you had that in you! Who are you and what did you do to my friend?" I say before I realise that I just called him my friend, thank God he didn't seem to notice.

"Drop the act Catarina! What's really going on?" He actually looks concerned, now I'm really surprised... I didn't think that I meant all that much to him... now I feel like I owe him an explanation...

"Well, I don't know how to put it... I guess is just my way to react and show everybody that I really don't want to be here..." I try to say, but even to my ears it sounds lame

"You don't want to be here... are you crazy? This is a once in a life time experience, there were a lot of candidates and only you and I got to be here..."

"I know that!" I scream "You really think I don't kwon that! Who do you take me for?!"

Then, in a more normal tone I add "It's not that, it's just the way that all for this was presented to me... Don't get me wrong, I've always wanted to study abroad, but I've always thought that it would be in Erasmus, or something... not here..." He looks at me like he is ready to hears me out

"I have all the time in the world." He says while he sits in the sand and smiles at me, not a fake smile, but a genuine one "You can trust me, you know"

"Yeah, I do" I say while I sit beside him

"I was in my school when I found out... and I'm not talking when I found out about the project, but when I found out that I got the scholarship." I begin and look at him to see if he is following. When he sees this he waves his hand telling me to go on "Everyone was talking about it, you know... How awesome it would be to get it, how amazing it would be to study in California, how incredible it would be to meet people for all over the world, and so on, you get the idea..." I stop for a moment to see how he is reacting "Well, everybody, with one small exception: me. I didn't want to come... Yes it would me amazing... but throughout my life almost everybody that I meet seems to not like me... In my previous school I was bullied, but there I wasn't! I actually had friends that liked me, and I didn't want to lose that... So, I was the only person in the whole student-body that didn't expect to get it, because I didn't sent the application... or at least that was what I thought... Let's just say that that day I was called to the headmasters office and she and my parents told me how they were so happy that I was the female student chosen... Apparently my parents had seen the inscription form and decided to send it without telling me, according to them they wanted to surprise me... So here I am... And now I am worried about what might happen here... I don't want to go back to the same situation that I was before..." my voice cracks at that and I just stop and look at him

"You don't have to worry! I've known you for only a small amount of time and I can tell that you are an amazing person... and you kwon you do have a friend... like you said before I'm your friend!" He says with a smile "You only should lose a bit of that attitude" he says while laughing and I laugh at the same time, well at least we are not talking about serious stuff anymore "Now, if you don't mind me asking, why were you bullied?" he adds with a sad face. Well, guess I talked to soon...

"Well, they used to call me fat and ugly, as well as a nerd... and because I was alone and had a very low self-esteem, I believed them..."

"Now! That's clearly not true... Look at you" He smiles while pointing at me "You are thin and beautiful..." I tried not to blush while he said that, but failed miserably "you will see that you will have so many people wanting to be your friend that they will have to make a line... but just remember: I was the first!" He says while shoving me into the sand

I just laugh at that and shove him back... I must say that he really helped me, it's strange...

"Alright, let's get out of here... I still have a lot of school grounds to explore, and you should skype your friends, you know..." He gives me his hand and I take it

"Let's go! ... And João... Thank you!" I finally say

"What are friends for..."

Friends that's a word that I'm beginning to associate with him, that good right?

Author's note:

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