My Missing Puzzle Piece

Chapter 1

The first day of senior year was for many college students a very nostalgic one, people all over campus would be taking selfies with their friends and posting them on Instagram, Twitter, and some old school even on Facebook. It was the only day when everybody was nice to each other; guys who didn't even know each other's names would high five when crossing paths in hallways, and girls would start saying goodbye when they still had an entire year ahead of them.

Like senior year in High school, it was the first step onto the next milestone in a person's life. After this, the next first day you'd get was the one at that dream job you had studied so hard to get. The transition from high school to college meant you were no longer a child but an adult, this one was the door to the real world.

Claire Dearing was a realist, not even as a kid did she let herself be merged into a fantasy world — and if she were to be asked, she didn't plan to start any time soon; too bad she didn't have a crystal ball to tell her differently.

"Have you seen my purple marker?" The redhead called out, she was crawling around her dorm looking for it. She simply couldn't leave to class without her full set. Claire had a system when it came to taking notes, purple was for the professor's personal opinion on the topic. She liked writing those down, they always came handy for essays, debates, and even midterms.

"Have you checked the jacket you were wearing yesterday?" Zara, her best friend and roommate, called out from their bathroom, where she was straightening her black hair. She was English and had gotten the opportunity to come to America to get her degree. Both Claire and her had been paired to be roommates in Freshman year and became inseparable since.

"Of course!" Claire nodded to herself; when it came to her personal itinerary, purple was for extra classes she had assigned to her schedule. She was twenty-three and already had her whole professional life planned out; that's the kind of woman she was. She was organized and she needed to know where she would be standing, three steps ahead of time. By the age of ten she already knew she wanted to rule the world, by her sophomore year in high school she was determined to become a powerful business woman, and half way through her business major...she already had a job opportunity locked. Her determination and hard work were now focused on absorbing and taking everything she could in these two semesters she had left, so by the time she graduated, she could be prepared and kick some ass out there.

"Did you find it?" Zara was holding the recently unplugged hair straightener against her head as she met her friend by the closet.

"Yep!" Claire pulled it out of her jacket in victory. "I gotta go! I don't want to be late." She rushed back to her bed and slid the purple marker into the 24-color marker set she had. She gathered all her stuff and headed to the door, "I'll save you a seat!"

"Thanks! Also, you owe me our last-first-day of college selfie!" Zara called out watching her friend close the door behind her.

****

Even after her delay, Claire managed to make it to class five minutes before it started. The faculty had opened an extra credit course on human relations to be lectured by former Navy man Owen Grady. The redhead was one of the few students who had assigned themselves the course, she figured it would come in handy not only because she was always looking for extra credit, but also because it would introduce her to the do's and don't's of human interaction in the workplace — how to establish leadership among your staff and deal with all kinds of people.

"Hey Claire~" A dark haired guy she knew from a few of her other classes greeted her before taking the seat next to hers, "Wanna take a selfie? So I can have something to remember all those times you rejected me by." He nudged her before she posed with him and let him take the photo. The guy uploaded it to his Instagram right away, her own cellphone announcing he had tagged her on it.