Far Away From Home {discontinued for now}

3 | The Note

I woke up to the sun glaring through my window, making the dust particles visible through the beams of light. I rubbed my eyes and sat up yawning. Today was a Thursday, one of the weirdest days of the week. It's one of those days where it goes slowly, yet so fast. Most Thursdays people spend their time at work and school. But not me. I always used to spend my Thursdays with Sam, my older brother. We used to run along the beach and throw pebbles into the sea, seeing who could skip them the furthest. It was our escape from the gruesome reality we faced at home.

My mom was an alcoholic and my stepdad didn't help a lot. He was mostly gone on business trips for a while and only came back to complain. The sound of the waves rolling in and out was almost a form of meditation for me. I'd stargaze, skip pebbles, take pictures, do whatever I could before I had to return to Bothwell.

I heard a door creak on the other side of the room, so I guess Luca or Max was awake. I leaned over to the window and opened it, taking in a breath of fresh air. I walked over to my desk and brushed my hair into a high ponytail. I put on some light makeup consisting of mascara and lipgloss. I cleaned my glasses and placed them on my face.

I quietly opened the door to the rest of our dorm and closed it slowly, to not wake up Ella. I tiptoed outside the room and then felt a small tap on my shoulder. I whipped my head around to see Ella.

"Oh. You're awake?" I asked.

"Uh yeah, didn't you see me behind you? I was putting stuff in my bag.." Ella replied sounding not so certain about what she said.

"Mhm. You sure? I didn't see you..." I raised an eyebrow.

"Ughhh fine. I was in Luca's room. Only getting one of my books!". She shouted.

I smirked at her.

Behind Ella one of the room doors opened and Luca walked out with a confused look on his face.

"I heard my name. I'm here." He said.

"Oh Ella was just-" I began but Ella pushed her hands over my mouth before I could finish, making the rest of my sentence muffled.

"Riiiight. See you in class..?" Luca said.

Ella grabbed my hand and pulled me across the corridor to the Great Hall. Breakfast was usually served at around 8:30 which gave me enough time to write in my book. I just wish I was living the same lives as some of these characters. Books are another version of an escape from reality. My escape from the life I was living back home. Whenever mom would hit me, reading almost flooded my mind with creativity instead of the negative thoughts that were once there.

Suddenly the bench I was sat on suddenly felt weighed down on one side. I looked up from my page and my eyes met with those of two girls. One was average height with long chestnut coloured hair worn in two buns at the back of her hair. She had big deep blue coloured eyes. The other girl was short with silky black hair. She had a small BTS necklace hidden under her robes which I could only just see.

The two girls were smiling and talking to each other when Ella came and sat down in front of me aswell. That's when the two girls finally noticed us.

"Oh, hi! My name's Holly Holmes and this is my bestie Demi Flynn!" Said the one with black hair.

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Liliana Ruth and I'm a third year. This is my friend Ella Turner. Also sorry, but I couldn't help but notice your BTS necklace. It's so cute!" I said.

"Oh yes! I'm from Korea and I've loved them since the beginning. Who's your bias?" She asked.

"Alright Holly hold your horses. You can Kpop talk later. Also does one of you guys happen to be a detective? Just kidding the chances of that-" Demi began.

"Well... Liliana is obsessed with the Sherlock franchise and has helped her grandpa solve a few cases." Ella says enthusiastically.

"Oh um." I chuckle "I guess I could help then. What's the issue?"

"Well, Holly and I found this note," Demi said, handing me a torn up sheet of paper ripped straight out of a Harry Potter book. Literally. I could still read the original text underneath the cursive writing layered above. "And we were wondering if you could help us piece it back together and try to find out what it's trying to say?"

"Oh. Easy." I started rummaging through the ripped corners and edges and piecing them together.

"See, told you she's good at this." Ella said. I didn't register she was speaking to be honest. I was far too focused on the note.

"I worked out the first sentence!" I shouted a bit too loudly. A few heads turned our way.

"Liliana quiet down!" Holly said.

"Oops. Sorry."

Suddenly the principle at the front of the hall asked for silence and dismissed us to our first lesson.

"Oh I have... Dark Arts Defence training." I said.

"Me too!" Holly and Ella said in sync.

"Oh, I have astrology. I'll meet you guys later!" Demi said.

We waved eachother off and walked off to the class.

                                       ❣️

Hi! Thankyou for reading this chapter. (sorry it's been so long 😬) Sometimes I find it hard to get motivation to write and with all the crazy things going on right now my mind was really stressy. Straight after I post this I'm going to start writing the next chapter so it won't be as long of a wait as this was. If you find any grammar mistakes please just add a little comment next to it so I can edit it.

Gn, Gm, Gd wherever you are in the world. Stay Awesome
-maia <3