MEMORIES OF TOMORROW

THE TRUE BEGINNING

June 5th 2019

My heart pounded at my chest as me and my sister made out way up the stairs of our boarding with our suitcase.

My mom was with me as I went to my dormitory-room, few others were already there, unpacking their things and organising it into their respective cupboards.

"Ellee where do you wanna keep these..." I zoned out my mom's voice as I took in my surrounding. It was a pretty spacious room. There were ten beds in total. Six of which were bunk beds. I chose a normal one and my sister chose the one next to me.

Our Matron looked pretty nice. She helped us with our things and briefed us once gain on the hostel roles and facilities.

There was even a kid from my old school, Arya. She was a year younger to me. But I had no memory of seeing her in the hallways of my previous school. Probably because it had over ten thousand girls. Whereas my new school had eight hundred students. And two hundred teaching staff. I scoffed in my head.

By evening I was done unpacking and my mom was getting ready to leave. She finished talking to a few of the other parents present and came up to me. I could tell she didn't want to go, leaving us here. She was holding back tears.

At the time I wouldn't understand. But my mom missed us the most. And it broke her heart to leave us. We said our goodbyes and my mom left.

The room was eerily quiet even with seven girls in it. That was truly astonishing to me. I badly wanted to talk to them. I would drive myself insane otherwise.

Half an hour passed slowly.

All of us were new borders except for a senior. She came up to us and introduced herself as Athena. She was a bubbly character and made us smile and laugh in the first few minutes of our conversation.

I soon learned the names of the other girls.

The one with slightly curly hair and red frame specs was Ashlyn, in my same year. Then there was Dona, the same year as Arya, we both became close in the next few days, due to our outgoing and flirty personas.

From the other room, there was Amy, a sweet chubby kid in my same year who had been a boarder in Hope Mount for four consecutive years.

I soon learned that there was a schedule to be followed. At five-thirty we had snacks and coffee.

After which we usually had 'study' from five forty-five to seven forty-five. Two hours to be exact.

Then dinner, prayer after returning to the dorms and an hour of TV time till nine-thirty which was 'lights off'.

The first day went without any hiccups. At night I looked up at the ceiling as I tried to go to bed. After a while of deep pondering about different types of cheese I drifted off into a blissful sleep.

That is until the next day morning, six o'clock when I shot up from bed at the sound of an insanely loud bell ringing. It was time to wake up.

This was the only day we would get up on time though. It was then that it struck me that Hope Mount was a co-ed school.

I would be surrounded by the unknown species of male human beings. The thought made me excited as well as nervous. I was an average tomboy with below-average knowledge about the male mind. But I was soon going to find out.

We did not have morning-study which was from seven-ten to eight-fifteen. After which, there were breakfast and school at eight-forty.

I remember very few things from my first day as it was just a rush. The new kids still hadn't received their uniforms so we had to go in normal clothes, which I was fine with.  Although it did make me stand out.