Two and a Half Years Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

It’s hard to believe that I had never set eyes on anything more perfect in all my life. That soft blonde hair, the way that he looked at everything. That very smile that made my heart melt. He had a quality about him. Something that was rare. But all of this was yet to be discovered.

“Emma? It’s time to get up, you don’t want to be late for your first day of college. Do you?” Emma grunted and rolled over shoving her face into her pillow. She knew that today was the second of September and she would soon be starting her first year of college. She had picked the most abstract courses. The made no sense and they would be of no use to her later on in life. Except maybe Law. Emma’s mum, Julia, had made her pick a subject that was not based around performing arts. She knew all too well that having a chance of getting into acting or dancing, professionally anyway, was the hardest thing in life to do. Every girl aspired to be like their role models and all the young men wanted to look as toned and have the girls clinging onto them like any male actor. Emma thought different but decided to pick Law just to satisfy her mum. “Emma, I won’t call again.” Emma let out a great sigh and rolled her eyes. Turning to face the ceiling, she opened her eyes, giving them a rub, moving the sleep away. Emma’s heart was pounding. She had been to open days at her college, but the fact that she was now starting made everything feel... real. With another sigh, she flung the covers back and swept her legs over the side of her bed. The wooden floor of her room felt cold on her feet. It was the second of September after all. It was hitting winter. “EMMA?” Emma shook her head. “MUM IM UP.” Her mum had always said she wasn’t a morning person. “What to wear, what to wear.” Emma flicked through the amount of clothes that she had been bought. Her mum always made a big deal about things like this. Every time she started a new year at school she would buy a brand new uniform, pencils, pens, a brand new pencil case. Not to mention the school bag and all the accessories you could imagine to go with it, but she loved it. She loved the attention that she got. It was always hard to follow in her brothers footsteps. Emma always wanted to make her parents proud. After the death of her uncle things had started to go downhill. If that wasn’t hard enough, her parents decided to split up a few months after. Nobody could really understand the devastation that stayed in her heart. After a while, she just pushed it aside and got on with her life. Nothing she could do would ever change the past now. Apart from the fact that the desire to please her parents was now greater than ever. Emma decided to put on a pair of her favourite jeans, white top and red cardigan. She looked in the mirror and started to brush her hair. Emma thought her hair was too plain. Shoulder length, mousy brown hair. Split ends everywhere. But it was silky and soft. She put the straighteners on and walked to the bathroom where she brushed her teeth. Her mum greeted her on her way. “So, How do you feel about today?” Julia rested against the radiator with her usual morning cup of tea in her hands. Emma’s expression and body language said it all. She shrugged her shoulders and then laughed. “I don’t know. Scared? Can I say that?” Julia laughed and ruffled Emma’s hair before starting back towards her bedroom. With another reassuring sigh Emma walked back to her bedroom, straightened her hair and waited for her mum. She would normally have to get the bus, but on her first day, her mum decided to drop her off on the way to work. She knew how nervous she was going to be. “Come on then sweetheart. Time to go.” Julia smiled, locking the front door. Not knowing what class she would have today, Emma threw everything that she bought in her bag. “What do you think today will be like? Will there be any handsome men?” Emma’s face turned scarlet. She looked at her mum and shook her head. “I can’t believe you just said that mum. You’re so embarrassing.” Julia cocked her head at Emma. “What? I was just asking a simple question”. Emma laughed and shrugged her shoulders again. “I don’t know. I hope so. I mean... I’m sick of dating all the boys at school. They’re really childish and just like treating girls like crap really.” Emma put her seatbelt on and looked out of the window of her mums Fiesta. Julia raised her eyebrows and kicked the car into gear. “You know I don’t like that language Emma. Don’t do it.” Her face was stern. Her lips pulled into a tight line and her eyes focusing on the road ahead.

It was only about a 10 minute journey to her new college, but to Emma, it felt like they had been driving for hours. She knew she would be able to see the college as they headed up the hill. 5 minutes later, the white walls and burgundy writing could be clearly seen. Emma couldn’t help her now nervous, but excited expression. A wide smile spread over her face and she looked around the car frantically trying to make herself look as cool as possible. Julia pulled into a parking bay and turned off the ignition. She turned to Emma and kissed her cheek. “I won’t embarrass you, don’t worry darling. Just...have a good day. Okay?” Emma smiled and hugged her mum before getting out of the car. She looked around and smiled again. She could already see her friends looking at her and waving. Waving goodbye to her mum, Emma walked slowly over to her friends. They all had the same look on their faces. Every single one of them could have easily blended in with the white walls of the college. No matter how much makeup, amount of foundation that they put on, amount of eye liner could make them look any different. Emma turned to her best friend Jasmine and gave her a hug. She knew that she felt just like she did. Just as nervous, wondering if she would make anymore friends. Nobody knew for sure what was going to happen. Emma walked into college and looked around. It was a brand new smell. It all smelt new. She was just about to go through the barriers when she was stopped by a short teacher. She turned around and looked at her. Smiling. “What lesson do you have first?” Emma raised an eyebrow and looked at Jasmine. She couldn’t help but laugh. “Erm, I think I have Law?” The teacher smiled and nodded her head. “Do you know where you’re going?” Emma looked around and just nodded. “Not really, but I’m sure I can find the way. It can’t be too hard.” As Emma turned her back she started to laugh uncontrollably. She put her student card on the barrier and let herself in. “West Annex?” Emma looked at Jasmine and shook her head. “I don’t know.” She heard some people talking about how they had Psychology in the West Annex first. Emma raised an eyebrow and decided to follow the people to the building she had never heard of before. Walking to the West Building she could finally see the new building. It looked like it hadn’t been there long. Jumping up onto the wall, she trudged over the grass. It had been raining earlier on in the day and it had made the ground quite wet. Emma made sure that she wiped her feet before entering the building. Looking at the yellow piece of paper that she had been given by the teacher, she made her way to the classroom. There were already people in there. A few girls and a group of boys sitting in the corner. She took a glance at the teacher. He didn’t look too scary. Rather timid. Emma looked around, plucked up the courage and walked into the room. The teacher looked up from his laptop and smiled. He couldn’t see how nervous she was. Emma walked over to an empty chair and placed her bag on the floor. She definitely felt out of place here. The boys in the corner looked like they had expensive taste. Especially the one in the middle. He was blonde. That was the only bit of attention that she really took in. Just as Emma looked down the teacher made his way over to her. He sat on the table and gave her another smile. “My names Adam. Who are you?” Emma looked back down at the table and mumbled her name under her breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch that.” Emma looked up and spoke to him for the first time. “Emma.” Adam smiled and nodded. “So, what other classes are you taking Emma?” She could see this conversation going nowhere. But she knew he was just trying to ease the tension. “Dance and Performance Studies.” She smiled and looked at the people that started to file into the classroom. Finally a face that she recognised. John. She beckoned him over and he took a seat next to her. “Dance and Performance Studies aye?” Emma just laughed and started talking to Jamie. She rested her head in her hands and looked around the people that were in the classroom already. For some unknown reason she couldn’t take her eyes off the boy in the middle in the corner. Eventually she looked away and Adam was able to get on with the lesson. The lesson wasn’t really anything interesting. It was just an introduction to Law. For something that she hadn’t banked on taking, she was finding it quite interesting. All the lessons were an hour and a half, but they seemed like ages when it was a boring lesson. Not really paying much attention to the intro, Emma turned to Jamie and started talking to him. As it turned out, she would know somebody in all of her lessons. John. He had taken all of the same classes as Emma. This made her a little less nervous. At the end of the Law lesson Emma wasn’t sure what she had next. Apparently it was dance. Emma had taken a summer intensive with her dance teacher before she went to America for her holiday. She thought he was a really good teacher to start off with. He knew her name already but she wasn’t too sure on his. It should have been really easy considering that she had already done classes with him in the summer.

It felt like the day had lasted for ages. All Emma knew was that she was starting to get tired. Her dance lesson was more intense then the summer intensive. She felt like she could drop before she got to the bus. “Hey...Hey Emma.” Emma sighed and looked around to see her old friend Tom walking towards her. “Look, I’m really sorry, but I don’t have the time to talk” Tom looked at her and frowned. “Please. I just wanted to say you look really beautiful.” Emma turned around and started to walk towards the bus station. “Yeah, you always say that Tom.” Emma just shook her head and walked onto the bus. She paid her fare and sat down. Tom had always declared her love for Emma since the first year of secondary school. It had always annoyed her. She had dated him a few times out of pity for him. Emma had realised that that had been a very wrong move. She knew she was leading him on but she found it funny. Emma had always lead people on. Especially a boy called Danny. She remembered saying to him that he could only be within a 5 mile radius of her. That had made her and her friends laugh. She didn’t feel bad about that one. That was purely just for fun.

As Emma got to her house she opened the front door and ran to the living room, throwing herself onto the sofa. She ached everywhere. Only after having two lessons she felt like she was dying. She heard the key turn in the look and knew that her mum must be home. She walked into the living room and put her bag on the desk. She threw a letter at Emma which landed on her chest. “So baby. How was your first day of college.” Emma opened her letter from her bank. It was nothing interesting. “Yeah it was ok.” Emma smiled and laughed putting the letter and the envelope onto the table. Julia looked at Emma and laughed. She sat down on the sofa opposite her and smiled. “So? What were the guys like?” Julia cocked her head to the side. Emma rolled her eyes and just shook her head. “Oh Jesus mum. I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t talk about this. But if we have to go onto the topic they were...ok... I suppose.” Julia raised an eyebrow and looked a bit confused. At least her expression was a little bit less stern then it was this morning. “Well, there is one. I think. I don’t know his name, but he has blonde hair. He is quite cute, I will give him that.” Emma blushed and flicked on the TV. She was hoping that there would be something interesting on so that she could avoid talking to her mum any further. Emma flicked through the channels and couldn’t find anything. “Well, on that happy, yet, highly embarrassing note, I’m going to my room so I can watch a film.” Emma stood up and straightened out her clothes. Her mum was looking at her slightly strange. “OK then.” Emma just scoffed and headed towards her room. It hadn’t been cleaned for a little while, so she thought maybe she should clean it. She had always hated being in a room in which she found she couldn’t move. Her mum knew that as well. Julia had asked Emma on countless occasions to clean it, but being the usual teenager, Emma resisted. As the tiredness hit her, Emma crawled onto her bed and slowly let her eyes close. Her mind wandered on the events that happened that day. But no matter how hard she tried...that boy. That perfect boy...He kept creeping into her mind. Her heart fluttered every time she thought about him. She didn’t even know his name which aggravated her. She would certainly be looking him up on all the social networks. She smiled slightly in her sleep and contemplated on whether to go on her friend’s pages and try to find him that way, but even she knew that would be impossible without even his initials or first name. No matter how many times she thought about making plans, they all failed because of his name. Even if she could find him, maybe his picture wouldn’t even look like him. There were so many difficulties when it came to boys that Emma liked. She NEVER made it easy on herself. The harder she made it, the more accomplished she would feel, if, or when she finally had him to herself.