Chapter 1

Scarlett’s POV

Carrying my bags and looking for my dorm room, they make it look so easy in the movies, but I can tell you now that the first day of collage is not easy. Yes you are excited and have your entire future ahead of you, but the entire experience is still daunting. You don’t know your way around or where you’re going and having your overly enthusiastic mother pointing at you and yelling to total strangers “this is my daughter, it’s her first day, would you like to be her friend?” doesn’t make this whole experience any easier. I just want to find the dorm room and get this first day over with.

“Scarlett are you certain this is the right way”, mom called out from behind me.

“This is the way the guide said to go mom”, I said rolling my eyes. I love her but sometimes she can get on my nerves. I mean we were both listening to him when he gave us directions, how is it that I was the only one listening. She has been great though, she even got me a TV, mini fridge, and a radio for my room. It’s funny when I was living at home it seemed like she couldn’t wait to get rid of me and now that I was leaving for real she got all choked up and just wouldn’t leave my side. I never had a bigger goal than to find that house so she can see that I’m fine and hopefully she’ll go home.

“House 2D, this is it” I screamed, joy radiating from me. I looked back at her, with the biggest smile on my face. I admit, it was not just joy I felt I also felt a bit relieved.

“Yes, it is, I knew you’d find it, you are so smart” mom said nudging me,

“mom” I said with a hint of annoyance in my voice but deep inside there was a bit of pride. I opened the door and walked in. The house opened up to the kitchen with an open plan view to the living room, we heard voices coming from the bedroom,

“Knock, knock” we said opening the door.

The room had four beds and three were already taken, the remaining one which was obviously mine was next to the bathroom. We would have gotten here earlier if my mom hadn’t forgotten something every second I started the car, she ended up going back to the house six times to fetch something. But we are here now, and I’m stuck with the crappy bed.

“Hi, I’m Scarlett” I said with a forced smile and giving the first girl my hand, she shook it violently, leaving all her excitement on my now fatigued arm.

“I’m Pam, nice to meet you, so you are our fourth roommate hu? I am sure we will have lots of fun together, I’m so excited aren’t you excited? wait don’t answer that, I’m sure you are. Listen to me rambling on, this must be your mother. Hi, I’m Pam this is Lisa and Sarah” she said pointing to the girls who have now stopped unpacking and had rushed to stand next to her.

“Nice to meet you all” I said shaking their hands and this is my mom.

“Hi mom” they all said in unison wide smiles plastered on their faces. I smiled back awkwardly mom smiled back with the same enthusiasm as they had and shook their hands.

These girls made me feel anxious somehow, maybe this is what I can expect from girl roommates slash girlfriends, my experience with friends was very limited, I never had time for friends apart from when I was fifteen I had two friends I considered my best friends, Kedibone and Nthabiseng. Every Monday I would hear about the house parties they went to or the boys they went out with. None of those things interested me, coming from a poor family with none of my family members having went to collage I had high hopes for my future and house parties and boys didn’t fit into that. That was all fine, I could handle listening to their weekend conquests, but the thing that bugged me the most was that Nthabiseng would go along with whatever Kedibone wanted to do, when the time came for us to pick our core subjects, you know the ones that we will be focusing on until matric Nthabiseng went with everything Kedibone wanted, it was as though she had no ambitions of her own. That was the final straw, I mean how could I have a friend that had no ambitions, there will be no one to push me or make me work harder, so one Friday afternoon at lunch I sat them down.

“Kedibone, Nthabiseng, I don’t think we should be friends anymore” I said pulling out all the clichés I had read about and could think off at that moment.

“It’s not you, it’s me” I continued. My mom is super strict, and I can’t go out with you on weekends because of all the chores I have, and boys bore me so when you think about it I have nothing to contribute to this relationship.” I said forcing a smile,

“We will still greet each other when we see one other, which won’t be often because we are going to different classes and we will have different friends, you see this is all for the best”. To my relief they nodded and agreed, I thanked God that I won’t have to make up excuses not to meet them or come up with reasons why I don’t have a boyfriend yet, I was overcome with joy. I didn’t realise how much peer pressure I was under until I cut them loose, I breathed a sigh of relieve.

“I’m guessing this is your nightstand’, mom said bringing me out of my daydream as she put the radio down and immediately went into mom mode, and started making my bed,

’mom I can…” before I could finish my sentence,

“you are so lucky, my mom couldn’t even wait to leave”, Sarah said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“I’m sure your mother loves you very much and would have loved to be here”, mom said with a reassuring smile looking at Sarah and the others. I suddenly felt like the biggest fool in the world, I mean my mom was here, she took time off from work and made an effort to be here and share this moment with me and I was being a jerk.

“Here let me help you” I said helping her unpack the suitcase and hang and fold cloths in my closet. The rest of the day went smoothly, mom bought us pizza and soda and my roommates thought she was the coolest mom in the world. It made me feel like the world had turned upside down, my mom cool… no FN way, I thought shaking my head. Still, it was nice having my mom spoil me as I was only going to see her again on the holidays and that was four months away. I hugged her and she kissed my cheek and waved goodbye as she drove away.