16 years later
Chicago, Illinois."I'm sorry Miss Gates but I have no choice but to give you a C-minus," says the bald man as he looks at the black girl in front of him with what many may term as sympathy, but anyone who knows Mr. Goldstein well will know that he doesn't do sympathy.
"But Mr. Goldstein, I worked on this with all my God-given energy," Mia repeats for what seems to be the gazillionth time that morning. "You and I know without a doubt that I deserve an A for this."
"I will be honest, your essay was an A-plus material," he replies as he gets up from his seat to start searching through the books on his shelf for nothing in particular. Truth is, he just really wants to do something, anything to get away from the murderous stance Mia has assumed since she arrived in his office that morning. "However, the fact also remains that the instruction clearly stated that the assignment was to be completed by two students," he reminds her. "You didn't bring a partner here this morning, which means that you didn't have one. I don't think that students should be rewarded for breaking the rules, Miss Gates do you?"
"But there was no one who wanted to partner with me!" Mia returns angrily but all she gets is a raised eyebrow from Mr. Goldstein. It's a lie that no one had wanted to partner with her and Mr. Goldstein knows that. Mia herself is the one who didn't bother to ask them in the first place.
But what will be the point of asking when I already know they'll say no? she asks herself, sighing inwardly.
Thing is, Mia's someone that can be referred to as a 'pariah' in the school; and it has nothing to do with anything about her physiology. No matter how friendly or genuine they appear, she just never seems to be able to connect with people; and after so many years of trying to change her, everyone appears to have finally accept her for who she is.
Unfortunately, that acceptance can be problematic sometimes, like when an assignment requires a partner for instance. They'll never risk themselves to ask her and she'll never risk herself to accept them. That's the way things go and there's no changing it, even if it always results in complications like her present situation with Mr. Goldstein.
"Can you at least give me a C for all my efforts?" she asks in a last-ditch attempt to get the man on her side.
"I'm sorry, Miss Gates," he replies, resuming his seat with obvious relief in his eyes that the girl has finally taken the hint and decide to leave him alone, "the rules are the rules."
"I'm sorry for wasting your time too then, Mr. Goldstein." Mia tucks her short bob hair behind her ear the way she does whenever she's desperately trying to the mask her anger and takes her leave.
She's still struggling with her anger, and hair- the latter always falling back to cover her eyes because she insisted on keeping her bangs with the bob- when she suddenly smacks right into a mountain of flesh. "Hey, watch where you're going!" she snaps at the body as she walks round it.
But the flesh blocks her path again. "Miss Smarty-Smarty done beggy-beggy?" it asks and she looks up to see the one person alive in the world- maybe the universe too- that's capable of making her bad day get drastically worse: Andrew Cameron.
Mia can't explain it but in spite of her pariah status, she and Andrew have always had a social connection; not the good kind though.
For starters, Andrew has always been known as everything Mia isn't: the school's beloved quarterback, everyone's best friend. He'll probably be the very life of the universe if that sort of thing becomes a thing later in the future.
But for reasons unknown, his favourite pastime since time immemorial has been to get on Mia's nerves. He loves when she's angry, happy when she's raging; and he always looks for every opportunity to make that happen.
As everyone can already guess, their nemeses status isn't any fun for Mia, and not just because she hates social connection in any form.
Thing is, aside from being the upper opposite of their whacky chain, Andrew also happens to be more than a head taller than her and more muscular too, and somehow always has the support of the entire school behind him whenever he confronts her. It doesn't take a psychic to know that she'll never win their rivalry with those factors constantly piled against her.
"Please not today, Cameron," Mia says as she tries to step round him again but he still doesn't allow her.
He rests against the wall and effectively blocks any future attempts by Mia to get away before he's done. "So, did Miss Smarty pants get an A?" he asks in that mocking tone that always wants to make Mia just want to smash his face in.
"Not that it's any of your business, no," she replies. "Now, please move cos you reek."
Actually, she's lying. The football team just finished the after-school practice session, which means a mandatory shower before coming out. But she needs something to stab Andrew with and that's all she has at that moment.
Unfortunately, that isn't enough. "Actually, I just took a lovely bath now with an even lovelier soap," Andrew points out in a whisper before suddenly shouting loud enough for the entire school to hear him. "If you want, I can share it with you later in the shower!"
Mia's cheeks turn tomato red as she feels all eyes zone in on Andrew and her at his statement. She can tell just by the looks they're shooting them that their minds have already begin to spin over a hundred tales concerning them; and none of it is in her favour.
That's it, she's done, Andrew's won again. She groans in anger.
"See you later, honey," he says in a deceptively sweet voice before giving her a peck, roughing her hair as he always does, and sauntering away like the whole world belongs to him.
God please, overlook murder for just one second, Mia prays as she quickly takes her exit before things gets worse with the other students, then I'd show that son of a gun Andrew the stuff I'm made of.
Dinner is one of the few times the family is able to get together during the weekdays and despite her loner personality, Mia savors every moment with her parents.Fosterparents, to be exact.It still sometimes gets hard for Mia to believe but she's actually the adopted daughter of Sam and Regina Gates. Okay, not that hard really if one is being critical. They're both fair-skinned and she's black; and to top it, Regina is allergic to macadamia nuts and Sam to peanuts but Mia just can't seem to have enough of those two.But whichever way it is, the Gates loves Mia like their own biological daughter and she doesn't hold any memory of having another parent or being in the orphanage.One of the perks of being adopted when you were just six months old, she always said to herself.At the table that night, Sam is droning on about his day at work as usual and Regina is listening to him; or pretending to, as the case may be.Sam wo
Tekna, thinks Mia as she stares intently at the laptop in front of her. The word has been hovering in her mind for hours now but she never seems to be able to make any sense of it; developing into some sort of enigma for her ever since she accidentally overheard it the previous night when her parents thought she was asleep.However, finally admitting that her mind is obviously not going to get her anyway, Mia turns to the one thing everyone does when they're confused: the internet. She puts her hands to the keyboard and is about to start typing when she realises that she doesn't even have the slightest idea how the word is spelled.Goddammit!She groans.After some minutes of ruminating over it, she finally decides on a speech-to-text search method instead.
Mia walks through the front door and her resolve to try as much as possible to get through the night normally crumbles.Who am I kidding?She groans within herself.It's obvious I don't have what it takes to accommodate these people all night long. Mia desperately wished in her heart of hearts after Dana left her house that time will just stop and everyone will get stuck on a day like Tuesday. To be honest, it's not that she loves school that much. In fact, she despises it as much as the next person. But at least in class, no one's trying to get her attention or cajoling her into something that's practically impossible for her to achieve. Unfortunately, Mia's no time controller and so, Friday rolls in just like every other day. "Don't look so gloom,
He taps his fingers rhythmically on the chestnut table and hums a tune along with it. Boredom; that's his problem, and there's really nothing more he can do to keep it at bay than what he's doing at that moment.There was a time when I was busy, he remembers,when I had a lot to do than my time could afford. But those days are long gone behind him now, remaining back in his youth when he still aspires to be more. Now, he has it all: fame, fortune, age, and of course, a lot more time than he can possibly do anything with.He finally stops the tapping but only to begin arranging and rearranging the contents on his table for no particular reason nor aim.Thing is, even till then, a lot of people still marvel at the way he seems to have everything that can be had in
"I swear I'll never do that again in my life," groans Mia as she wakes up to her head throbbing. The throbbing is accompanied by a really heavy headache, but compared to the assault that knocked her out, it's just a lovetap;and for that, she's thankful.She finally pries open her eyes to see that she's in her room, wearing her pajamas, and from the looks of things, quite comfortable in bed.How the hell did I get home?Mia asks herself. She remembers the party and how Andrew got on her nerves- she's still considering murdering him in retaliation for that- She also remembers her indiscriminate drinking, the pain that threatened to take her life, and finally, the merciful blackout that saved her from it all.But try as she can, she just can't seem to remember anything after
“You know him?!” That’s the first thing that Mia thinks to shout after her initial shock. Now, she knows that most people will begin with questions like "What in the world just happened?"or"Where the hell did you learn to kill like that?" or something else along those lines.But Mia has never claimed to be like most people.“Yes,” Regina replies, a bit confused at her choice of question. “Andrew’s a friend.”“Wait, you’re friends with this demon?!” she shouts again. How the hell can Andrew be friends with Sam and Regina?She thinks and almost gives in to the temptation of murdering the boy who is her nemesis there and then.“Look, I know you have so many questions but I just heard those guys radio in for reinforcement,” Andrew says, cutting into Mia’s thoughts. “I suggest we leave before they arrive.”“No
We must be going at a death speed, thinks Mia as the car whizzes in and out of traffic. It's only a suspicion that she’s fairly certain is true, but she doesn’t dare to take a look at the speedometer for the fear of confirming it.By then, Mia half-expects the cops to be on their tail but none of them are in sight. Then, she realises that virtually no cop car can keep up with the Ferrari’s speed. Their pursuers, on the other hand unfortunately, has no trouble keeping up; her interval glances confirming it.“Relax already, Gates!” Andrew suddenly shouts at her from behind the wheels. “Your incessant movement is distracting me.”“Those guys are still following us,” she returns as if the past hour isn’t enough to tell him that.“Don’t worry, they can’t catch up, and they won’t want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves by shooting at us,” Andrew assures h
Mia dries herself with the lone towel in the bathroom before putting on her new outfit of blue jeans coupled with a cream top; and a frown spreads across her face. Her clothes; they fit; perfectly.How could Andrew have known my size? Mia wonders as she steps into the room to see him sprawl across the bed with a magazine in hand; his black jeans, grey top, and blue sports jacket adorning his body excellently. He has opted for a pair of leather boots instead of sneakers like her.The receptionist is nice enough to send up an extra bed to their room and even follows it up herself to make sure it’s delivered to the right room; although Mia finds her motive for doing so questionable.Thing is, throughout the set-up, she does nothing but send not-so-subtle sensual looks at Andrew and Mia almost gives in to the urge to barf at the sight of it.He’s an overbearing, narcissistic teenager, you moron! She mentally shouts at the woman.