I know i put htis up before.. and im sorry. Its just that i keep changing little things when i agree with people who critique it. So its different. Plus, i like a ride variety of people looking at it. To see what different people see in it. THanks ahead of time! And i Hope you like it!
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Prologue
“Things aren’t always as they seem.” We have all heard this phrase in some way or another. It is a classic grouping of words that is now considered cliché. We are all told not to use these words. We are told to come up with something more original, more creative. But this was exactly what I was thinking the day that I found out, the day that changed me forever. I miss the old me sometimes. Life was easier then, less complicated. And yet, I only half wish that I never found out, never fully. “Found out what exactly?” you might be asking. But I’m not ready to tell you that. There is a time and place for that story, and that is not now. I have to start my story from the beginning, where all good stories start. The beginning of this story was the day that I decided I would be living in the dorm of Night Angel.
Chapter One
“No, Nicole, definitely not that one. Just look at the name. It just screams party dorm. Do you really want a bunch of intoxicated fraternity boys around you 24/7? You know that you are better than that.”
This is the way that it had been going for the past hour: my mother and me sitting across from each other on the couch, picking “together” which dorm I would be living in up at Brington University come fall. All I was trying to do was pick a dorm that worked for me, but so far, everyone that I had picked, my mother had shot down. She claimed that I “deserved better”. Like that was what she was really thinking. She just didn’t want to have to tell her colleagues that her daughter was living with someone who didn’t own a 10-bedroom house or a 12-person staff back home. She was always so judgmental.
“Mom, really. I like this one. I don’t care if it’s not perfect. It just seems like the right dorm for—“
“Night Angel has way more to offer than any of the other dorms there. Every one who has been a part of it has said that it made college the most memorable experience of their lives,” my mom repeated for about the 5th time that night.
“I know that but I don’t care if—“
“Seriously, Nicole, don’t you remember our visit? Everyone there was so friendly. How could you not want that?” she said, looking at me with a quizzical expression, one that questioned my sanity. Why did she always do this to me when I didn’t agree with her? Why couldn’t she accept the fact that, for once, I might actually know what is best for me?
Apparently she didn’t pick up everything that I did during our visit. They were all friendly. She was right about that. So friendly, in fact, that it was bordering creepy. The whole group of them had all had huge fake smiles plastered onto their faces. I didn’t see a single other expression the whole time I was there. It gave me the impression that none of them really wanted to be there, that all the happiness was, in truth, an act. But I brushed off this idea, like I had when it first came to me. There was no way that my suspicions could be true. It just didn’t make sense.
“Mom, I just don’t want the same thing as—“
“Nicole, you have not listened to a single word that I have said about Night Angel. Why are you not willing to give it a chance?” she inquired with an expertly offended look on her face. This put me over the edge.
“I’m not listening to a word you say?” I asked incredulously, finally taking a stand… literally. I was on my feet without consciously thinking about it. “How dare you even say that when you have been interrupting me for the past hour!” I could hear my voice getting higher and higher with rage. My mother was looking at me as if I was a two year old throwing a temper tantrum. Unbelievable! “Enough is enough, Mom. I am going to pick which dorm I will live in because I will be the one living there! Got it?”
“Calm down, Nicole. This is nothing to get so upset about,” she answered in a patronizing tone.
“I will not calm down! My whole life you have been making decisions for me. This time, I won’t let you!” I practically screamed in her face. She just stared at me, waiting for me to be finished. I stared back, breathing heavily.
“That’s perfectly alright, Nicole.” I couldn’t believe my ears. This actually worked? I was elated. But then she continued. “If you don’t want to live in Night Angel, that’s fine. But don’t expect me to pay for your tuition, or books, or anything else. If you want to make your own decisions, then you are on your own,” she finished, as calmly as if she were talking about the weather.
This couldn’t be happening! She had long ago agreed on paying for my college, so I had never saved up mo
so I had never saved up mo ney. Why worry about it when my mother had more than enough? But now I realized. It was a mistake. I should have seen this coming. I should have prepared for it. This was so like my mother: taking away my only chance of a life on my own, so that she could control me forever. I wasn’t being overly dramatic by saying forever. I meant it. I knew that this would never end. She would always find something, anything, that she could use to keep me in her web.
I tried to think of a way around it, any way that I could still go to college without her help. Loans, I could do loans… no, I would end up paying off debt for the rest of my life. I chose Brington University without even considering cost of tuition. And I was pretty sure that Brington was notorious for it’s exceptionally high tuition. I couldn’t do this alone. She had caught me, like a fly, in her carefully spun web.
“Fine,” I finally answered, hating the victorious smirk that crept onto her face. “I’ll live in Night Angel.”
