Every senior must visit their guidance councillor at the start of the new year for an appointment about their future choices. More specifically they would ask us what our dream was. Mine was to be number one, number one out of my siblings and number one in her heart but those are only dreams because they’ll never come true.

The guidance councillor looked over Isaac’s grades with a stern look then faced the teen who sat on the opposite side of his desk.

“Isaac,” he said, “with grades like this, you won’t be able to go into any top university. I don’t think your mother would be happy with that. Don’t you want to go to one of the big three universities? Your mother did, so did you father, your sister, and even your younger brother is being considered despite his age.”

“I don’t really care. I want to travel the world, maybe I’ll go to the other side of the country.”

“If you want to find a university out of the province it’ll be harder as they focus on your grades even more. With your current grades, I suggest you try to stay within the city.”

“How good would my grades have to be if I want to go to away?”

“Honestly, you would need to ace all your exams and by that I mean a perfect score on everything.”

“Okay,” Isaac said and got up.

“Isaac, this is a big deal, you can’t just say okay and it’ll happen.”

“I’ll see you later Mr. Liang.” On his way out of the office, Isaac greeted his favourite teacher, “Hello Mr. Kurehi, your partner doesn’t think I can get into a school across the country.”

“You’re going to prove him wrong?”

“Totally.”

“You know,” Mr. Kurehi said, closing the door to his partner’s office, “he’s going to do it.”

“Have you not seen his grades Cho?”

“Have you not seen him during tests Gavin? He sleeps.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be defending your favourite student?”

“He understands everything, probably better than I do but he’s always overshadowed by his siblings. Doctor-to-be sister, genius brother plus he has his reasons to do poorly on tests.”

Gavin Liang raised his eyebrows in shock, “What good reason does a student have to do poorly on a test?”

“I never said it was a good reason but love makes us make dumb choices.”

*

What is my dream? Why does my guidance counsellor care about that? Shouldn’t they worry about what my future goals are, career path? Then again, if I told them I wanted to be a published author, I’d be told to look for a more realistic path. So I guess what’s my dream isn’t so stupid of a question. My dream is to be loved by my father again.

In homeroom at Diana Cross’ Academy for Girls, Rei sat quietly in her seat by the window writing her manuscript. She had started writing last weekly after finalizing the characters and plot.

“As you know, we have a new student joining us today. Please come in and introduce yourself.”

The door slid open and a red haired girl in a track suit walked into the classroom and gave the class a smile.

“Hello everyone, my name is Marie Watson. As you can tell, my uniform has yet to arrive but my gym uniform did. I hope we can all be friends.”

“There a free seat next to Rei. Rei wave, thank you. If you have any questions, just ask.”

“Hi, I’m Marie,” Marie introduced herself again.

“Rei.”

“Can we share textbooks? I’m getting mine this weekend.”

Without a word, Rei slid her textbooks to the middle of two desks. The lecture finished and Rei let Marie read the previous chapters so she could catch up during the break. Rei on the other than was jotting down and idea she had for a plot twist.

“Hey, can we share textbooks again?”

Rei slid the textbook between them and the class began. During the lesson, Marie would often ask questions which Rei would explain to the best of her abilities. It was finally lunch and Rei prepared to head up to the roof when Marie stopped her.

“Sorry, would you mind showing me around?”

“If you want to be liked in this school, you shouldn’t be around me much.”

“Why not? You’re a nice and pretty person, why wouldn’t I want to be friends with you.”

“Because no one wants to be friends with me. In case you can’t tell I’m not liked very much.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” said Marie. “You don’t mind do you? I overheard some girl’s conversation about her nails and I don’t think I should be around her for both her and my sake.”

“Her name is Natarle and don’t let her hear you bash her nail and that girl beside her, don’t say anything about comics. She’ll go on and on about them,” Rei said, starting to open up.

“We’re definitely going to be friends you know.”

By the end of the school week, Rei considered Marie one of her closest friends. The two bonded over many different things and Marie even helped Rei with her bullies. As it turned out, Marie was planning on studying law and with a few big words referencing seemingly real laws, the group slowly but surely backed off.

Rei had mentioned her newest friends to her current group and the four of them couldn’t’ wait to meet Marie. Rei promised to bring Marie to Delancy’s volleyball and Marie couldn’t wait to meet the rest.

The pair was almost back at the apartment when Rei realised that she forgot her manuscript at the coffee shop.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Marie asked. Rei was bringing her new friend over to introduce her to her other friends.

“No it’s fine, it’s cold and you’re not wearing that much. Just wait in my room, the door’s opened, second floor. Is that the bus?” Rei ran off before Marie could answer.

Not wanting to be in the hold any longer, Marie headed into the apartment complex and up to the second floor only to be faced with answer dilemma; Rei forgot to tell Marie if she lived in 201 or 202.

Remembering that Rei said the door was opened, Marie tested both doors and luckily for her, only one was opened. The redhead walked into the cold and empty apartment and headed into what she believed was Rei’s room.