Morons.
All of them.
That's the conclusion I drew upon entering my apartment style dorm room. The help that my father paid to move all of my stuff here, earlier today, didn't even bother moving my boxes into my bed room.
Closing the door behind me, I tossed my purse and keys onto a small table, sitting just inside the door.
Those idiots were paid to move my stuff here, and yet I now have to spend at least an hour of my time lugging boxes into my room before I can even begin to unpack.
Just wait until father hears this one, they won't be hired again.
"Melody! You're here!"
I lifted my gaze from the boxes scattered on the ground to the cheerful blonde lingering a few feet down the hall.
Kayleigh Kent. One of my three room mates. We're here for our first year at Millington University, an hour away from home.
"Hello, Kayleigh," I greeted her before returning my gaze to the stacks of boxes.
"Do you need some help?" she asked.
That garnered a small smile from me, as I looked up and nodded at her. She looked pleased as she advanced toward me.
We spent the next few minutes, wordlessly depositing heavy boxes into my room at the end of the hall.
Kayleigh and I rarely speak to one another ever; that is partially because she is such a reserved girl, and also because Kayleigh doesn't fit in as well with our group. She's kind of the girl we took under our wings when she moved to town during junior year. MacKenzie tells me that Kayleigh is afraid of me. I can't see why that would be and Kenzie has never bothered to explain further.
Kayleigh is a petite, pretty girl, the quietest of our clique from high school. Six of us have come to this university with only one of us staying behind and opting not to go to school.
Of all of us, I would say Kayleigh is the only one who is probably looking forward to the actual academic part of our time here. She's definitely the one with the brain, though she doesn't like to admit it.
She's also the only one of us who lacks in confidence. She's shy, and she'd never stand up for herself, which causes her to be bullied into things.
I mostly feel sorry for her because of the way Whitney treats her.
Whitney Easton is the only one of our clique that I have no positive feelings towards, whatsoever. I think she's an evil, manipulative bitch, and that feeling is mutual.
Somehow though, we've ended up stuck living together this year.
Kenzie is always telling me that Whitney and I do not mesh because we're both born leaders and we feel the need to compete over the control of our group. I don't think any of us controls the group but Kenzie is always telling me that we're at the top and we're both trying to push each other off.
MacKenzie Ryan is the one with all the perspective. She's the most logical, and secure individual in our group. She's the one to go to when you need advice.
She's also my best friend.
Kenzie is the only person who remained behind in our hometown. She's already got her life planned out. She met her man when we were still children, and then in high school they became sweethearts. Our senior prom King and Queen. And now, she and Parker Reynolds are engaged to be married next summer. They're already well on their way to the happy fairytale ending most people only dream of.
Without Kenzie here with me, I already know this year is going to be more difficult than any other time in my life.
Kenzie and I have been best of friends since she was born, just two months after me. Our mothers are close, leading us to spend a lot of time together over our lives. We're inseparable and being an hour away from her seems like much further away than it actually is.
She's the only person I would ever confide in about anything.
I sighed as I set the last box down and examined a nail I'd chipped with disdain. Kayleigh dropped the box she was carrying on my sheetless mattress before collapsing next to it.
Realizing she had no plans to leave me alone anytime soon, I decided to start a conversation.
"When did you get here?" I asked as I moved through the room and rearranged the furniture which had been carelessly placed all around by the movers this morning.
She watched me as I pushed my desk into an empty corner, instead of squished in next to my bed where the mindless idiots left it this morning.
"They dropped me off first thing this morning. Couldn't wait to be rid of me."
"At least someone cared to see you off," I said under my breath as I turned away from her.
"What did you say?" she inquired.
I shrugged and turned back to her. "Nothing."
My parents had barely looked up to say goodbye when I left. I have my car, one of their many bribes for being the 'perfect daughter', so I didn't need a ride here. My parents are all business, and no pleasure. Affection is a foreign word in that household. But you would think, with their only child moving away from home for the first time, they would show that they care, even just this once.
Kayleigh jumped up at the sound of the door slamming closed. She peered out my doorway. "Oh, hey, Whitney."
I rolled my eyes just as the ice queen reached my bedroom doorway. She stood there, towering over us, with her nose stuck high in the air, her fiery red hair pinned tightly back; she just reeked of arrogance.
She gave me a smug smile before turning to Kayleigh. "Would you mind helping me unpack?" she requested.
More like, 'Would you mind being my slave and unpacking all my expensive shit for me?' I thought as Kayleigh reluctantly agreed and followed her out of my room.
I gently tapped the door closed with my foot and began opening the boxes.
It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to unpack everything and get everything put away in it's place. I broke down the boxes and leaned them all against the wall, before studying the fairly small room in which I was to reside for the next eight months.
We were actually lucky to get this dormitory as it's the best one on campus. Gabrielle's daddy pulled a few strings and made sure we all got in this dormitory and that four of us were together, and the other two were placed together along with two strangers.
I can tolerate Kayleigh and Gabrielle enough, it's just that I would rather live with one of them plus two strangers, than live with Whitney. Our dislike for one another is sure to cause problems, or at least a grand amount of tension.
Being here at university, is sure to be a challenge on it's own. We're from an elite community and have grown up surrounded by the rich and the beautiful. Being here, in a very diverse community is sure to be a bit of a culture shock for us.
Granted, Millington is known amongst the rich for it's prestige, and among the middle class and less sophisticated, it is known for it's academic greatness.
The six of us are here because it is expected that the women will go to college and find a proper suitor. A man to take care of us financially while we run the home front and host all the parties.
That is my parents' life. And it will be mine as well.
I, Melody Gilmore, have no desire to have any other kind of life. The ones my parents, and the parents of my friends, lead, suits me just fine.
I'm here to just get through my degree, and find the perfect match for me. I don't expect much. Just that he be a decent, well-off man whom I can tolerate.
A knock on the door, brought me out of my thoughts.
"Hey, Melody," Gabrielle greeted after I'd opened the door.
She bounded into my room and looked around.
"Melody, how come you're so boring sometimes? Aren't you even going to paint it, at least?"
I shrugged, glancing at the plain, white walls. "I don't really know what colour I would paint it."
"I'm doing mine this funky green, come see the paint!"
I followed her across the hall to her room where everything of hers was still packed and all the furniture was sitting in the middle of the room. She already had plastic down around the edges of the floor.
She opened the one can of paint for me to see. "Riley and Jasmine are coming over soon to help me and then I'm staying at their place tonight. We're doing their rooms another day and they'll just stay here when we do. But Melody, you should totally do your room too!"
"Are we even allowed to paint our rooms?" I heard Kayleigh speak from behind me.
"We can do whatever we want. No one's going to give us shit for it," Whitney's harsh tone rang out as she stepped into the room and peered down at the colour Gabrielle had chosen for her walls. She scrunched up her face in distaste at the pea green colour. "I think I'm going to paint mine a nice frosty blue colour."
Gabrielle shut the can. "You do that, Whitney."
"I think I should paint my pink," Kayleigh quietly concluded.
Whitney glanced over her shoulder at her. "You would." She rolled her eyes before stalking out of the room.
I caught Kayleigh's offended look before she, too, walked away.
"She can be such a bitch," Gabrielle stated as she tossed her long, straight, raven black hair over her shoulders.
"I know, she really is."
"But you don't like my colour, either," Gabrielle told me.
"I never said that!"
"You may not have said it..." her voice trailed off as she changed into more suitable clothes for painting.
Gabrielle Wyndham is the most outspoken of the group. That also makes her the most improper in her manners. She says what she thinks, however blunt it may be. She's never cruel in her way, just distasteful at times. It's probably from being raised in the midst of two older, and two younger brothers. She's rougher, and tougher, than the rest of us could ever be.
But she's still just a rich bitch like the rest of us.
We all come from extremely wealthy families.
Gabrielle's father owns two of the private schools, including the one we attended where he is the principal. Kayleigh's family had new found wealth from the father's successful restaurant chain. Whitney's family is the most political of families in our hometown, and they own most of the town. MacKenzie's father, and Riley's father, are both senior partners in an insurance company. My father, along with Jasmine's father, are a part of a prestigious law firm that's been in the two families' for generations.
I believe my father has always been disappointed that he didn't get a son to carry on the legacy. I do have two male cousins though, who are destined to become partners upon passing the bar exam.
Gabrielle turned toward me. "Do you want to help? You may want to change if you're going too," she said in reference to the designer outfit I'm adorning, my typical wardrobe.
"Oh, no. Do you think we should paint the common room though? Or the kitchen? Someday, I mean."
She nodded vigorously. "Yes! That's a great idea! But first we'd all have to agree on a colour."
"Something neutral would probably work fine."
"And we need to get some proper furniture in here. That dull IKEA crap just isn't doing it for me," she said.
"Yeah, we should all go shopping this weekend before classes start."
"Perfect idea!"
"What's the perfect idea?" Riley asked as she entered the room, Jasmine walking right next to her.
"Oh, Melody just suggested we all go shopping together this weekend for better furniture."
Riley Gellar and Jasmine Kavanaugh could be mistaken for sisters. They're both of the same average height, with the same dark blonde hair, and similar dark brown eyes. Riley's hair is long and wavy whereas Jasmine's is cut in a short bob. They're also incredibly similar in personalities. Both are eager to please, and as energetic as Gabrielle.
I left the three to start on their task of painting the room, and retreated back across the hall to my new haven.
I was already well aware that this year was going to be interesting, in terms of being away from our safety net, and doing it together, as well all of us being in such close living quarters was sure to take some sort of toll on us as the months pass by.
Lying in my bed on that first night there, contemplating how the year could possibly turn out, I never would have imagined the chaos that my mind, and my life, would be thrown into during the year. At the time, I was just a bored girl, waiting for my turn to start the life I was destined to lead from the day I was born.
Sometimes your destiny isn't what you were promised by everyone you knew.
Or maybe it's just that, sometimes your destiny can be changed by the people who enter your life.
Or maybe it's just that one person, who causes an upheaval in your life, who makes you question everything you know, and everything you believe, who changes your life, and in turn, changes your destiny.
Author's Note:
New story. This is my cliché romance. Updates will likely be more sparse with this one. I hope it won't be as long as my others either, though I don't see how it could be.
It's an alternating point of view story. Obviously we've started with Melody, and the next chapter will be an intro to Carter and from there every other chapter will be dedicated Melody and the opposite ones to Carter.
I'm struggling with the newest chapter to WWTTN, and that's actually why I began to write this one. I'm also struggling with the editing of NJAS for a couple of reasons, and that's why it's still posted. Until I can actually get it printed off, it will remain posted. And as long as it is posted, you know I'm not editing it.
But an update to WWTTN is looming when I can actually get it written. So I am back. Hopefully regularly, but we'll see :)
Please review and let me know what you think of Melody thus far! Thanks!