3: Start of 17

Ten years ago, it was the year 2012. Autumn had finally come with the leaves falling off from the trees and flying through the air with the freedom that they had from the arrival of a new season. Unfortunately, in this cruel world, not everyone was born to have the same freedom as the leaves even though a new season had come. No changes might still occur even when a new season comes which was why the change of seasons were sometimes never a big deal.

But there were people who cared whether they had freedom or not because they would always continue to do whatever they want without caring about it no matter what the season was. One of them happened to be a 17-year-old girl who would never get into any trouble no matter what she does anyway.

Back to the present, it was a new season—a start to a new school year. Some students would feel frustrated and unprepared for being forced to go to a place that could be considered as hell on earth for miserable students, while the students who were privileged with the power to never be at the bottom were excited to step inside the place that they had not been to for the past months.

The first class starts at 8:00 a.m. but a certain old student was excited enough to be greeted by the new school year as she had already gotten up from her bed at 6:30 a.m.

“If only you can see that I am here, no more fear,” the blonde sang.

Before Monday came, Olivia had already created a playlist all night for her to play while preparing in the morning to keep the energy high for the first day of school. That was basically how excited she was to go back to school.

The blonde continued to sing the perfect lyrics of the song that was blasting from her speakers as she danced around the room. She had a habit to keep her eyes closed while dancing whenever she gets too absorbed by a song as if the song actually enters her body and brings her to another universe where it was only her existing. Her walk-in closet that was connected to her bedroom was soundproof as well so she did not have worry about disturbing anyone—though it was not like she would care about being a disturbance to anyone anyway even if her bedroom was not soundproof.

Olivia slumped down on the light gray couch to rest for a while as she panted when the song had reached the end. She took her phone that was resting on the coffee table as she looked for a certain name on her contact list.

“Why are you up early?” The blonde giggled when she saw the current physical state of the person on her phone.

“Stop acting like you just woke up. I know you’re as excited as me for first day,” Olivia said as she rolled her eyes.

“You’re right at first and wrong at second,” the brunet from the other line said as he let out a chuckle and stopped squinting. “You’re probably the only person I’ve seen who’s excited as hell to go to school. School is literally hell, Liv.”

“Stop being dramatic. You literally get to be excused to classes most of the time as a player of the school’s basketball team.” The blonde let out a scoff.

“Wrong. As the most valuable player of the school’s basketball team,” the brunet corrected with a cocky grin on his face, which made his best friend annoyed.

“Oh, shut up.” Olivia stood up from the couch after regaining her energy as she moved her phone to have the camera face the outfits that were hanging on the closet rods. “Help me pick an outfit.”

“Hmmm.” He squinted as he scanned his eyes on every outfit that the blonde faced the camera to. “They’re all nice.”

“That’s not the answer I need, Theo. I know they are all nice.” The blonde let out a groan as she rolled her eyes. “I want to hear you say that a specific outfit is perfect for me to wear on my first day of school as a senior.”

“Everything is perfect on you, don’t worry.” She faced the camera back to her face as she saw how her best friend yawned, making it obvious that he really had no interest in helping her pick an outfit. “You’re already pretty in whatever outfit you wear.”

“Ugh. So unhelpful.” The blonde shook her head as she tapped the end button on the phone screen without letting the latter speak and threw her phone back on the couch.

Olivia was back to her problem in picking an outfit all alone since her best friend that she expected to help her at first happened to not be useful. The blonde let out a groan in frustration as she scanned her eyes on every outfit that was in front of her. That was most likely to be the problem in which the blonde had the most difficult time in facing on that day.

After spending nearly half an hour choosing an outfit to wear, Olivia finally picked an outfit to wear. She decided to wear a plain white crop top for her top with a maroon cropped flannel jacket over it, a black mini skirt with a belt that displayed the logo of the luxury brand for her bottom, and a pair of black high heel boots. Lastly of course, she would not forget her favorite accessories to wear, which were rings.

The blonde stood in front of the full body mirror as she made a few poses before she got completely satisfied with her physical appearance. Even if she was wearing a different outfit, she would still look good anyway.

She then stepped out of her bedroom once she was done preparing for everything as she went straight to the dining room to have breakfast since she did not want to leave to school in an empty stomach. The blonde could go get breakfast in drive-thru if she wanted though she decided to have breakfast at home since the dishes cooked by Amy were always her favorite.

“Good morning, Amy!” Olivia enthusiastically greeted as a grin automatically appeared on her face when the delicious aroma of soufflé pancakes and waffles entered her nostrils as soon as she stepped inside the dining area.

“Good morning, Liv. You’re in a good mood today, huh,” the older woman replied with a chuckle as she set the table for her. “Excited for the first day of school?”

“Yup. I’m a senior now.” Olivia flashed a proud smile as she took a seat at the dining table.

The breakfast was just freshly served as she could see the smoke that was ascending from the food—it was her favorite part before eating. The sight of smoke often fascinated her, but that did not mean that she actually smoked cigarettes. In Olivia’s perspective, smokes look mysteriously satisfying.

“You’re finally gonna graduate from high school.” Amy wiped a fake tear, which made the younger girl let out a chuckle in amusement. “You used to be so small who would cry whenever you try to reach the counter then realize that you can’t.”

“Being unable to reach the top really is devastating, so it’s understandable.” The blonde shrugged as she cut each waffle into quarters.

“That’s not what a kid like you would think back then, Liv.” The older woman let out a hearty laugh when she saw someone step in the dining area, which made her stand straight and flash a smile in greeting. “Good morning, Mrs. Jean!”

The smile on the face of the blonde immediately dropped when she heard the name as her mood started to get out of the light as well. Footsteps filled the room until the woman appeared in her sight as she took a seat across her. It was the woman whom Olivia was never proud of being a part of her life.

Not wanting to spend any more second to be in the same space as the older woman, Olivia placed her utensils back down on the place as she immediately stood up from her seat.

“I’ll head to school now, Amy.”

“Olivia,” Emily spoke as she picked her utensils up that Amy, the house chef, prepared before the blonde could even leave the room. “What happened in the past stays in the past. Focus on the present time where I am your mother. So, come back here and have breakfast with me like a normal family.”

Olivia gritted her teeth as she turned around to shoot the older woman a furious glare while clenching her fists. Hearing the word “mother” from the mouth of her stepmother always triggered her.

“Who are you to tell me that? Ever since my father chose to marry someone like you, this household would never be normal again,” the blonde hissed before turning her heel and storming off.

Amy worriedly turned to look at the latter, who was totally unbothered from what the teenager just said. Whenever she was a witness to an encounter between Olivia and Emily, she knew that she had to be worried.

“Don’t worry about it, Amy. She’s just an angry teenager going through puberty. She’ll understand that her tantrums are stupid when she grows up,” Emily said without taking her eyes off her food as she took a bite after.

Since her job was to just cook the meals for the owners of the mansion without interfering into any of their business, Amy decided to just nod without uttering a single word as a response about it before taking the lunch bag and following Olivia to give it to her.

The 40-year-old driver, who had always been their family driver ever since Olivia was 4, pursed his lips in after greeting the younger girl when he saw the frown on her face. He knew that she was in a bad mood and that it would be a good idea to not do any mistake like asking her what the problem was as he quickly got in the driver’s seat after having her get in the backseat.

Still gritting her teeth, Olivia pushed her wired earbuds in her ears as she played her comfort playlist to cool her head since she did not want her mood to be ruined for the whole day just because of a single person when that day was the day that she had been looking forward to. After taking a deep breath to calm herself down, the blonde sent a text message to her best friend to meet up at the gate of their school for them to step in the campus together.