One

Sally's POV

“Sally, why are you always so stubborn?” My grandfather's voice shouted, waking me up from my sleep. Sitting upright on my bed, I gasped, taking in some air to fill my lungs again. It was just a dream - no, more like my typical nightmare.

Suddenly I realized that my nightgown was soaked with sweat. My hair stuck to my face and neck, and obviously, I was sweating.

I'm a hundred percent sure that the air conditioner was working fine yesterday, I think. But for some reason, this morning, I felt like I was sleeping in a human-sized oven because it was so hot. Although deep inside me, I had a thought that Grandpa intentionally cut off the air cooling system just to torture me or maybe it was broken.

Right now, that's the least of my problems to worry about. I got out of bed, took a cold shower, and got ready for school. My class was going to start at 9 a.m. but the clock on my bedroom wall showed it was only 6:30 a.m. Rolling my eyes, I headed towards the bathroom because I needed to get out of there.

I decided to skip breakfast, again. Just because I don't want to eat with my grandfather and his dark brooding aura lingers over my personal space, especially early in the morning. And everyone knows how badly it will end.

On my way to school, I stopped by a convenience store and bought myself an ice cream, I had been craving it since yesterday.

The middle-aged woman who owned the shop gave me a strange look when she got me the ice cream. Handing her the money, I gave the woman a small smile as I grabbed my ice cream and exited the checkout counter to continue my usual route to school. It's not every day that I laugh or eat ice cream in the morning, but today I needed something cold to calm down.

As I mentioned, what happened early this morning was just another nightmare of mine. It's a recurring vision that I'm still uncomfortable revealing and it makes me hate going to sleep - sometimes, when it gets out of control, I have to force myself to stay awake and no matter how hard I try No matter how hard I try, eventually, I will fall asleep.

I sighed in relief when my school was in sight. My legs increased speed. Taking my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans, I looked at the time, it was 7:45 a.m.

"What am I going to do?" There was an hour and fifteen minutes left until class started. I glanced around the strangely foggy-looking campus while deciding whether I should stay and wait in class or go somewhere else like my secret gazebo.

No one knew about the gazebo's location except my best friend, Athena, and me. I found it during my freshman year and a lot has happened since then.

I passed by the Information Technology department and headed towards the forest behind the school that covered half of the campus. The gazebo is just a few steps from the forest entrance.

Finally arriving at my destination, I sat inside the gazebo. I didn't forget to take out the black leather-covered A4 sketchbook that Athena gave me as a gift on my 20th birthday. Drawing is my passion. I sketch everything except people because I'm simply terrible at drawing people no matter how hard I try.

Lately, I've been obsessed with all kinds of glorious animals like rare breeds of white tigers. However, they are not the type I am talking about, what piqued my interest were the wolves. They are the things that fill my mind and my sketchbook - half the book is filled with sketches and doodles of them.

I don't know why, but maybe because I've read too many novels involving werewolves, vampires, witches, and all those supernatural creatures - I blame Athena because she forced me must read all of them, although I have to admit that half of the books she recommends are very good.

But back to what I was saying, otherworldly creatures are fascinating. Despite their greatness, I will not comment on their existence because they are just stories based on imagination.

After sketching for a few minutes, I felt waves of exhaustion wash over me. I think I have a problem with sleeping in my own house because as soon as I put my head on the bag, I fell asleep, just like that.

I'm not sure how long I slept because the only thing I felt next was someone shaking my left shoulder, waking me up, I could tell very harshly. I could have sworn that person shook me so hard it seemed to dislocate my shoulder.

"What?" I sat up, looked around, panicked.

The person who woke me up was heard snorting. Turning my head to look towards the sound, I saw her standing behind me as she spoke. "Wake up, otherwise you'll be late for class."

Athena! I groaned in frustration.

Without wasting another breath, I packed my sketchbook, pencils, and bag into my backpack, and we hurried to our first class of the day, Art History.

I heard Athena panting as she ran. I forgot that she is a slow runner. However, we entered the classroom just a few seconds before the professor arrived. I was about to sit in my usual seat, but apparently, someone else had taken that spot.

I didn't want to argue with anyone early in the morning over a seat, so I sat behind my old seat. I couldn't help but glare at that person. He has stylish, fringed, champagne-colored hair. He was facing out the window, so I couldn't see his face earlier when I walked up. I ignored him and paid attention to the rest of the class.

I quickly made a mental note, that next time I'd go to class before anyone else, so I wouldn't have to deal with this type of situation. I know that we're allowed to sit anywhere, but I like that seat and I've been sitting there since I started my freshman year.