I was startled awake by a noise. It took me a moment, but I realized it was my alarm clock. I reached over to my nightstand to turn off the alarm, and then I hopped out of bed. I was a freshman at Sutlow University now, and I was looking forward to my first day!

I started shuffling around, looking for a decent outfit, when I heard the faint sound of pop music coming through the walls. That was Calinida, my cousin, but I called her Cali for short. We shared a dorm room on campus. We realized last night that we had our first class at the same time, which was why we were both up at seven-thirty in the morning. Her and I were practically sisters, but we were very opposite.

For starters, Calinida was confident, and outgoing; usually she could make friends pretty quickly. And the way she carried herself was always so graceful, even when she wasn't trying. She had curves in all the right places, and she was a bit taller than your average female. Her breasts were plump, and perky, accenting her figure perfectly. She had a very nice butt. Her skin complexion was rich brown, and she had really nice dark brown, curly hair that hung just past her shoulders.

Whereas I was an awkward, clumsy, introvert who found it hard to even approach someone. And as for body physique, I did have curves, but I was much chubbier than Calinida, and I had big boobs with a big butt to match. My skin tone was a bit pale in comparison to hers, and as for my hair, it was way more wavy than curly, and much shorter.

Growing up with Calinida was tough on me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I loved her dearly, but… I was compared to her all the time. Our family members would compare us, and since our family was so close knit, her and I always went to the same schools as we grew up, so our classmates would compare us too! It was suffocating. But no one seemed to notice that I was drowning.

And just when I thought we’d finally be apart, Calinida wanted to attend Sutlow University as well. Both of us wanted to live on campus, and our parents were cool with that… As long as we lived with each other! So, there I was, sharing a dorm with Calinida. This was the first time I had ever felt deflated about her presence. It wasn’t like having her around was terrible, it was just that… I was ready to break away from being in her shadow, and I had planned for college to be my escape.

I continued to rummage through my drawers until I found a bra, and a pair of underwear. Then, I moved on to looking for clothes to wear. Usually I wore hooded sweatshirts, most of them dark colors, and black or dark blue jeans. For today, I decided on a gray hoodie, and black jeans with rips in the knees, then went to my closet and grabbed a pair of gray Vans.

I took off my pajamas, changed into my day clothes, and slipped into my sneakers without untying them. After that I left my room and headed for the bathroom, where Calinida was putting on makeup.

“Good morning, Cali,” I greeted.

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She was applying her eye shadow as I started brushing my teeth.

“Good morning, Lovebug,” she greeted.

Lovebug was a nickname she had given me when we were kids, but when we were alone like this, she tended to use that name.

Once I was done brushing my teeth, I combed my hair, then applied a small amount of eyeliner and mascara to my eyes. Calinida was the first to leave the bathroom, but I followed behind shortly after. We gathered our school supplies, and packed them in our bookbags, before we left our dorm room together. I locked the door behind us, and we headed outside.

As excited as I was, I knew being a university student would be a huge change of pace for me, but I was determined to focus all of my energy on being my own woman. I wanted to reinvent myself, and this was my chance. This was my time.

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“I have a break between classes around eleven,” Calinida stated as we walked side-by-side.

“Yeah? Mine starts at eleven thirty,” I replied.

“That’s cool, I have enough time for lunch if you do,” she suggested.

“Sounds good. I'll see you soon,” I smiled.

After a few minutes of walking, we eventually had to split up because our classrooms were located in diffection buildings. I went in the opposite direction, and started searching for a building with the name “Science” engraved across the top of it. It wasn't too long before I found the building I was looking for. I checked the time on my cell phone—I had five minutes to spare before the professor would be starting class. I spied the building's entrance, a set of glass double doors, and rushed over to them.

I went inside, and hurried down the hall, beads of sweat formed on my forehead from being anxious. I saved my new class schedule as a screenshot in my phone, so I quickly searched for the photo to look up the room number for my class. I frantically began going from door to door, checking for the correct number. After several seconds, which felt more like several days, I skidded to a stop in front of room one-zero-nine. I took a deep breath, and calmed my nerves.

I placed my hand on the door knob, but before I could turn it, I heard a female voice call out to me.

“Wait!”

I turned my head to the side and was awestruck. A young female, about my age, came speed-walking towards me. The young woman stopped in front of me, then hunched over slightly as she tried to catch her breath. Once she did, she stood up straight again and flashed me a kind smile. Our eyes met, and my breath caught in my throat.

“I'm so glad I'm not the only one who is late!” The female admitted with an awkward grin.

“Uh, yeah…” I muttered. Her remark hadn’t made me feel any less guilty for being late on my first day.

“Well, come on, I'm sure our professor has started by now,” the female stated.

She opened the lecture hall door, and went inside. I went in right after her, and found that most of the seats were already taken. My only option was actually an empty seat that was located next to that girl. I sat down, and started taking out my school stuff. I could see something move out of the corner of my eye. It was that girl. She had leaned closer to me.

“Hey, I'm Juliet,” the girl whispered.

“Oh… I’m Naomi...” I whispered back.