1 Chapter 1

 6:00 am

 Essa.

 Knock!

 Knock!!"

Coming." This isn't nice. I mean it's early in the morning. I need this sleep, I really need it.

Another Knock!!!. Okay I don't think that's a knock. Someone's literally pounding my door."

"Said I'm coming." I need to answer whoever it is but I'm tired. Too tired. Why??? I overworked myself last night, with the whole 'getting into the college thing'. I've never been this excited for a long time now. I wasn't going to feel lonely, that I know for a certain. I mean, my brother, and few classmates from high school got admitted too.

Yeah, I still need to check who's at the door.

"Heya, lil sis." Yep, that's it. Why hadn't I thought about that. Will's the only one capable of disturbing people so early in the morning.

"Morning, and I'm not little because we're actually almost equals. I'm your twin. You're just older than I am with about 3 minutes or so. Secondly Will, it's so early in the morning, I am supposed to be in bed sleeping peacefully without having to deal with... whatever. What are you here for?"

Yeah, I was done ranting and wait a minute, Will's looking all dressed up with a very silly smirk plastered on his face.

"And by so early you mean?" The smirk is still there, not even fading a bit.

"...."

"Good, I appreciate that silence from you. It's way past seven Essa."

Oh, it's not so early then. I hadn't really noticed. The curtains were still drawn.

"Also, I'm assuming that you would have slept for three more hours if I didn't check on you. What time did you set your alarm? Hasn't it gone off yet? Oh, you probably slept late yesterday, doing whatever it is you....."

Okay, that's it, I have to interrupt. He's really wasting my time. We're supposed to leave by eight and it's already past seven.

"What do you want Will?" Now he's serious, not too serious but the smirk is gone.

"So, I'm here to remind you that we are leaving for school today, as early as possible and I'm assuming you have all your stuffs arranged."

"Your assumption is right, very right and thank you for the reminder, it's duly appreciated. Now can you leave already? I need to get prepared." I smiled, but it didn't get to my eyes.

I was losing my patience already.

"Yeah, sure Miss Tyler." The smirk is back.

"And you should hurry up, mum's insisting on driving us to school. Mich called, Jeff too. They're on their way here, we're all going together. You do not want to be the reason we are delayed. Mum's going to shout your ears out. You can't miss breakfast too and I think you have less than thirty five minutes now, so use your time well."

Wow I shouldn't have have gone to bed late and how come I didn't at least hear my alarm go off?

"Alright, thanks again for the update brother." I said that half-heartedly, why? Because he's deliberately letting me know how late I am, so I shoved him out of my room with a fake smile and a "Bye Will" which he responded to with a chuckle.

I quickly made my bed and dashed into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth with a very fast pace, to the extent that I actually feared I might lose some of them, but that's the point of hastening up. I had limited time.

Within a couple of minutes, I finished bathing and dressed up. I grabbed my bags, took one last look at my room, I'm going to miss this room sooo much. Okay time's up, I need to get going. Mum won't let me leave without having breakfast.

 Ouch!! Just bumped my elbow on the door.

I'm halfway downstairs now.

 Oh!

 Crap!

 My phone.

I'm back in my room. I can see it ringing on the nightstand. I kept it there last night. Wait, that's not a phone call, it's my phone's alarm ringtone. Speaking of alarm, I set it for 6:45 am and why is it going off now?

"Williams Tyler!" I'm downstairs, at the living room. Mum's preparing breakfast, Spaghetti Bolognese, my favourite and the aroma alone has eased some of my anger. Some, not all and my elbow hurts badly.

"Mummy's at the kitchen honey, won't you at least give her a hug?" Yeah, that's right. Stephany Tyler, that's my mum, one of the best in the world.

"Morning mum." I'm in the kitchen with her now and most importantly in her warm embrace.

"Morning sweetheart. How was your night? I see you're already dressed up. I'm so happy for you, you're now a big girl. I'm going to miss you so much. How do you feel about living on campus? Are you nervous? Excited? I know you'll cope well."

Okay, all this while I've been smiling and letting mum ask and answer her questions herself. I get it, she's so excited. I mean, why shouldn't she be? Her kids got admitted to the university, it's a dream come true. One step to greatness.

"Mum, I can handle it. Trust me. I'm hungry too, is the food almost ready?"

I wasn't sure of what I said about coping with school, I'm having a good feeling about everything but I don't know how well I can handle it.

I'm sure of two things though, one is the question I asked about the food being ready, because I'm really hungry. The other is that Will has some explanations to do.

My question was answered with a broad smile.

"Yes dear. Give me few more minutes and your food will be right in front of you".

"Thanks mum." And just like that, my business with her here is over for now, because I didn't even let her reply before I zoomed off. Will's next on my agenda.

"Williams!" I shouted again. For the second time. Well I had to, my elbow hurts because I bumped it on the door while rushing to meet up with the time, meanwhile my brother lied to me and he's sitting at the dining table, paying so much attention to whatever he is looking at on his phone.

I know he's pretending because the look on his face tells me that he is trying and almost failing to hold back a grin and he's trying so hard but the closer I get to him, the higher his chances of failing.

He has failed now because he is laughing so hard but with his eyes still on his phone, so it looks like whatever he is watching is funny but I'm not buying that. I know fully well that his laughter is not in anyway related to his phone. So I banged the table and the laughter ceased, just like it had started. Good.

"Hey, what's going on?" Seriously? Fine we'll play this game together.

"What's going on back?" He looked confused. No, he acted like he was confused. That's the right way to put it. I know Will, he's my twin and we're almost always together so I know that the look of confusion on his face is all an act and he's not putting much effort to hide it.

"You okay?" Alright, this is enough. I don't have the time for any of this.

"Will, it's few minutes to seven now." I sat on the chair by his right side.

"Yes I'm aware." That's from Will. He's still messing around.

"Which means that it was not way past seven when you woke me up." I was very serious now and he saw that too, because he straightened up.

"Well, I'm a fan of punctuality and you know, it's only appropriate to prepare on time in situations like this." Now he's smiling.

Will is either smiling or laughing, he hardly gets angry but whenever he does, he is capable of destruction. I mean it. He is protective too, everyone knows that. Once you're in his list of the people he loves, he can go out of his way to make you happy and I'm the main beneficiary of his protectiveness. No one messes with me and go scot-free except Will doesn't hear of it but now, he is being troublesome.

"Will, I set my alarm for 6:45 am. That's when I was supposed to wake up but you deceived me, I fell for it and I literally prepared in a rush, that's putting it mildly. I ran downstairs, forgot my phone upstairs, injured my elbow and it's not even up to 7:00 am, breakfast is not ready yet, I can't see Jeff and Mich here. Were you lying about that too?"

I was so going to kill him if he had lied about Mich and Jeff. I don't mean murder but he would have regretted joking with me and what's even more annoying is that he finds this funny because he is chuckling now.

"So, first things first, I'm very sorry". He's laughing.

"You don't look sorry. You don't even sound sorry". But I know he's sorry, at least his eyes says he is sorry.

"I'm sorry. I'm just excited you know, about going to campus and all and no, I wasn't lying about Mich and Jeff, they're on their way. I must commend you though, you really utilised your time well. It was only few minutes past six when I woke you up."

I was going to forgive him but this last statement, he deserves a smack for it. No a punch would be better, on his upper arm to be precise.

"Ow!" That's from me. I forgot I had an elbow to tend to. That's the same hand I used to punch Will, now he's laughing hard again. Well, whatever, I'm done with him.

"I'll deal with you later Will" and with that I left to meet mum in the kitchen.