1 Chapter 1: Welcome to Sabanci

The laptop was kept on the pillow and she was lying and facing it. One hand was supporting her chin and the other was on the touchpad of the laptop.

Her long black straight hair covered her back. Her black, big, almond shaped eyes glistened like moonlight.

She quickly clicked two, three buttons...

Loading...

She casually put her hair behind her ears while waiting for the page to load. Finally when the page loaded she opened her eyes wide and stared at the screen in disbelief. She quickly sat up and grabbed her phone which was placed on the side table. The calmness of the night was disturbed by the pressing of the buttons. She waited for the other person to pick up the call.

As the call went through she started chirping joyfully " Hello Zara, How are you? Hope you didn't sleep. Haya speaking".

She waited for Zara to reply and then continued " Forget everything Zara. I have a huge news. And I know you wont believe me. "

"Oh no, it's not regarding Dawar bhai's marriage. In fact guess what it is"

"OH no, I am not getting married"

"No, Irum is also not getting married"

"Seriously Zara, is this all you can come up with?

Now listen to me carefully, Do you remember the Erasmus Exchange Program that we had applied for? Can you believe it Zara? The European Union has selected me for the scholarship."

Zara's scream could be heard in the entire room despite the speaker being off.

"I am telling you the truth Zara. I just received the mail fifteen minutes back. At around 9: 30 pm. You should also check immediately."

She held the phone in one hand and switched off the laptop with the other.

"No, not Spain's Deusto but Turkey's Sabançi has selected us."

"I have seen online, Sabançi is a beautiful university, but.."

She kept quiet and looked at the closed door of her room and continued speaking " There is one problem and we cannot let our families know about it. Actually girls are not allowed to wear headscarf. Lets not tell them about this. We don't wear scarves anyway. "

Just then she got alarmed when she heard a sound by the window. The windows were covered with thick curtains but the window was open. She thought she must have misheard and ignored it.

" Dad has never forced me to wear scarf or cover my head. But Irum wears scarf while leaving her home. Taya Furqan is a bit strict, so.."

"Permission is not a problem Dad was against Spain but Turkey is different. Sabin phuphu stays there. Besides my dad completely trusts me."

She listened to her friend for a while and then replied "Not tomorrow. Dawar bhai's mehendi is tomorrow. You are coming right? " "And yes, me and Irum are wearing lehenga. All the cousins are excited. After all its the first marriage in the family."

"Ok. You should go and check your mail. It's pretty late. I will go and sleep too." She said her goodbyes and tossed away her phone on the pillow. She then got up and walked towards the lounge. It was pretty dark. She was wearing full length black shirt and black trousers because of which she looked even taller.

There was darkness in the kitchen as well. She stopped by the door and started searching for the switchboard. She took water bottle from the fridge and poured it in a glass. Just then she noticed a white bouquet on the counter. Haya lifted the bouquet, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The roses were fresh...like they have been plucked recently. She was wondering who must have kept it over there. She lifted the envelope and turned it. There was her address and above it was written ' Haya Sulaiman'. The sender's address was not written. Date of previous days was written. She was surprised and opened the envelope to find a thick paper inside.

And on it was written ' Welcome to Sabanci '...

She was stunned!

No one knew about this except her. And it looked like this person knew it a day before. It looked very authentic with the stamp.

Confused she forgot about glass of water.. held the paper in her hand and went towards her room.

<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>