1 First Chapter: The Beginning

"Eleanor! Wake up! We're going to be late!"

'I don't want to- '

Eleanor's sleepy face has now made contact with the cold hard floor.

Apparently, her childhood friend has a different way of waking her up.

"Ow! Damn it, okay! I'm up, I'm up… Sheesh, people these days," Eleanor complained.

She woke up in her same old bedroom. Same old toilet, cabinet, drawers, and…

"You better be, college starts in 10 minutes! You don't want to be late for your first day now, do you? 'Cause, I don't."

Same old friend.

"Come on, Fiona. We're literally 5 minutes away from the university! The only reason you wanted to go so badly was that you'd finally meet your soulmate." She annoyingly said while look at her goofy best friend.

Fiona Izabelle Jacobson. The curly, ginger-headed friend of Eleanor. They've basically been friends since diapers. At Eleanor's 12th birthday, And, of course, Fiona was ecstatic. She asked straight away who was her soulmate.

It took her about five years to finally get it out of Eleanor, only to find out her soulmate is at some university. And this is the reason why they're here in California. Mainly because, first, they want to have their sense of independence and freedom. Second, Fiona's soulmate. And third, she basically persuaded Eleanor to go there because she might officially find her soulmate, to which she wholeheartedly disapproves, yet, had no choice, anyhow.

Both she and Fiona enrolled at Stanford Berkeley University. One excited, the other, not so much.

Eleanor only wanted to finish college to pursue her dream of being a doctor. Along with Fiona, who wanted to become a veterinarian. Having a soulmate was the least of her problems.

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure. You're only like that because you haven't met your soulmate yet," said Fiona.

"Having a soulmate is the least of my problems, Fi. I don't want any distractions this semester. Especially, those kinds of things." She sighed as she started to tidy up her bed and take a shower.

After taking a bath, she quickly put on her same old regular type of clothing. Nothing too fancy, nor eye-catching. Just normal, like her. She made her way towards the kitchen and grabbed whatever she could eat on the way out.

"Fi! Come on, let's go! We're going to be late!" Eleanor shouted as she started sprinting towards the university, leaving the door behind wide open.

"Oh, now you're the one saying we're about to be late! Wait up, dorky!" Her best friend shouted back, running towards Eleanor's direction and, of course, locking the door along the way.

=== TIME SKIP ===

They finally arrived at the university with 3 minutes to spare. Eleanor decided that they should walk around the school grounds so that they could familiarize themselves with their new surroundings. Along the way towards the cafeteria, Fiona found a kitten strolling as if it, owns the school.

With caution, they carefully walked towards the kitten, making sure not to startle it as they approach it. To their surprise, the kitten wasn't scared at all. In fact, the moment Fiona and Eleanor went closer to it. The kitten tried to jump into Eleanor's hands. As if trying to tell that it wants them to take it home. Fiona was awed at the interaction between the kitten and her best friend. She grabbed Eleanor's camera off of her and took a picture of her best friend and the kitten.

"Can we keep it?" Fiona practically begged.

"No, we don't even know if it has an owner or not," Her best friend argued.

"Please? I promise I'll take good care of it,"

"You can't even clean your own bedroom, Fi- "Eleanor complained.

"This is not about my bedroom, Elle! It's about the kitten being adopted by me. Please?"

She finally gave in and allowed Fiona to take the kitten home. Only if she promised that the kitten won't cause trouble in their apartment. Fiona happily picked up the kitten and put it on her shoulders. The kitten did not complain.

"What should we name it?" Fiona asked.

"I don't know. It's up to you. I mean, you're the one who wanted to keep it, right?" She told her, making a good point out of it.

"You're right, I guess we'll call it… Oreo!" Her best friend proudly said.

"Oreo? Really?" She questioned Fiona's naming types.

"Well, I kind of got hungry, so…"

Eleanor could only roll her eyes as a response to her friend's reply. While walking towards the principal's office, she saw a boy standing in front of the door. Eleanor hesitated whether she should talk to him or not. Fortunately, Fiona answered that dilemma for her. She was the one who initiated the conversation.

"Hey there! Are you also new here? I'm Fiona, nice to meet you," She extended out her hand to indicate a handshake.

"What the hell! That's my cat! Give it back!" The boy grabbed the kitten off of her shoulders and petted it slowly.

"No way, we found it first!" Fiona argued.

"I've been looking for him everywhere!" The boy argued back.

The two now started arguing about the kitten. Fiona telling it is originally hers because she named it. The boy disapproving because, according to him, he had that cat for about a month. Eleanor decided she had enough of these two people bickering and decided to speak up.

"Okay, why don't we all talk about this later? We're literally in front of the principal's office. You guys don't want to get in trouble the first day, do you?" Eleanor spoke with a tone as if talking to a little child.

The two could only nod and glare at each other. Fiona is on the left side of Eleanor. Eleanor in the middle, and the boy on her left. Both Fiona and the boy are acting like children as Eleanor could only sigh in disappointment.

'Well, this couldn't get any better,' she thought sarcastically to herself.

As they all entered the room, the childish people behind Eleanor, they saw a woman sitting on a chair. She looked up at them and smiled genuinely. Greeting them politely, they did too in reply.

'So, this must be the principal. She looks young though- 'She was pushed out of her thoughts when she heard someone say her name.

"... And, you must be Eleanor Calynn Slora, correct? Here's your schedule. Welcome to Stanford Berkeley University! I do hope you'll have a great time studying here." The principal, Mrs. Collins, said.

"Thank you. I do hope so too," she told the principal in reply. She really does hope that she'll have fun here.

"Ayo! We got the same schedule! Nice!" Fiona celebrated quietly beside her.

"Caelan Xander Evadene III? Here you go. I welcome you to Stanford Berkeley University as well." The principal gave the boy, his name's Caelan(?), his schedule.

All of them walked outside the principal's office when Caelan spoke up,

"Hey, uh, I'm sorry about the petty argument a while back. It's stupid of me to be arguing about such silly anyway. If you haven't heard, I'm Caelan. Caelan Xander Evadene III, nice to meet you." He stretched out his hand to both of the girls.

Fiona, being the person who doesn't hold grudges, had forgotten their argument as if it was a long time ago and shook his hand merrily.

"Fiona! Fiona Izabelle Jacobson. And, this is my childhood friend!" She basically took her by the shoulders and pushed her towards the boy.

"Uhm, hi." Eleanor bashfully said.

"Hey, may I know what's your name?" Caelan asked.

Eleanor was never the one to talk with people. Especially those to who she isn't close. That's why she prefers to be in quiet places or at her apartment, with her extremely extroverted friend, Fiona. Sometimes, she wondered how she became friends with Fiona. It just seems so weird.

"I-It's Eleanor. Eleanor Calynn Slora." She stuttered.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Eleanor. I got to go guys! Nice meeting both of you!" He told as he ran off in some direction.

Eleanor smiled at this.

'It won't harm to try and have fun, right? Guess this won't be so bad after all,' she thought to herself while smiling.

Fiona saw her best friend smiling to herself. Weird. Then, she looked at where her eyes' directions are looking at. Only finding out that her best friend's looking to where Caelan just ran off to.

'Ah, I see. Someone's in love…' Fiona thought while grinning like a little kid.

"Looks like someone is in love~," Fiona said in a singsong tone. Clearly teasing Eleanor.

"Who?" Eleanor asked, dumbfounded.

"The walls, Elle. Of course, I'm talking about you! I saw the way you look at him. And, the way you stuttered. Ooh! Someone's in love~" Fiona teased once more.

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "Whatever Fi. I'm not listening to your love advices anymore."

She walked away towards the direction of her first subject, leaving Fiona behind.

"Hey! Wait up! Jeez, why are you so bitter about it anyways?" She questioned, though knowing her friend, she won't reply.

Fiona ran to catch up to her friend and entered their first class. Science.

=== TIME SKIP ===

"I don't want to go to that class anymore. Argh, such a pain…" Fiona, her best friend, replied.

"It only became a pain because you won't listen to class. You kept talking to me about your soulmate the whole time. Maybe if you listened, it wouldn't be so difficult," Eleanor lectured her friend.

"Fine. I'm sorry, mom. I'll try and do my best to listen to that hell of a class," Fiona groaned.

"Good. Now, let's go. We still have History. We better not be late." Eleanor reminded. She grabbed her history materials and locked her locker.

They walked their way towards their second subject. Mathematics. As they entered the door, both Eleanor and Fiona were shocked to see the same boy, Caelan, in the same class with them.

"Well, I'll be, I guess it must be destiny for you guys. Anyhow, I'm sitting over there. Bye!" Fiona hurriedly scurried off to the other side of the classroom. Fiona sitting in one of the empty chairs, with the only one left beside Caelan.

Eleanor glared at Fiona. If glaring could eventually kill, Fiona would be six feet under. Her friend could basically feel the deadly aura around her now furious friend. Fiona knew she would have a good lecture about this, but she was too happy to even care.

Eleanor sighed in agitation and just went on with it. She sat beside Caelan and forced on a fake smile. He didn't seem to notice the girl's rage, so he just smiled back. Weird. Eleanor started feeling something.

Something about that boy's smile makes her feel relaxed, yet giddy. She smiled once more. Is this what they call, "getting butterflies in your stomach?" Suddenly realizing that she's smiling at him for a very awkward amount of time, she quickly looked away as she pushed the thought aside, forgetting that pointless emotion and focused on her ongoing lesson.

Not even knowing that, under that denial, their destiny has just been set in motion.