Chapter 1- Amara

After a ten and a half hour long flight we finally reached Oakland International Airport. We are

going to live in Berkeley. It's a 30 minutes ride from here. We went out of the airport after collecting

our luggage and hailed a cab to our new home for four years, North Berkeley. This is a really

expensive place to live but dad found a one bedroom apartment for a lower price. The owners are

really nice people. I hope our neighbor is not as bad either. The rent is $1800 a month which is quite

low for the area but we got lucky I guess. Aaron and I wanted to live together and college

accommodation was not at all an option in that case. We got really lucky to have found this

apartment. We exited the cab after reaching our location and got our luggage out. I paid the driver

and he zoomed off.

“Finally here.” Aaron said all excited making me laugh.

"Yup. Let's get settled so we can go find jobs tomorrow.” I said frowning at the idea of getting a job

here.

I hope we find one though. Dad paid my first year tuition fee but I still have three more years to go

after that. I have saved up as much as I can in three years part time jobs. I have enough money to

pay for the next year tuition and a year worth of rent but I will have to work my butt off to

accumulate for the remaining years. Then there is food, school supplies and god knows what. I have

to find a part time job as soon as I can.

"Oh come on Amy. We just got here and you are already on about work and stuff.” Aaron said

huffing dramatically. “At least take a week off to look around this place.”

"Fine we will start with the job hunting after a week. Let's get inside first. My hands are aching from

the weight of this bag” I grumbled.

Aaron laughed at my pouty face and started walking towards the door of the apartment. He rang

the doorbell as we don't happen to have our keys yet. They are going to give them to us today. The

door opened and a short lady came into view. Yup shorter than my 5'3” self. Her bright blue eyes

staring at us in excitement, her black curls tumbling around her slightly tanned face with a sweet

smile directed towards us. She has her curves in all the right places. She looked really adorable for a

fifty some women.

“Hello.” She said in a childlike full of excitement voice. Someone's really ecstatic to have us here.

“Come on in.” She continued turning on her heels. “You must be my new tenants, Amara and

Aaron.”

We nodded awkwardly. She was literally bouncing on her feet. Is she high on something?

"You guys are so adorable and no I am not high honey.” The last part was directed to me.

I blinked. Did I say that out loud or did she just read my mind?

“I caught that from your expression.” She explained giggling. “I am really good at it. I am a

psychiatrist after all.”

“I am sorry.” I apologized rubbing the back of my neck.

Talk about embarrassing. Aaron on the other was shaking from silent laughter. Wait till I get my

hands on you bitch.

“You don’t have to apologize sweetie. I really love kids so I am a little over joyed about having you

two here.” She said smiling sweetly.

Now I feel terrible. Geez way to mess things up on the first meeting. I hope she doesn't kick us out

after that.

“Well I am Cassidy. My husband Grayson is out for work. He is a doctor too. He will be back in the

morning as he unfortunately had to go for an emergency. Come on I will show you to your

apartment.”

She started skipping up the steps. For a fifty year old, she does seem to have a lot of energy. After

climbing a flight of stairs, she turned right and continued walking straight ahead. We followed,

huffing and puffing with the weight of our luggage. In the middle of the hallway were two adjacent

doors. She pulled out a key from her jeans pocket and inserted it in the second door. She unlocked

the door and entered doing a magic show pose. I didn't knew if I should laugh or run all the way

back to Greycoast. Judging from Aaron's face, he is thinking the same. She means no harm though

so it won't be a problem. Right?

“The first door is another apartment which is occupied by Steven. I will introduce you to him in the

morning.” She said grinning. We nodded at her enthusiasm, both being speechless as to how to

interpret the situation or more like her. “Get settled. I will see you in the morning. Here's your set of

keys.” She exited handing me and Aaron the keys to the apartment and the front door.

“Talk about weird.” Aaron said as soon as the door closed behind us.

"Geez lower your voice. She might hear us.” I said listening for footsteps which thankfully were

retreating down the steps.

Aaron rolled his eyes and started looking around the apartment. The apartment was of a decent

size. The living room had a small couch, perfect for three people to sit or a person to sleep. The

kitchen had a refrigerator, an oven and a stove. We left the luggage in the living room and entered

the bedroom. The sight in the room stunned me. Cassidy had put a bunk bed for us in here. They

were placed right beside the wall on the left side of the door. There are two desks and chair on

either side of the window. There are two small closets in the room as well. Now I feel really bad

about acting the way I did earlier. She had really arranged the apartment for us thoughtfully. we

exited the bedroom and checked the bathroom which too was good with a shower, a small bath tub

and a toilet seat on one side. We plopped our asses on the couch in the living.

“I feel bad for behaving like that earlier.” I said resting my head on the back of the couch. “She has

really made arrangements for the two of us.”

When dad had come home after sighing the rental contract with the owners, he had told us that the

apartment has equipment for only one person as in one bed, one closet, etc. It didn't even have the

desks. Cassidy must have put those things there for us.

“Me too.” Aaron sighed. “We really got lucky with her, didn't we?”

"Yeah."

The sky is turning orange. We need to buy food. I watched the setting sun for a little while and

nudged Aaron.

"We need to go grocery shopping.” I said sleepily.

Jet lag is a bitch.

“Yeah.” Aaron muttered but did not get up.

We sat like that for a while and then made our way to the nearest grocery shop. I have a strong

feeling that we are going to have instant noodles for dinner today.