K I M B E R L Y

March, 2016

I stood in front of the counter, waiting for my coffee. When I spread my gaze on the entire café, people were chattering, some were calming their kids from crying or just too much energy for them to run everywhere, few of them were meeting for business; they had those papers and formal outfit. It was practically crowded.

And the waitress' voice snapped me out of my thought. "Miss Kimberly Valerie?"

"Kimberly Valora." I corrected my name.

"Oh yes, here is your hot coffee" She smiled while handing me the cup.

"Thank you" I had mirrored her smile before walking out the coffee shop.

As soon as I had gotten out, I looked up to the sky, which was dark. Uh- I forgot to bring an umbrella with me so I walked faster to RSFA, Redwood School of Fine Arts, which was the highest rank university of arts in London where talented and successful people graduated.

The ten-story building provided full facilities for those who had talents in arts; painting, music, designing, dancing, modelling, movie and theatre. They served free meals plus coffee for us, but yeah every free things had its own terms and conditions, right? That was how it worked with Redwood too.

Why would I buy coffee outside the campus when I could get it free in it? I didn't know. I liked to take a walk in the middle of my packed schedule. Well, it didn't mean that I hated my major. In fact, I loved it very much.

My dad wanted me to enroll as a modelling student, but I secretly changed the option from modelling to movie and theatre. Of course he got angry when he knew about it, but what could I do for my obsession towards cameras?

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"Hey." I greeted my friends as I sat next to a guy, who was seriously drawing for his project. My other two friends were also sitting across us, one was reading a fashion magazine and another one was busy with his phone.

They looked at me for a while, showed me a smile and then back to what they were doing. I rolled my eyes when I relinquished my bag from my shoulder. It made me feel annoyed because they were always busy with their things meanwhile we were supposed to be interacting, not ignoring. On the other hand, I couldn't deny the fact that they were all a good-friend.

After ten minutes of silence, I felt bored. I looked at the guy next to me and nudged his elbow, making him scratch over his drawing paper.

"KIM! Ohh come on!" Said Kent, with his Korean-ish accent, groaned loudly while I was just smiling from his reaction.

"Just- go away from me!" He frowned.

Sarah looked up from her magazine and laughed. Clint Harvey, who was busy with his phone, showed none reaction. Although Clint was always cold, he had been my closest friend and even older brother to me for these past five years.

"I don't think that's funny, Sarah." Kent furrowed his eyebrows.

"You can't win over her, Kent. No one beats her." Sarah whispered.

Without lifting his head from his phone, Clint spoke up, "I think you're the one who should go away from her. You know what Kim does when she's bored."

I nodded, showing agreement to what he had just said.

"You know, sometimes you should try bothering girls too," Kent replied, when he finally gave up from his drawing.

"In my opinion, most girls are sensitive. It would be a big trouble if I messed with them you know that well, Kent." I extended my hand to pat his head as he dodged it.

People might be wondering why I hardly messed girls. Because I had ever teased them once when it hadn't been that much and the next morning after that day, they neither even greeted me nor looked at me.

Therefore, I swore I would never tease girls rather than being ignored. However sometimes I admitted, that I got annoyed when people bothered me. That was weird, but I thought everything about me was all weird too.

"I don't think your feeling can make me escape from her torture, Sarah."

"Kent, you will understand how to handle her when you are graduated from this school," she defended.

Sarah Brandy, as always. She was a classy girl with a soft heart; my one and only girl best friend since childhood. Sarah took care of me as if I were her little sister since she was very mature.

Her popularity as a model, was undeniable because she had got a sexy body and everything about her was just right.

As I had a lot of male friends, they often came to me and asked if I could hook her with one of them. I had tried many times but Sarah rejected. She wasn't like other girls but simply playful and understanding.

"Three years?!" He hissed. "That will be too late for me,"    

■

My first class for today was Film Technology class. "Uh oh, I think I'll be late on this one," I waited anxiously for the elevator to arrive at the 9th floor, where the class was.

I kept tapping my finger on the wall which caused it making noises. Soon after it arrived on the floor where my class supposed to be, I ran immediately to the class and opened the door loudly.

I was catching up with my breath when professor Smith, who was in the middle of teaching, shot me a glare. The students were holding up their laugh, knowing that I could face another punishment this time. 

"Kimberly you should've come sooner," He gave me an instruction to enter the class and seat in the front row. 

I calmly followed his order and I heard him saying, "minus 5% on your attendance." As soon as he said that, I caught the students murmuring. There was nothing I could do except closing my eyes while trying to soothe my heart."This is not a good day"

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It was my first time of being late. Despite my behavior, I was a very diligent person. I wasn't saying that I was perfect, but I never messed up with my score; not even once.

The class had ended since 10 minutes ago and students were all gone. I was waiting for Professor Smith to come back for teaching the next class. I wanted to ask for an apology, hoping that it could cure my deducted 5% attendance.

I stood up when he came back to the class and stuttered, "Sir, please don't deduct-"

He smiled, "no bargaining."

I sighed in despair of how I lost my 5%. I knew for others it meant nothing, but I just didn't like it. This might be one of my traits of being a perfectionist, but I felt annoyed, angry, and frustrated.

I walked out of the room while searching for sticky notes. I wrote something and attached it on the door harshly, that it caused quite a stir.

While I was running down the stairs, I could heard Professor Smith's voice distinctively hollering for my name.

That was it, "I'm doomed." I was looking up as I was descending the stairs, barely looking front. Then I felt that my feet slipped out of the staircase, causing me to lose my balance and fell forward.

The moment my body swung, everything I had done in my life started to reflect back at me and I thought, "this is the end, I'm going to die."

I closed my eyes tightly, and unconsciously screamed as I knew I was going to bump the ground.

As soon as my face made contact with the floor, my face hurt while coincidentally biting my tongue out of fear, I shed some tears.

■  

I woke up with the smell of medicines. My vision was first blurry, and my head hurt. Next to my bed, I saw Clint anxiously speaking with the nurse. "Clint,-" I called his name, with my voice which became a bit husky due to the thirst that I felt.

"What have you done?!" He raised his voice a bit. "You know this is not right, Kim."

"I am okay," I replied him while attempting to show a smile, which was a failure.

"It is not only you this time. Kayden's elbow got fractured because of you."

I was surprised by his statement. As I remembered I didn't drag anyone nor did I cause any injuries towards anyone, "but what did I do?" I tucked my eyebrows, and I still could feel my head splitting.

"You bumped him on the stairs, you both fell, and you passed out. Fortunately it wasn't really high, but still, he got hurt because of you."

So- the thing that I thought was floor, was actually Kayden? "Where's he? I want to say sorry to him."

"He was brought to the nearest ER; Emergency Room."

I got up from the bed, trying to pack my things. Seeing that, Clint grabbed my wrist, "You're not going anywhere. Just take a rest."

I grunted and argued with him that I had enough sleep at the health clinic. After a long debate, and dramatical whining over my scores, he finally raised his hand, "Go home, and take a rest." 

Hearing that, I smiled while grabbing my bag and walked out from the clinic. The sole reason why I insisted going from there, was actually because I hated anything related to medicines. My brother died in hospital when I was five due to him had a lung cancer. 

Instead of going home, I headed to an indoor basketball court, which had been my favorite since I got in here. It was a perfect place for me whenever I wanted to be alone. The minimum lighting when the court was closed always cheered me up.

I sat on the second-row bench on the right side of the court. The accident happened earlier got me thinking how I should made it up to Kayden, and how my destiny laid on Professor Smith's hands.

I rubbed the back of my head, and realized that there was a bump, which was hurt. Drown to my thoughts, I stared into a paper plane near me.

As if I had just woken up from sleeping, I realized that there was no paper plane before. "Where did it come from?"

I turned my head left and right, to see if there's someone around me. As soon as I looked left, something hit my eye.

"Ouch" I muttered, turned out it was another paper plane. "Can things get any worse than this? I had already had enough accident for today."

While I was rubbing my eye because of the paper plane, I heard a smooth and kind of husky voice saying, "anybody there?"

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