1. Ville de Ravenwood

[Erica]

"I hope you all are prepared for exams starting from next week. The results will be vital for your college and on your graduation day, a list of students who have been offered a scholarship will be announced..."

Erica tuned out Ms.Greyson's lecture and glanced at the wall clock hanging above the entrance door of the average-sized classroom.

5 more minutes...She thought.

It's not that she found her speeches boring, it was rather the opposite, she idealized the woman, most of the students of Westview High did. But she had other pressing matters at the moment which had her on the edge from yesterday.

Her mind was conjuring up ways to convince her parents. Convince them to let her go to Ravenwood University.

Her mind veered back to last night's argument.

She had never seen her father, Adrian Morris so angry before neither did she ever see her mother, Evelyn, so upset.

She knew her chances to get the scholarship for Ravenwood University were slim to none. Firstly, because only 2 scholarships were available and secondly, being the trustee of Westview High, it was no secret that her father could cancel her name from the list and put some other student's name instead. Despite being a straight-A student with a GPA of 4.0 till then, she knew she just might have to fly to Canada or Australia instead of being just a city away.

"Ric? babe? Land your ass back to earth this instant," a feminine voice brought her back from her train of thoughts.

She looked up to see a petite brunette and a tall blonde standing near her desk and the class had already been dismissed.

"Wow, Nes, this is something new, she came back from la-la land quicker than the other times," the brunette said in a mock surprise to the blonde, pushing her cat eyeglasses up her nose.

"Right Megs. We generally have to call her at least thrice before we finally get a response from her," Nessa commented dryly.

"Uh..." she looked sheepishly at her two best friends.

Nessa was tallest among the three of them with an athletic body seeing as she was the captain of the female basketball team while Meghan was curvaceous and had a baby like face, attracting the male population in school and out of it more than the other two, more in school because she was the president of the student council. Nessa always got irked by this because Meghan was her long time girlfriend.

Erica started chewing her bottom lip.

"What's the matter?" Meghan asked, immediately detecting her friend's plight, her charcoal orbs clouding with concern.

"Let's talk in the cafétéria?" Nessa suggested.

Erica nodded.

----

"Spill," Nessa demanded as Meghan arrived at their table and placed the tray filled with three burgers and french fries.

Erica took a french fry and dipped it in the sauce, "Dad is not giving me permission".

"To go to that University?" Meghan prodded, taking a bite from the veg burger.

"It's Ravenwood University," Erica glared at the brunette.

"Right. But Ric, it is practically in the middle of nowhere," Nessa interjected.

Erica's eyebrow twitched, for some reason, she didn't like people bad-mouthing about Ville de Ravenwood. Even though she hardly knew anything about the city except that the city was cushioned by forest on three sides yet it had all the modern facilities, courtesy to the internet.

Moreover, it was one of the best Universities for learning Arts and Commerce. Very few people from the neighbouring towns and cities got a chance to study by getting scholarships as the education provided there was quite heavy for the pockets.

"Calm down hon," Nessa's brown irises twinkled with amusement.

"We'll think of something," Meghan consoled her blue-eyed best friend.

Erica sighed, she just wanted to know the reason behind her parents' refusal, hell, even her elder brother, Drake was completing Masters in Economics from there.

Yet little did she know that she was not what she should have been, she was unaware that on her 16th birthday she had her fate sealed. She was a human and humans weren't allowed in the University she dreamt of studying.