c h a p t e r 1 9
hostel shamrock
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NATASHA'S POV

"Ready! One, two, three...pull!" Selen and I both tugged at my trunk to haul them over the front porch steps.

"What on earth have you got in there?" Selen huffed, as we pulled the trunk over one more step,"A dead body?"

"They are just clothes," I said, pausing for a second to catch my breath.

"Made of what gold?"

"It's not that bad" I argued, tightening my hold on the trunk's handle. Needing to defend myself even though I knew she was right.

"Oh no, it is worst."

"Is not!"

"Is"

"Not" I let go of the handle in frustration and turn around to face her. She does the same. Neither of us realized the trunk was balanced on the edge of the steps until we heard it loudly tumble down the steps.

"Awesome!" I fling my arms out in frustration. Half an hour worth of effort to get my luggage up the stairs completely wasted.

"At least it didn't pop open and spill all your clothes out"

Just as she finished her sentence, I heard a clicking sound.

"Lo and behold", I said as the trunk popped open scattering my clothes all over the dirty ground. Turning around slowly I fixed Selen with a murderous look. She raised her hands in surrender and then proceeded to make her way down the steps. Grunting in frustration, I stomped my feet behind her before following her lead. 

It had taken me three hours to get my trunks locked. A task which was only successfully completed after I had begged one of my house maid's to sit on them. I let out a curse as I realize I would have to do it all over again.

Throwing in the last pair of clothes into the trunk, I eyed Selen while she struggled to push down the clothes to close the trunk.

"That won't work," I said, standing up and looking around for something heavy. "You will have to sit on it."

"Sit on it?"

"Yeah, but we need to find some additional weight too. You are not heavy enough"

"Uh...thank,..you...?"

The nicely mowed porch had nothing but dainty trees and flower plants pots lining the outer edges of the small garden. Walking over to the smallest looking plant which had nothing but leaves covering it's stems, I picked it up, "this will have to do."

Not anticipating the sudden weight, I lose my balance for a second and almost fell over but I somehow managed to right myself. "Woah its heavy"

"Be careful N" Selen stared at me with concern as I carried the heavy pot towards her.

"Here you go," I said, placing it in her outstretched and steady arms.

"Okay now sit on it and I will try to close it's latch" I instructed her. Selen immediately settled down on my trunk with a giggle, without asking a question. In all my time that I had spent in the boarding with her, I had come to observe that she was the most humble and helpful person I had ever met. Though she was the richest of us all, she never showed it off. In fact, she was one of the few girls that never complained about anything. Always so grateful for everything. She inspired me sometimes with her grounded nature. Made me wish to be more like her.

After three tries, I finally strapped on the latch and heaved a sigh of relief. She gave my shoulder a proud pat. I smiled and fell back on the lawn to steal a minute of rest while she carefully walked over to where I had lifted the pot from and placed it back in its place.

"That's it I am switching to normal roller suitcases next time," I murmured to myself closing my eyes but Selen obviously heard me and so she let out a humorless laugh.

"I think you should switch to light packing instead."

Looking up at the sky, I lifted up my middle finger and waved it in her face. And she retaliated by tickling me.

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The room was small but it had a nice view. The single stationary window present in the room overlooked the lush tall trees and giant rocks that adorned the backyard. For as far as I could see, only trees came into my view and so I wondered if the backyard joined into the thin woods that surround HoneyTop. The greenery paired with the late noon sun peaking through the gaps in the trees looked magical. As if it were an entrance into a new fantasy world. But then, HoneyTop was like a different style of fantasy world. Placing my pile of clothes on my new bed, I leaned on the window to aimlessly watch the trees sway with the gentle breeze.

I hadn't been sure at first if giving up my boarding seat to a junior in need was a good call. Especially after coming here to Hostel Shamrock, to find it closed. No one was around to help me settle down. Only a note was left stuck on the main door, telling where the house key was and to help myself in, since everyone else had to leave for their church servings. Thank god, Selen had insisted on coming along or I would have had to wait for two hours alone on the steps of this new place—that I had to live in, till the next semester—before anyone bothered to show up.

But I had a feeling that maybe this new accommodation will grow on me too. Just like St. Mary had.

Yes, I had finally made my peace with the fact that I liked being at St. Mary. In fact, I liked being at St. Mary and at HoneyTop a tad bit more than I liked being at my own home. Though, I could do without their no internet and phone policies. Their early curfews, prep time, mandatory classes and subject schedules were no fun too but the rest of it wasn't that bad.

Once I stopped wrestling with myself to put on various layers of my uniform early mornings, I started to notice just how cute I looked in them. After that, I no longer had any aversion towards it. There were so many things, that I never really got to experience before coming here. Like playing the dorm room version of hopscotch—using our beds to create it's pattern—with all the Emerald House girls in our dormitory when we were bored.

Or singing Britney Spears songs together in the bathroom, in the most ridiculous way possible every Sunday while we take long showers or pamper ourselves with all sorts of beauty treatments. If it wasn't for those lazy Sunday afternoons in the dormitories, exchanging our beauty secrets and products, I would have never guessed how good sandalwood, curd and chickpea powder scrub was for my skin. Or how competitive pillow fights could get.

For the most of my life, I had never considered pillow fights as a serious tournament until I entered St. Mary. Every second Sunday night, all the houses gather in the last week's winning house's dormitory and compete for the golden pillow. Which was just a really old and really torn pillow with golden cover on it.

Not kidding, the shit gets dead serious there.

All three hundred plus girls cooped up in one dorm room does not look anything like the tumblr images of girls in pink undies being all cute with feathers flowing all around them. It looks like the battle scene from the Battle of the Bastards episode of Game of Thrones. There are hair pullings, some even get nose bleeds and as I had witnessed twice by now even puking.

It's like a mellow version of Hunger Games, and I always looked forward to it.

Which is why visiting home for two weeks had been such an odd experience. At first, I was thrilled to be back home but after two days, I easily got bored without the lack of constant company of my friends. Shocker as it was, I had no problem in accepting the fact that I had missed my boarding life.

How could I not when it felt like an unlimited sleepover at times.

My boredom had been evident to everyone around me. I hadn't done a good job of hiding it. While my parents and cousins were ecstatic to see me well adjusted to my new lifestyle, my old school friends had been doubtful. Some even questioned me if I was just pretending it to be all that because, in reality, it was just plain boring. Not that I could blame them for it. Before coming to HoneyTop I too had claimed it to be nothing but a waste of my time. And wouldn't have dreamed to actually like it either. I had unknowingly formed an attachment with this place.

This two weeks holiday was much needed for me. I had enough time to reflect on these past three months that felt like they went by in a blink for me. I went over each memory like it was my treasure and I was it's pirate. In many ways, they really were like treasures for me. Each day that I had spent here, the people I talked with on that day and the things I did; all a set of gold coins worth millions.

It made me realize how many of such precious memories I might have let waste away by not holding on to them. Just like a discarded trunk filled with treasure buried somewhere under the deep sea sands to never be found again. Only a faint remembrance of them left imprinted on my life.

Like my memories with my parents for instance.

From the very moment, that my eyes had first opened into this world, they had looked at the loving faces of my parents but never really tried to hold onto them. Being away from them all these months made me realize how important they were to me. I thought it would be okay, it wouldn't be a big deal staying away from them for so long. And until the train didn't reach the station, it indeed was no big deal. But when I saw my parents and my little brother waiting there on the platform for me, Everything changed, an array of emotions showered down my soul. Making me cry, smile, laugh and sigh altogether.

My parents, especially my mom would always come at me with her arms spread out for an embrace and I would always find ways to dodge her. Not this time though. I ran up to her and embraced her back with all my heart. I might have even squealed, "mommy", like a little girl. But I don't remember that particular detail very well.

And as we stood there embracing each other for two whole minutes I realized just how long I had gone without hugging my mom.

It was a similar yet different sort of feeling when I met my old friends too. I had missed them no doubt, but when I sat across them in our favorite hangout spot, sipping our favorite caramel milkshakes and sharing a laugh over all the gossips that I had missed on, I realized the difference between my equation with them and my equation with Ester, Selen, Kate or the other girls. With them, it was more than just about favorite hangouts and exchanging new gossips. With them, I didn't part ways at the end of a conversation. They were always around. With them, there was no room for the conversations to end. There was no time out with them. We were all like shadows following one another everywhere. Doing everything together, even if we didn't have to. We didn't have a favorite hangout because any place that we were together at would automatically become our thing. What I had with them and with probably all the other girls of St. Mary too was more than just the limited definition of friendship. And most importantly, when I was here, I had not once paused to think about my old friends, but that wasn't the case with all my st. Mary friends.

I didn't just miss them alone though. When I was at home, I was feeling a heart-sickness for everyone and everything that is related to this amazing place. Which was a bit silly, as I was away from HoneyTop for only two weeks. But I still couldn't stop myself from thinking about how far away I was from HoneyTop every waking day. Which is why when my family and friends would ask me about HoneyTop or St. Mary, I couldn't help myself from going into hour long rants about everything. I explained them in detail about all the houses and the subclasses within the houses. I told them about the food, the assemblies. I even imitated out all of my teachers for them. Told them all about my new friends too, which ultimately led to a surprising discovery about Kate. Turns out her mom is actually a cousin of my dad's brother's wife so that technically made us cousins too and that was cool.

I shared everything with them. Well, almost everything. I tried to be quiet about all the pranks business at first in front of my parents, but after watching a guy on one of that daytime channel's that play funny home videos with my parents; trick his friend into stepping on a rat trap, I couldn't stop the words, "this is nothing, you should have seen what I had done at Delegres" from escaping my lips.

My parents had immediately demanded me to come clean, knowing me well enough to know that I couldn't survive this long without causing some trouble. And so I was forced to tell them about my pranks. Leaving out only the porn CD prank—for the sake of keeping my somewhat innocent image intact in front of them—and the incident with those guys on our way with Delegres—I had confessed to everything else. Including the fights with Blaze that had gotten us locked in jail. Twice.

While some of them got me condescending looks, most of them earned me laughs. I was immensely pleased to watch them cry with laughter at my shenanigans. I was even happier to know that they weren't mad at me for it. However, I was very, very displeased to know that even they preferred Blaze's pranks over mine. Their own daughter.

I don't know which was worst. Hearing my mom say, "This Blaze's pranks sound very classic" or hearing my dad say, "I want to bet on him too"

Deciding both were equally offending I had locked myself in my room and thrown me a pity party until my parents bribed me out with ice cream. 

That night as I laid on my soft bed, I had done the mistake of breaking my own promise. I had vowed to myself right after our little exchange at the station platform, that I will not think about Blaze Warner and yet that's exactly what I had done. I was so angry at myself.

I couldn't go two days without thinking about him?

Without replaying the instances those three days in my head over and over again?

He had this ability, an annoying gift sent from below, of getting into my skin. No matter how big or small, all his actions brought out an equal and opposite reaction from me. I could hate him or I could not but I could never ignore him.

If you had asked me a month or two ago if I would throw a humongous rock at Blaze Warner's face for fifteen million dollars, I would have done so without even deliberating to verify if the payment will truly come through. But now the case was different.

Not saying that I won't do it anymore, because I still will; just saying that I would hesitate at the beginning and then feel guilty at the end.

This was all Miss. Famina's fault. Why did she have to pair us off and send us all the way to Delegres unsupervised? Things were so much less complicated before Delegres. All these mix feelings that I had for him would have been nonexistent if those three days hadn't happened in my life. I could have gone on wishing upon horrible fates for him and not feel guilty about the sweet, caring and kind Blaze that I had got to know.

Someone waved a hand in front of my face, bringing me out of my stupor. I turned around to look who it was. Seeing Keith's freckled face, I groaned internally.

"Back to earth N. Daydreaming about it won't help you. You have already lost the bet" he said, smiling like a cartoon character. 

Rolling my eyes, I turned my back to him and resumed folding my pile of clothes.

"I think you lost your way Keith, this isn't the gateway to Warner's ass, go worship him somewhere else" I threw over my shoulder, taking out a crease from a pale blue crop top before folding it neatly.

Juan, his friend that stood beside him snorted and that earned him a punch on the stomach by Keith.

I turned around to shoo the boys off but stopped when I saw Jana creeping behind them.

Grabbing the hands of the unsuspecting boys she twisted them back at a sharp angle, making them yelp with pain.

"What did I tell you both about entering my room?" she said, through gritted teeth.

I stood back and watched with a smile as the two boys started twisting their body at weird angles to get out of her grip.

"Hey it isn't just your room, it also....ahh... ow... Kara and now...also her room...and...ahh... she doesn't mind us staying here" Keith argued, between his grunts and I slapped a hand over my mouth to cover up the ugly laugh that burst out seeing the comical pained expression on his face. But then schooled myself to keep a straight face. 

"Oh but I do. I mind very much Keith " I interjected with a serious tone and then proceed to continue folding my clothes.

"Ow...shit..it's hurting Jana!" Keith shouted, making me look over my shoulder to find him now half bend down and holding Juan's hand for support. The scene made me chuckle again.

"Good! It's supposed to", Jana said as she continued to torture the boys.

"Okay... Okay! We are sorry..sorry!" Juan pleaded urgently, looking over his shoulder with a defeated look at Jana. Keith quickly learned his lesson and imitated his friend. Despite her short height she somehow managed to kick the two idiots out of our room and then shut the door behind them.

Laughing, I open the wardrobe and started stacking my clothes neatly one on top of the other. Jana, my new roommate is a tomboyish girl that could not be more than 5'1 feet tall from what I could tell and wore over-sized guy clothes. She had a short bob hairstyle which made her look both cute and tough. She was friendly enough I guess but sometimes would say really weird philosophical things. Although I can't say much since it has only been four hours since I got here.

I was yet to learn everyone's name but they all already knew me. Hostel Shamrock was definitely much smaller in comparison to the boarding campus but it was big enough to house sixteen people. Excluding me and some four other St. Mary girls, rest were all St. Terence students. Which is why, ever since they all got back from their church services they hadn't stopped pestering me about the pranks and bets. Some wanted to know if I had any plan of getting back at Blaze for winning the bet while others like Keith and Juan were teasing me for losing the bet.

I didn't mind it though. Neither their pestering nor Blaze winning the bet. As much as I wanted to be bitter towards him, I couldn't bring myself to it. When Juan had obnoxiously pointed out Blaze winning the bet, I had surprisingly felt relieved to know the bet was over. However, I had yet to figure out the reason behind it.

"Where's the rest of your luggage did you unpack already?" Jana inquired as I closed the wardrobe door, done with placing the last of my clothes pile.

"Yup! Did it while you all were away. Selen had helped" I informed her.

Walking over to my bed I fell head first on it. suddenly feeling tired from all the work I had done so far.

The mattress here were much softer than the ones in the boarding. Sighing happily, I turned my face to look at Jana. She was tying her hair back. My eyes trailed across the room and settled on the bed with pink bed sheets opposite mine.

"So besides you and the―" I stopped short as I forgot the name of the other St. Terence girl―that was my new roommate along with Jana―and looked in the direction of her bed. Jana followed my gaze and understood who I was talking about.

"Kara" she helped and I gave her a thankful smile.

"Yes, Kara, who is the other one," I said, looking at the bed opposite me.

"That bed belongs to Parul Patel. I think she is your classmate" she said, stuffing the books scattered on the study table in her backpack before placing it down near her bed.

"Oh yeah, she is!" I sat up at the mention of Parul's name. Finally a familiar face.

"Where is she...I didn't see her with you guys" I asked, getting up from my bed.

"I don't know I think she and few guys went to the market to buy something" Jana, slowly made her way to the door and held it open for me.

"I am pretty sure everyone is back by now though so we should probably head back downstairs" she suggested.

Nodding my head along, I quickly grabbed her hand and ran out the door, while Jana complained about her short legs not being able to keep up.

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Who is up for some bed hopscotch?