CHAPTER ONE

"Sharon! Sharon Lana Reed! Wake up, you are going to be late. Shaz..." Splash!

"Oh my... Gosh! Sarah Jacobs! What is it with you?" I am woken up by a huge splash of water on my face.

My hair is drenched leaving my pillow soaked. I cannot help but glare at my evil roommate, Sarah glaring back at me holding an emptied water jug.

"What did you do that for? You know very well I don't like to be woken up. Especially with a jug of water splashed all over my face. What time is it, anyway?" I ask getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom.

"What time is it? Your alarm has been going off for an hour now! It's nine on the dot! Isn't your class at nine twenty? And who has sounds of roaring engines as their alarm tone and still doesn't hear it?" Sarah shouts all the way from the kitchen after she decided to leave my personal space.

"What? Oh no! I am so late. Why didn't you just splash me with that water earlier? And how come I didn't hear the alarm go off?" I have less than ten minutes to get out of here or this will be my fifth class missed in the whole semester. I must attend the class, or I might not do well on my exam. I must really stop going out on school nights.

"Well, I tried to wake you up. How do you even sleep so still? I thought you had fainted in your sleep that is why I splashed you with water. Shaz, are you okay?"

She thought I had fainted in my sleep? I must have been having the dreams again. I only wish I could make sense of them.

Sarah enters my bedroom with a glass of red grape juice and my favourite chicken mayo sandwich. It must have been last night's chicken leftover because I do not think she woke up early to make that.

"And happy belated birthday, by the way. I would have baked you a cake, but I knew you wouldn't be here." As soon as I am done dressing up in sweatpants and a black t-shirt, I immediately grab the sandwich and start munching on it while putting on my converse sneakers as fast as I can.

"hmmh... I wish I could have more of this, but I got to rush. Please pass me my cap. Now I must wear it because my hair is a mess. Thanks to someone. Where on earth is that damn phone?" I try to detangle my hair where it got tangled from sleeping and wet with Sara's water.

Coming from a mixed-race family, I have quite a mixture of African, Asian, and European hair, complexion, and facial features. However, the huge afro curls seem to show my African side more. My dad was a mixture of both native South African and English, and his hair was just pure black thick wavy hair with no Africanity in it. My mother was a mixture of Asian Indian and Native South African with long black curly hair which is where my dad said I inherited my huge curls. The only thing I got from my dad were my eyes. Hazels.

Sarah puts the cap on my head as I take a gulp of the juice.

"Well, you're welcome. What would you do without me?" She asks while handing over my iPhone.

"No, not that one. Where is the other one. You know I never use that one." I quickly put the iPhone in the bedside drawer and lock it. I find the Huawei phone from the study desk.

"You know, it puzzles me why you even have the iPhone if you never use it. Anyway, let us go before you are late. I will drive us to campus since I also want to go to the library. I need to borrow a book for the upcoming exam, before someone gets the only available copy."

I lock my room as we both heads out. I always keep my bedroom locked even though we lock the apartment when we both go out. I cannot risk any visitor sneaking in let alone my roommate.

"I hate school libraries. How do you even manage to work in such a restrictive place? That is why I buy my own books. You should do that too. I can help you out if you would like." I speak as we drive out of the parking lot in her red 2016 Toyota Yaris. We both use the car though it's still not my kind of car, but it is reliable and precious for her. Even with her savings, she had to work two jobs during her first year of varsity to be able to put on a deposit for it. I just had to help her get a discount from the previous owner. Sarah does not know that. Besides, the owner really wanted the car gone due to some supposedly serious reasons.

When I noticed the car was still as good as new, and had no legal problems, I paid the rest of the money Sarah had to pay making it seem like her mother, Aunt Lisa paid for it. I just really wanted her to stop working so hard. She needed to enjoy her first year of varsity. I know if she knew I helped her out, she would feel pressured to go look for another job so she could pay me back. At least now she is only working at the library as a student assistant and she does not have to work every day.

When she accidentally found out that I owned the apartment we are staying in, she kept pestering me about wanting to at least contribute since I did not want her to pay rent. I had to agree that she could just buy groceries and other household necessities when she felt like it.

"No, as much as it would be nice to have my own books, you know I can't allow you to spend more money on me. I am already staying in a nice apartment for free in my second year of varsity. I do not even know how you managed to get me a discount for this car. Of course, I had to force mother to tell me where she got the money to pay for the rest. Seriously, you two got to stop doing things for me behind my back. But it's fine, the module is only for this semester. I already have books for the other modules that use same textbooks for both semesters. You've already done a lot for me, Shaz."

Sarah is one of the very few people who call me that name. She knows very well I do not like it. So, she only calls me the name when it is just the two of us or when she is really concerned about me. She and I have been friends since I can remember. Although we are cousins and I am two years older than her, she is my only female friend, or the only friend I currently have. Apparently, I have been shutting everyone out ever since I graduated high school. That is what Sarah and Aunt Lisa said.

They both played a huge role in my life. After dad passed on, they took me in to live with them because my brother was already in varsity for his first year and I was still eleven years old. Aunt Lisa is my late mother's younger sister. I was told that mother passed on due to complications with my birth. Even though she was told that her chances of getting were very few, mother never gave up the will to have a baby girl until her last breath.

I was in sixth grade when my brother, Luke got a scholarship to continue his Mechanical Engineering studies abroad overseas. So, it was only logical for Aunt Lisa to be my official guardian. My brother had inherited our house, and since no one lived in it anymore, he sold it and put the money in the investment account he had set up for me.

He'd only visit for holidays once a year for the first two years. At some point we weren't even sure if he wanted to come back home. Four years later my brother moved back home as a Mechanical Engineer, a computer geek, and a street racer. We weren't surprised at all, even though Aunt Lisa did not approve of the street racing idea.

She had said,

"Lucas Reed, you should set a good example to Sharon, your little sister. You know she strongly looks up to you. Now you want to put these silly ideas of possibly illegal and dangerous activities. She's a girl, you know. Your mother would not approve."

But I knew my brother only liked engineering because dad was the best Mechanical Engineer in town who preferred working in his garage fixing and redesigning cars. Racing cars to be precise. Next to IT, my brother always loved the thrill of racing, there was no way he would give that up. When Luke came back, he reopened dad's garage and continued with the infamous John Reed legacy.

At that time, I was sixteen years old and just as Aunt Lisa had said; I strongly looked up to my brother. I wanted to work at the garage with him, and also move to stay with him. The apartment that Sarah and I live in was actually my brother's.

After the garage was reopened, I had begged him to let me stay with him. Although he didn't think it was a good idea, he still bought the apartment so I could stay with him during school holidays and whenever he was in the country.

Of course, Aunt Lisa did not like the idea at all. She only pictured me following my brother to race the streets of Town A. According to her, being in the city suburbs was much better and safer for a young girl like me than the bustling town. Seeing how I'd always sneak out to visit the garage and the racetrack, she had to agree for me to stay with my brother for the sake of my safety.

The drive to campus took my whole remaining eight minutes. Now I can only hope the lecturer has not arrived yet. At least she managed to drop me right in front of the building.

"Oh, finally! If it were me, we would have been here five minutes ago. You know I hate being late to class." I throw my sarcasm at her as I walk get out of the car.

"Whatever, next time don't go out on a school night. Wait for a day like Friday. Which is tomorrow!" With that she drives off to go find a parking space near the library.