Epsd 1

It was raining heavily that night when Ava Sinclair decided to relocate to Manning, a town that had fallen below the word "civilization" into old age. She didn't care about where she was being sent; she believed something amazing would happen during her time in that miserable town. Yet, little did she believe; she thought it was to happen.

Her crazy, short red hairstyle gave the citizens who were looking through their windows a first impression of an easily commanded stranger in town. Driving through the road in her highly printed truck, with the car windows lowered for a view, looking at her map for directions.

She arrived at her cottage, a rather miserable house near a small bush where she was supposed to stay by herself, as she assumed. Very distant from the other homes. The presentation of the house was extremely discouraging to her sight: a leaking roof, a broken door, dirty water, and a messed-up room overall. She had to mend a few things as fast as possible in order to get some rest because the next day was school.

Her father was very available when it came to discouraging her sexuality but never cared about her whereabouts, what she ate, or where she went. Her mother was the actual opposite but so much of a submissive party when it came to obeying her husband, Daniel Sinclair.

After a scandal of Ava kissing a girl in the newspapers, Daniel did his best to cover up every story written about his name, and in a few days, no one was talking about Ava's romance. Then he took the liberty of finding a secluded place to keep Ava from damaging the Sinclair name. Brenda tried so hard to keep a positive image of her daughter in the family, but she wasn't enough. She couldn't stop Daniel from sending Ava away, a thousand miles from home.

Ava did well at the cottage, handling everything like a handywoman for a surprise. She fixed every inch of the house until it looked welcoming to guests. For a moment, she sat to think about what kind of impact this change would have, with her bottle of beer. She considered all possibilities but not that of dropping out of school.

The Sinclairs were quite a wealthy family, too blessed to have Ava so far in a less civilized place. No phones, nothing, just the people, the homes, their different behaviors, and beliefs.

Ava woke up late the next morning, as expected. She had her breakfast and got into her truck to get to school, which was about a mile away from where she resided. It took her about ten minutes to get there.

Manning University was very impressive, very ancient and conducted in a military way. All students were in their respective classes according to the regulations. A first day guaranteed Ava's exemption from detention tickets.

She arrived at the principal's office, greeted by a fine-aged gentleman with slightly grey beards and hardly any grey hair on his head. He knew exactly who she was and welcomed her to Manning University with a smile that few had given Ava. He handed her the class timetable, the school regulations, and tried to show her to her first class lesson when he called Kara.

"Excuse me, Kara, can you help out the young lady?" The principal called as Kara was passing by.

"Sure, principal. Andrews," Kara replied with a stingy smile on her face.

"Should I say she is now your responsibility?" Andrews headed back into his office, leaving Ava in the care of Kara.

"Welcome to Manning University, Ava Sinclair," Kara said with a smile, staring at Ava's serious, cute face.

"Thank you. Um... how did you know my name, Kara?" Ava inquired.

"So you don't read the paper, do you? Well, Stuart drops a paper every morning at each house's door, and today's headline read, 'DANIEL SINCLAIR SENDS HIS BELOVED DAUGHTER TO A SMALL TOWN AS PUNISHMENT.'" She gestured in joy. "You should come from a very wealthy family to have your photo on the front page of every newspaper."

"Yeah, that defines me clearly, doesn't it?" She sarcastically replied to Kara.

"So, can I call you Red?" Kara excitedly asked.

"Well, Ava has three digits, just like Red. I would prefer Ava, don't you think?" She turned, looking at Kara closely in the eyes.

"Well, I will call you Ava, as you wish," Kara smiled, approaching a classroom door. "This is your classroom. Better yet, we share the classes, and I have an empty seat right next to mine if you would like it."

"You've done quite a lot in the past few minutes, and I appreciate it, but I will pick up from here. I'm rather a preferred loner if you don't mind." Ava opened the classroom.

Everyone was looking at her from the front to where she took her seat next to a young man. It was obvious they had read the paper. Immediately when she took her seat, the teacher had spotted her.

"Miss Sinclair, it's better to keep a low profile in this school. No one is above the law," she said, pointing back at the board.

"Don't mind Mrs. Andrews's temper. She gets jealous at times," the guy next to Ava whispered.

Later, about five minutes after Ava entered the classroom, Kara came in as well. Everyone kept an eye on her; it seemed like they couldn't get enough of her, despite knowing her for a long time, or it was just their way of welcoming anyone into their class, evidently after they stared at another girl who came in later on.

"Well, nice to meet you...?" Ava puzzled at the guy next to her.

"Manuel Dante. Nice to meet you too, Ava Sinclair," he flirted.

"Does everyone here know who I really am?" Ava whispered to Manuel.

"Yes, we read the paper," the whole class, including Mrs. Andrews, replied excitedly.

"Oh yeah," Ava spoke through gritted teeth, having Kara chuckle from the back.