Sandra

Chapter One

“Wake up, Sandra. Come on child, wake up”, Eric shaking her niece to wake her up from her nightmare. Sandra woke up instantly and looked at her surrounding and then at her uncle, tears in her eyes, hugged him for comfort. “Hush, my child… it was only a dream”, Eric said calmly.

It was always like this at night; Sandra would be woken up by her uncle from her nightmare. The nightmare of her mother screaming and died giving birth to her always haunted her ever since she was young; her dad yelling at her that it was all her fault and left her when she was just 4 years old. Sandra is twenty years old now and yet the nightmares still haunt her at night, no matter how many psychologists her uncle insisted on seeing her, it never goes away. She would lay awake after being woken from her nightmare and think about her father who blamed her for losing the love of his life.

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It was her first day back from their Spring break; Sandra got up early for school even though she’s tired from the previous night, greeted her uncle and acted like nothing happened just for his sake. Her uncle Eric always worrying about her with the dreams and suggesting she goes to another psychologist but she always refused.

 “I’m giving you 3,000 Kronor for your allowance as I’ll be gone for 2 weeks in Belgium. What do you want me to get for you while I’m there?” her uncle asked Sandra. Eric is a wealthy businessman, always travelling from one place to another but he usually buys a souvenir for Sandra whenever he goes away.

She smiled and said her thanks, “I don’t know much about Belgium, Uncle Eric but if you do go shopping, if you see something and you instinctively think of me, and then get that”. Sandra ate the last bits of her egg and drank the rest of her milk, then looked at the clock. “Oh Uncle, I have to go to school now Alex is waiting for me outside. Have a safe flight and an awesome business trip”, she got up and kissed her uncle on the forehead.

Her school, Konstfack or University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, was an hour away, so she hurried with her school things and went outside to her chauffeur, Alex. He is twenty-one years old and he started being Sandra’s driver when his father passed down the job to him when he was eighteen. The men in Alex’s have been serving the Dahlberg family since the ages.

“Hej, Alex. God mórgon. How are you?” asks Sandra, starting their usual small talk in the morning.

Alex glanced at his mirror and smiled, “God mórgon to you too, and as usual, I am mighty good. You look tired, didn’t sleep much last night talking to your boyfriend?” he joked.

Sandra poked her tongue out and replied, “Yeah you seem in a good mood today, oh well I did sleep but not enough, had a nightmare”.

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It was about 30 minutes before the bell went when Sandra got there and so she hurried stuffing her bag and getting her school stuff from her locker. Just as she was about to close her locker, her best friend, Anita hugged her from behind, nearly dropping Sandra’s things.

“Oops, I didn’t mean to do it that hard. I missed you!” Anita told her.

Sandra laughed and said, “Be careful next time or I’ll have a heart attack. I missed you too”, they walked to their homeroom, “Uncle Eric gave me pocket money, and I want to go do some shopping, want to come with me?”

“Of course I’ll go with you, what’s a day without a shopping trip with you? I’ll just call my mum and let her know. When are we going?” Anita replied as she sat down in the back row.

 Sandra sat down too and paused, “Tonight, the sooner the better. I feel like being rebellious for some reason, hanging out with my uncle and his many mistresses at our holiday house was not what you’d call a holiday. Although they taught me lots of things about dressing up, makeup and boys”, she giggled and winked at her best friend, “We’re both turning 18 this summer and so I figured we need to catch up with the modern times. There’s this new clothing store in the city, we should go check it out”.

“Miss Alessandra, would you kindly share what you were whispering to Miss Anita to the rest of the class? I’m sure it’s something that everyone wants to hear”, their homeroom teacher glared at the two of them while the rest of the class laughed.

Her face reddened from embarrassment and shook her head, “I’m sorry, Sir Martinsson. I didn’t realize the class already started” she apologized.

“You are forgiven. As I was saying, we have a new student starting today”, he looked at the guy next to him, “His name is Jack Karlstorm, I’ll let him tell you about himself” and he sat down.

Jack looked confident and smiled, “God mórgon, everyone. I’m Jack, I like to read books, uhh listen to music, sport and girls. That’s pretty much it” the girls giggled and one of the guys wolf-whistled.

“Ahem, be quiet all of you!” Mr Martinsson told the class off, “Very well Jack, you may sit down over there” he pointed at the seat next to Sandra.

Jack looked at Sandra and smiled as he sat down to his new seat, “Hej, what’s your name?” he asks her.

Sandra smiled reluctantly and replied, “I’m Sandra, and how’s your first day been so far?” the moment they started talking, she felt like she knew him already. Anita smirked and faked a cough and Sandra elbowed her but missed. “This is my friend, Anita. Don’t mind her, she’s always annoying” she said jokingly.

He said hello to Anita and asked Sandra, “It’s been great so far, it feels odd to be the new kid though. What do have for your first lesson? I have English and it’d be great if there’s someone I know to talk with in such a boring lesson”

Sandra laughed as they got up for first lesson, “I have English too so you’re in luck. It’s not that boring though, to be honest. It’s one of my favourite subjects”, she told him.

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