Flowers of Society

One

  Tsubaki stared at her friends' bodies, wishing that she could be petite like Janie's, or voluptuous like Roxy's. Both had porcelain skin and the males loved them. But she was neither of that.

  To make matters worse, she had slightly dark skin colour unlike the rest of her family who were all fair-skinned and all the females in the family possessed a body that was considered ideal; a tiny waist and their height was not too tall. She was the only black sheep in the house.

  Whenever there were family gatherings or parties, her sisters would be the center of the attention while she would be at the farthest corner of the room, wishing that it would end soon. But since her mother always chided her to socialize, she tried and most of the time finding herself painfully starting a conversation with someone. It was humiliating and just a waste of time. She didn't want to talk to anybody. They wouldn't even see her much less was interested in talking to her with her sisters being the beauties in the family.

  "Tsubaki," Janie called her, disrupting her thoughts. She twirled, showing her soft pink dress that looked stunning on her. "What do you think?"

  Tsubaki smiled, hiding the fact that she was jealous. "You look amazing. Both of you." The two were dressed like that because they were invited to a soiree held by Alpha house. Tsubaki received the invitation too but she felt that no matter where she go, no one would see her.

  "Thanks," Roxy smoothed her strapless black gown, her blonde hair tied in a chignon with little flowers adorning it. "It's a shame you're not coming. We could have so much fun together."

  Not in the least, Tsubaki thought wryly. Those two were her friends but she wouldn't considered them as her close friends. They had little in common. They liked to party while she liked to stay at home where there was peace. They liked shopping, she liked shopping for books more. They were only friends because they lived together in this sorority. If not, she wouldn't believed in a million years that the three of them would be friends. It was safe to say that, she didn't have a lot of them.

  "Come on, Tsubaki. It won't hurt to have fun tonight," pleaded Janie.

  Yeah, she could have fun but she had a paper due Wednesday which was three days from now on and she haven't even started on it yet. If her parents found out that she placed 'having fun' a priority, she would be dead meat. And it was not like the three of them had classes together. Tsubaki was the only one taking the Writing programme while those two were on Acting. She had hoped she would be able to socialize more during her time here since her high school days were far past the point of no return. Ah, those days that kept haunting her if she let her mind wander. Who would have thought that she had it bad back home and here as well?

  "Come on, Tsubaki. Just for tonight."

  Tsubaki shook her head, "Sorry guys, I have a paper due Wednesday. I-"

  Roxy scoffed, "Relax. You're a scholarship student. I think you can handle it."

  Yeah, and she had to maintain her grades or she could kiss her scholarship sayonara. And not to mention, her parents would strangle her.

  "Pleaseeee," they begged, their hands clutched together, lips pouting.

  Another thing she despised about herself, she was never the one to put her foot down. She didn't know when that became a habit. Tsubaki sighed. "Sure. Let me get dress."