Gaia - Worlds Apart, Book One

Chapter 3

I scanned the mail once, then twice. I silently nodded. Clara took it back from me and then ran away screaming, "She got accepted to the UW program!"

Sara's happy squeals became rather loud. "Did you, really?"

"It seems so." I couldn't believe it. For the first time in a long while, I felt excited about something.

A long silence from the other end of the line, maybe she had fallen from wherever was sitting on, and then Sara laughed. "So, are we going?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course, we're going. Let's go study about Native American tribes!" I had taken the decision the same moment I opened the envelope and read the first line.

Sara started singing, "Go Huskies!"

"Uh?"

"You know, huskies...? Like the UW's mascot?" Sara sighed, but she did sing it again.

"I didn't sleep the whole night. We just got back to Rome. I haven't turned on my brain, yet. Anyway, huskies... I like it. It's good luck. Rome soccer team's mascot is a wolf, so they're related. Good." I rambled some more before she stopped me.

"How was your vacation?"

"Great. Absolutely fantastic." Maybe I had tried too much, but my sister saved me from one of Sara's notorious and relentless drillings by coming back with the rest of my family in tow. Everybody started shooting questions at the same time and I had to salute Sara.

As soon as I hung up, my father asked me, "Do you want to go?"

My family knew I was going through a sad phase. The vacation in Spain had been their way of trying to help me with the blues. Strangely enough, when they had asked if I wanted to go back to Greece, I said no. I was looking for something different. I didn't find it in Barcelona. "Yes, I do." Truth to be told I was running away from Marco and I knew it. "Nobody in their right mind would refuse a full scholarship to study abroad."

"I wouldn't have." My mom smiled at me. "The change of air is going to do you some good." She patted my head in that way of hers that meant she had read my mind and she wasn't going to ask questions. "We should start packing then."

"It will be so much fun." Clara bounced up and down almost as excited as if she were the one going.

My father made a face I knew all too well. He had started wearing that terrified expression the first time I went out on a date. "Well, try not to have too much fun. You know what they say about American colleges and their parties—"

He made me laugh and I winked at him. "I'll try my best."

***

Something I hadn't foreseen was how much I would have missed my parents and my sister. People normally complain about Seattle's rain, but what really had me sad all the time was the lack of interaction with my family. Mostly, I missed Clara.

Once landed in Washington State, and after a few days of sightseeing, I spent the first three months on the phone, talking to my sister about everything I was doing or—to be honest—what I wasn't doing. I didn't even try to mingle with the other students. Sara was at the end of her infinite patience with me.

Variations of, "It doesn't happen to anybody!" or, "Do you know how many people would gladly take your place?" Were normally followed by, "Let's go out to do something." The one sentence she repeated almost the same every time was, "I don't understand you."

And I didn't understand myself. I agreed with Sara. I should have been partying every night, and exploring new places every day. Seattle, was a melting pot of cultures and languages and there was something new to discover at every corner. If only I let myself enjoy the moment. It was there physically, but my heart hadn't followed. There was something wrong with me. Or something missing.