Royal obligations

New beginnings

The last weeks of summer went by quickly while Ella was working as much as she could. Christian had called her on the monday after their camping trip and since then they had talked on the phone every night after Ella finished work.         During their many conversations they discovered that they would be attending the same university. The best part about all that was that both Julia and his cousin Christopher would be attending there as well. It was a small university, privately owned and run by a wealthy Texan businessman, but it was one of the top 20 universities in the states.

    When it became time for Ella to leave home and go to the university to start her new adventures it wasn't at all like she had always imagined. She always thought it would bring her only joy and relief but the reality was that it was a bittersweet moment for her. It was a relief to leave the small minded people behind and start fresh but it was anything but joyous to realise that her mom would be left alone in the town to face the people on her own. 

    Ever since her dad had disappeared from their lives, leaving the two of them to deal with the mess he had made, it had only been the two of them against the town. She had wished so many times that her mom and her would just pack up their lives and move away from this crappy town. When she was old enough she asked her mom why she never moved, her mom admitted to her that she wanted to, but she couldn’t because her dad had left them with such a messy debt and his mess had become theirs when he disappeared. She also admitted that when she had married him, just weeks before he disappeared, she never thought he was the kind of man that he turned out to be. He had married her so that he could disappear without the threat of being chased since the collectors would just go to her. Trapping her in the town, which would have been fine if it had been her own hometown, but since she had moved with Ella’s dad there after university it was a new town where neither of them had known anyone before moving there. Being that it wasn’t a town full of people she had grown up with, they were quick to turn on her and blame her for the mess her so called husband had left. She also found out that along with herself, he had been having other women on the side, she knew none of them had bore his child like she had, or at least they said their children were not his and she chose to take their words for it. But that was why they had been living in this small town full of people who looked down on them and made their life miserable. Ella just wished she could take her mom with her away from the town but until the debt was paid in full, which took so long since her mom had to pay a small amount every month to be able to pay rent and feed her and Ella, her mom couldn’t go anywhere.

    This was one of the reasons it was so important for Ella to do well in her studies so that she could go to university and study finance so she would be able to get a good job and help her mom pay off the debt and get her away from the town as soon as possible after she graduated university.  But for the four years Ella would be studying, her mom would be alone with only Julia’s mom friendly to her. Even her mom’s boss, had never been friendly to her even though her mom was the best worker there, always working hard, picking up extra work to finish other people’s assignments to make a little extra money, her boss still sneered at her mom and Ella every time they saw each other on the streets of the town.

    Her mom told her for the millionth time that she didn’t need to worry about her, she would be fine as long as Ella was away from the town and would be able to make friends and be happy. Still Ella was concerned about her mom, promising to come back at least once a month to visit and spend time with her mom.

When Ella arrived at the university with her mom, Julia and Julia’s mom, they just looked at the university with awe, taking in its grand architecture. All Ella could think was if that was what a small university looked like, what did the bigger ones like Yale, Harvard and Princeton look like? Before Ella could voice her thoughts to Julia, she heard someone calling for her. She looked around to try to see who would be calling out for her but couldn’t see anyone looking in her direction. All of a sudden she felt the same weird feeling she had felt at the camping trip, her hair on the back of her neck and arms rose up like she was getting balloon static and she knew Christian was close by. Low and behold, he was standing across the street from them with Christopher and what she assumed were their parents.

    Feeling a blush starting to form on her face, she looked at her mom who was looking at her with a knowing smile. Before she could try to come up with some explanation as to why a guy was calling her name, Christan came jogging over the street to them. All Ella could do was to introduce her mom to Christian, ‘Mom, this is Christian, a friend I met at the camping trip with Julia in July’. ‘Christian this is my mom, Liliana’. Christian put his hand out to shake her mom’s, saying it was a pleasure to meet her. Her mom, who couldn’t hide her smirk, took his hand saying it was a pleasure to meet him too. By that time Christopher and their parents had come over as well and with a big smile, one of the women put her hand out to Ella introducing herself ‘Hello, my name is Trish, I’m Christian’s mom, I’ve heard so much about you’. The other woman put her hand out as well introducing herself ‘and I’m Trish’s twin True, I’m Christopher’s mom, I haven’t heard that much about you but I assume this is Julia’ she said looking over at Julia who looked shocked that the woman would know who she was.

    With introductions over the whole group walked over to the university. Finding an information tent they walked there to sign the kids in. They were all going to be staying at the same dormhouse so they walked over there together as well. Ella looked at Christian saying that it was a nice coincidence that they would be living in the same dorm. Christian just blushed but his father, who had not yet introduced himself just laughed asking if Christian really hadn’t told her yet. Ella looking, confused, looked at his father, asking what he meant. Before he could answer Christan quickly told Ella that it wasn’t a coincidence, his father had requested it on Christian’s behalf. While looking even more confused she just asked how he could make that request and having it done just like that. Christian looked embarrassed but his father put his hand out and said ‘I think it’s time I introduce myself, I’m Adam Beck, the founder and owner of this university’ Ella took his hand, not knowing what to say ‘Oh, nice to meet you Mr. Beck, I should be thanking you for receiving the scholarship and the stay here then.’ Christian’s father just smiled and said there was no need to thank him, he had simply chosen the best of the best out of all the students that had applied, like he always did

   When they found their rooms, Ella didn’t find it surprising to see that her and Julia’s room was just next door to Christian’s and Christopher’s room. Looking over to Christian, he just smiled and went inside his room. Ella, Julia and their moms went into the girls’ room. Once inside, their moms looked at them, with this annoying smirk on their faces, and asked the girls to please fill them in. They were feeling left out since the boy’s parents seemed to know all about Ella and Julia, and they didn’t even know the girls had met anyone. Ella looked down, not knowing how to start. Thankfully Julia seemed to know exactly how to explain everything since she started telling their mothers about the camping trip and how they had met the guys. She, for some reason, felt the need to add to the story that Christian had insisted that he needed to get to know Ella and had talked her into helping him get an opening, after she had told them that Ella didn’t let anyone in and didn’t like meeting new people. Looking at Julia, Ella was so surprised at hearing this that she had no idea what to say so she just stared at her.

   Ella’s mom always knew how to make Ella feel better by saying that she thought Christian was lovely and so cute but she would have liked to know about him before meeting him and his parents. With that they started to unpack the girl’s stuff and proceeded in making their room look really nice and homey in no time. Before their moms went back home they insisted that the girls would have a last meal with them to say goodbye. When they were outside they met the guys and their parents again, Ella’s mom told them in un-asked news that they were going to get a goodbye meal together and asked if they wanted to join them. She would love to get to know them a bit, since her daughter hadn’t told her anything about any of it. Christian and Christopher looked at their parents, who were quick to accept the invitation, saying they would love to get to know the girls in person as well as their moms who had done an amazing job at raising such lovely girls.

   After the dinner, which lasted the whole night, the parents said their goodbyes and left the kids all to themselves to get back to the university. Christian suggested they would walk and get to know the town on their way back, Christopher laughed, saying that Christian knew the town just as well as he did since they had grown up in it. Christian just shrugged, saying it wasn’t exactly true since they lived on the outskirts of town in a secluded suburb near the mountains but sure they knew the town but the girls didn’t. Christopher then suggested they would start by showing the girls where they could get the best ice-cream in the world. Which made the girls giggle since they loved ice-cream.

    The first few weeks of uni were a bit overwhelming with all the new classes, full of new people, who to Ella’s great surprise didn’t look down on her, but rather seemed to gravitate towards her. She had no idea how to handle it but it seemed that Christian was used to this so he helped her a lot with dealing with all the new things in her life. She was really grateful that she had Christian and that Julia had Christopher, there was just the matter of what they were to each other that was making her anxious. Some days she was sure Christian liked her like she liked him, but others he seemed to change his mind and acted like they were just friends and nothing more. She was getting dizzy with this dance of his but didn’t know how to approach the topic of what they were. That would take some time since she was so afraid that he would reject her and laugh at her for thinking he liked her. Still she would have to muster up the courage if she wanted to get to the bottom of this, and the sooner the better since she seemed to fall for him just a little bit more every day they spent together.