Starry Eyed

New beginnings

Sarai had just finished her final exam, she was now texting her parents to meet her for lunch as she had something she needed to tell them.

Hi mum & dad, just leaving school now, exam is finished! Please text me when you arrive at Coffee Club and I will walk over, going to find something to wear to our graduation dinner tonight - xoxo

Sarai came from an amazing family, parents who adored her and taught her all about love, respect and being strong in who they are as Pacific Islanders and as New Zealanders. Sarai's mother Linda was from New Zealand, named Linda meaning beautiful in Spanish - she was born in Madrid after her father got a rugby contract to play club rugby, George, Sarai's father is Hawaiian but moved to New Zealand as a child.

Gosh, it is so packed here! Maybe I should've bought online and picked it up. Sarai was lost in thought, she was an organized person, and had already planned out her entire life. Even if it meant doing it alone without a partner, love was pretty much the last thing on her mind, she had graduation, her future studies in a new place and basketball.

"Can I help you ma'am?" The young retail salesperson had asked Sarai, after seeing the confused and flustered look she had on her face

"Oh yes please, I am looking for a semi-formal dress preferably purple but not fussed about the colour" Sarai had already had the design of the dress she wanted in her head

"Oh I think I have exactly what you need" The young girl walked Sarai over to a rack of beautiful dresses, pass that rack and showed Sarai the dress on a mannequin on the far end of the outside window

"That is the exact dress in my head!" Sarai's eyes lit up as she looked at the dress, purple three quarter length dress with a loop neck and a revealing back and short sleeves. This would fit perfectly with her tall, slender body, and her green eyes and shoulder length straight black hair. 

This is the exact dress in my head, my gosh the stars must be aligning to give me the exact dress that I had pictured in my head.

"Hi bub, we were just about to text you. Do you want to take a seat outside?" Linda was such a beautiful woman and as usual George couldn't take his eyes off his beautiful wife

"Dad, you know you guys have been married for over 30 years and you still look at mum like you guys have just started dating" Sarai smiled and loved how her parents continuously showed affection to each other

George chuckled "You know I can never take my eyes off the woman who stole my heart those many years ago, did I ever tell you - "

"Please dad, I have heard the same story so many times, maybe we can record it and play it to your future grandchildren?" Sarai laughed along with her dad

Food had arrived and they were just chatting about her brothers, Sarai's oldest brothers Rome and Tyrell just graduated with their Business degree and working alongside George in the family business and Sarai's brother closest to her in age, Fiji (named after Linda's late father) was in his final year at Medical school. 

"So bub, I know you are not having lunch with us for the sake of having lunch, what is it that you want to tell us?" Linda said with a concerned look on her face and sad eyes to her husband

"Wow mum, you know me so well, but I do love having lunch with you both. You both know the kind of person I am and how I have already planned out my life since I was three years old" Sarai smiled and her parents chuckled in agreement "Well I applied for a number of universities overseas that I know offer an amazing basketball and forensic science programme and..." Sarai looked up to her parents and was a bit shocked that they were smiling from ear to ear. "Umm, are you two ok? I wasn't expecting a smile with my news" Sarai was on the edge of her chair staring both her parents with a stern look on her face.

"Well, sweetheart, we already knew. Yep they sent you a letter but they also called the house and mum answered the call" George was already smiling so hard his eyes started to tear up. Linda was now talking "We are so happy for you sweetheart, we know that you are ready for this and we are happy to support you, however, we are not the problem, the problem is your brothers, you know they will most likely jump on the plane with you" - Sarai's mother had a nervous laugh but Sarai knew her mother was right. 

How am I going to tell my brothers, how am I going to tell them it is ok that I am going to be ok, their little sister is growing up and I will be ok...I can say this over and over in my head and write out a full one page explanation but this was going to be the hardest part, telling my brothers that I was accepted into Beresford University in New York and that I was leaving in 3 weeks...