Arlington (Book One)

Chapter One

Arlington

Chapter One

Walking down the busy sidewalk, I weave in front of a few slow-moving tourists and continue my way home. Listening to my professor's lecture again as I walk, I try to ignore their excessive amount of 'um's' and 'like's.' The teacher is young and still doesn't seem comfortable teaching in front of a large lecture hall, or even explaining the material. Understanding the material is entirely different when you have to teach it to someone else.

Trying to maneuver around another group of loud, photo-taking travelers, my shoulder knocks into someone roughly. Spinning slightly, I see a tall man in an expensive wool coat, with incredibly vibrant green eyes. We make the briefest eye contact before he goes back to his conversation with the man next to him. Turning back around, I think about the two and try to figure out why the leaner one with blue eyes seemed so familiar to me. Shrugging it off I continue home.

Staring at my computer screen blankly, I blink a few times before groaning out loud frustrated. Pushing my glasses to the top of my head, I look around the room tired. My attention focuses on the millions of molecules bouncing around the room, some at much higher velocities then others. Turning my gaze downwards, I look carefully at my hands and try to decipher where my arms end and where the rest of my environment starts. Getting annoyed with my curls, I reach backward, and grab my shorter brown hair and pull it into a ponytail. I hate when my hair hangs in my face, the movement is oftentimes very distracting to whatever I am supposed to be working on. Knocking my glasses back down onto my face, I push them up my face carelessly with the back of my hand and get back to work.

I switch from my computer to my textbook and notepad. I continue taking notes until I feel as if my eyes are going to bleed from the pain of skimming over pages and pages of information, trying to retain some semblance of the knowledge I need for class in the morning. I close my eyes and push my glasses on top of my head. As I rub my eyes, I try to relieve the burning sensation but to no avail, everything just seems to continue to burn angrily.

"Avi, dinner's ready!" I hear my dad call out. I try to finish the page quickly.

"Aviva, your food is going to get cold," my dad's voice says from my doorway. Glancing up quickly, I see he is still dressed up from work.

"Sorry dad, I was trying to finish this," I say.

"You are just like your mother sometimes, you always try to squeeze one more thing in," my dad muses, and I shake my head at him.

"I'm coming," I say climbing off of my bed; leaving a ring of study materials behind.

"How was your day?" I ask my dad, and he runs a hand over his buzzed black hair. He had just gotten it cut the other day and it already looked longer.

"More boring legal things," he says loosening his tie.

My dad has always been a phenomenal lawyer, he continues to study and go through law materials in his free time. He even made it on one of New York's top ten list of lawyers last year and is in the running again for this year. But I can tell he has no passion for his job anymore. Ever since my mom died my dad has lost his luster for anything law related. But he continues to work in this field because he makes good money doing it and he can support the two of us while we live in the city and I go to college.

"How was your day sweetheart?"

"Today was my busy day, I had four classes back to back," I say.

I had to take twenty-one credits a term if I wanted to graduate on time with a double major in electrical and mechanical engineering. I picked up the second major after my first year at school. My advisor still tells me I am crazy for trying and that I would be here an extra year because of it, but I knew I could finish on time; taking twenty credits is normal for me at this point.