Luanna Perez is eighteen. She lived in London until she moved to New York to attend a new college. Finally, she had no parents and no rules. All she hoped for was to start a new life here. She had been bullied before. When she was about twelve, she was picked on for two years in a row by five boys who were a year older than her. One of them was their leader, and the others only behaved badly when he was around. Eventually, her mother got a new job offer in London. They moved, and Luanna changed. She no longer cared what others thought; parties became her everyday life. She used to be a crybaby, weak, overweight, and unathletic, but now everything was the opposite.
Luanna POV:
The taxi stopped in the dormitory courtyard. I got out, paid, picked up my suitcases, and walked toward the door. Inside, a young woman a few years older than me greeted me. It was clear that she was dissatisfied with her job; more precisely, she was just sitting in a chair, staring at her phone. Only after a minute did she decide to look up at me.
"Name?" she asked, taking the list in her hands.
"Luanna Perez," I replied.
She simply traced her finger down the list and finally grabbed a key from the table, handing it to me.
"For some reason, you ended up on the sophomore dorm side. Your room will be 507A with a roommate; just go up to the fifth floor, and you'll find it. Breakfast will be from 7 to 9 AM in the cafeteria in the college building. You'll find out everything else when you need to. Your classes start tomorrow, and your schedule should have already been sent to you. Also, the code for your locker has been sent to you."
"Lockers at a college?" I asked, confused.
"This used to be a high school, so they kept them, but only freshmen or athletes get them," she explained in a tone as if it were obvious.
Finally, I started climbing to the fifth floor. It was much harder to do with so many bags, but at the same time, I could look around. Nothing interesting: a dirty carpet on the floor and bare walls without any pictures.
Reaching the fifth floor, two brown-haired guys walked out of one room's door. It turned out that room was mine. As I walked past them, one of them whistled, and I simply flipped him off.
I knocked on the door. A girl opened it.
"Well, Louis, I was going to sa..." she trailed off when she saw me. "You must be my roommate," she smiled.
"Yep. I'm Luanna," I introduced myself, extending my hand, but quickly pulling it back to stop my falling bags.
"Eleanor, but call me El. Come in!" she stepped away from the door.
The room wasn't impressive. Two beds, one closet, and a sink. The toilet was in a separate room, which meant the showers were shared. I started unpacking my things while chatting with El. Half of my clothes fit into the closet, but the rest remained in the suitcase because there really wasn't enough space for both of our clothes here. Talking to the girl, I realized she was actually really cool. We talked until night until we decided to go to sleep.
"Come on, get up!" El yelled, shaking me.
"Just a little longer," I mumbled sleepily.
"No longer! Get up quickly, or we'll be late for breakfast!" she screamed in my ear.
"Fine! I'm getting up!" I shouted back, sitting up on the bed.
We started getting ready. I washed, brushed my hair, did my makeup, and got dressed.
Ultimately, I ended up dragging El out of the room because she took forever. After leaving the room, she started telling me who lived where and how to get to the cafeteria. It turned out the walk wasn't long.
"Hey there, beautiful!" Niall slid closer to me. I chuckled, though inside, I wanted to scream, kick, and run.
"Back off, Horan," I said. He frowned. He probably wasn't used to some girl pushing him away.
"What did you just say?" he asked, confused.
"I said. Back. Off. Horan," I repeated verbatim, feeling the satisfaction of him not remembering me.
"Don't call me that," he growled.
"That's too bad you don't like it," I taunted and used my foot to push his chair farther away from me. He stared, wide-eyed, as did the others sitting at the table.
"So, what are your names?" I asked the four guys now at our table.
"That's Louis, Zayn, Harry, and I'm Liam," he replied. So, all my childhood nightmares are sitting at the same table after six years? Luck is on my side.
"Luanna," I quickly said. "So, are you two together?" I asked El, who was staring at Louis, just as he was staring at her, just to change the subject.
"No!" they quickly said in unison.
"Well then, buddy, move your butt and do something before someone else snatches her up," I laughed, and they both blushed. "Aw, how cute."
"Shut up," El hissed.
"Will you let me do one thing?" I raised an eyebrow, and they nodded, even though Louis wasn't fully convinced.
"El, Louis is coming for you this Friday, at 8 o'clock at our door! He'll take you wherever he decides," I waggled my eyebrows. El blushed even more but nodded without arguing.
"So, what are you doing Friday night?" Harry asked.
"I'm going to a party, getting drunk, and coming home in the morning, hoping El isn't there," I replied. She turned even redder. She was like a beetroot.
"Well, I'll join you then," he said.
"Me too!" Liam and Zayn almost yelled at the same time.
"Fine, I guess I'll come too," Niall sighed.
"No!" I immediately cut him off.
"Why?"
"Because I don't like you," I said as if it were obvious.
"Are you sure?" he asked with a strange smirk, sliding closer to me.
"Definitely. And I told you to back off!" I growled and shoved him, chair and all, with all my strength. He ended up hitting even more chairs and falling over. The whole cafeteria erupted in laughter.
"You want a war?!" he shouted.
"Oh, you started the war a long time ago, even before you think you did," I said, calling El, and we walked out to our lecture. Now we have Music.
Niall POV:
I didn't understand her words. What did she mean? I stood up and walked over to the table. The guys were giggling there, trying to hold back their laughter.
"The bully got bullied," Harry snickered, for which I hit him on the head.
"Shut up," I slumped down next to him.
"What did she mean?" Liam asked, intrigued.
"I have no idea, but all I know is that it's war," I smirked.
"So far, it looks like she's fighting the war, and you're just trying to stay alive," Zayn laughed, but stopped when he saw my glare.
"Let's just go to class," I sighed, standing up from the table, as did everyone else. "What do we have now?"
"Music," Louis replied.
I sighed heavily, and we headed toward the classroom. Honestly, it's fun being the most popular, but Luanna doesn't care, which draws me to her even more. I'm already planning how to get her into bed.
I scanned the people sitting in the lecture hall. A few nerds, whispering couples, just friends, and in the back, a bored Luanna, who was sitting with her feet on the table, staring at the ceiling.
"Why is she here? She's a freshman," I said, confused.
"Music is a combined course, dummy," Louis replied.
She and El were sitting in the second-to-last row, so we quickly sat down right behind them. Luanna didn't even react to our presence. A few minutes later, the new teacher came in. He looked young, so it would be easy. Smiling, I relaxed in my chair and started throwing paper wads at Luanna while the teacher introduced himself. I couldn't figure it out; she wasn't reacting to me and just kept drawing on a piece of paper.
"Miss, take your feet off the desk," the teacher said.
"On one condition," she replied, lifting her head.
"And what is that?" he raised an eyebrow. You could tell they were flirting. Well, what did it matter? Let them.
"You," she said, pointing, "kick the idiot behind me out of the lecture," she stated, which no one expected. The lecturer clearly looked flustered.
"Um, alright. Young man, out," he said, pointing to the door. I stared, open-mouthed, and didn't move. "Come on, chop-chop!" he urged. Annoyed, I gathered my things and left. She even managed to wink at me.
I sat down in the cafeteria, still unable to believe it. It felt like I knew her, but I doubted it. The most important thing is that we're at war, and she's clearly winning. I thought of playing a little prank on her. Actually, it reminds me of six years ago. That girl. I wonder if she's still the same—weak, a crybaby. I laughed at my own thoughts. Well, this is going to be fun.
Just like the good old days…