Chapter 1: J a s m i n e

As I started making my way through the crowded place in the early morning, I noticed how crowded it really was. But no matter what, I can't start my day without reading a book or two with a cup of coffee in my hand in the morning. Because that is how a morning really begins, right?

Maybe.

Oh, did I forget to introduce myself? I am sure I did and the reason is most probably because I am not that important or special of a person with a 'unique' or 'cool' personality.

Anyways, I am Jasmine Meyers or Jas for short. 19 years old, living in the United States. And studying at the Bluefield University of New York. I know that's normal for a 19 year old. And that's what everyone is; normal. But with the only difference being that I am probably too normal?

Yeah.

My parents? Well, they kind of don't exist in my life. Anymore. I don't want to sound like a 'kid' who is 'depressed' and hates her parents and family for it. But it's just that they haven't really been there for me when I used to see other's parents attending every single occasion or something to cheer their children up.

They haven't been there for me when I needed my classmates and everybody else to understand that I couldn't even speak. Even if I tried to. They used to make fun of me for not being like them.

Not being normal was my fault but my parents now tell me how normal I really am whenever they get the chance to. And it won't be wrong at all if I say they get that chance all the time.

All this did but don't matter anymore because I am just normal and that's what I knew I had to be throughout my whole life. And now I am exactly what they wanted me to be.

I don't cry anymore. At least, not in front of somebody. I don't hate myself anymore. At least, in the process of being a different, a normal me;I learned that loving yourself is greater than the rarest diamond in the world. It's truly important, very actually, to have love for your own self.

But enough now, I should not go on with my boring experience of life. Although it is quite special, to me.

Both of my parents work as doctors at a hospital in the United Kingdom. They are quite rich. Not that I would have had any problem if they were not. They gave me a giant home to live in, plenty of precious memories that would never get old or lose their preciousness.

They never really came here to visit me anymore since 3 years ago. "Darling, we can't visit you often and we are sorry but we will face time every night, okay?" they said and kissed me on the cheek on my 16th birthday. I never really knew if there was any word other than yes in the dictionary when it came to answering them, you can say it was more like just making sure to nod to my parents. And as I can't speak, I always used to nod my head twice, because they said, "It shows disrespect towards us when you nod for only once."

They were not bad parents but- wait I am just realising that I am blabbering. I am sorry, this is who I really am, an 'alien-who-needs-to-leave-the-planet-earth' or 'freak' from everyone's point of view; in a need of  someone or a Friend who could just be by my side and listen to all my thoughts although I would never really let them out, I wish I could though.

As I came out of my thoughts,I found the crowd coming to an end, I started hurrying and showed the librarian my card. I chose the book that I thought I would never read, I don't know why but maybe because it seemed to be too normal from the outside, covered in the brown-ish cover but too special in the inside? I didn't even start reading it and already felt like I should have read this years ago since I started reading.

I continued reading the book while drinking my normal black coffee which seemed to taste and smell new today.

Bluefield University:-

Silence.

That's the only thing that I always heard, felt and probably loved way too much to let go. And it was better that way. Nobody ever called my name or looked for me when I went to my college unless I had to participate in different jobs or was in trouble which is very rare as I didn't do much other than sitting at the desk in the back and listening to the class.

And as every other student in the school has to go through very hard times, and face bullies for no reason, I didn't have to worry about any of that. Because as I knew, I am very normal for anybody, literally anybody to show me any type of attention. Which was better that way to be honest.

It was 10 in the morning and I was attending my Math class. I loved Math but often questioned some obvious things that were supposed to be the way they are. When I was 4, I learned  that 1+1\=2, but the question that still didn't leave me was, Why? Why can't 1 keep being 1?If it was better that way then why can't we leave 1 as it was? Why did we have to make them 2? Why did we always have to complicate things?

Too many whys, but no answer.

Well, after the Math class, I had science. I didn't have anything negative to say about any of the subjects that we studied in college but science was probably the one that I didn't understand the reason to read at all! Not like I didn't like reading about the sun and the planets roaming around it. But I don't know why we had to read and know about what the plants did and eat, what is the reason to even give them so much importance when you have no idea what you are doing with your life? Are you even okay? Did you ever ask yourself this question? Did you really care about yourself at all?

Well, as I said. Too many questions but no one to answer to them.

I was focusing on nothing but my science book. Next moment the teacher gained our attention by screaming (argh, her habit, but she's the sweetest teacher you would ever meet) "ATTENTION STUDENTS. This is your new classmate and student of our college. Please Welcome her. Would you please introduce yourself, dear?"

"Hi everyone! I am Cloud Diellé O'Connell. Please call me Cloud. I hope you are gonna accept me." As her sweet voice spoke, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at her. Oh holy cow-- She screamed innocence. She was definitely the definition of what you would call-- adorable. I am not exaggerating, she was just the way she is. She wore a baby blue skirt with a white blouse. And her backpack was pink-ish in color. Her brown hair was tied in a ponytail and she looked-- angelic.

The teacher said something to her and I didn't even realise when she was asking me if she could sit beside me. I was so embarrassed that I covered my face with my right hand. She giggled softly, oh holy cow. I nodded my head like an idiot when she asked me again.

I was still staring at her face with a blank expression on my face because I still couldn't believe that she sat beside-- me. Nobody did. No one cared to, because they knew I couldn't speak so why waste your time with someone who can't even respond back? And I felt kind of sad thinking that she would leave the seat and never decide to sit beside me again once she finds out that I can't speak; I am not like them all.

But leaving me surprised, she said, "I know you have a disability. But don't think I sat beside you without knowing about you. Miss told me that you can't speak and that's why I sat beside you. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, I'm sorry.. But can we be friends? Oh, I'm sorry.. I'm saying too much. Oof!"

As she said the most unexpected thing, I looked at her in surprise and made an "Are you kidding me?" expression, she giggled again and answered in the negative. But it was still unbelievable for me. Imagine the sun rising in the west, it was that unbelievable for me. I then kept looking at her and smiled sheepishly, now she will definitely know that I'm weird. I nodded my head and we became friends as she said.

Well, probably 1 was destined to be 2 after all. At least, my one question was answered.

Unwanted answer to my very unwanted question.

Chapter 2: C l o u d

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooof.

Yes, you got it right! I'm a dog. Wait what?!

{*The human inside: Do you think dogs can talk like you? You are an insult to the gracious dogs family if you think you are qualified enough to be a dog!*}

{*Cloud: Shut up already, you bad buggy mind!*}

I AM CLOUD. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I didn't mean the ones you see in the sky! You're dumber than me if you thought so (I'm kidding, okay!).

{*The Bad Buggy Mind: Oh, no, no, no. No, no oh no. Did you really think something can be more dumber than you? Never. No, nah. *}

{*Cloud: Can you shut that bad mouth up already!?*}

Oh well, I meant to say I'm a dog lover and my name is Cloud! I am not the biggest fan of my name but then again it was chosen by my favorite person in the whole eternity-- my mom. So yeah, I don't have any nickname at all. Because I don't have any friend! Ha-ha. But whatever.

{*The bad buggy mind: Just read the next few chapters and you will find out the truth..*}

{*Cloud: You ba- okay, okay. Relax. Hah.*}

I am 18 now and I still can't get over this very horrible habit of mine. So whenever I'm nervous I keep doing something messy just like what I'm doing right NOW. YES, YOU GOT IT RIGHT... again. I'm giggling like a cat would. I mean did we ever hear a cat giggle or laugh? No, most likely not. But that's what I think is weird between cats and human.

All they do is meow, and all they understand is meow. Looking into it, a cat never copied a human but a human? Well, not just one but probably 99.9% of them loves to copy others, and cat is on the top of the list. Obviously. And I'm not ashamed in any way to say that I'm one of the "copy humans" too.

I was literally saying Meow and I didn't even know my seat mate was looking at me with-- what should I call it? Horrified eyes? Ahm.. Well, I won't disagree. I knew I messed it up! I then tried to get myself out of my nervousness and stop making all sorts of weird faces you can't even imagine.

I was trying to make some conversation with her but gosh, I couldn't even do one thing right.

"Do you like Winnie the Pooh?" Oh, now I don't know why and how I asked that. She just stared at me and slightly shook her head. Woof, so she doesn't like that character. And then I kept asking her all the "unacceptable" questions that no one in history probably asked.

"Did you watch the movie Little Woman?"

Nods.

"Okay.. Do you like Mr. Bean? Oh what a funny man he is, I absolutely love him!"

Nods.

"Oh-kayyy, do you like tacosss? Oh man, I love them. I actually eat one each day. Well, I try to. But Laura stops me from eating it if she's awake."

Nothing.

"Oh Laura.. She's my mom. Well, at least that's what I think of her. She takes care of me. She's a lovely lady."

I realised, I was blabbering again.

She nods this time.

And then realization dawned upon me that I forgot to ask her the question that I should have asked her first thing before anything else!

"I'm sorry that I forgot to ask your name.."

She writes Jasmine on her pad.

Jasmine? Well, that's what came to my mind when I first came near her. She smelled like jasmines.

{*The bad buggy mind: Hey, don't you think her handwriting is as pretty as her and her name?*}

{*Cloud: Yeah, I agree with you only this once. Humph!*}

"Pretty name you got!"

She smiles. I saw something genuine in her smile. Nobody smiled at me with the genuineness in it ever since my mom left the world, left me. Actually no one can feel how painful it is to lose someone who loved you more than anything else unless they do.

I smiled back and asked her something very stupid. "Can I call you mine?"

Huh, now I got myself in trouble. I mentally slapped myself.

{*The Bad Buggy Mind: Wait, you deserve another slap!*}

She looked at me like I was a ghost. I couldn't help but laugh sheepishly. That made the situation even more awkward. How embarrassing!

I took her phone from her desk and saved her number so that I can text her to make the conversations easier. Huh, at least one thing I did right!

She still had the same expression on her face and I tried to type in, "Don't get scared. I'm sorry. Everyone must call you Jas so I thought why not call you Mine instead of Jas?" as quick as I possibly can.

She then laughed like it was the worst joke ever. I mean who wouldn't? I know I'm stupid, but when I'm nervous I am more than that. She nodded her head and I jumped like a 5 year old would after getting a candy. I even gone all the way out and saved her number as Mine. She looked at my phone and started laughing with her hand covering her mouth. Wow, I didn't know I was this funny.

She then saved my number as C ur LOUD.

What? I mean-- wait was I really that loud?...

*The Bad Buggy Mind: The answer is yes, sweetie.*

I put my hand on my heart and tried to pretend to be hurt but she couldn't stop laughing and seeing her cute smile, I can't help laughing along with her.

This was a good day so far. Not just good but better than I expected it to be.

And for once, I thought my "secrets" won't have to keep being that way anymore. Probably I found a friend? Probably my secrets found a friend to talk all their heart out? A friend-- who is truly a friend. Maybe, hah.