Chapter 1 Milk Accident
Lana’s Point of View
“Did you cut your hair?” Liam asked, horrified, as I climbed down the stairs. I was clutching the handle of my suitcase in one hand and pulling my backpack in the other. “Why would you cut your hair?!”
“Did you dye it?” My heart nearly jumped out of my mouth when I heard Leon from behind me. Before I could stop him, my proactive, 14-year-old brother’s fingers were mangled in my hair.
I swatted his hand. “Ouch!” He jumped away from me.
“Don’t ruin the style.” I snapped. “What do you think, how do I look?” I asked, getting into character, deepening my voice.
“I agree with Liam, you shouldn’t have cut your hair,” Leon muttered as he joined his identical twin brother on the dining table, and for a split moment, I was unable to tell the difference between them.
“That isn’t the point,” I threw up my arms in exasperation, stressing my question. “Do I look like a boy?”
“Well, if anything, you look ugly.” Liam drawled, and they both laughed, mocking me. I want to throttle them so bad.
“Lana…” I froze when I heard my father’s weak voice from behind me.
Why did I forget about him? He stood in the doorway; his panicked eyes raked over my new appearance.
“Jesus Christ!” He neared me and then quickly set down the plates in his hands on the table, before turning back to me. “The implications of what you are about to do will cost you throughout your lifetime, Lana, and as your father, I don’t approve of it.”
He had tried to convince me over the week, but my decision had remained the same—I didn’t take the scholarship exam, and pass to just give up now.
“We don’t have money.” I reminded him. “We need money for mother’s hospital bills, and to make matters worse, you are—”
I barely stopped the venomous words from spilling out and drew in a shaky breath. “With me off your neck, you can focus on other things… on yourself.”
Father’s voice grew softer.
“Lana, I understand how much you care, but not like this; you are throwing away your identity, which is basically your life.”
I clenched my fists tightly, my nails dug into my palms, holding back the words that threatened to spill from my lips.
“I have made my decision, and I will do it either with or without your support.” Pain squeezed father’s eyes, but he did not attempt to argue with me any further.
“I will drop you off—” before he could finish, I interrupted him sharply.
“There is no need, I can get there on my own.” I don’t want to risk him ruining this for me. My eyes flickered towards the twins; both seemed uncomfortable as they watched Father and me argue as always.
“Be good, boys,” I stressed, and they both nodded.
I pulled the suitcase, leaving behind the swallowing silence behind me, bidding goodbye to Lana, and welcoming Alan.
As of this moment on, my name will be Alan Rowan.
“Welcome to Robert Blackwoods All Boys Academy.” The security guard said with a smile the moment I showed him my admission letter. “Just take the right to the Administrative Block, you must do all your registration before settling in your dorm.”
“Thank you.” I smiled.
“Good morning, sir,” I say in my practiced deep voice to the screening officer as I submit my documents to his table. They were all forged. I had a nervous smile on my face as I hoped he wouldn’t notice, because if he did, I would be sent straight to detention or prison.
“Good morning.” He yawned as he flipped through the pages of my document, barely reading anything there. He pressed his stamps on each page and then handed me back the file.
First step, cleared!
I walked over to the next office, where I received my school uniform, student pass, and the school handbook. There was a huge influx of admitted students due to the scholarship program, because when I got to the lodging and accommodation block, there were a lot of students waiting in line to get a dorm for themselves.
And I soon realize that there is a hierarchy of how things work in here.
People who can afford to pay their tuition and are not on scholarship stay in a single room—they have everything within their comfort zone, including their privacy.
Students who got the scholarship but cannot afford the accommodation fee get to stay in a single room or just share it with a roommate, depending on what they can afford.
But people like me, whose scholarship is fully funded, will be sharing the room with two other boys.
That’s not good, because I would be sharing the room with two boys, and it’s a shared bathroom too.
But the accommodation fee is about 15,000 dollars per term for two students in a dorm, and 30,000 dollars per term for a single person in a dorm. How the hell am I supposed to afford that?
“Alan Rowan!” I suddenly heard my name.
“Yes,” I answered on instincts and my feminine voice rang out, which drew attention; all gazes were on me, so I pretended to have a cough. “Uhm… Yes, that’s me.”
“Your dorm is in Zenith Hall, Room 270.” The registrar said as he handed me my pass and key, his eyes fell back towards his computer, calling out the next person.
I dragged my suitcase under the hot sun, my eyes finally taking in how magnificently huge the school is—and for such a big private school, with enough capacity for five thousand students, they have an incredibly low admission record of about a thousand students per year.
After a board meeting regarding this serious issue, they realized most parents would prefer to take their children to a mixed school rather than an all-boys school, because the school was expensive.
This caused concern for the founder of the school, Dr. Robert Blackwood JNR, hence the scholarship program. Once people started to hear more about the school and how good their facilities were, they would enroll their male children in it.
My family, on the other hand, is in shambles. My mother had a terrible accident five years ago, and she has been in a coma ever since.
Father tries his hardest to pay the hospital bills and still keep us in school, not one day have I seen that man rest. But early last year, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which made him lose his job as an architect.
He still tries his hardest despite losing his job, and it hurts my heart to see him struggle to put all three of us through school, while also paying hospital bills.
I wanted to help him somehow, but I couldn’t.
When I heard news of Blackwood’s scholarship program exam, I was devastated because I knew how much this scholarship would help my family, but I was not a boy, and my brothers were still in middle school.
I didn’t want the opportunity to waste, so I had to become a boy.
My feet ached as I dragged my suitcase around, looking for the zenith building.
I’m parched and covered with sweat.
My breath came out in short pants as I reached for the side of my backpack and took out the small bottle of milk drink I had tucked away.
I took a sharp turn in a hurry to take cover from the sun, I broke open the lid of my bottled drink, and collided with something stiff and hard before I could even take a sip.
I staggered backwards, and my eyes widened as it followed the liquid that squirted out of the bottle and landed on the navy-blue coat of the figure standing in front of me.
“Ah!” I gasped, my hands flew to cover my mouth in shock, as I stared at the ugly patch of milk on the coat.
My eyes guiltily trailed up to meet the blue eyes of the boy in front of me. His eyes were fixed on the stain before they flickered towards me and then stared down at me.
God, no. Not on my first day.