"You are NOT going there" her father barked in a stern tone, flinging the Columtreal University brochure across his large office desk, his slanted eyes narrowing even further, the cold steel grey colour merciless.
Psylocke Fhang lowered her head submissively, a lock of her black hair falling in front of her eyes. "B-but...father..."
All her life, she'd lived in fear of her father's wrath, always being an angel, his little Japanese princess. But this was a big decision, dammit. And it was hers alone.
"You've had offers for Harvard, Oxford and Tokyo...and you want to go to this hovel? Why?" he demanded. Psy's father was a rich businessman, used to getting his way. Psylocke guessed this is how an employee must feel when called into his boardroom for a dressing down.
"My...my friends are going there" she mumbled, thinking of Kyria and Ev, her best friends through High School. Her sisters in everything but blood.
"Who cares about friends?" he shouted "this is your future. I'm not going to let you throw it away for a bunch of giggling girls."
"But it's got a great cheerleading programme..." Psy tried to butt in "and English Literature. Father, you know I want to write..."
For the first time in her eighteen years, her father looked absolutely disgusted with her. "What you want to do is get yourself a real education. What husband will have a dumb cheerleader as his wife?"
Psy flinched as if struck. "Dumb?" she thought. "DUMB?" She'd worked her ass of in the last round of school exams, and all he thought she should be educated for was to find a husband??? That was it. She felt something snap inside of her. She turned, and flounced outside of her father's study.
The next day she sat waiting on the Greyhound coach as the driver made yet another rest stop on the long journey. Her long hair had been let out of its traditional bun, shining in the dull illumination, the freshly dyed purple tresses a symbol of her newfound freedom. She clasped the CU brochure tightly in her hand, as she texted her friends to tell her she was on her way. She'd withdrawn a large amount of cash from her bank before her father could cut off her access, enough to pay for her tuition and keep her living for a few weeks. After that, she'd be on her own.
She'd always been spoiled. Got whatever she wanted, when she wanted, so long as she remained obedient to her father. Her mother was just as submissive as her, and had no say in how her daughters life was run. Psy's suitcase was packed with expensive designer clothes. The house she'd arranged to rent hurriedly by e-mail was furnished with the finest things. She had the feeling she would be glad of these luxurious comforts in the harsh times ahead.
The arduous bus journey from Arizona took in desert...desert...and more desert, and the bleak lunar landscape gave Psy time to think on her life so far. How they'd moved from Japan when she was just a toddler so her father could expand his boring but lucrative corporate law firm. How up until the age of twelve she'd been forced to learn piano, dancing, gymnastics whether she liked it or not (fortunately, she didn't actually mind), and her uncle teaching her martial arts and how that helped her escape into her own meditative world of breath and body. She recalled meeting her "sisters" in High School at the age of fifteen, and how they'd formed an instant bond. She even had time to think about the creep she'd dated in High School - and how they'd only gotten to the kissing on the cheek stage when he'd cheated on her with a much older woman, and how Psy had gotten drunk and tearful and gone around to the woman's house asking "what it is you have that I don't?" "Come on in and I'll show you" the woman had said, and later in bed they had passed a joint back and forth between them as they each dumped the cheating creep by mobile phone. It had been Psy's only fleeting, but eye opening sexual experience so far.
She closed her eyes, the low hum of the road making her sleepy. When she woke up, her life would be changed completely. She just prayed she would get into the Cheer Squad.