The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 1

'Mum, dad!' I shouted in elation, on the verge of tears.

'What, dear?' my mother said, her usually calm voice sounding excited and worried at the same time.

'They accepted!' I answered, not able to talk in proper sentences from my disbelief of the coveted piece of paper held in front of me. 'The University want me in!' I could swear I was dreaming.

'Well done, love!' my father exclaimed, his stress marks gone to make room for the look of happiness on his face. 'That's fantastic!'

My parents took me in embrace, the silence highlighting the sound of my adrenaline-pumped heart.

Finally, my dream seemed to have come true. I was (hopefully) going to become my dream, an astrophysist at the Jodrel Bank observatory of our nearest city, Manchester. I couldn't wait to start.

I had been fascinated by the stars for almost all my life. Whether it had been my dad's love for everything sci-fi (especially the classic Doctor Who TV shows from his childhood), my love of the telescope or my childhood aspiration of an astronaut. The colours and wonders of space just blew me away, and I knew there was more to my life than just a normal day-to-day life. I was someone who dared to ask the big questions, and the unknown just made me curiouser and curiouser. To be perfectly honest, I was scared of not being something, not doing something for the future of mankind. I wanted to be remembered as something beyond ordinary. Like a superhero.

---

The summer soon went by quickly, too quickly in fact. I didn't want to leave my parents and my little sisters behind, but I wanted to live in at the university so I could dedicate as much time to research. Yes, I was kind of a workaholic. Or just mad.

Loading the car up for one last time until Christmas, momentary tears blurred my vision as I hugged each member of my family individually for what seemed to be hours.

'I'll miss you, all of you,' I cried, my emotions and feelings all mixed up. I wanted to leave for a new life, but I didn't want to destroy my old one, either.

'Dont worry, Aria, we're coming with you to see your uni first!' my youngest sister exclaimed.

I sighed in relief. Of course. I was so stupid! Emotions really got the better of my rationality.

The journey there was a silent but happy one. No one really knew what to say; I don't blame them after my dramatic display of affection. We all just smiled to each other, more or less directed at me.

To keep myself occupied, I took my new notebook out of my pocket and carried on writing the new murder mystery story I had started a few months back. Highly influenced by the films I watched and loved, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I started writing about my protagonist, a detective, deducing the crime science with the information and things she could see. I felt like I was writing about a girl version of Sherlock if I'm perfectly honest, but the character had a much more interesting personality than Sherlock's.

As we pulled up outside the university, my smile starred to grow wider and wider and my eyes stated to get blurrier and blurrier. I was definitely torn.

'Well, here we are,' my father announced, his voice cracking in clear sadness.

'Thankyou, daddy, for driving me here,' I said, like a child upset to leave their parents on their first day of school.

My mother helped me take my things to the reception of the uni and sign me in. Receiving my ID card, room key and other various bits, I headed up to my room and sunk down into my new bed, not even caring to shut the door or pack my luggage away. I didn't even realise there was someone at the door until I looked up from my position around the room.

'Hi!' a girl with flaming red hair and piercing blue eyes piped up, her smile wide an inviting.

'Hello,' I greeted nervously, my English accent greatly highlighted through my nerves. I always sounded posh in new, uncertain and awkward circumstances.

'I love this place!' she exclaimed. 'It's so green and spacious compared to back home and in London.'

Immediately, I warmed to her, my new roommate seeming rather friendly and someone I had at least one thing in common with.

'I know right!' I exclaimed. 'I hate the big, stuffy, polluted cities. And for some reason everyone loves the south when in fact the north is so much better!' I could hear my northern accent start to kick in and smiled.

From there in, we started chatting, and by that, I mean a lot of talking, over a few complimentary drinks from some of the housemates. She told me about her favourite hobbies and interests (which, like me, were sci-fi, books and art), her name, Harper, and all sorts of other random things. But it was where she came from and why she was in Manchester which really interested me.

'So, which part of the UK do you come from?' She asked, intrigued.

'Just from a little village called York,' I replied. 'Not the city, just a village a few hours away from here.'

'Ah cool,' Harper said. 'So why are you living in when you're so near?'

'Because I want to research lots about astrophysics on top of my Astrophysics course,' I replied truthfully. I didn't really mind if she though it was stupid or not.

'Erm, sorry Aria, but what's astrophysics? Is it like astronauts?' Harper asked, curious.

'Well, it's kind of in the same field as an astronaut,' I said slowly, wanting to make the subject sound it's best. 'Its basically the study of space, but in a physicist's view.'

'That sounds so interesting!' Harper exclaimed. 'That is, if I was good at physics.'

I smiled and there was a long pause.

'So what brought you here?' I asked Harper to break the silence.

She looked into the distance, as if she was reminiscing about something sad, and started to talk.

'I was brought up in Starling City,' she started. Starling City... I knew that name. Somehow. 'But in the roughest area, The Glades. My mom, dad and I were fine, really. But then my dad got stabbed. My mom drank all our money away in grief, and so i couldn't pay for food, let alone study. So then the police came, and a detective, Detective Lance, looked into my family's case. He contacted my aunt, and, here I am now.'

I felt sorry for Harper. I mean, I really did. It took some guts to get over something like that and be accepted in a uni that asked me for all As and A*s, let alone tell someone you just met. And it was obvious she had been keeping it to herself all those years.

Holding her hand securely, I looked in her sad blue eyes and just smiled.

'I know we like, just met, but I'll support you through this.'

'Thankyou.'