Broken

Chapter 2

University of Washington | Tacoma, 2022

Makenna pushed open the door and walked into class, it slammed shut behind her. All heads turned to her as she scanned the lecture hall for a familiar face, standing there, at the back of the lecture hall in her head to sole 'all black' look she was sporting yet once again. She noticed her professor, who was currently taking the class on Criminal Psychology III, had stopped mid-sentence and crossed her arms.

"Shit." Makenna cursed in recognition.

It was her first class in January after the winter break, a second-semester class in her third year of Criminal Justice. Barely twenty-four hours into the new semester and she was already getting into trouble with her favourite professor.

"Ms. Adams." Her professor's voice carried through the entire class to her, "Glad you could join us before the end of class."

Makenna walked down the stairs and made her way to one of the back seats, behind everyone else.
"Happy to be here just in time, Mrs. Kim."

She dumped her bag on the seat next to her and plopped into the chair, sliding down in her seat, she listened to the rest of the lecture. It was an intro class, nothing major just yet and Makenna was glad she hadn't missed anything important, at least she hoped she hadn't. She hadn't meant to be late, yet again.

Class ended ten minutes later and Makenna picked up her bag and got up about to leave like everyone else when Mrs. Kim called her name.
"A moment."

Makenna sighed, frustrated already with how the day was going as she walked sluggishly down the stairs and towards Mrs. Kim who was getting off the platform with her laptop in her hand.

"Here you go." Mrs. Kim handed her a piece of paper when she was a few feet away, "Handed those out before you graced us with your presence."

The corner of Makenna's lips tilted upwards in a smile as she took the paper and studied it for a moment. It was the semester's curriculum and there were some familiar topics, something she'd tried to get through over the winter break. Mrs. Kim had sent her a list of the approved topics the previous semester but the new curriculum had two extra topics that hadn't been on the previous one.

"How was your holiday?" Mrs. Kim began walking out of the lecture hall, heading to her office.

Makenna kept up with her, walking beside her,
"Productive."

"You got through all the topics I sent?"

"As best as I could."

Mrs. Kim glanced at her with a smile as they walked down the long hallway filled with students hanging out in groups on the sides and others heading to class.

Mrs. Kim had taken her under her wing in her first year when Makenna had been struggling with not just her class but every other class. She had of course been a defiant seventeen-year-old trying to find her place in not just a new environment but in civilization.

The year she was supposed to attend university with Rachel, the accident had happened and she'd not only deferred her enrolment for a year at UW Seattle but had also reapplied the following year to UW Tacoma instead and that too, for an entirely different course from what she'd originally planned to study. She'd been locked up at home in her room, during that year break, trying to take everything one day at a time and deal with one thing at a time. One year hadn't been enough to get over what happened but she knew she had to get back out there and live, if not for herself, then for Rachel.