[GL] Someone Once Told Me the Grass is Much er on the Other Side-Chapter 131: Freshmen Year Arc: One

Aurora stood outside the car, her parents got out the car, Salmona took off her sun glasses and looked at her sister who was leaning over the car.

Lacy got out the car from the back seat and placed her arm around Aurora’s shoulders, squeezing her tight. Samantha laughed walking to her mate and daughter.

Adama got out the car as well, her eyes wide and open. The other cars and families were also getting out, helping their kids move in.

Salmona slammed her hand on the hood of the car. "Alrighty, leta get cracking!" She turned to Adama. "Go on and get those boxes from the trunk," the Alpha told the little Alpha who had turned fourteen in the summer.

"Omegas, listen to Salmona. Come get some things," Samantha said. "The Alphas can’t so everything, ya know."

"Then we can get some Betas," Aurora said walking to her items.

Aurora’s fingers tightened around the frayed strap of her duffel bag as Salmona’s command echoed across the parking lot.

She watched Adama scramble toward the trunk, her younger sister’s movements tight with suppressed frustration, shoulders hunched, the plastic storage bin already threatening to buckle under textbooks.

Behind them, other families flowed like ants around shiny vehicles, unloading microwaves and mini-fridges, voices rising in a chaotic symphony of goodbye advice and parental concern. Aurora inhaled deeply: gasoline, hot asphalt, and the distant tang of cut grass from the quadrangle beyond the dormitory’s brick facade.

"To the right, to the right, TO THE RIGHT, AAAAAHHHHH!!!" The corner of the plastic container slammed against Samantha’s groin. The Alpha waved her arms frantically yet also trying to push Adama off of her, telling the teenager to move forward.

The plastic container slid against Adama’s shoulder as she pushed the bin forward against Samantha’s stomach. Samantha groaned loudly, her teeth grinding together as she glared at Salmona who was laughing behind both of them.

Salmona snorted, wiping away tears from the side of her eyes. Adama awkwardly hoisted the bin onto Salmona’s shoulder as they both stumbled forward toward the dormitory stairs.

The Alpha leaned against the brick wall, her breathing labored as Adama nervously moved the bin onto Salmona’s shoulder once again. Salmona straightened her posture, her cheeks flushed with exertion and laughter.

Inside Aurora’s new dorm room, the silence was good and positive even after the parking lot’s chaos. Twin beds stretched across opposite walls, thin mattresses still wrapped in plastic, smelling faintly of dust and disinfectant beneath the sterile white fluorescence overhead.

Lacy dropped her armload of Aurora’s clothes onto the bare mattress frame, the fabric sighing softly as it settled. Across the narrow room, Samantha nudged a suitcase with her foot toward the second bed, her movements deliberate, avoiding Salmona’s gaze while Adama fumbled with a stack of textbooks sliding precariously on the plastic container Salmona had lowered onto the gray industrial carpet.

"What are you doing, Samantha? That bed belongs to her roommate," Salmona scolded.

"Sssuuuh, she’s not even here yet," Samantha said.

CLAP! 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Alright, let’s unpack before she gets here then," Lacy suggested with a clap of her hands.

Salmona’s laughter still hung in the air like loose wind chimes constantly chimely as Samantha grimly shoved the suitcase back toward Aurora’s designated bed space. The sharp scent of plastic wrap mixed uneasily with stale air conditioning blowing through the vent above.

Aurora watched her family move in the tight confines: Lacy smoothing wrinkles from a blouse, Adama staring fixedly at a textbook spine, Samantha deliberately turning her back on Salmona while lining up Aurora’s shoes with military precision beneath the bed frame.

Once they were done and yawning, Aurora stepped back. "Let’s go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. I wanna see what they have."

"And have our last dinner together," Lacy said practically on the verge of tears.

The cafeteria buzzed like a kicked hornet’s nest, a cavernous space echoing with the scrape of trays, the clatter of utensils on melamine plates, and too many voices layered into a solid wall of sound.

Aurora breathed in deeply, steam from industrial dishwashers, overcooked vegetables, fryer grease thick enough to coat her tongue, and beneath it all, the faint sour tang of adolescent anxiety radiating off hundreds of new students.

Adama pointed to an empty table over to the left corner. "Let’s sit there!"

"Let’s sit down and then Adama can go look at the food and tell us what they have," Lacy said as the family stepped to the table, pushing past the other students and familes.

Adama nodded and walked toward the buffet spread across the other side of the cafeteria. Her footsteps barely registered against the high-ceilinged roar of overlapping conversations and clattering trays.

She approached the steaming aluminum pans lining the counter, her eyes scanning the contents: white rice, fried rice, pasta both Alfredo and marinara sauce, mac and cheese, potatoes both mash and whole, fish, chicken, and sushi.

Adama ran back to her family and told them what she saw. Salmona and Samantha got up to follow Adama as the Alpha led them into the kitchen area to make their plates as well as the plates for Aurora and Lacy.

Adama’s footsteps vanished into the cafeteria’s roar as she moved toward the buffet line, a small island of focus amidst the swirling currents of families navigating trays and steaming pans.

Aurora watched her go, then turned her attention to the plastic-coated tabletop, tracing a faint scratch with her thumbnail. Beside her, Lacy’s fingers drummed a restless rhythm, her gaze distant and shimmering.

Aurora reached over and hugged her mother. "Aweeeee, mommmy!!" She said to the Omega woman. Lacy hugged her back, wiping her eyes as she did so, her baby girl, grown all up.

BOOM, BANG, BLAST!

The fire works went off that night while the family sat in the grass that evening looking at the sky, watching all the colors.

Lacy leaned against Samantha’s shoulder, her fingers tangled in the grass blades, plucking one absently as if counting seconds between distant explosions. Above them, chrysanthemums of gold and crimson blossomed silently against the velvet-black sky, each detonation a visceral punch felt deep in Aurora’s sternum.

For a fleeting moment, the world narrowed to the hot flash of green starbursts reflecting in Adama’s wide pupils, her jaw slack with wonder. Aurora found herself tracing constellations between falling embers, the vibrations thrumming through the packed soil beneath her thighs.

Salmona tilted her head back, the multicolored lights dancing across the sharp planes of her face, etching faint lines of contentment usually hidden beneath Alpha command. Her hand, resting casually on the grass, brushed against Samantha’s knuckles,not an overt gesture, just a subtle press of knuckle against knuckle.

Samantha didn’t pull away. Instead, a slow, almost imperceptible curve softened her usually stern mouth, her gaze lingering on Lacy nestled against her shoulder. Lacy, oblivious to the undercurrent, sighed softly, her cheek pressed into Samantha’s jacket.

The twins were proud of their family; however far it they have come, the past, present, and future.

The final starburst faded, leaving only faint smoke trails drifting across the moonless sky like ghosts retreating.

Ground vibrations lingered in Aurora’s bones, a phantom heartbeat echoing the vanished explosions. Lacy shifted against Samantha, exhaling slowly as if releasing the night’s held breath. Adama blinked rapidly, pupils dilated in the sudden exhaustion, her wonder softening into drowsiness as she rubbed her arms against the evening chill seeping through her thin sleeves.

Salmona moved first, a subtle tensing of thigh muscles, a hand pressed flat against the dewy grass to leverage herself upward. Samantha followed suit, unfolding stiffly, her posture instinctively straightening as she offered Lacy a forearm to grasp.

The Omega woman leaned heavily, fingers tightening momentarily before releasing. Adama scrambled to her feet, brushing grass seeds from her jeans, staring back at the dark quadrangle where phantom firework colors still seemed to flicker behind Aurora’s eyelids.

The walk back to the car unfolded under a cloak of silence thicker than the dew settling on the manicured lawns.

Samantha’s stride was the longest, a deliberate Alpha cadence echoing on the pavement, her silhouette stark against the dormitory windows glowing honey-gold behind them.

Salmona stayed half a step to her left, her posture relaxed yet watchful, boots crunching softly on gravel.

They all looked at Aurora, giving her hugs and kissing her.

"You be good," Salmona said. Aurora nodded her head turning to look at Samantha next.

"Try and continue to do therapy virtually. You’re on our insurance," Samantha mentioned.

Lacy hugged Aurora, her tears coming down. "I am so proud of you. We love you," she said kissing Aurora on both cheeks.

Adama came up to Aurora; she was taller now, standing just above Aurora. They hugged. "You’re gonna do amazing," she said, her voice deeper to the ear.

"Don’t get anyone pregnant," Aurora joked. Both siblings laughing.

Aurora waved to them as they drove away from campus. She wouldn’t see them again until Christmas. She shook her head, laughing heading back to her dorm.