Chapter 1 - Neighborhood Blues

                                    

                                          
Ola frowned as a plate full of freshly baked cookies was thrusted into her face. "What is this?" 
Ola's mother stood in front of her as she smiled widely. "Hear that?" She pointed over to the front door of their apartment which confused Ola some more since she didn't exactly get the answer to her question. She shrugged in disinterest after she only heard some thuds and groans from the outside, but nothing really related to them at all. 
It sounded like someone was moving a lot of things around outside of their apartment. 
"I want a cookie." Ola spoke up as she turned to look at her mother who was looking at the young woman with a frown now. "We have neighbors!" 
"Hurray." The lack of enthusiasm and her hand which was reaching over to grab a cookie from the plate, got Ola a slap on her hand. Retracting her hand back, Ola glared at her mother, whose excitement came back instantly. 
"Go give these to the new neighbors!" 
"What? No. I'm busy." Her mother raised up an eyebrow as she placed her free hand on her hip, still holding onto the plate of cookies in her other one. "Doing what exactly?"
Well, that was a loaded question and Ola even knew it as she tried to look around the living room for a specific and believable answer. 
"Watching tv." She spoke as she raised her hand to point at the television whose black screen was all that she could really see. Her mother, rolling her eyes at her daughter, pulled her up by her arm. "Go take this next door." 
Ola frowned as she sighed to herself. This battle she had lost, but the next she was gonna win for sure. 
Grabbing the plate from her mother's hand, she placed on the coffee table. "Let me just get my scarf." She mumbled as she went over to her room to get her scarf. 
Ola didn't exactly cover her head anymore the way she used to, but that was just because she didn't really enjoy people staring at her. 
In all of her years in high school and then later college, Ola was the quiet person in class who didn't like communication in any form or language. She also didn't like anyone staring at her, so she took the decision of not covering her head anymore, but still at all times kept a scarf dangling from her neck to her front. 
She wasn't specific at anything since she didn't really care at all. And as she entered her room, she picked up the first scarf her hand landed on, which happened to be dark blue and soft. 
Ola lived in a two-bedroom apartment with her parents at the age of 24. The universe had tried to throw opportunity after opportunity at Ola's face, quite literally in her face. Being an art major, Ola had a knack for design softwares and painting, but after graduating, she didn't feel like doing anything at all. 
I couldn't blame her. She was a bit confused with life even though she didn't show it to her aging parents. 
Going back outside to the living room, she noticed how her mother was back inside the kitchen probably cooking up a storm. She looked over at the chocolate-chip cookies resting on the plate so comfortably and felt a pang of jealousy. 
Picking up the plate, she went straight over to the front door mumbling to herself about how cookies had a better life than humans, since they got to be lazy and just lay around. 
Also, eaten, but Ola chose not to focus on that particular aspect.
The first thing that Ola had witnessed as she got out of her apartment door, was the dog that was sat on this large cardboard box with its tongue hanging out of his mouth.