Like a Lady

Chapter 2

That evening I joined Madison to go down to the meal hall. I stood in the cafeteria doorway and thought back to what I would be seeing if I was still at my high school. There would be long tables with sticky surfaces, the sound of unrecognizable food being slopped onto the somewhat unsanitary plates, the smell of disgusting body odor, then of course the different cliques from jocks to the artsy kids all sitting at their silently claimed tables.

But this cafeteria was a whole different story. I don’t even know if it’s really worthy of the title cafeteria, it’s more like a banquet room. The tables here were covered by silky white table cloths, with tall candles scattered across the center of them. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, sending dancing light patterns onto the walls. The cushioned chairs were neatly tucked into the tables when everyone was finished, something that I also never saw at my high school. All the girls strangely acted in a very similar way. There was no one that screamed nerd, or even popular, they were all….the same. I’ve never seen anything like this before, it was almost unnatural. But one thing was for sure, it was definitely unnerving.

“Hi, Victoria,” I turned around to see a random girl walk by me and smile.

“Who was she?” I asked Madison.

She didn’t lift up her head to look at the girl. “Lily,” she replied.

“How does she know my name?” I looked back to the girl and tilted my head to the side.

Victoria set her plate down in front of a salad bar. “Everyone knows one another's name here. We are all friends.”

“Oh, come one. You can’t be friends with everyone! There must be someone you don’t like,” I objected.

“No,” she answered quickly.

“There wasn’t even a time that a girl, wore the same shirt as you, and you got mad?” I said while filling my plate with salad.

“I’d compliment her on her shirt, just as any polite girl would.” she smiled.

“This place is too weird…” I whispered to myself so no one could hear.

I ate my dinner in silence while making judgements in my head. I found out fast that Madison isn’t like the girls I used to hang out with back home. My friends and I used to joke around and poke good humored fun at people. Well, maybe to them it wouldn’t be “good humored”, but for us it was. I tried it with Madison today. I saw a girl walk by with these bizarre kind of heels on and I said “Oh my God, look at her shoes,” and if I was with my friends they would reply with something like “I know right, what was she thinking?” But Madison just smiled and said “They’re lovely.” Lovely? Who even says that anymore?

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The night seemed to drag on until it was finally time for bed. I slipped into my pajamas and brushed my teeth faster than I ever have in my whole entire life, just so I could pretend to be sleeping by the time Madison was done in the bathroom. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to her; I’ve just had enough of this bizarreness for one day. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be used to this place. I covered my mouth with my hand and suppressed a laugh, who am I trying to kid?

It seemed like I was only asleep for a couple of hours before my alarm went off the next morning, probably because I did only sleep a couple of hours. A new bed, new room, new town, and a stranger sleeping across the room from me I guess was all too much to think about.

I rolled over and shut off the alarm on the clock that was flashing 9 a.m. I felt my eyes still heavy, anything that was before 11 a.m. was early for me. My eyes flickered to across the room where Madison was already dressed and ready for the day.