Who can you trust.

The countryside.

The sky was grey and cloudy, the road ahead was covered with fog and the windows of the car were splattered with tiny raindrops. Leah sat in the backseat of her fathers car, staring out the window and hoping that the weather wasn't always going to be like this.

"Almost there now, love" Mr Kingsleigh, Leah's father said in a jolly tone. He was a cheerful man; tall and skinny with lots of wrinkles, a grey stubble that matched his thinning hair and sunken blue eyes. At first glance you might think he looked run down, sad or possibly even ill, but his smile was contagious and never failed to cheer Leah up.
"Yeah I know... Hope it's not always so cold." Leah said, she took after her father in that she was rather skinny, but she had her mothers brown eyes and blonde hair.

"Ah yes because the sun is always shinning in the south." Mr Kingsleigh joked sarcastically. They'd lived in the south of England all their lives and Leah was nervous to be moving away from her home. Her father had wanted them to move to the countryside since her mother had died a few months ago. Their new house was nice but still miles away from Leah's new school.
"Don't worry, you're going to love boarding school.." he reassured her.

"Yeah I suppose..."

The rest of the journey was spent in a comfortable silence as Leah watched the dreary looking countryside pass her by.

Finally they arrived outside the grand looking school. It was basically a castle.
"Woah... it's posh..." Leah was starting to feel the nerves kick in.

"Yes... you probably won't fit in ver well then.." her father teased.
She hit him lightly and scoffed at him.

The Kingsleigh's weren't the poshest people around, but they were definitely well off.

After having collected he bags out of the car she hugged her father goodbye and watched him drive away, she wouldn't see him again till the holidays, it was going to be a strange few months.

Leah picked up her bags and walked towards the entrance, as she got closer she saw an oldish looking woman beaming at her. She smiled back awkwardly and stepped threw the gates.

"Hello dear, Welcome to Bridge-bank school" The woman was short and plump with grey hair tied up into a neat bun on the top of her head.
"I'm Professor Tanks, the assistant head of Bridge-bank school. It's a pleasure to meet you. Come in, come in, get yourself out of the cold." Tanks seemed like a very friendly woman.

"Thank you professor." Leah shook her hand politely.

Professor Tanks lead her through the school, she spoke about the rules and uniforms and behavioural expectations as they walked. They suddenly stopped at the bottom of a spiral staircase that lead to a grand looking door.

A girl waited just outside the door looking at her nails, she stopped what she was doing and straightened up when she saw the two approaching her.
"Ah, this is Holly Winburry, our head girl. She will show you to your room and around the students common room. Go to her if you have any questions or if you get lost." Professor Tanks chuckled.
"I will leave you two to get acquainted, I'll see you in the assembly hall for dinner in an hour. Holly will show you the way." And with that she left Leah with Holly. She was tall and beautiful with dirty blonde hair tied neatly into a low ponytail.
"Hello, Leah was it?" She looked her up and down and smiled.

"Yes... it's nice to meet you.." Leah smiled back.

"Great, follow me." Holly pushed open the doors and lead her through.

As Leah stepped into the room she was met with a buzz of life a students busied themselves around the common area. A few students started at her as she trailed behind Holly, bags in hand and overwhelmed expression plastered on her face.

"This is the 6th Years common room." Holly explained. "Each year has their own common area and dorms."

Holly pointed at random things in the room saying things like 'that's the soafas where people sit.' And 'that's a table, you can do homework there if you like' and 'that's another sofa' she sounded very unenthusiastic as she spoke, not stopping for a moment.

She lead them up some stairs until they got to a landing that split into two different staircases. "Now remember, when you get here go to the right. If you to to the left you'll find yourself in the boys dorm and trust me you don't want that. Up here is the girls dorms." Holly explained quickly before continuing up the right staircase.

"You're 16 I'm guessing?" Holly asked curiously.

"Yes..." Leah said a little surprised at Holly's sudden interest in her.

The got to a long corridor with multiple wooden doors all along it. It was a little dark with small windows on the slanted roof.

Holly stopped outside the 5th door on the left and knocked on it.
"This is your room. Are you going to remember that?" Holly questioned a little patronisingly.

Leah looked at the door, it had a small picture of a dragonfly on it with the number 9 on one of its wings.
"Yes... I think so..." Leah smiled.

Just then the door swung open, in the doorway stood a girl with curly brown hair, dark skin and enchanting eyes.
"This is your new roomy.. see ya" Holly smiled at the girls and walked away back down the corridor.

"Come on in... I'm Amber." Amber stepped aside and closed the door behind Leah.

"Hi, I'm Leah."

"Right Leah; that's your bed, that's your wardrobe. This is my stuff and that... is Emily" Amber was clearly very confident.

Emily smiled at her, she had brown eyes, pale freckled skin and red hair.

Leah smiled back and started putting her things away in her wardrobe.

~~~~~

Leah didn't speak to her new roommates much as she unpacked, she hadn't realised how long it'd taken her until Amber jumped up from Emily's bed where she's been sat doing her nails.

"Right, it's dinner. We'll show you where to go." Amber smiled.

"Yeah you can sit with us, get to know each other a bit." Emily added.

Leah thanked them and followed the two girls back the way she'd come and through the grand building.

The halls were busy with other students all heading in the same direction.

There was a lot of them.

It made Leah a little nervous, but she felt better when she saw Holly briefly smile at her from across the corridor.