Riverview School For Girls [GxG]

a/n

Goodbye from the girls at Riverview!

There is something so personal and so deeply intimate about this book, and I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about it with you all.

I went to a very prestigious all girls school for seven years. This book is a emblem of my own experiences. I was subject to very strict uniform policies; yes, they did measure the length of our skirts, and yes, they did it in front of everyone. Teachers were cruel, discipline was strict, and punishments were common. We survived because we had each other. The friends I made at school were like family to me. They were everything.

I've left school now, I've moved away, I've started university, and I now live in a flat I share with five other students. There's something so magical about living with your best friends. Cooking food together at 3am, sneaking into each other's rooms to pull pranks, receiving noise complaints from the flat below us because we've all gotten drunk on a random Tuesday night. This is what adolescence feels like. I wanted to encapsulate that feeling in this book, because so often writers focus only their characters' romantic relationships, and neglect their characters' friendships. But Willow's friends have shaped the person she has become, and I wanted to acknowledge that.

I truly love every character I have created in this book (aside from Miss Burke, who was based off of a particularly strict teacher who used to make my life Hell). I love Sydney — who can be rude, and obnoxious, and self-centred — because she's real. She's a girl who's still growing into her desire, her urges, her desperation for attention. She doesn't always show it, but she loves her friends to death, and she would do anything for them. I love Dahlia, because she's sweet, and kind, and generous, and she hasn't realised yet that that generosity is bleeding her dry. She's a perfect friend, which makes her a flawed person, because she doesn't know how to take care of herself. And finally, I love Val, because she is the victim of the cruel education system which is slowly killing her. She feels inadequate next to her friends because they seem to be balancing the weight of their stress so well, and her so poorly. I resonate with her so much, and I'm sure you all do, too.

Jordan is the girl I wished I was when I was in school. The one brave enough to stand up to teachers, and wear their uniform as they like, and walk into detention with their head held high. She's confident, and unapologetic, and so very important to me.

Willow is a complex character. She is not the sweet loveable protagonist. She makes mistakes; she's a bad friend, and quite often, a bad person. She's self-centred, she can't admit to being wrong, and she's terrible at apologising. Her flaws make her real. I see myself in her weaknesses, more than I do in her strengths, and maybe that says a lot about me as a person, but that's okay. No one is perfect. Willow certainly isn't. But that's why I love her.

The ending is quiet because in time, everyone and everything moves on. Riverview will welcome a new batch of students, and they will live in the West Tower, and eat in the dining hall, and serve detention in Miss Burke's office. The girls will be forgotten, and that's okay. We're all forgotten eventually. There's nothing tragic about that — it's just the way life is.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this book, it means a lot to me that you guys enjoy my writing so much.

Until next time,

- Pix