golden love

chapter three

"james is a total ride, aren't ya james?"

the group got off the bus and walked into the school. goosebumps rose on esme's body as she entered the cold hall. before they could go any further, Jenny Joyce stopped them. "hi, guys!" she said in a painfully annoying sing song voice.

"can i just have a quick chat?" the group moved around uncomfortably. "sure." esme said. jenny looked at james. "you must me new. i'm jenny. great hair, very bold. i'd love to go that short but, side, i don't have the bone structure."

esme giggled to herself as she said, "he's a fella, Jenny." jenny had an almost scared look. "oh. i see." the girl went back to her annoying smile seconds after. "anywho!"

"anywho!" michelle mocked. "seriously shoot me in the face." "aye me too 'chelle." esme joked. well, not really.

"this is a bit awkward, but part of my role as prefect is welcoming the first-year students. and it's come to my attention that there was some sort of an incident on the bus this morning?"

"there was no incident." Michelle lied. "apparently, you guys threatened one of the new girls. said you was going to beat her up." Jenny said in some weird thug way.

"that's lies!" michelle again, lied.
"their were quite a few witnesses." jenny said.

"no, i mean, we said it, but.. as a joke. as in, 'we're going to beat you up' but, like, in a jokey way. michelle attempted to cover up her mistakes.

"right. well, the thing is, that's not actually funny, is it? like, at all."

"well, humours so subjective really jenny." esme was cut of with jenny's voice, "now, the wee girl claims she's not bothered. but reading between the lines.."

"why are you reading between the lines?" erin speaks up.

"i'm just not so sure that i believe her. now, i don't want to report you guys." jenny starts, "please don't report us, jenny. please! we'll do anything, anything at all." clare begs suddenly.

"speak for yourself, sugar tits." michelle says as she pulls the girl back.

esme looks up so a stunned james, just utterly confused. she doesn't even realise she's laughing at him until he looks down at her. she almost gives herself whiplash from how fast she turned her head away from him.

"think i'll just have to.. mull it over." jenny says condescendingly.

"ach jenny, mull this over." michelle suddenly puts her middle finger up to jenny. esme's eyes widen as she puts her right hand over her face. hiding from the embarrassment of this shit.

"oh we'll see!" Jenny has a disgusted expression as she runs away to go to esme's mother, sister micheal.

"for fucks sake michelle!" esme whines before pulling michelle's arm down. the group run off to assembly.

jenny and her weird little team of friends do some school play to introduce the first years. "does big Mandy look more schizo than usual?" erin quietly says to esme. the brunette hesitated to look back but did, nodding slowly with a scared expression.

after what felt like forever, the play finally ended. esme's mother began to speak. esme felt herself zoning out, purely so bored with this. "so let me take this opportunity to advice all of our new girls, to keep their guard up, watch their back." esme through her mothers dramatic choice of words were quite funny.

"oh speaking of pupils who need to watch their watch. i'd like to introduce james maguire. show yourself please, james. james put his hand up and slight talking began. "james will be the first ever boy to study and our lady immaculate college." many whistles erupted from the crowd of girls.

"he was due to start at Christian brother boys but there were serious concerns for his safety because well, unfortunately, James happens to be English." that's where the laughing started.

"but let's make one thing clear, I will not have a repeat of the Mr. Mullin affair. Is that understood?"

james looked confused once again. he looked to a nodding esme before asking "what's the mr mullin affair?". esme looked at him before sighing and whispering to him, "student teacher. two fourth heads cable-tied him to the monkey bars and started dry riding him." michelle overheard the conversation and said "he was really good-looking so you've nothing to worry about."

esme was in the mood to annoy michelle.
"michelle, james is a total ride, aren't ya james? i'd dry ride him." esme saw as james went a dark shade of red and shuffled around. michelle looked very angry throwing a punch to esme's gut that she skilfully missed. "fuck you, lesbo." most people would think michelle was genuinely angry, but esme knew Michelle. she was just joking. yeah, just joking. and of course esme was joking!

right?