Serenity Falls

Chapter 2

Wow, this one's really long - I didn't actually realise how long it was until I uploaded! But hopefully you'll read anyway :)

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Brad looked up from his guitar and burst out laughing as Olivia walked into the room.

"That’s the uniform?" he said, gasping for breath in between guffaws. "Oh my God, you couldn’t pay me enough to wear that."

Olivia rolled her eyes at him, and walked over to the full length mirror that was propped up against the wall, waiting to be hung once their father got round to it. No dramatic changes had been made to the house since they first arrived, as they had only been there two days – there were boxes of random objects everywhere, and most of the furniture still had to be arranged. She stared back at her reflection, which displayed her wearing her brand new Serenity Falls uniform – a crisp white shirt, buttoned right to the top below her neck, a grey and gold checked tie, a dark grey blazer emblazoned with the school logo, a dark grey checked pencil skirt that finished just below the knee, and long knee length socks. She had thought that she looked good, as she had gotten dressed that morning, and she was not set to let Brad knock her confidence on her first day at the best school in the whole country.

"It’s smart," Olivia informed him. "Anyway, everyone will be wearing the same thing. Everyone there actually cares about their education."

Brad snorted. "Right, whatever." He looked back down at his guitar, and continued to play a chord. "This doesn’t sound right, you know. I swear something happened to it when it was packed up in that car. It was squashed up against all our other crap, so I’m not surprised."

"Oh, quit your complaining," Dad said, after downing his cup of coffee and placing it near the sink, which was piled up  with a considerable amout of plates and cups, on account of the fact that the washing up hadn’t been done in a few days. "I haven’t heard one positive word out of you ever since we got here."

"You ever thought that’s because there’s nothing positive to say about this place?" Brad rolled his eyes, as he continued to strum his guitar, frowning at the slightly off-tune sound it was giving out.

"It doesn’t matter, you’ve finished school anyway. This is Olivia’s chance. Speaking of which, we’re going to be late if we don’t get a move on now. You ready, Olivia?" He glanced over at his daughter, who was smoothing down her skirt and still peering at herself in the mirror.

"Yeah, let’s go."

The two of them made their way outside to the car, Olivia’s father getting into the driver’s seat and slamming the door hard a few times before it fully closed. Olivia threw her bag onto the back seat and climbed into the front, fastening her seatbelt and taking a deep breath as the car engine started up and the old Nissan pulled out off the drive and onto the road. Neither her Dad nor Olivia really knew where the school was situated, but once they got onto the main road it was well signposted and around ten minutes later, they pulled up outside a new-looking brick building, surrounded by tall, iron fences. Whether this was to keep the pupils in or the public out, it was unclear. At the front of the grounds, there was a wrought iron gate that seemed to stretch up into the sky, adorned with gold detailing that took the form of the school logo.

Winding the window down, Olivia’s father leaned out of the car and pushed down on one of the buttons that was part of a keyboard, fixed to a post on the gate. He paused for a second, waiting for something to happen, when there was suddenly some loud feedback and a voice spoke.

"Name?" It commanded, in a way that brought the image of  a military sergeant to Olivia’s mind.

"Uh…" he hesitated, startled by the unexpected obligation. "Olivia Webb. It’s her first day."