The Entitled

New plans

Period five

After one long, painful week I was officially ready to hop into my dad's car and drive far, far away from Upperton Academy.

I was beginning to slowly decease from the boredom and if that didn't kill me, I thought, Eliza would. I dreaded going back to my dorm in fears of my ears bleeding after she'd chosen me as her new therapist. Except I didn't actually listen and she didn't pay me. Every night she would come back to the room and give me every small detail of her day. From what she had to eat to the little things her teachers had said to her in class.

If my short stay at boarding school was going to teach me anything, it was to appreciate silence. It was something you never got as Eliza's roommate. And fifth period was one my last moments of the day where I was going to be appreciative. I wasn't anywhere quiet but I'd come to redefine silence as any sound that didn't have Eliza's voice ringing through it.

"Give me four more laps girls," Our swim teacher, Mrs Meyers, shouted out over the pool area. I trod repeatedly in the cool water, keeping my head above the surface. Catching air desperately, my lungs were out of breath from the laps I had just finished.

"Today, girls," She echoed, her voice shrilling into my eyes. I puffed out a big breath before sucking in a mouthful of air and placing my feet against the wall behind me. With force, I pushed hard off the wall and swung my arms into the water, one after the other.

Soon enough I'd done my four laps and was gripping onto the wall, holding myself up in the water. Mrs Meyers walked up to the edge of the pool, towering above me. Nodding down at me in approval, she lowered her voice to speak, "Good time Carlyle. You should join the swim team."

I shrugged, too out of breath to say anything. Barely noticing as she walked away to talk to another student, I used whatever strength I had left to haul my body out of the water. I sat catching my breath on the edge of the pool.

A second later and Bailey in the lane next to mine finished her laps and climbed, less elegantly, out of the pool, "How did you go so fast?" she panted, her body hunched over her knees. She rested her hands on her bare thighs and looked over to me.

I laughed, amused by her breathless exterior, "I used to swim when I was younger."

Bailey shook her head, still puffing out air heavily. I reached behind me, grabbing my water bottle and passing it to her. She took it and gulped down the water within a heartbeat.

"Mrs Meyers asked me to join the team," I told Bailey. Still chugging down the water, her eyebrows raised and her head slowly nodded.

"You should, you're good," Bailey encouraged me just as she drew the bottle away from her wet lips, "You'd probably be good at rowing too, maybe you should try out for both."

"Hm," I hummed, shaking my head in dissatisfaction, knowing a team would come with long-term commitments, "I don't think I will."

"Let me guess," Bailey joked, "Because you're not sticking around?"

"I'm going to get out," I told her seriously, my voice deadpanning as the topic was brought up again.

I wouldn't lie Bailey and I had got on really well over the past week, as well as Scarlet and Arabella. But they seemed to be the only good thing going for the place. Aside from them I hated my roommate, missed home desperately and as far as I was concerned nothing would change me wanting to leave.

"You make it sound like prison," Bailey laughed, chucking my bottle to the side and leaning back. Lowering down, she propped herself up in the backs of her arms.