Hollow: A Fallen Angel Novel

CHAPTER VII

I woke up early Monday morning after an uneventful Sunday and a sleepless night. I had been rolling around in bed all night worried about starting school the next day.

It took me a long time to decide what to do. Do the girls wear make-up? How much is even allowed? I decided a little foundation and mascara would be okay and threw on my uniform. The blazer fit nice enough but I couldn't deny that the skirt was firstly way too long, and secondly, it looked like a sack on me.

I groaned at the thought of looking lame on my first day.

Sharon dropped me off and I stepped out the car and onto the steps of Saint Josephine's Catholic School. It looked like any other high-school with its big glass doors open to the steady stream of students flooding in. Sharon drove off and I suddenly felt naked in my new uniform.

"Alex!" a high voice cried out.

I span around and Shae ran toward me from one of the busses. Her dark hair was curled into tight ringlets and cascaded down her dark skin. She looked gorgeous as her legs loped across the yard to me. I was definitely underdressed.

"So Mr. McFarlane didn't kill you?" she giggled.

"I smiled back to her and pushed the stray hairs from my face, "nah, they were asleep when I got home."

"You're lucky," she said. "my Mum was crazy in the car. She kept screaming at us like it was out fault."

The morning bell rang out and she grabbed my arm, "c'mon we'll be late."

She dragged me up the stairs before I managed to tell her I still didn't have a timetable.

"Oh, that's cool, you'll have to go see Principle Murphy. I'll take you."

She dragged me down the hallway past the admin office to a plain wooden door that reminded me of Ms. Bernstein. I shuddered at the memory as she told me to knock and wait. She disappeared after that and left me alone in the sterile white hall of the school.

The door creaked open and a portly man came out. He was dressed well and carried an aged smile and warm eyes underneath his pale skin and balding head.

"Miss McFarlane, I'm guessing," he said and gestured me in.

His white desk was covered in papers sprawled out everywhere around his computer screen. He sat down heavy behind his desk and I noticed the old gold plaque that read "Mr. Murphy" next to a few family photos of himself and what must have been his greying wife.

I sat down opposite him and cleared my throat.

"Umm... I think it should have been Alexandra Nicolson."

He slipped on his half-glasses and hummed as he went through the papers. His eyes kept darting from my face to the papers and back to my face again making me feel like he was studying me.

"Hmm... Miss Nicolson... Oh, I see it now," he said as though a memory had suddenly reemerged from the depths of his subconscious. "It says here that Nicolson was your pre-adoptive name which was legally changed to McFarlane."

My heart sank at the thought of losing the last ounce of my identity and he must have seen it on my face.

"We can change it for you, but it would be unofficial."

"Yes, please," I smiled.

He was nice, I could feel the kindness radiating off of him and he made me feel welcome.

"It's hard starting a new school isn't it, Alexandra?" he asked with his slow intonation. "Do you prefer Alex or Alexandra?"

"Alex, please."