Welcome to Ivy Rowe

Chapter Ten

‘I honestly didn’t mean to-’

‘Oh whatever. What did you want?’ Alice snapped out, interrupting me mid apology.

‘I was just lost but... If you don’t want to-’

‘SHUT UP!’ she screamed suddenly, and I snapped my mouth shut in shock. ‘For god’s sake – What. Did. You. Want?’

I made a face, shocked at her anger, but continued. ‘Sorry. Actually, I can find it on my own, never mind.’

Alice looked ready to kill. ‘I don’t think so, Eve. You called me so I will show you the way.’

I shuddered slightly ad her sinister tone of voice. ‘I’m fine-’

‘-No,’ she interrupted. ‘I don’t mind.’ Her voice turned wooden, and I was reminded of the toneless voices that the children in the orphanage used when they played games about zombies.

‘Alice… are you ok?’

Her blank eyes trailed over me dismissively, before she focused on the approaching doors. ‘’Course. Why wouldn’t I be?’

I shrugged, not missing the hesitation. ‘No reason. It’s just…’ I stared at my feet, which were walking so fast to catch up that they were almost blurred.

‘Just what?’ she snapped,

‘I dunno, you seem upset.’ I shrugged, deciding to cut to the chase. She gave me a hard glare, and I returned it with a timid smile.

She scowled at me before looking away. ‘I’m not, so forget it. Anyway, we’re here. The Wells canteen.’ I narrowed my eyes at her blatant change of subject but decided to let it go.

‘Thanks.’ I snapped, frustrated by her stubbornness. As I stepped towards the wide open doors, I felt a hand tug me back.

‘Eve.’ I turn around to see Alice’s carefully neutral face. ‘I’m… sorry… I…’

I waited patiently for her to finish,

‘I am just being called all the time and it’s… exhausting…’

I raised my eyebrows, I don’t know how she made those copies of herself disappear and appear but the whole ‘magic’ thing is getting a bit boring. Hence why I didn’t even bat an eyelid when they appeared.

‘It’s ok. I know I’m new and all, but if you want to talk to me… when you’re not so… pissy then, go ahead.’ My voice was still slightly cold but I gave her a polite smile.

Alice nodded, never letting her clear blue eyes off mine, and, with another ‘pop’, was gone, leaving me staring at a blank white wall. I quickly turned to the double doors again and walked through.

As soon as I stepped thr0ugh the doorway, my name was called from two different sides of the room, and I looked around wildly, recognising Ember and Alice, the former was waving enthusiastically, and whilst (the original?) Alice placed her head in her hands, in either exhaustion or embarrassment, and Simona, who was sitting with a group of black haired teenagers, who all looked like poster children for ‘emo’.

Hmm, depressed and poetic or impossibly perky and moody.

Tough decision.

I hoisted my bag onto my shoulder higher and made my way to the canteen queue, deciding to deal with the crazies later.

My hands reached out for a blue tray from the pile and moved on, ignoring the limp, dead looking lettuce and cabbage in the salad booth, instead stopping at the hot food area, a relieved smile growing on my face as I noticed the reassuringly normal-looking bowls of curry on the counters. I reached out, picking one up and dropping it onto my tray.

‘Mmm, that smells good!’ a voice commented appreciatively. ‘Could you get a bowl for me?’   

I started, causing  my hand to jolt the curry and splash the chrome surface, and my eyes flicked around the room trying to find the source of the comment, before landing on a short, girl with a wide smile, who’s height (or lack, thereof) had meant that I had missed her  the first time I had scanned the room.

‘Me?’ I asked, surprised.

The small girl nodded, causing her red tipped hair to tickle the shoulders of her grey cardigan – the uniform. ‘Yep. I can’t reach over the stupid glass barrier thing.’

She narrowed her eyes at me as I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. ‘Oi. Not a peep from you or I’ll turn you into a football.’ She accused, though her eyes sparkled good-humouredly.

I raised my eyebrows, ‘You can do that?’ I asked, almost sarcastically, reaching over for another bowl of curry.

She pushed her tray forward for me to drop the white porcelain bowl onto it. ‘I wish,’ she scoffed, and plopped a spoon onto the tray, followed by a paper napkin and some ketchup, which I wrinkled my nose at. ‘How good do you think I am?’

I shrugged defensively, ‘I’m new to this, ok?’ I surprised myself by saying. It made me sound like I … believed in magic.

Her shrewd eyes picked up my uncertainty and she nudged me, reminding me that I was next to pay for my meal, and I quickly pulled out a five pound note from the chest pocket of white shirt and gave it to the skinny, soggy looking canteen worker, whose name badge said, ‘Clarisse Crumplebottom’. Her greasy fingers grabbed the money from me and stuffed it into the till, which spat the change, a strangely human action, into her outstretched hands.

I shuddered slightly as I watched her pat the machine lovingly, leaving one oily and smudged handprint among others.

 ‘Thank you.’ I said politely, collecting my damp change and dropping it reluctantly back into my pocket. She grimaced and flinched away from me, and I hastily shifted away from her.

The mysterious girl I had been talking to gave me a sympathetic glance as I waited for her by the end of the line.

‘Yeah, she’s really creepy, apparently she never talks to people, and her and the till have some kind of ‘romance’ thing going on…

I raised my eyebrows but didn’t reply, so she continued. ‘When she was hired, she replaced the old one with hers.’ She giggled, ‘He’s called Geryn.’

‘Speaking of names,’ she added thoughtfully, ‘I’m Laura Wicky.’

‘Eve Tailor.’ I said, before shrugging resignedly as I saw Simona stand up from her table in the corner of my eye, ‘Well, I’ve kind of got to go now…’ 

So, already put in the first two descriptions! I know I said first come first served, but everyone who's posted their description will be added in the next chapter (or, possibly the one after that :/ ) sooo... look out for them! :)

And to make up for the fact that I didn't add your description in this chapter, I'll be posting the next one reasonably quickly so... yeah! 

Sorry again!