That evening I joined Madison to go down to the meal hall. I stood in the cafeteria doorway and thought back to what I would be seeing if I was still at my high school. There would be long tables with sticky surfaces, the sound of unrecognizable food being slopped onto the somewhat unsanitary plates, the smell of disgusting body odor, then of course the different cliques from jocks to the artsy kids all sitting at their silently claimed tables.
But this cafeteria was a whole different story. I don’t even know if it’s really worthy of the title cafeteria, it’s more like a banquet room. The tables here were covered by silky white table cloths, with tall candles scattered across the center of them. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, sending dancing light patterns onto the walls. The cushioned chairs were neatly tucked into the tables when everyone was finished, something that I also never saw at my high school. All the girls strangely acted in a very similar way. There was no one that screamed nerd, or even popular, they were all….the same. I’ve never seen anything like this before, it was almost unnatural. But one thing was for sure, it was definitely unnerving.
“Hi, Victoria,” I turned around to see a random girl walk by me and smile.
“Who was she?” I asked Madison.
She didn’t lift up her head to look at the girl. “Lily,” she replied.
“How does she know my name?” I looked back to the girl and tilted my head to the side.
Victoria set her plate down in front of a salad bar. “Everyone knows one another's name here. We are all friends.”
“Oh, come one. You can’t be friends with everyone! There must be someone you don’t like,” I objected.
“No,” she answered quickly.
“There wasn’t even a time that a girl, wore the same shirt as you, and you got mad?” I said while filling my plate with salad.
“I’d compliment her on her shirt, just as any polite girl would.” she smiled.
“This place is too weird…” I whispered to myself so no one could hear.
I ate my dinner in silence while making judgements in my head. I found out fast that Madison isn’t like the girls I used to hang out with back home. My friends and I used to joke around and poke good humored fun at people. Well, maybe to them it wouldn’t be “good humored”, but for us it was. I tried it with Madison today. I saw a girl walk by with these bizarre kind of heels on and I said “Oh my God, look at her shoes,” and if I was with my friends they would reply with something like “I know right, what was she thinking?” But Madison just smiled and said “They’re lovely.” Lovely? Who even says that anymore?
__________________________________________________________________________
The night seemed to drag on until it was finally time for bed. I slipped into my pajamas and brushed my teeth faster than I ever have in my whole entire life, just so I could pretend to be sleeping by the time Madison was done in the bathroom. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to her; I’ve just had enough of this bizarreness for one day. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be used to this place. I covered my mouth with my hand and suppressed a laugh, who am I trying to kid?
It seemed like I was only asleep for a couple of hours before my alarm went off the next morning, probably because I did only sleep a couple of hours. A new bed, new room, new town, and a stranger sleeping across the room from me I guess was all too much to think about.
I rolled over and shut off the alarm on the clock that was flashing 9 a.m. I felt my eyes still heavy, anything that was before 11 a.m. was early for me. My eyes flickered to across the room where Madison was already dressed and ready for the day.
“Morning!” She chirped, reminding me of the annoying birds that perch outside of your window in the summertime and won’t stop chirping until you wake up.
I sat up and stretched, “Morning.”
“I’m going to get some delightful breakfast, would you like to join me?”
I looked down at my flannel pyjama pants and oversized t-shirt. “No, that’s okay. I’ll eat later.” I swear there is something wrong with this girl, the rest of my classmates, and this entire stupid stuffy boarding school!
She smiled and left the room as I rolled out of my bed. It was Monday, which means that I have history, literature, and etiquette today. This should be interesting.
I did the same routine I would do getting ready for school back home. Get dressed, put on makeup, and do my hair. Luckily my hair is naturally wavy, so it doesn’t take that long to fix it up. After I was satisfied with my appearance I grabbed my phone to look at the time, and my eyes grew wide. 9:45! My class starts in 15 minutes and I still need to remember how to get there. I quickly grabbed the books that were given to me yesterday and dashed out of the door.
I held the map in front of me and tried to remember where Madison said the building was. Oh! It was just around this corne—
My books were no longer in my arms; they were falling to the ground in a ‘thud’, as my body collided with another.
“Shit!” I said out of habit, “I’m so sorry.” I bent down to begin to collect my books when I noticed the shoes in front of me didn’t belong to a girl.
My eyes slowly trailed up the tall figure until my eyes locked with the eyes of no other than one Rex Worden.
He gave a low chuckle, “You must be new.” He bent down to become eye level with me, “Hi, I’m Rex, and you are?” his eyes narrowed.
“However could you tell?” I asked innocently, using my best sweet country accent. “I’m Tori.”
He picked up my etiquette book and smirked.
“Shut up.” I warned.
He put his hands up in surrender, “I never said anything.”
“You were sure thinking something.”
He frowned, “Good luck in the class, that’s all.”
He handed me the book and turned to walk away, I ran after him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked catching up to him. “You don’t think I can pass the class?” I was looking for a challenge.
“No, you’ll pass. Just because of the fact they won’t let you fail.”
“What?” I questioned.
“They have their ways of getting girls like you thirsty for knowledge.”
I was about to ask ‘What?’ one more time before he shook his head, “Never mind, just get to class.”
I think going to an all-girls school must have messed with his head, because right now he wasn’t making any sense.
I glared at him one more time before turning on my heel and continuing my way to class. I walked in the door just about fifteen minutes late. When I first stepped foot into the classroom all eyes were focused in my direction. I lowered my head and walked to the back row of the room where there was nobody sitting, and set my books down on the nice dark oak desk. What kind of school is this? How can they afford such nice crap, when my old school still had desks from the 80's?
“Victoria,” the teacher, Mrs. Munroe, stated waiting for me to look up. “That’s not a way to make a first impression. Now what’s one of the rules here girls?”
“Prompt is polite,” they all spoke at once.
Creepy.
“Yes, so consider this your first warning Victoria.”
I nodded my head in agreement and opened my notebook. This was literature class? I glanced around the room to see my new classmates. They all were staring ahead of them at the whiteboard, writing notes as the teacher spoke. This was unusual. In a typical classroom, someone is always talking. Whether it’s a little whisper, or notes being passed around. We’re teenagers; we can’t sit in silence for an entire lecture.
I pulled myself out of my thoughts when I realized that we were now reading a passage out of one of the textbooks. I missed what page Mrs. Munroe said to turn to so I leaned forward and tapped the girl’s shoulder who was sitting in front of me.
“Hey, what page are we on?”
She didn’t even flinch.
I tapped her shoulder a second time. “Could you tell me what page we’re on?” I spoke a little louder this time.
Mrs. Munroe stopped reading. “Do you have something you would enjoy sharing with all of us, Victoria?”
“I do, actually,” I snapped, directing my attention back to the girl in front of me. “Why won’t you answer my question?
“She was not given permission to speak, and neither were you. Interrupting class time is your second warning. Please, come with me.” I gathered my stuff back into my arms and followed her out of the classroom.
I sighed loudly. Not even in class for a whole ten minutes and I was already on my way to the head mistress’s office. When I got to Mrs.Worden’s office, she was sitting in her chair, just like when I met her yesterday. The same overwhelming scent of perfume filled my lungs. It smelt sweet, like a blend of wildflowers were crushed together into a bottle, creating the most suffocating and annoying smell possible
“Hello, Victoria. I figured I would be seeing you here shortly.”
So she expected me to get into trouble?
“Please take a seat.”
“I’d rather stand,” I replied, a bit of bitterness hanging in my voice. My tone seemed to cause the whole room to darken. Even her face which, never really seemed as nice as it did fake, turned a meaner shade.
“Here, well at least you can have a drink of water.” She eyed the tall water cooler that was beside on of the bookshelves.
“I’m not really thirsty.”
“Thirsty or not, a healthy lady needs to stay refreshed.”
Her eyes locked on mine and her face was stern. I didn’t know not taking a drink of water could make a woman so angry. I slowly walked towards the cooler, taking a Styrofoam cup out of the holder and pressed down on the tap as water filled the cup. She was watching me the entire time; I could feel her eyes like daggers on my back.
When my cup was filled there was a knock at the door. Rex walks without time for Mrs. Worden to say she was busy and not to come in to her office. He seemed shocked to see me standing there, like he was surprised I was in trouble already.
“Rex, can’t you see darling that I am in the middle of something rather important?” Mrs. Worden gritted through her teeth in the most polite way possible.
I drew the cup of water up to my lips.
“Sorry, I just need you to sign this mother.”
He briskly walked past me. His arm bumped against mine, causing water to splash all over me.
“Seriously?!” I say looking down at my now soaked shirt.
“Inside voice, Victoria,” Mrs. Worden's voice boomed over to me. It sounded colder and crueler than I had ever heard it before.
“You need to start watching where you’re going.” I spat and stormed out of the room.
I heard footsteps behind me once I got outside the suffocating office, I knew who it was, and I spun around instantly, not wanting to miss a second of my pounce.
“Rex! What the hell was that?”
He glanced around as if he was expecting someone to have followed him out of the office.
“Would you keep your voice down!” He snapped, and then a look of regret flashed over his face. “It’s just that water tastes terrible. I didn’t want you to have to drink it, or worse spit it everywhere.”
“At least if I had spit it, I wouldn’t have got it all down the front of my shirt.”
He sighed and mumbled something to himself.
“What?”
He scratched the back of his head. “Nothing, my mom just wanted to see you again since you stormed out before you had the chance to finish your conversation."
Oh. I forgot about that. She’s probably fuming. I press my lips in a tight line and turn to walk away.
“See you around, Tori.”
I looked behind me to see a friendly smile spread over his lips. What’s up with this guy?