City Girl

The Meeting

City Girl

Chapter 1

Day 1: The Meeting

My life was that of an ordinary American teenager. That is until my part-time English dad decided to become a full-time father. He plucked me from my coastal North Carolina town, and plopped me in the bustling city of London. The resulting story is how I became a City girl.

...

Oh! And did I mention that the Skandar Keynes played a role in my transformation?

XXX

I stood in an unfamiliar hallway confused and lost as I turned the hand drawn map another ninety degrees. It made no more sense to me than it did the other three ways I tried reading it. I huffed in frustration, blowing a clump of hair out of my face as I did so. Leave it to me get lost in a school on my first day.

"Can I help you?" someone asked.

"Oh yes, please. I..." I finally looked up from my map to see who had so graciously decided to help, and I stopped short in my request. It was him! Skandar Keynes was standing just before me looking as cute as ever with his hands in his pockets. In the back of my mind I knew he went to school here, but I never thought to imagine that I would actually be presented with an opportunity to speak with him... well, at least not so soon.

Ok girl, just play it cool, I told myself. Don't freak on him. He's just a boy, and you know how to handle boys... sort of . Okay, so not really, but I'm gonna fake it.

"I'm trying to find the Headmaster's study, but I seem to have come in a different door because this makes absolutely no sense to me." Wow! My voice didn't crack or squeak at all. Awesome. Maybe I could do this.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Gosh, his accent was even nicer in person.

"Hmm, I wonder what gave that away." My "accent," on the other hand, I was certain wouldn't be as endearing; American accents never sounded as nice as English ones.

"Oh it was the clothes, definitely," he replied without missing a beat.

I grimaced uncontrollably. "I am all for the reduction of bullying in schools for the simple fact that some kid doesn't have the latest fashion trend so long as the resulting school uniform is still somewhat cute. But this... this sweater is two sizes too big and it's the smallest they offer. All it successfully does is make me look frumpy."

It's true. The mandated uniform at the all-girls school I now attended was a navy and red plaid skirt (or khaki pants when it gets cold) with a navy sweater-it was really more of a sweatshirt-that was embossed with the school's coat of arms and motto over the left shoulder. The skirt wasn't bad on its own, but the sweater was a nightmare on Elm Street. However, I quickly glanced over Skandar's attire, the uniform at the corresponding boy's school...well, who doesn't like a good looking boy in a collared shirt and tie with a deep navy blazer? It's needless to say that Skandar wore his uniform to perfection.

"I must admit," Skandar said, drawing me from my admiration. "I'm not up to date on the latest fashion terminology, so I'm not exactly certain what 'frumpy' means in that context, but I think I would have to disagree."

Oh my God is good. Did he just compliment me? I'm pretty sure he just complimented me. But the better question would be did he mean to?