Everything

Chapter 3

A minute or so later they reached a room with a crimson door. Lucy pushed the door in and confidently stepped inside. Unwilling to seem like a complete buffoon, Jayne hurriedly followed her and looked upon her new classmates for the first time. As she covertly scanned the room, she noticed that there were about 25 kids, both boys and girls and a single empty seat at the back next to a tall girl with long, thick brown hair cascading down her back. Seemed like that was where she was going to be sitting, next to the prettiest girl in the class. Her ugly duckling next to the swan. Then as she glanced up at the walls she almost laughed out loud. Lucy was right; the interior of the room was exactly the same shade of bright red as the door. But then she noticed something else. Everyone in the room was starring at her. Squirming inside at the unwanted attention she dropped her eyes and starred at her shoes, desperately trying to remind herself of happier times, when she didn't get stared at. The volume in the room gradually lowered and then silence fell. Suddenly a sound penetrated the utter stillness of the room. "Class, I do believe that this is the new member of our group that I was telling you about. Am I right in thinking that you are Jayne McCaide?"
Jayne looked up to see who had spoken and saw a woman who looked like a cross between Lucy and the girl she was evidently meant to be sitting next to (that probably meant that it was Sophie she was going to be next to) dressed in a long flowing black skirt and a simple white blouse. Jayne merely nodded, too uncomfortable to speak. "Excellent." Said the woman. "My name is Professor Jenkins, welcome to 9C. If you take a seat at the back next to Sophie, I'm sure that she'll take you where you need to go."
Jayne nodded again and walked silently over to her new seat and slid into it. Up at the front of the room Lucy began talking about some upcoming competitions and how they could win glory for their house if they have the most participants, and of course, if they won. Jayne, however, didn't even bother listening. To her it was just the information that she didn't need to know. But when Lucy mentioned what the competitions were on, her ears pricked up. These competitions were in the most unusual things. There was a competition in wrestling, another in plant identification, one in chariot racing, one in sailing. There was only one normal one, the talent competition. But weirdly, aside from the chariot racing, they were all things that she was good at; she had many talents, although she hid them from view most of the time. She could withstand intense heat and fierce winds, she was at home with nature and could easily tell which plants were which as well as being the fastest swimmer of her age in the country. In fact she was only a second slower than the adult male world record in all events in swimming. And that was just a start. But things like sailing and wrestling she did all the time, especially in the summer. It was odd. Jayne was pulled out of her thoughts when someone said quietly to her "Hello Jayne, I'm Sophie."
Jayne turned her head to see that the girl next to her had placed her hand on her arm. "If you need any help, just ask me and I'll try and help."
"Thanks." Jayne whispered back. "I do have one question."
"Ask away." Sophie said.
"Are the competitions always that weird?"
Sophie giggled quietly. "Yep. But don't let that put you off them; they're actually really fun. The talent competition isn't your average talent show either. If you enter, you can't just do a comedy act or play some music, you have to do something unusual. Someone did snake charming once I think."
"Okaaaay. Remind me to tell my mum that I need to buy a snake for the talent show."
Sophie grinned again. "You're funny. Have you got any other questions?"
"I'm good for now thanks." Jayne turned her head away and faced the front grinning. It seemed like she had found her first proper friend.
In the few minutes that followed Jayne counted that there were 27 people in the class including her. Each of them was different in a big way but they were all very similar at the same time. Casting her mind back she realised that it was the same for everyone she had seen outside, only she hadn't noticed it then because it was on such a large scale. Tucking it away for future reference, she made a mental note to herself to remember to ask Sophie about it later. The register was taken and then the bell rang, a low clanging tone that was surprisingly quiet for a school bell. It was about 3 times quieter than the bell at her old school. Maybe she would be able to avoid bell headaches this term. At the front of the room she heard Professor Jenkins telling everyone that they were dismissed and the room was suddenly filled with the sound of chairs being scraped back and excited chatter growing louder to be heard over the din. So Jayne and Sophie's chairs joined the din and then, as one the class made their way to stream out of the door. Jayne was just about to follow when she heard Sophie asking "Jayne would you mind waiting outside the door for a moment? There's something that I have to discuss with my mum for a moment."
"Sure." Jayne replied. "One thing, do you have the same timetable as me?"
"Yep, so don't worry, I won't leave you to go wondering around the school lost." Sophie teased. "I won't be long." Then Sophie disappeared back into the classroom and shut the door behind her.