Fantasy High

Class 9A

Elizabeth Watts stared at herself in the mirror. She pushed the loose strands of her shocking blonde hair behind her ears and centred her black and red tie, Lizzy then pulled her black blazer, with the red lined collar, over her shoulders and brushed the non-existent creases from the fabric. Lizzy picked up her new galaxy theme backpack and checked then rechecked that she had her pencil case, paper pads, lunch, and finally tucked her phone and headphones into her trouser pockets.

Starting Year 9 at a brand new school was worse than starting in Year 8. The kids had already split into their cliques and had their own group of friends and Lizzy knew it was going to be tricky to settle in quickly. Also the name of the school made her pull a face: Fantasy High, what kind of name was that for a school? Lizzy just shrugged it off, apparently being accepted to Fantasy High was a huge privilege as it was a brilliant school.

"Hurry up, Lizzy!" Her mom called from downstairs. "You don't want to be late on your first day."

"One sec," Lizzy shouted down and then muttered to herself. "Cool your beans woman."

Lizzy trudged down the stairs slowly and greeted her mom with a disgruntled expression, her mom started to reach for her phone and the young girl lunged for the gadget.

"No photos! I refuse to let you." Lizzy screeched in embarrassment.

Lizzy's mom chuckled and pouted. "But it's my ickle baby's first day at her new school." The woman reached and pinched her daughter's cheek, much to the child's disgust.

"Oh my god, don't ever talk to me like that again," Lizzy pretended to throw up and then went to stand by the front door. "Are we going or not?"

Lizzy didn't wait for her mother's response and instead went straight out onto the drive, it was cloudy day but the temperature was quite warm - Lizzy knew her blazer wouldn't be staying on that day. She heard the car beep and opened the door of her mom's new blue BMW, the leather seats greeted her when she sat down and Lizzy instantly plugged in her headphones.

The car journey to Fantasy High mostly consisted of Lizzy signing the songs Cherry Bomb by The Runaways and When I Grow Up by Garbage - her two favourite songs - at the top of her lungs despite her mom's protests and begging for her to stop. When she was done with the two songs, the car stopped by the school's front gates and Lizzy felt the first signs of anxiety settling in her stomach.

"Well go on then," her mom ushered her from the car. "Enjoy your first day. Make friends and don't get into trouble."

Lizzy rolled her eyes and waved to her mom who blew her a kiss in return, the last thing she intended to do was pick a fight and get into trouble with one of the staff. She joined the flow of students and made her way straight to the Main Office. The building seemed relatively new, pale bricks and large windows that seemed iridescent in the sunlight, the doors to the building were automatic and glass - Lizzy was careful with touching things, she didn't want to leave fingerprints and make an enemy of the cleaning staff.

Lizzy walked over the carpeted floor and looked at all the pictures of the past Year 11s, they all looked so smart in their uniforms. There were signs on the walls, directing students to the necessary blocks, which left Lizzy thinking that the school was quite large. Brilliant. As she approached the Main Office, blocked off by a glass screen and a jutting out wooden wall, Lizzy shuffled up to the old woman with horn-rimmed glasses perched on her nose and tried to catch her attention without touching the glass. The woman looked up, her wrinkled face breaking into a kind smile and her rolled curls bouncing happily, she pushed the button for the intercom.

"Hello dear," she smiled, Lizzy wondered if her teeth were dentures. "Are you Elizabeth Watts?"

"Yes ma'am," Lizzy said shakily. "I'm not sure what I'm doing."

The old receptionist laughed heartily. "Don't worry, I'll take you to your first lesson and explain everything here." The sound of a printer whirred to life and Lizzy saw several A4 sheets being printed with something on. "So you're G and T then..."

"It's not the alcoholic drink I'd compare myself to but okay," Lizzy shrugged. "I'll be a G and T."

"Oh no, silly," the receptionist laughed. "G and T stands for Gifted and Talent, it's for all the brighter children."

"Oh right." Lizzy felt her cheeks heating up.

"Did you not have that at your old school?"

Lizzy shook her head. "We were just called the Nerds."

There was the sound of tapping on a keyboard. "I see you're in Class 9A...interesting."

Lizzy was suddenly worried. "Is that bad?"

"No, it's very good," the receptionist wasn't convincing. "It's the brightest class in Year 9."

The receptionist pulled the papers from the printer and handed them to Lizzy, it was her timetable and a map of the school - both essential and handy.

"If you orientate the map so the insignia is always in the left hand corner, you should be fine," the receptionist tapped the paper to show and then handed Lizzy a list of handwritten words. "As you're in Class 9A, you will quickly discover that everyone in there is slightly...peculiar. I recommend that you don't say or do any of these things in the class."

Lizzy looked at the small list, the don't's of Class 9A were: say the words patriotism, money, science, archery, and books, and: touch Bruce's chemistry kit, Loki's hair, Thor's hammer, and Draco in general. Lizzy thought all the things were particularly strange and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you pulling my leg?" She asked.

The receptionist didn't reply and got up from her chair, she walked out of the office and glanced at Lizzy's timetable.

"Physics first with Mr Anderson," the receptionist smiled. "You'll hear mostly from the Doctor and his friend, the Master, they are huge physics fans."

"The Doctor and the Master?" Lizzy giggled. "What strange names."

"Don't ask," the receptionist advised. "Just wait until you meet Thor and Loki."

Lizzy thought those names were even weirder. As the two walked through the halls and corridors, Lizzy looked at the list of teachers she had. Physics was taught by Mr Anderson, Chemistry by Mr Snape, Biology was shared by Ms Sprout and Dr Connors, English was taken by Mr Spock, Languages by Miss Uhura, P.E. was taught by Mr Logan, Maths was done with Mr Summers, the DT and Art lessons were taken by Miss Monroe, IT was done by Mr Chekov, Music by Mr Flitwick, and the Citizenship subjects were taught by Ms McGonagall. It was a very spread out timetable.

"Here we are," the receptionist smiled. "Physics with Mr Anderson. Have a good day Elizabeth."

"Aren't you going to introduce me to the teacher?" Lizzy squeaked nervously.

"It's Mr Anderson." The receptionist said in a 'duh' tone and hurried off, leaving Lizzy with the thought that Mr Anderson wasn't Staff Member of the Year.

Sighing nervously, Lizzy reached for the door handle, peeking through the small window in the door first, and opening the door. The classroom door must've been acting as some sort of noise barrier because as soon as the door moved away from the frame, the noise of shouting, shrieking, and yelling nearly swept the new student off of her feet.