pirouettes and face-offs. | the next step

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          ⋆·˚ ༘ * michelle's pov : 

The bus journey I took was a long one. The whole time I tried to shake off those first day jitters. It wasn't the first time I had moved because of my Dad's job but this time it was different; We had moved all the way from London all the way to the North. The smell was different, it was almost-- fresher. The town I had moved to wasn't the nicest but it's better than sleeping rough like my brother did. The council is giving us a house anyway so we won't have to worry. 

As the bus drew nearer to the school, I checked my uniform for any stains from my breakfast and that my skirt was the appropriate length; Dad wouldn't like it if I got a detention on my first day. I looked out of the window and saw a girl about my age in the same uniform as me running towards the bus stop. As she clamoured onto the bus clumsily, I waved at her, ushering her over to the spare seat next to me. She smiled sweetly and pushed her chestnut hair out of her face and pulling her handbag up onto her shoulder whilst walking over. 

'I must look so bad, it's dead windy today.' the girl had a very different accent to mine. 'No, no! You look just fine, don't worry!' She turned around to me beaming and giggling. 'Oh my god. Are you from London? I love your accent!' I nodded bashfully. I asked the girl's name and she replied with Chloe and I told her mine. 'Is it your first day?' 'Yeah, my sister used to go here but she got suspended.' I raised my eyebrows in surprise as she nodded. 'I can tell it's your first day t--', she stopped as the stopping bell rung at our stop. 'Come on, mate. We've got to go to the Smokeshack before 8.45.' She grabbed my wrist and pulled me up and out of the bus. I looked up at the school; It was way larger than mine in London, I didn't even know how I would manage to get my way through it. I walked over to the main entrance but Chloe stopped me. 'We need to go in the West Entrance, they do bag searches in the Atrium.' I ran after her as she was speeding in front of me. 'Why?' 'Someone stabbed another kid last year, that's what Emily said.' Who the hell was Emily? I was not keeping up with anything she was saying.

The West Entrance was pretty rundown compared to the Main and I soon came to realise that the Smokeshack was the Y11's Basement Bathrooms. Chloe ran over to the mirrors as I wafted all the vape smoke away from my face. She got out what appeared to be a makeup bag out of her bag then rolled up her skirt a reasonably large amount. She put up her chestnut hair in a messy bun and lathered her cheekbones in contour then retied her tie so it was much shorter. 'What are you doing?' I asked, quizzically. 'Fitting in.' She turned around smirking. 'You'll want to put this on if you don't want to get taken the mick out off,' she said with her hand extended holding a tube of mascara, 'and roll your skirt, you look like a neek with it covering your knees.' I looked down, my eyes beginning to water. 

I walked over to the stalls, seeking out some privacy but soon realised that all the doors were taken off. I looked inside the last stall hoping there wasn't someone vaping or doing lines in it but instead saw a ginger girl kissing a much taller brunette and then switching to the dark haired boy standing next to her. After a passionate kiss she turned around, her shirt unbuttoned which revealed her lace bra as well as a tramp stamp tattoo that lay above her chest and looked me up and down. 'Do you not like girl-on-girl action or summat? You biphobic, gal?' I held my hands up in defence as she glared at me. 'Oh no! I'm a proud bisexual.' She looked me up and down once again, this time licking her lips. 'Aye well, give me a call if you ever want to shag the school skank she laughed, slipping a little note into my blazer pocket, and went back to kissing the girl.

The form time bell rang and I ran out of the bathrooms and Chloe stopped me. She rolled up my skirt just a bit and smiled reassuringly. 'Don't worry Miss Kate won't give you a detention. You are in the dance team, right?' I nodded. 'She never gives any of her dancers negatives, doesn't want us to miss rehearsal time sitting in the pastoral office.' She giggled. 'Come on we need to get to the East Side before ten to.' We then started to run down the corridor laughing. Maybe life here wouldn't be too bad.

---

Me and Chloe were only two minutes late to form and there were only a few people in the form. Our form tutor and the dance troupe leader, Miss Kate, had already put up a seating plan on the board and me and Chloe were sat on opposite ends of the classroom. She was sitting next to a girl named Giselle near the front and I was sitting at the back of the class next to a girl named Emily, it must have been the girl who Chloe was talking about before.