Rocky Green High school is situated on Chambers Street on the island of Manhattan. The school is huge and is made up of 10 blocks. Each block has 5 sections, and each section has 5 rooms. It has a total of 1145 students in 7 years, including 11th and 12th grade. Compared to my last school, this school seems like a city. The entire population of the school seems to move like a snake and there are 10 different buses going to 10 different sections of the island all which stay parked in the huge car park by the main block (M) which is a sea of cars. Taxis come and go from the school gates and parent's cars almost crash into each other. Waves of people who have walked to school are funneled through the pedestrian gates. The school seems to be like a swarm of bees, with the headmaster being the queen bee, utterly and completely in control.
I check my watch. 8:55. Ignoring my swirling and churning stomach, I wave goodbye to Harriet and Jamie. Before I leave, Harriet tells me that our homeroom is M42 and our tutor is Mrs Leigh. I nod and make my way towards the staff section of the school. My mouth feels dry and I feel my legs shaking slightly. I have absolutely no idea what Mr James is going to ask me. Will he ask me about my personal school experiences or my other schools as a whole? Will he ask me about my parents, and why I keep moving schools? Will he say this is unhealthy? All these thoughts swirl inside my head as I walk, making me feel dizzy. This is not a new feeling, however it is never a pleasant one. Meeting with the headmaster always makes you feel slightly inferior to him and the way they talk... well. Let's just say that most of the headmaster's I've had experience of have never been good.
I reach the front door and suddenly remember that I'm not seeing the headmaster yet. A wave of relief floods over my body and I walk towards the room marked "Reception". I open the door. The room is filled with trophies and certificates. A large welcome TV announces "Welcome to Rocky Green High School- Learning together to achieve" with pictures of science labs, a library and squash court and a home economics room. Big squashy sofas adorn the walls and large newspapers, including the school branded newspaper "Rocky Road" cover the table. I pick a copy up. The headline reads "Sara wins gold at US Skeleton Championships" and shows a picture of a 9th grader with a arrogant and smug face clutching a gold medal. I groan. I would not like to meet this Sara girl, whoever she is.
The door to the reception opens again and a girl, who I can tell at once is incredibly arrogant, comes in. She is wearing a badge which reads "Head Girl". She sees me and walks over to me with an aura of self-interest. She looks at me, wrinkles her nose and produces a piece of paper from her pocket and reads: "Welcome to Rocky Green High School. I am Ellie Cork and I am Head Girl. Along with Head Boy Rob Wilding, we are in charge of running the student magazine, editing the school newspaper and giving tours around the school." She puts the piece of paper back in her pocket, takes my arm, pulls me up and signals toward the door. I oblige, taken aback by her pompous manner.
Ellie leads me through the staff block pointing out the finance office, staff room and all the different subject offices. She also shows me the main hall, which "can seat the whole school". She appears to be like a director in a movie, constantly pointing things out or dropping in useless bits of information that doesn't help me at all. All I do is nod and then she's off onto the next thing. As if this wasn't enough she is constantly talking about "public speeches" and "the lacrosse team". As if I'd want to do any of those things! Finally, we're out of the staff block and heading towards the main block, which is where maths and English take place. The block has 3 stories, with two of the stories being split into Maths and English rooms. The rooms are fairly boring, with plain whiteboards and ordinary desks. In Maths rooms, there are huge boxes filled with compasses and protractors and a mountain of squared, lined and graph paper at the back of the room. In English, there are piles of books, revision guides and lined paper at the back plus stupid quotes about reading and English.
Obviously fed up with English, Ellie leads me towards the student block, which contains everything a student might need. There are revision rooms, a library, the SVC (Student Voice Committee) meeting rooms, the newspaper and magazine editorial rooms, computer rooms, relax rooms, the 11th and 12th grade study centre and the cantine. Ellie obviously cares much more about this block, because she starts to rant on about "the time and energy one needs to run a business, even at school scale". She indicates to the piles of sign up sheets for "Charleston Workshops" to "Make-your-own typewriter club". My head is a blur of possibilities and opportunities. We leave the student block and visit Science, in which bangs, explosions, teacher's swearing and screams of 6th graders are considered the norm, and humanities, in which terrifying ex-politicians, teachers that have monotonous voices and fun excitable old teachers roam. Music is just overpowering filled with tambourines, drums and out of tune violins and Drama is full of eccentric teachers who try and show the physicality of Drama by making one unfortunate child pretend to be a chicken with a broken neck. Gym, don't even get me started.
At the end of the tour, Ellie hands me a small book, titled "Student Planner" and my timetable. She tells me where Trigonometry is, then goes off towards the staff block again, obviously to talk to Mr James about how the tour went. I sigh and begin to walk towards the M block when, out of the corner of my eye, I spot Jake and his cronies sitting by a nearby tree. Terror floods over my body as I realize I am going to have to walk past them to get to Trigonometry. Taking deep breaths, I pretend they're not there and walk directly towards the main block. But no sooner as I reach the tree, the catcalling starts. Jake sits by the tree, his eyes flashing at me hungrily, looking at me like I'm some kind of meal. I start to run, away from their jeering, towards the main block, my heart pounding. The I hear Jake's voice "You can't run from me forever." and collapse on the pavement.
YOU ARE READING
The Price of Blood
VampireTwo parts. Two stories. Two points of view. Two outsiders trying to fit in in their respective worlds. One extraordinary event will bind them together. They should not be together. They should be enemies. Can they be more than friends?
