Death to Witches

School Sheep

We walked to school along an old dirt road surrounded by farmland with gnarled twisted trees swaying in the morning wind. I turned to Sammy, "Look at the marks in the road? Do you still think they use horse and cart?"

"Could be." she said "Anaeze messaged me last night that he couldn't find a Wikipedia page about this place."

"Damn this place is off the map. At least the school doesn't demand uniforms." I replied.

I looked through the heavy rain ahead and spied an old woman walking up the road towards us. Her eyes gray like the clouds above our heads and as she got close I could count the hairs on her fat warts. We both fell silent stepping out of the way, she past by tapping her gnarled white walking stick. Before walking away she stopped in front of us sniffing the air and breathing in a heavy wheeze. When she spoke we covered our noses smelling a foul fish odour coming from her mouth. "I cannae see ye bit ah kin reek yer." she said.  She spat a thick brown glob of phlegm into my converse shoes. I rubbed my shoes onto the grass before running after Sammy who had fled towards the school in the distance.

In Tooting our school had three buildings controlled by an army of teachers. Yet in Rid Loch it was one building with four basic classrooms. I tucked my hands in my sleeves and put up my hood trying to hide from the glances of our new classmates as we walked in. We stood out in our H&M, as the others wore matching plain beige dresses, 'so much for a uniform free school'  I thought' They all dress the same anyway.' 

When we entered our classroom the other students were already sat at their desks staring silent towards a black chalk board. Sammy sat in the back row and I nestled myself in the empty desk in front of her. Everything inside the classroom was made of wood, the only time I had seen a classroom like this was in the old films based on a Dickens novel. 

Our teacher walked in with a waxy smile and a plain brown wool dress, "Guid mornin' children." She sang "Guid mornin' Mrs Lockhart" said the class in unison. I felt my phone nudge on my lap and I glanced down for a second to see a message appear:

xXSammygirlXx creepy :s

Mrs Lockhart scratched on the chalkboard the day's lessons. "The classes today ur, maths, crafts n' nature studies." She stared at us, "bit first let's meet these ootsiders."

Me and Sammy stood up the only sound were our chairs screeching against the wooden floor. We waved saying hello to our new classmates but only blank faces stared back. They look at us as you would at an animal in the zoo. I sat back down hiding my hands in my sleeves trying to shrink into my seat so not to draw attention to myself.

This whole school day was like attending primary school again. The whole experience made my stomach churn with every sweet shrilled patronizing tone from our new teacher as she sang through her basic lesson plan. In maths we where the stars of the class. Nailing every maths question and taking in a good haul of boiled sweets for correct answers. Okay so my stomach might have been churning from all the sugar, but that sick smile of hers wasn't helping.

Yet the day got worse when we entered our nature studies. We failed to answer most questions as they were not down to the science but the 'spirit of nature'. When the teacher had her back turned I messaged Sammy on my phone.

Junebug hippy cult?

xXSammygirlXx I'm going for the GCSE in peace and love lol.

Art class was a disaster, no one would team up with us and we crafted our twig men by ourselves. We laughed snapping twigs and tangling ourselves in the rainbow coloured wool. Yet across the room someone hissed, 'outsiders' and 'weirdo doubles.' I guess they hadn't had twins here before. Making new friends isn't going to be easy. I let my hair cover my face to hide from the stares. Spotting this Sammy reached out and tucked my hair back behind my ears.