dollhouse

three

MAYA

Opening the doors of hell, I entered. I walked down the hallway with a perfect posture as my hips swayed perfectly. The loud noise from my stiletto heels made everybody turn their heads and lay eyes on me. Ignoring the stares, I kept my face as emotionless as possible, the same face I put on every day.

The smell of the girls' different perfumes lingered through the air around me, making me feel slightly dizzy from the chemicals entering my body. Mentally cringing at their unnatural scent, I headed towards my locker. Conversations between the people by the lockers continued as I walked past them.

" Maya, right?" a sweet, angelic voice appeared behind my locker door.

I furrowed my eyebrows, not recognizing the voice at all. I swiftly took my books out and closed the locker door, facing the person whose voice I do not know.

" Right. Riley?" I asked back, immediately recognizing her as I looked at her, remembering last night's dinner.

She immediately nodded with the perky smile of hers. Wow, Coen is going to go crazy for her. Asking me to check her classes as she handed me her schedule, I agreed, knowing that I had to be perfectly nice. I looked through the classes she had every day, noticing that she had every class with me. Wow, a coincidence that was super cliché. Disgusting.

" Well, we do not have a plot twist because looks like you will be spending your years of education with me," I smiled as I handed Riley her schedule back.

As she looked at her schedule one last time, I headed towards class as I told her to follow me to the first class of the day. Riley immediately trailed behind me, catching up with her long legs. Hearing her heels click against the tile floors as they match with mine, making us walk in sync makes me mentally cringe.

This is all just too perfect.

Once we reached the doors of Criminal Defense, I stopped myself from opening it as I remembered something- or someone. I rotated my torso to face Riley, who had her eyebrows raised and her bottom lip sticking out, obviously confused as to why I stopped the both of us from entering.

" Where's your brother?" I asked.

She stuck out her bottom lip further while looking up before answering me.

" He doesn't study law. Instead, he studies at Medical school," she explained.

Medical school, probably Vedas Medical School- the school next to us. I rolled my eyes up, nodding in understanding. I turned my torso back around as I opened the door to see almost everybody seated down. Since it was just a few weeks into school, most do not know where their assigned seats were despite the list being pinned on the notice board at the front.

" Your assigned seat is on the list there," I pointed towards the notice board, looking over my shoulder to see Riley nodding.

I started walking towards my seat, which was the seventh row up. Mentally groaning, I kept my back straight as I took each step with grace. People who were already seated along the stairs glued their eyes on me as I just looked ahead, where I was supposed to look at. While straining my legs to get to my seats in these damn fucking stilettos, I heard somebody gleefully climbing up the stairs from behind me. Curious, I turned around to see who it was.

" What are you so excited about?" I asked the smiling puppy below me.

" I'm seated right next to you! I know, super cliché," Riley explained, still having that smile that would hurt my jaw in a second if I had it on.

I smiled at my sweet neighbor being so excited with so much adrenaline in her. I turned back around, continuing to hurt my thighs by walking up 34 fifteen centimeter steps with eight-inch stilettos on. Why eight-inch? So that I can be perfectly tall along with the people here. Curse my mother for being so short and curse her DNA that had to be a part of my body cells.

Soon enough, Riley and I had managed to take our seats by the time everybody had already settled down, getting ready for their first lesson of the day. Second by second, the room began to get quieter as I placed my books on the desk. It became so quiet, I could hear a pair of oxfords shoes walking towards the front desk. Wait. Ms. Kossal doesn't wear oxfords.

I tore my eyes away from my book and looked up, my eye went wide open when I realized who it was.

" Is that-" I stopped, allowing Riley to continue my sentence.

" Yes," she gulped.

After our small conversation, the only thing that could be heard in the room was the chalk being dragged against the chalkboard by the teacher as he wrote his name on it. Turning around, he placed the chalk on his desk as he looked up at us.

" My name is Mr. Matthews and welcome to Criminal Defence," he smirked.