Wesson Hills. I was actually going. I still could not believe that my parents were letting me go to a boarding school far far away from home. Distancewise, it wasn't that bad, just a thirteen hour drive or so. But I mean atleast thirteen hours away from my parents. at all times? No weekends or anything. This was going to be interesting.
Okay, so I'm guessing it's time for a little recap. My name is Tara Reed. I grew up in a little town in middle Mississippi, about twenty minutes away from its capital. I have made straight As my entire life. We're liberal, with conservative values. Being liberal, yeah- that's very rare for the deep south. and now...I was getting out of this hellhole. Let me tell you how. After making good grades, going to nationals for math and science, and scoring a 36 (perfecto!) on the ACT, I started getting flyers from boarding schools all over the country. I took the test required to switch into an independent school (private) aced it, and sent out for scholarships. After getting back the replies from the schools, much diminished due to the request for a scholarship, I weighed the pros and cons of each and made my pick. I had a full scholarship to Wesson Hills, the equivalent of $40,000. And I was going. I mean, my family is situated in the upper middle class with my dad as an anesthesiologist and a stay-at-home mom, but reallly? 40,000 was a bit much with an older brother in college. So yeah, I was naturally a little nervous the day I was taking my flight to my new school.
My parents smiled sadly at me as I dragged my suitcase towards the gate for my flight. I was past the point they could have access to me, or they would have been on top of me giving me bear hugs and kisses making me promise to write and not do anything bad. I waved and waved at them at the turning corner, the point beyond which, I wouldn't see them for a while. They waved back smiling and blowing kisses. I already missed them. The woman behind me shoved me around the corner, and then..they were gone.
I sighed as I got into the airplane. I plugged in my iphone, a going away present (along with a pretty little macbook), and leaned back to fall asleep, and hope for the best. It was only the third week of August, and school started the first week of September. The whole freshman year had to arrive early for "get to know eachother" activities. Since it was a secondary school, all of the ninth graders were new arrivals. This did make me feel little better. I looked at the map section of the T.V. on the back of the chair in front of me. Omigod. we were practically there. better pop some gum in.
After I got off of my plane, I followed the crowd and signs to the main terminal of the airport. Glancing around I saw a chubby woman with blonde hair and dark roots was holding a sign with my name on it. I ran towards her.
"Hi, I'm Tara," I said
"Oh! Hi Tara. I'm Gina. What a pretty girl. Now we've got a van waiting for us outside. Do you need to get your luggage from baggage claim?" she asked.
I nodded my head. I had about four hot pink bags of various sizes. The Diane Von Furstenburg "hearts" set.
We went to pick up my bags, put them on a cart and lugged them outside. Apparently I hadn't been the only student arriving today I noticed as I saw a boy and a man piling in a northface backpack and an enormous dark blue and orange Tommyhilfiger suitcase. The guy stepped out from behind the van. He was a few inches taller than me with sandy colored hair that seemed to keep falling in his dark brown eyes. He had well defined features with thin pink lips, and he was wearing a dark brown Hollister t-shirt with a pair of stonewashed jeans. The overall effect was pretty good.
"Okay kids, just pile in the car. Tara, this is Jesse. Jesse, Tara," said the man who'd been helping Jesse put his suitcase in the van.
Jesse looked at the open door, then looked at me. "Ladies first," he said, gesturing at the door with his hand and looking me up and down. I SO did not feel like being checked out by some random stranger, but since I'd done it to him I let it pass and scrambled into the van.
After both Jesse and I were safely buckled in, we hit the road. We silently watched the passing scenery and life as we drove through the town that was to be our home for the next year--probably four years.
"So..are you from around here?" I asked. Well, now that was a pretty stupid question. He flew in didn't he?
"No, I'm from Chicago, but my mom's friend was sending her son here, so, of course, I had to go here too," he said, quite unhappily. Oh, so he probably came from money.
"Oh well, atleast you'll know someone here already," I said in a somewhat consolatory manner, or so I thought.
"Dude, I fuckin' hate that kid. He's a fucked up piece of shit," he said again in an angry voice. His eyes scrunched together in fury. Wow, profane much?
"Oh," was all I could think of saying. We drove on in silence for a bit.
"So, um, what about you?" Jesse asked after a few minutes, he seemed to have regained his composure and seemed geniunely interested. So I told him, including the fact I was here on a scholarship. I tried to say it in a bold manner, to drive away any uncalled for attention towards it. If the kid made fun of it Fuck him as he'd say and I'd never talk to him again.
But he didn't.
We began to talk about home. and town. just basically comparing our lifestyles, homes, families. He came from a family background similar to mine. Townwise, well, he lived in Chicago..so yeah. His family seemed pretty nice. The way he talked about them though, he loved his mom and dad, but his mother had a pathetic comparison problem-and the inheritance to support it. This was really the cause of him ending up here anyway. His life seemed pretty good--well atleast what he told me. As we were talking, the van took an exit off of the highway.
We stopped talking and started to pay attention to the city of Wesson Hills, a small town basically meant to hold the school and a few conveniences needed. It was a picturesque town with lots of trees and brick buildings with historic markings all over the town.
We turned into a woody road lined with trees and big houses and drove along it for a while. A black wrought iron fence appeared among the trees and then we turned into a clearing with a huge ornate gate. Wesson Hills Academy. It was beautiful with a crisp clean look. It consisted of several brick buildings, three lakes, a park, a student life building including a rec room, tennis courts, swimming pools, basketball court, soccer field, football field, track, cafe, bookstore, you name it. And of course, dormitories. According to the map, all of the student life buildings and activities were on one side of campus, the school buildings in the middle, and the staff's offices and administration on the other side. It was a gorgeous campus.
The van drove past all of the dorms and school buildings, and then we saw the administration building. There was a thin lady at the front desk with curly red hair and a tight red polka-dot dress with lots of make-up on.
"Hi! I'm Nancy Johnson. If you need anything, you can always ask me! I know on a general basis who to send you to or what to do. So if you need anything, just ask," she said smiling at Jesse. "Here are your keys and map of the campus."
We walked outside to the van.
Gina said, "Okay guys, we're just going to drop you off at your respective dorms, there's an all-school meeting at 5:00 in the MC auditorium. I believe you've gotten your maps so you should be good to go!"
I said bye to Jesse as he got out of the car to get to his dorm. "Text me after you finish packing," he said. I nodded. We'd traded numbers in the car out of politeness, but now that we were about to split up and meet everyone else, it was reassuring to have a friend out there.
We reached my dorm. Gulping, I got out with my suitcase. "Bye hon! I'm sure you'll be fine!" said Gina.
I walked up the steps to the huge brick building, glancing over at the boys building, and back to the van. I slowly opened the door as a rush of cold air hit me, I looked at the lobby.
Oh. My. GOD.
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So guys....I felt like writing this boarding school story...yeah i know. typical right? So i'm going to try and do a little more with it, but that's a surprise. We'll see how it goes. Sorry I've been a little unresponsive recently, I've just had a lot going on. So yeah... Anyway. comment and read!!!! and vote, yeah i forgot about that..oops...so Comment Vote and READ!!!!! :)))) thanks y'all
