A Royal Adventure [Ongoing]

Four

There was a thrill about being the new girl that I hadn't counted on. I had never been the new girl before and I realised that it gave me an opportunity to become someone else. There were certain things that I had to keep quiet anyway, but I was able to create a slightly altered version of myself and trust Penelope to spread it around.

Waking up that first morning in a new, narrow single bed, with the light streaming in through the thin curtains was odd. At first, I didn't quite remember where I was and thought that I must still be dreaming, before I realised that no – of course not, I had done it. I was here.

I was in England.

I heard movement on the other side of the room and rolled over, pulling the covers up to my chin, to see Penelope already nearly dressed in a school uniform. She beamed when she saw me. 'Better get up. Breakfast is in fifteen minutes. I didn't want to wake you. I hope you don't mind.'

'Right.' My head felt dizzy as I sat up and I tried to pull my thoughts together. Penelope had shown me the bathroom the night before and told me that she would be able to show where everything else was this morning, but already I felt like there was so much I didn't know. I glanced at Penelope's outfit before picking up my brand new uniform, a towel, and my wash things and setting out cautiously towards the bathroom to shower and get dressed.

It felt oddly unnatural to wear a uniform. I had never worn a uniform of any sort before and as I stared at myself in the mirror, I wondered how it must be so normal for so many people and yet... so alien to other people. I didn't think that any of the schools in our country had uniforms. It seemed awfully British.

I was still considering myself – and wondering if I had done everything right, I already knew that I was going to stick out like a sore thumb, I didn't want to give people any other reasons to stare at me, when the bathroom door swung open and Penelope stuck her head round.

'Alex?'

'Yeah?'

'Time to go.' She grinned when she saw me staring at my reflection in the mirror. 'Checking out the new uniform?'

'I've never worn a uniform before – it's odd.' The words sounded strange in my mouth. I was used to talking English, but it was going to take a while to get used to doing it all the time.

She raised her eyebrows. 'I bet. Come on, don't want to miss out on all the good stuff – especially with all the new kids getting excited.'

I glanced at myself one more time, smoothed down my skirt and nodded. 'Let's do this.'

'That's the spirit.'

As we raced down the stairs, I wondered if English kids always did this. Ran for food.

'This is the dining room,' Penelope explained, as we followed several other boys and girls along the corridor. The room was already packed. 'It'll all make sense soon, I promise. It all seems like a big maze, but I've been here four years already and I still get lost sometimes.'

At breakfast I met several other students who Penelope introduced me to. I politely introduced myself and wondered once again what I had chosen to do.

'Why did you choose to study abroad?' one of the kids asked.

I paused, considering my answer. 'I wanted an adventure.'

And that seemed as true as any other answer I might give.

And it was the truth.

That first day passed by in a bewildering blur. I had never been surrounded by so many people my own age and so it was strange to watch them all and realise that I was a part of it now. And to them, I was just a normal kid, who had decided to study abroad.