Hartbig: boarding school

School

Hannah awoke the next day to a new school uniform placed on her bed, an arrangement of grey trousers, a crisp white button down and a black blaze. She looked around for her phone, checking the time. Realising it was only 6:00am and the other girls where still asleep she went changed out of her pjs into a White t-shirt some jeans and a waistcoat before heading out for a walk, finding a nice tree to sit under she pulling out her sketchbook. As she sat under the tall oak tree she noticed a few things about this quirky little boarding school, everything from the light morning rain of England's crappy weather to the old overfilled dustbin in the corner didn't seem to put a damper on the mood at this school, for the sun was peaking through the clouds just enough for Hannah not to need a jacket. She placed her headphones on while sketching a near by bench and listening to the soothing music of Beethoven.

Someone stood over her, at the loss of sunlight shining on her Hannah looked up to see her head teacher looking over her. She stood up; straightening her crisp t-shirt down,
"Mrs. helbig" she greeted her teacher formally. "Hannah" she smiled softly back, "may I ask what your doing up this early? The girls usually aren't up till 8:00" "I'm a morning person" Hannah shrugged, "back in America my family and I would take morning walks" Mrs. helbig chuckled, "you might be the only morning person in this school" Hannah smiled politely back, trying not to shuffle over to where her notebook was lying and snap it shut.

"Well, I shall leave you to it then, breakfast is at 8:00" her teacher went to walk away; before she left she turned back and smiled. "You'd like our art department Hannah, there's some talented artists that I think you'd fit in with well" And with that she walked off, leaving only the sound of Hannah's thoughts and the clatter of sharp heels behind her. Slowly but surly girls began to wake up and Hannah walked back to her room, walking into a rising group of girls. "Morning" Hannah greeted them shortly, before grabbing her uniform and heading past the tired group into the bathroom to change.

She changed quickly, placing her headphones round her neck before following the girls down to lunch, her new ted baker school bag that she saved up 6 months to buy draped lazily over her shoulder. She followed them to the lunch line again, ignoring the painfully good smell of fresh pancakes and grabbing a granola bar and some water before heading back to the same table as yesterday. She glanced over her shoulder quickly for grace, just wanting to make sure the older girl wasn't a figment of her imagination. She looked once, and only once. Knowing that if she got her hopes up they'd surly be crushed like everything else.

She placed her headphones over her ears, turning on another piano piece by someone she'd never heard of. Sketching a drawing of two brown eyes, trying to note the chocolate drizzle in them and the way they made her feel weak in the knees... She quietly cursed herself for drawing grace before ripping off the page and starting again, drawing a pair of grey eyes. A vision of someone kissing though the dilated irises under a New York streetlamp, Hannah sighed, remembering the day she found her girlfriend kissing a guy under that very streetlamp. She captioned the title, knowing that this book was for her eyes only she wrote:

Swike and Chester

In big swirling handwriting above the drawing. She felt someone pull her back to reality, tugging at her headphones. "Hannah" the girl looked up to see Zoë standing before her, "come on we have got music class now" she threw away her water and granola as she followed the tiny girl down long corridors, across big Victorian looking classrooms and paintings. When they reached the class a small hand tugged at her leg, looking down she saw a small girl smiling shyly up at her.

"hai" the little girl giggled as Hannah bent down to reach her level, "And who might you be" Hannah asked, reaching out to tug playfully at the girls nose as she had done countless times with her sister. "I'm amber, I'm 6" the girl whispered holding up her fingers, looking around as if afraid of the other teenagers pouring into the room. "Amber?" a middle aged woman popped her head around the door, looking down at Hannah and the little girl astonishingly. Hannah stood up; feeling rather embarrassed with herself, for her first friend at this school was in fact a toddler.

"uhm, sorry miss I'm new here" Hannah said as the little girl grabbed her hand Hannah pulled her over to her mum, handing the girl over. "Its okay, I'm miss Davidson, your music teacher and I see you've already met my daughter, amber." She said softly, "you must be miss hart, well that's going to get confusing now we have two harts in the class" the woman chuckled and directed her attention to a red head talking rather loudly at the back of the classroom.

"Please, take a seats next to mamrie" Hannah walked to the back of the classroom, keeping her head down and sliding silently into her seat. "Hey, I'm mamrie hart" the red head giggled, "and you are?" "Uhm Hannah, Hannah hart" she nodded shyly, as the girl laughed loudly. "Two harts! Cool" the girl grinned, as the teacher started the lesson. "So we have a new student in class today" Hannah groaned internally as miss Davidson introduced her, "Hannah? Do you play any instruments"?

Hannah nodded, muttering "piano" to the class. "Are you doing grades?" Hannah nodded again, "I was supposed to be doing my grade 8 before we left, but I didn't get a chance" hannah looked stricken as the teacher gestured to the piano at the front of class, gulping she stood up, walking over to the white piano and taking a seat. She quietly started to play fur Elise, one of her favorite piano pieces, she closed her eyes. Letting the music sway her, trying to forget a class of judgmental teenagers was watching her. She opened her eyes again to find the class gawking at her, everyone with shocked and awed expressions.

Hannah awkwardly walked back to her seat, the teacher coughing to get everyone's attention. "Hannah, that was very good, I think your going to fit in well here" Hannah nodded, pulling out her notebook and taking notes. She tried not to talk to people, keeping her attention to the teacher and her head down. As her lesson finished she stood up, pulling on her beanie and following Zoë out the door. "hey!" Hannah turned around to see mamrie running after her, she caught up to the younger girl. Gasping for air at having to run for 10 seconds.

"what's your next subject little hart?"

"uhm, art, you?" the girl grinned, "I've got art too! Come on, us Americans got to stick together"