Who Are The Mods?

Grizzly Weather

There's an excitement about getting post that most adults don't understand.
Emails are nothing in comparison to post, not even special ones with offers for free food. For each student at Houseland School, the first Tuesday post-storm was the most exciting letter-related morning since the first letter ever was sent, most likely. All five hundred students from the smaller-than-average school received a well-anticipated letter depicting their future school, depending on catchment area. The school was in a "physical state of emergency", the headteacher claimed that morning. The students were being "kicked out" a student later eloquently wrote on Facebook. Telsa, Liberty and Alex were lucky- they lived in the same catchment and had escaped Isaac's presence, who's mother had whisked him off to private school as soon as possible.
"Richmond's..." Telsa murmured over her cereal that morning. "Think it'll be good, Mam?"
Telsa's mother looked up from her newspaper. "It's a lot bigger than Houseland's. The results are better too, any day."
Telsa rolled her eyes, but had to agree. Her schools's year got the worst results for mocks in the county for ten years.
"I guess, Mam. I just think it won't have the same... vibe as Houseland."
Telsa's mother snorted. "Vibe." She muttered into her coffee, "You kids and your vibes, eh?"
Stretching, Telsa grinned and looked up at the ceiling. "We getting uniform today?" She asked, cracking her neck and making her mother shudder.
"We are indeed. Go and do your hair, Telly. We're leaving in twenty minutes."
"Gotcha, ma. I'll be right back then."
With that, Telsa scraped her chair back and scarpered up the stairs.
"Nothing too flamboyant, Tel. Goodness knows, you'll die at the hair rules!"

"Keys?"
"Yep."
"Money?"
"Present."
"Phone?"
"Affirmative."
Telsa kissed her mother on the cheek before heading out of the door to Alex's car. The drizzle made her wrinkle her nose in digest- it was too early in the morning for bad weather to ruin her mood.
As the car rattled away to Richmond School and Sports College, Telsa's mother retreated into the house and shut the door behind her twice, just to make sure. She hummed to herself as she did the pre-work chores. It was a song from years ago, a 'sunny song' as she called them, all about sunshine and lovers and happiness. So different to the dreary world around her.
Just as the washing finished its cycle, the post dropped through the door, landing on the perfectly laid welcome mat.
"Just on time." She smiled, stooping to collect the letters.
As she straightened up, Telsa's mother noticed the photo beside the front door- a one of six year old Telsa and her father at the beach- hung at an odd angle. She frowned to herself and rightened instantly.

When Telsa arrived at her new school, it was exactly how she imagined it to be- cold, grey and square. Nothing like Houseland's archaic exterior.
From the photos she'd seems, Richmond's looked petite and feasible, but now she saw that it was large and rather daunting. Nerves knotted in her stomach as she locked eyes with Alex. They were going to die.
The uniform itched uncomfortably and her mood matched the unmoving grey sky above, with its pitiful bouts of rain and off putting closeness.
Gone were the memories of racing up Houseland's main stairs, competing to see who could have the craziest hairstyle, and rainbow nail polish. Houseland screamed individuality. Richmond screamed uniformity.
Everyone here screamed internally.
There was an ebrasive tapping on the glass of Alex's car window on the drivers side. Alex rolled down his window, leaving Telsa deep in nostalgic thoughts.
"You cannot park your car here, young man. This is the teacher car park, for staff only."
Alex glanced around him in disbelief. The carpark was practically vacant with only 5 minutes to go before the buzzer.
"I'm sorry sir, we're new here- I'll park it somewhere else tomorrow, I wasn't aware you had to-"
"You'll move it now!"
Telsa started out of her thoughts, then.
"Hello, sir! Is there a problem."
"Your friend can't seem to comprehend that he cannot park here. And regardless of your old school, you should know how to address your teachers- I am not 'Sir', I am Mr Cunningham to you."
Telsa quickly apologised, but got a sharp 'clip your hair back' in return. She didn't open her mouth again but left Alex to deal with him and waited for him to waddle away. 
"My god, that was traumatic." Muttered Alex, starting the car's engine and getting ready to reverse. Just then, Liberty trundled by, bag slung across her body, hair scraped back in a low ponytail, skirt far too long.
"Libs!" Telsa cracked the window open as Liberty stared in shock, but sighed relieved as she saw who it was calling her. She hurried over.
"C'mon, Tel! The buzzer's going in a minute."
For a full ten seconds, Alex looked between the main doors and the steering wheel, before winding up his window and stopping the engine. "Ah! Forget it."
He hopped out of the car and Telsa followed suit before the three sprinted through the full on downpour that was arriving quickly.
"New arrivals over here!" A voice called through the rain. "Any new arrivals, right this way!"
Telsa and Alex groaned to themselves. Guess who!
Cunningham's snide voice shouted above the throngs of students. "New arrivals listen please! Ah, I've met you two before. Follow this Prefect to the main hall, and please be quiet."
Walking through the school, Telsa looked around her. There must have been hundreds, maybe a thousand, students at the new school.
Every pair of eyes she made contact with all had the same tired, overworked look on them. She looked pleadingly at Liberty. "This is going to be hell, you know?" She muttered, adjusting her 'sensible bag' and rolling her skirt up.
The prefect in front turned to glare at her. "Enter the main hall and be silent- this includes you especially, miss."
Telsa smiled in a fake way, then scowled as he pointed out that her boots were against uniform code.
"I have a note." She growled, shoving past him into the mainly vacant hall.
A tall, plump lady was stood at the front of the main hall, and began dictating to the students as soon as they were all seated.
"Now your old school may have allowed you to wear your hair how you like, have a bag for 'fashion' purposes, or even wear silly little shoes! However, here at Rcihmond School, we believe that dignity and uniformity come before fashion..."
The lady carried on, however Telsa's attention span didn't.
Within seconds, she was floating through time and space, completely in a world of her own. Not even when the lecture was drawing to a close and students were allowed to ask questions did she come back to the present.
This school year was going to be a mess and she knew it. She just hoped the clean up operation was good enough.