New Generation at Malory Towers

4 | First Day (Part 1)

Stay tuned for an important A/N at the end of the chapter.

The next day, Lily woke up to see most of the others still asleep. She got up, changed and then checked her watch - it was 7:15. She groaned. Why had she woken up so early? Breakfast didn't start until quarter to eight! She climbed down the stairs drowsily and went to the common room, where a few other girls were.
"Morning. I'm Lily," she said. The girls smiled and said hi.
"I'm Annie, and this is Lizzie and Becky." Annie said. She didn't feel the need to introduce the other two girls behind her. She had long fair hair with blue eyes and was quite tall. The other four girls were looking at her with adoration in their eyes. Lily nodded, and sat down on the sofa, turning on the TV.
Ugh. No Sky.
She put on CBBC dubiously. Annie started talking to her.
"I met Becky on the train, and the others I've kind of picked up as I've gone along. They're really lovely. Have you made any friends yet?"
"Yeah, they're in my dorm. I'm friends with everyone in my dorm, they're really nice."
"Lots of my dorm are great. But there's this one girl, called like Ellie or something, who's such a loner. She's super boring. We ignore her." Lily looked up. That did not seem like a nice thing to do to anyone. She didn't want to say anything though, so she just nodded. Annie kept on chattering to her, about her house, her dogs, the cars, her yacht... Wait. A yacht? This girl was rich.
At about half past eight, Jess came down to the common room, yawning. "Morning Lily," she said when she saw her. Lily, anxious to get out of Annie's company, came over to her. Annie looked up with a slightly distasteful expression.
"Who's this? Is that your friend?" Suddenly, Jess noticed Annie and she looked bitter.
"Annie."
"Jess." Lily looked between the girls.
"Umm... Annie, this is my friend Jess. Jess, this is Annie. Apparently you already know each other?"
"Yes. Come on, Lily, I need to show you something." Lily followed her, and they went out into the little grassy area where their trunks had been.
"What's up between you and Annie then?" asked Lily, bewildered.
"She was at my old school. She ruined my life! She turned all my friends against me because I refused to suck up to her. Listen, you can't trust her."
"She seems okay..."
"That's what I thought, but she will turn on you faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo. Please, Lily, I-"
At that moment Annie walked into the courtyard. "See you later, Lily, it was nice meeting you." She turned to face Jess, who scowled. "Bye, Jess," she said, smiling sickly-sweetly. And with that, she set off down the corridor with her friends.

"So then what did she say?" Lily was sitting with Jess and Kitty at breakfast.
"Well, she started talking about her dogs and yacht and stuff. It really wasn't that interesting, Jess. Can we talk about something else?" Lily asked, exasperated. It was the third time she was going over the events of earlier that morning. "Okay," sighed Jess. Kitty, who had been on her phone, put it away at once when she heard this.
"At last," she sighed. "This school is so cool. There is a whole photography studio, and netball courts, and an outdoor pool! My grandma told me that the pool is natural and it's really nice. In fact;-" At that moment, the bell rang.
"Oh no, we're going to be late!" The girls downed the rest of their breakfasts and checked their map.
"We're all in the same class, I think. We all need to go to L6... That's languages, right? It's upstairs." The girls sprinted up. Fortunately, L6 was in the first corridor upstairs so they didn't get lost. They came into the classroom just before the last bell rang. They took three seats near the back, where Beth and Jenny were sitting. As the teacher entered the room, they saw who else was in the class.
Beth, Jenny, Kitty, Jess and Lily were all in the same class, coincidentally - only Ella, Star and Kirsty were in a different class. Lily didn't recognise anyone else - except the girl who came barging in a few minutes late, followed by her gang.
Annie.
Oh, Jess was NOT going to be happy.
When Annie saw Lily, she waved and sat in the row in front of her, along with Becky or Lizzie (Lily wasn't sure which) and two more girls, one who had been with Annie earlier. The other girls in the room seemed drawn to Annie. The girls sitting on the same row as her seemed happy. Yep, Annie was popular. The teacher coughed before beginning to talk,
"Why are you late?"
Annie looked at the teacher (probably using those hypnotic eyes, said Jess) and said "Sorry Miss, we got lost."
"Very well. Don't do it again unless you want extra prep. Now," she said to the class, "Let me take the register. If you have a nickname please tell me."
"Mukta Bachchan, Kathleen Brown,"
"Yes, Miss. I am usually called Kitty,"
"Bethany Coburn,"
"Beth, Miss,"
"Sandi Dodds, Annie Field, Jessica Gibson"
"Jess, Miss,"
"Adelajda Janda,"
"Adele, Miss,"
"Agnes Jonasson,"
"Aggie, Miss,"
"Aubrey Lewis, Rebecca Marks, Ava Rigby, Amelia Thomas, Alexia Valencia, Lily Wells,"
"Yes Miss," said Lily
"Kimi Wen, Jennifer White,"
"Jenny, Miss,"
"Natalie Wilcox, Olivia Wong, Jade Wright and Abigail Young,"
"Abbie, Miss."
With the register done, the teacher introduced herself.
"My name is Miss Jones and I am your Tutor. Every morning you will come to this classroom and I will do the register. I will also teach you PSHE on a Wednesday afternoon. You guys will have to travel around the school and will have lessons together apart from in Languages - there are no sets this year - with different teachers. Here are your timetables."

Lily checked the timetable.
"Okay, so we have maths first. What language are you guys doing by the way?"
"French," said Jess and Kitty.
"Oh no, I'm doing Spanish!" The bell went.
"We'd better get going!" It was Annie, speaking to them. "Come on Lily, you can come with me." Lily awkwardly came with her, closely followed by Kitty, who looked bemused, and Jess, who was fuming.

Hello! I'm going to try to post to this story every day, at about 4PM English Time where possible. I don't know how long it will last, it depends how busy I am, but I'll do my best. Thanks for sticking with the story! Again, sorry for boring chapters, it's necessary to set up the story and I enjoy writing it TBH. I do know where the plot is going though, and let's just say it involves a lot of drama between Jess, Lily and Annie.