All Mine

Chapter 15

Madelyn’s POV

I woke up and I couldn’t tell what the time was, the girls were still asleep and I hadn’t yet fixed my watch. Last night I gazed over the cardboard and on the back it had a map of the school. I memorised the path from my room to the bathroom and followed it to the letter with a shoulder bag full of bathroom goodies Mum had bought me before I left and the drag of a uniform Mrs Jiminy dropped off last night. I still hadn’t had the chance to get a good look at it but it wouldn’t be long until I would find out for myself. I didn’t even get the chance to see it on other girls last night, I arrived too late and everyone was walking the halls in white night gowns. I hoped that wasn’t part of the uniform too.

“This is it,” I whispered as I opened the door to the bathrooms. Rows of showers lined the walls with doors to provide privacy. I was hoping that there weren’t just flimsy curtains. Thank god! There were only a couple of other showers running. This wasn’t the only bathroom in the school; there were bathrooms all down this hall. The bathrooms weren’t modern by all means but it was nice, kind of antique.

I open the door to the second furthest cubical and step in. I hung my white towel on a hook that was nailed into the door. I hung my bag on the hook next to it. I stripped off my clothes and shoved them past the clean clothes in my bag so they were at the bottom.

The heat from the water ran out after about five minutes and I quickly turned it off to avoid being colder than I already was from the cold weather. I dried myself down and wrapped the towel around me. The sudden urge to pee forced me to take hold of my bag and scamper from the shower cubical to the cubical on the other side of the room; the toilet.

“Ouch!” screeched a voice. Oh god, I had injured someone on my first day.

“Are you okay,” my head was kind of throbbing so I figured we had collided with our heads.

“I’m fine, are you?” she giggled. I looked up to see Freyer. How had I not realised it was her.

“Freyer!” I gasped.

“I didn’t even know it was you,” she said, she was also standing in front of me in her towel.

“Me either,” I laughed and escaped to the toilet. I decided to stay in their to get changed. The uniform was terrible. How was I supposed to walk around like this? I escaped the toilet and looked myself up and down in the full length mirror. I was officially unfashionable, not that I ever was fashionable to start with. Grey stockings covered my legs and a heavy grey material slumped over my shoulders as my dress. A black waistband dug into my stomach and the full sleeved blouse under my tunic made me itch. I slipped on compulsory black leather shoes and tied my hair up without bothering to dry it. This might just be the worst uniform of the century.

When I returned to my room the girls were awake and running around like wild monkeys. “We showered last night,” Loppy said and Daisy nodded with her. Freyer entered the room behind me and laughed when she saw me.

“Attractive isn’t it?” she was trying so hard not to laugh but she couldn’t help it.

“No,” I replied a little annoyed. Her uniform looked so different the hem was shorter and she had a completely different type of stocking on.

“Here let me help you,” Daisy said and the girls gathered around me, they tugged at my dress and I gasped when I heard a rip.

“It’s okay,” Freyer said stepping back to examine her work, “looking good.”

I examined myself in the only mirror in the room. The hem on my dress was suddenly shorter and I don’t even know how they did it. The sleeves on my blouse were shorter and rolled above my elbows. Freyer unbuttoned the top few buttons on my blouse and told me to strip off the stockings. She handed me a pair like hers and I soon felt like everyone else. The uniform was still very formal but a little less uncomfortable.

“Breakfast?” Daisy asked, I felt my stomach grumble on queue and the other girls got dressed in record time.

I opened the door to see Mrs Jiminy staring at me, her eyes wide. I squealed and jumped back. “Breakfast time girls!” She barked out in her strange unrecognisable accent.

“Quick,” Freyer said and we all scampered down the stair laughing and carrying on.

The long rows of wooden tables were almost confronting. There was a long table by the door with all the teachers sitting there. Four long rows of tables were occupied by girls and Freyer pulled me by the hand and we sat down at four empty seats. Breakfast was laid out along the middle of the table and I was quick to steal a croissant and a lady came around and filled up my glass with orange juice.

“This isn’t half bad!” I exclaim and Freyer nods.

“Meals here are good, it’s most of the classes that let you down,” Freyer said.

Freyer walked me to my first class even though her class was on the other side of the building. It was English and they were studying a novel I’d already studied at home. I saw Daisy on the way to my next class and we had that class together. I had taken art and we painted abstract even though we were supposed to be painting self portraits. Morning tea was at 11am and we all met on the grass as it wasn’t raining. Morning tea, as I found out, was pretty much a free period. It was nothing like breakfast, you could go anywhere. The next two periods were over quickly and lunch was served in the same hall breakfast was. They served schnitzel and potato. I am not sure what the traditional food in France was but I didn’t think it was potato?