The Magic Sisterhood

The Blogger and the Big Boring British Comp

 Was there ever a sight quite so uninspiring as a grey concrete builiding consisting of three floors and a lot of windows? No, and especially not after a forty minute drive because Robert couldn't figure out where Ashgrove Comprehensive school was. Now, Clare was late for her first day of GCSE's and school.

 Yet that feeling crept in. She was scared she'd have another incident like the ones she had in London. It was like dreaming but it felt too lucid to be dreams. Nnd no matter what, the dreams never felt like her own. She'd asked plenty of questions online but she usually received the same "talk to a doctor" or "Jesus loves you, just pray to God" crap.

 "Thanks, now I'm hella late," Clare chirped sarcastically.

 "Bye, hella late, I'm dad," Robert laughed before speeding off. Her parents were really worldwide parenting extraordinaires.

 She walked down the boring halls that smelt very bleachy, trying to find the reception area. There were loads of photographs stapled to the walls of the different students away for different trips and advertising different groups. Finally, she came across a bright array of coloured letters stapled to a door frame which spelled out "Reception."

 "Excuse me, I'm the new girl from London. I was wondering if someone could help me?"

 "You must be Clare Jones? We need to set you up with your GCSE classes and then we're setting you up with a buddy who shares almost all your mandatory classes," replied the receptionist as she pulled a pen out a pot and thrust it in Clare's hands, another receptionist grabbed a piece of paper from an omnious green file... and then a clipboard.

 There were four coloumns. The one offered vocational subjects (hairdressing, military, cooking) or science (which meant you had to take additional Welsh). Clare had never spoken Welsh before, the only word she knew was "cachu" which her mother occassionally screamed when she stubbed her toe. The only logical choice was cooking. Then she ticked IT, art, and Spanish. All subjects would probably help her with fandom stuff. Especially because a lot of doujinshis were translated into Spanish rather than English.

 "That was fast. Okay, I'll go get a schedule printed out. Sit back down and wait, your buddy will be her soon."

 It was so childish that she had to wait for a buddy, but she was secretly very glad of it. You may think that coming from a London, Clare had gone to a large school but she really hadn't. Her parents decided to send her to a private school which was relatively small. And this concrete prison of a school was in the epicentre of the Welsh country side which served around fifteen different villages that didn't have a comprehensive school. Bloody cutbacks.

Then Clare's buddy walked in. It could have been a moment out of an anime where the angelic shoujou character made her appearance. She was probably one of the prettiest girls Clare had ever seen. She was lithe and her skin was tanned. Her hair was brown and thick, and it had been tied into two poofy pigtails that bounced along with her peppy steps.

 "Hi! My name is Tammy Farwell, nice to meet you!" She said with the brightest smile. Clare couldn't really muster up a smile as she felt very aware of her pasty skin, achne, and fat rolls when next to God's gift to humanity. She even kinda smelled like strawberries. Maybe she has an awful personality.

 "Hey there, are you my, er, buddy?"

 "Yep! I really like to help out around the school, I'm so glad they picked me to help you! I hope we're going to be friends!"

 And she's really nice too, great(!)

"Yeah, I hope so too," Clare mumbled.

 "Tammy, I just finished Clare's schedule. Could you run through it with her?" the receptionist called out, with a white sheet of paper firmly held between her manicured hands. With a smile and a flick of her perky pigtails, Tammy retrieved the schedule and nestled her way back into the chair next to Clare.

 "No way! You take cooking too? Me and Rhiannon both taking cooking! It's a shame it was in the same column as science because I have to take private courses on the weekends so I can get the right science GCSE's to become a vet. Oh, and you have art! Rhiannon takes art, too. She's like the best artist ever, her paintings are literally the best. Oh and Spanish, I'm taking that too since my dad is Spanish, or part Spanish, I can't remember."

 Clare nodded. And she's a chatty extravert, talk about perfect. Wait, a chatty extravert, sounds like my mum's best friend. Come to think of it she kind of looks like her too. Wait.

 "Is your mum called Linda?" Clare asked before she could stop herself from thinking aloud.

 "Yes! How did you know?"

 "I've met your mum, she's my mum's friend?"

 "OMG! I can't believe it, you must be Clare Jones! My mum told me about you! Aren't you turning fifteen this week?"

 "Yes."

 "Are you going to have a party?"

 "Well, I just moved here so I don't really know anyone and my house is kind of small so..."

 "I can throw it for you, my house is really big. And don't worry, I'll only invite cool people like us... Tatiana."

 "What?" And at that point Clare looked down and realised she was wearing her 'Clone Club' badge. Pretty, chatty, crazy friendly, faNDOM?

 "You watch Orphan Black?" Clare gasped, somewhat increduously.

 "Well everyone on Tumblr was talking about it and I saw it was on BBC 3 this one time and I really liked it and I have the DVD set, so I guess I watch it."

 "And you have Tumblr?"

 "Yes, "magic seestrahood" is my URL."

 "Wait... you're "magical seestrahood", I'm "SHSL Fujoshi Bitch." Clare almost yelled.

 "I follow you!" Tammy gasped.

 "I follow you too!"

 "You're one of my Tumblr crushes!"

 "You're one of mine!" Clare cried and wrapped her arms around the beautiful brunette.

 And thus a beautiful friendship was born.