Clopwyck River - revised version

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight​
I spent most of the night lying in my bed calculating how many hours sleep I would get if I could just miraculously stop worrying about my first day of school. It was 4.37am at my last calculation, leaving me with just under two hours sleep.
Andrew wished me luck for my first day, and encouraged me to have some breakfast, which I could hardly swallow, even with Elliot as my role model, milk and cereal dripping down his chin. Daria barely registered that I was even in the kitchen. Guess she's in as much of a rush to get to know me as I am to get to know her.
   ​Declining Andrew's offer to drive me, I walked in on my own, the churning clouds mirroring the feeling in my stomach, and arrived at the gates of Clopwyck Academy. I reported to reception, then did the only thing I could think to do on my first day amongst well established friendship groups and cliques hugging and high fiving; I hid in the toilets, and have been sitting in this lonely cubicle, listening to gossip and giggling coming and going for the last ten minutes, my pathetic breakfast threatening to reappear as I wait for the bell for registration.
​"Hello?" A voice floats over the cubicles. "Demi? You hiding in here?"
​My heart stops high up in my neck, almost choking me. Who the hell could that be? Footsteps make their way along the cubicles, each of their doors swinging open and closed again. I double check that the lock on my door works.
​ The footsteps stop outside my cubicle, and I hold my breath. The door strains against the lock and the voice tries again.
"Demi? You in there?"
​Seconds pass as I hold myself still, praying that this person will decide it's not me and move on, then I hear the voice again, this time from overhead.
​"What the hell are you doing sitting in there? It's freezing in here." I look up, Ruby's long dark hair hanging over the side of the cubicle as she peers down at me. "Are you planning on hiding in there all day?"
​"No." I shake my head, tears threatening to well up as the reality of my situation threatens to suffocate me. "Maybe just until lunchtime?"
​"Open the door and come out, you loser." She smiles as she says the words and I do as she says. She hops down from the toilet seat and joins me in front of the sinks. "See, not so bad out here, huh?"
​I shrug my shoulders.
​Ruby looks in the mirror and grimaces, at what I have no idea. She's absolutely gorgeous. She throws her bag on the sink and hunts around inside of it, finally pulling out a brush and starts to brush her hair.
​"Nervous for your first day?" She takes a hairband off her wrist and grips it between her teeth. "I was too, I was seriously bricking it, but once it's done, it's done." She takes the hairband and pulls her hair back into a ponytail.
​"I'm not nervous." I snap at her, "I just don't feel like socialising."
​"Okaaaaay, if you say so, but this is exactly where I hid on my first day as well. That's how I knew you'd be in here." Ruby's eyes widen and her head whips around towards the door of the toilets, almost taking my eye out with her pony tail. "Oh God, is that-?"
​The door opens a fraction, a manicured hand holding it steady as she finishes a conversation about a TV show with whoever she is parting with in the corridor. Before I can ask Ruby who she's talking about, Ruby grabs her bag and darts into one of the cubicles, locking it behind her.
​The door opens and in walks the person Ruby is hiding from, and I can't say I blame her. I didn't get the warmest of vibes when we first met, and the look on her face when her eyes settle on me suggest her icy core hasn't thawed out in the forty-eight hours since we first saw each other.
​Ciara.
​"You! She flies at me, stopping right in front of me so our noses are practically touching, then looks around. "Who were you talking to in here?"
​I think of Ruby hiding in the cubicle, and how easy it would be to get her dragged out here as well so I don't have to face this princess alone, but decide not to. She can owe me one. A big one.
​"No-one."
​"Unlucky for you being in here all by yourself, then. You've got a nerve showing your face here. "
​"What do you mean? At school? I had to come here, Ciara. We all have to come here." Probably not a clever response but the way she flew at me and the look on her face has got me on the defensive. I've dealt with girls like her before. Hell, I was a girl like her once.
​"Smart mouth. You better watch it, or it'll get you in trouble. Nobody likes a smart mouth."
​I fold my arms. "What can I do for you exactly?"
​"You can stay the hell away from me, and from Ben, that's what. Do you know he's still unconscious because of you?"
​"What? Because of me?" I snort. "Are you serious?"
​"As acne. I don't want you anywhere near him, do you understand me? He was okay, he was doing fine, then you arrive and a few hours later he's in the hospital."
​Ciara is jabbing her finger at me with each word, and her jaw is shaking. This girl is angry.
​"Ciara, I can see you're upset, but-"
​"Oh, you have no idea. You better pray that he'll be okay, otherwise your life will be absolute hell, I promise you that." She takes a step back, and looks me up and down. "You'll wish it was you that jumped off that bridge, only you'll pray that instead of getting pulled out, you were left to rot at the bottom of the river. Stay away from him."
​Her words slap me into silence and she gives me one last look then saunters out of the toilets, slamming the door behind her.
​I knock on the closed cubicle door. "She's gone."
​The lock slides across and Ruby peeks out. I shake my head.
"Now who's the loser?"
​"Sorry."
​"What was that about?" I ask.
​"Nothing. She's just...if you look directly at her, you'll turn to stone." I roll my eyes. "She's just a total bitch, like, completely. I don't know if you got that from the pleasant conversation you just had with her?"
​"I can't believe she actually thinks it's my fault that Ben is in hospital! I mean, what planet is she on?"
​Ruby nods knowingly. "Planet Ciara."
​"Doesn't she realise he could have been in a much worse state if someone hadn't been there to help him, i.e. that someone being me?"​
​"I doubt that's the real issue." I frown at her, confused. "I mean, you won't have noticed, but everyone is talking about you, because you saved Ben. Ciara loves being the centre of attention and you've stolen the limelight."
​"But I don't want the limelight!" I shout at the ceiling, my sentence punctuated by the bell trilling against the white tiles.
​"We better go. Do you know who your form tutor is?"
​I grab a handful of papers from my bag, scanning them for the name of my form. "Um....Mr. Talbot?"
​"Oh well, I was thinking we might be in the same form, seeing as how we're both newbies. I guess I'll catch you at lunch?"
​I shrug my shoulders, but am already panicking at the thought of lunch time. Thank God I'll have at least one person to sit with.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"I guess we'll leave the whole Ben investigation thing then?"
I stop in front of the doorway, and Ruby walks right into the back of me. I turn to her.
"And why would we do that?"
​Ruby's eyebrows furrow together as she gestures over her shoulder. "Because Ciara just said-"
​I raise my eyebrow at her. "All the more reason to head to the hospital after school, don't you think?"
​"I'm getting the impression that the worst thing a person could do is to tell you not to do something." Ruby smiles at me, shaking her head. "Don't blame me when you find yourself turned to stone next time you're alone with her."