Differences

Prologue

Serena's POV

After paying the taxi driver, I dragged my bag and myself out of the car and found myself standing in front of the familiar building that was my school.

It was a large building, but not too hard to navigate. It was split into five buildings: the Science building - with labs for each of the three subjects - the Arts building - Design Technology, Art, Textiles and Music - the Academics building - English and Maths - the Humanities building - RS, History and Geography - and the Languages building - French, German, Spanish, Greek and Latin. We chose two languages - either Greek or Latin, and either German or Spanish - and we all did French.

I started towards the school, ready to go into my Form Room, remembering that we were gaining a new student today. But, my attention was quickly grabbed by the sound of a very expensive car pulling up behind me.

I turned around and watched a girl who could not have been any more different to me than she clearly was.

She drove up in a Rolls Royce driven by a chauffer - his hands were rough from moving the wheel, he wore stereotypical 'Chauffer' clothes, including the hat - I took a taxi. Her hair was naturally ginger - mine was dyed blue at the roots, which faded to purple at the top of my ears, which faded into red just below my chin, which lightened to pink as it reached my elbows (I got very, very bored when I had nothing to do - which was nearly always). In fact, our only similar physical features were our brown eyes. She had two siblings... an older sister and a younger brother. A doctor for a dad. Her mum worked from home. John Watson (the man who shared the flat with myself and my father, Sherlock) was a doctor, too

My dad was a detective, and my mother was a prostitute.

Very different to her parents' professions.

She has a secret... And her parents know. But it's something very unpredictable and mysterious, almost inhuman...

Her clothes were so much different to mine. I was wearing black skinny jeans and knee-high leather boots, and a leather jacket was hanging undone over my Guns N' Roses t-shirt. It was not mandatory to follow the rules, in my eyes - we were only supposed to wear small studs for earings, but i wore large, studded hoops. We shouldn't dye our hair, but - well, you know. My nails were a different colour every day, but they should be clean. Our shoes should be flat - no heels - but my boots, which I wore every day, added two inches to my height.

And I usually broke the 'No Skirts Above The Knee' (which most girls broke, anyway) and the 'No Extremely Short Shorts Without Leggings Or Tights' rule during the summer.

But, this girl wasn't pushing her luck in any way. Everything she wore was in perfect accord to the Handbook. Her hair was natural, of course, that was the first thing. And, it was tied back neatly into a ponytail. Her nails were clean, too. Her clothes were casual, but expensive. She had worn different clothes out of the house, and changed in the car. She wore red vans - they were very clean, rarely worn. And expensive. She wore denim shorts over black tights - both of which were expensive, too. A belt glistened in the sun, peaking out from beneath a blue top, with Geek written across it on large capital letters.

Attempting to look casual in expensive clothes.

Everyone wore those Geek tops - except me - and if it wasn't Geek, it was Nerd or Dork, or something along those lines. But, nobody's top was made from 100% pure linen - almost fifty pounds in cost, I presumed. Nobody's denim shorts were that expensive and none of them were cut that evenly. Nobody's tights were more than a fiver for three pairs, let alone more than ten pounds for one.

I hate rich people.

No, that's not true.

I hate generalizing people (though most people really are stupid, ignorant, dim-witted, slow, unattentive...), and I only hate the richer people if they're stuck up and snobby. I didn't know this person - but, it's scientifically proven that you judge a person within ten seconds of seeing them, and, most of the time, you will stick to that judgement.

And I had already decided that I didn't like her.

And she was walking straight up to me.

'Hi!' She said enthusiastically. 'I'm Lily-Rose. I'm new here, I'm joining 9B. Can you tell me where the form room is, AC3?'

'I'm in 9B.' I said.

'Great! Well, if you could show me where I'm going...'

'The Academics building. That's why it's AC. Room 3. That's why there's the number '3'.'

'Oh... Okay. Well, what's your name?'

'Serena.'

'Ok, hi! Do you want to be friends?'

'The Academic building is the one right in front of you.' I said, pointing. I didn't bother telling her her life story - I couldn't be arsed. Then, I walked off, towards the Arts building - we had half an hour before we had to be in form. I always got to school as early as possible, so that I could go up into the music room and practise either Guitar or Drums.

Lily-Rose's footsteps echoed from behind me.

I just sped up, ignoring her.