Through Her Lives

Morgandy

She could hear the voices of girls drifting through the crack between and under the double doors of her room. It was a damp morning, the sky was grey and the rain was pouring down, sounding like mice constantly running over the roof. Morgandy didn't like this weather, she didn't like the fact that the double doors had been left slightly open either, but as quickly as the thoughts crossed her mind she pushed them away. Rendering her face blank, she pushed through the doors and decided to go to breakfast.

As she entered, silence descended upon the room. The previously giggling girls now sat up to stare at the door with the rest of the student body. Morgandy was suddenly very self-conscious, wondering if she had already made enemies with the whole school but was careful to keep her face blank as she'd been taught many times before. She wasn't here to make friends but she had never liked the feeling of being shunned either. As she slowly walked to the food area she had to repeat the mantra, hips tilted forward, head held high. She had been told it years ago and used it when she felt nervous. The ripples of whispers started again. She walked up to the decedent buffet of waffles, eggs, sausages and other breakfast items and grabbed an apple before quickly shuffling out of the dinning hall.

As she walked back to her room munching on her apple to change Morgandy realised that she was running late for classes. For her to stay at this school she had to make it to the right classes on time and at least look decent. 

Decent was not exactly how she would describe herself on any given day.

She glanced at herself in the mirror, layering on mascara, eyeliner and eye shadow on auto pilot.  She never even realised as she opened the door and walked into the corridor that the top she was wearing showed her back and all of her arms. It was a top her parents begged her to stop wearing, acid washed black with ripped off sleeves, a high neck but a low back and a white cross in the left bottom corner, it was cropped just above her belly button where her high waisted, ripped black skinny legged jeans stopped. She'd teamed these with her unlaced black combat boots that thudded down the halls next to the click clacks of the rest of the schools high heels. She didn't even realise, until a girl she hadn't met or seen stopped walking to stare at her with disgust. 

My tattoos... 

She didn't have time to run back to her room and had nothing with her to cover them up. Her back was covered with a venetian lace mask and roses mixed with peonies in an intricate design woven into the shape of her back. It wasn't fresh and Morgandy was only seventeen. Both her arms were filled with flowers of all different shapes and sizes down to her elbows were they stopped, some where native to England, some native to Africa and Europe. It was hours of work that she normally didn't mind being seen but seeing as this school had an unspoken dress code of knee length skirts, block high heels and matching suit sets Morgandy felt it would be an issue.

There were questions to come. Morgandy was filled with dread.

As girls all around her glared and moved around elbowing each other trying to get a good look at the tattoos, she could hear the whispers calling her a freak. She made it to her first class, Spanish, with no time to spare. Halfway through writing about the colour of her non-existent cat she was called to the office over the loud speaker. The class quietened.

Certain this was how she was going to get expelled, she stopped trying to cover her tattoos and held her head high as she felt turmoil inside. Her eyes turned cold but showed defiance, her mouth was turned up into a smirk and she swayed her hips more than usual. The girls closest to her looked at her with annoyance, they were all equally annoyed with her presence at their school and her interruption to their social order. Morgandy had to stop herself from running away.