Through Her Lives

Morgandy

Morgandy smiled to herself knowing she was back. A weird day it had been but one that could easily be forgotten she thought as she flipped on her stereo intent on a long bath. Undressing as the first note of the piano came on, a song she knew all too well. 

Not now, not today. 

But the memories came anyway, Debussy's Clair De Lune was announced over the stereo. She was unable to hold them back before she could switch songs. She turned the stereo off with a jab, running back to the bath and jumping into the scolding hot water desperately trying to distract herself with the events of today. The lapse in concentration she had experienced meeting Dale. Wondering why she was being watched by that girl, wondering who lunged at whom first, willing to bet it was her lunging at the girl. A constant babble of thoughts ran so loudly through her head that she didn't hear a knock on the door or the opening of the doors but became aware of a presence in the room. She turned slightly, her eyes narrowing when she laid eyes the girl she had left in the park. She held in her hands two steaming cups and Morgandy dearly hoped this girl wasn't about to start a heart to heart chat on how she totally didn't mean to hit the girl and how totally sorry she was. Like, I'm totally sorry about that... Or not. The girl was shorter than she had thought and had small features matching her small frame.

Her hair was dark red and had long ringlets.  She stood awkwardly shifting her weight between her feet in the middle of Morgandy's bathroom.

                "Well this is interesting." The girl was kind enough to point out. Gaining confidence despite being in the same room as a naked girl taking a bath, 

What has the world come to, what is privacy in this place. 

The girl had taken on a bright and happy tone while she educated Morgandy on her name.

                  "So I'm Annett, like internet but Annett. Get it?" It was all Morgandy could do to not roll her eyes and groan at the lame introduction.

                "Can I call you Ant?" Her voice emitting so much sarcasm a person may have drowned it but apparently not Annett.

                "Oh of course if you want, no worries there." She chirped with a smile. 

Seriously does everyone in this school have to be overly nice, have high pitched voices and too much energy? Ant was just about right. She could imagine stepping on her accidently. 

Just watching Annett bounce from one foot to another was making Morgandy tired.

                "I figured out we have English and sport together, isn't that good? Now you can take all you anger out in the sport instead of on ...." Ant looked down. She seemed to be deciding in her head as to if it was wise to go on then decided firmly that it wasn't and stayed quiet. There was a lull in the one sided conversation and Morgandy took the opportunity to soap her legs until Annett suddenly looked up as if remembering something.

                "I brought you pumpkin soup, just because I wanted you to know there's no hard feelings. Though you can really throw a punch. You should teach some of the girls here, they'd really like to learn how to defend themselves." She ended quickly with a smile at her brilliant plan. Morgandy inwardly grimaced. Having the mental picture of girls with manicured nails trying to even throw a punch, it was cringe worthy. 

                "I'm not going to teach snotty posh boarding school girls how to fight." Morgandy said her face void of emotion. Annett smiled awkwardly, a bit shocked from the lack of emotion and without another word placed the soup on the counter and left. As she walked through Morgandy's main bedroom she looked idly back at the bathroom. The new girl may as well have come from another planet that she wasn't aware of. 

--

Winter went slowly. The seconds sluggishly morphed into minutes, minutes became hours, hours turned into days and days crawled on to weeks. The wet weather prevented anyone from leaving the school grounds or even trying to go outside. It was a dreary time for everyone. But it gave way to spring, causing celebration and the uplifting of many moods of girls not only across the school but across the country. Though spring was still not as good as summer one could at least leave the school without fear of getting lost in the endless expanse of white. The snow had melted as well, making the ground soggy and slushy but still it was able to be crossed by those not wearing high heels which limited some stubborn girls. Morgandy however still managed to dress up for the weather the girls noticed as she wore camouflage cargo pants slung low on her hips, black heavy boots and a black singlet teamed with a cream woollen crop jumper.

She left the grounds before any of the other girls had surfaced on Saturday, there were no classes and meals were very laid back. It had been announced the day before that the girls could now leave school on the weekend. They didn't even need to sign out. The morning was foggy and as Morgandy got on the bus, the bus driver smiled at her in surprise, she scowled. No need to get friendly with the locals. She walked to the back of the bus and rested her head against one of the many fogged up windows. She hadn't slept well since the day she had punched Annett, nor had she seen Annett since that day or had a dream without Dale's face featured in it. But before she knew it she was deep asleep. Running through the halls of the school, petrified of her pursuer. Screaming for help but no words coming out, feelings of suffocation running through her, she was unable to get air, she was falling, tripping over a corner just as he came into sight. Sprawled on her back, helpless, her pursuer advanced menacingly, his face obscured by shadow.

***

"Welcome to London dearie." The bus driver shook her shoulder and she awoke with a start. An hour had past but the fog seemed to have gotten thicker and as she got off the bus she could only see a few feet in front of her. She felt as though she was walking through a scene from Harry Potter. The street lights bobbing in the air emitting only enough light to make out the shapes of buildings. She found the London Library quickly, it was a circular building and the wooden bookshelves lined the walls reaching towards the domed skylight ceiling. There were uncountable storeys, each one deserted as a still silence filled the darkened building. She walked to a nearby computer, wondering and hoping that her only trail hadn't gone cold. Sitting down, she touched the screen of the computer willing it to turn on. The screen came to life, a blue glare filling the room and causing her to squint through the darkness. While the computer loaded she swung around idly on the chair searching the library for anything of interest, only to end up staring at the still dark sky.

She brought up Google and immediately began typing in his name.