Check Mate

There are very few things in this world of which I am sure: teenagers are ruled by hormones, we are entitled only to what we fight for, life never works the way we want it to, and I will never do what I am told.

My hand slapped hard against the cold metal at the top of my alarm clock. It was Monday again. After years of the same routine, I’ve come to accept that this will happen every 7 days or so. A perfect pattern; like life. There was nothing new when you really thought about it, just different people playing out the same scenarios over and over….and over. Sometimes life was enough to make you mad but that was only if you let it. There was no denying my own insanity but I’d always prided myself in it being my own doing as opposed to myself being a direct result of a failed society. Were that the case, I’d never forgive myself the horrible let down.

The first movements confirmed what I’d only half consciously expected just the night before; I would wake up sore. It wasn’t something you bothered thinking about while you were being rammed into but even then, I knew. Rising slowly into a sitting position, I pulled the covers from my head and found my roommate, Megan, already dressed—save the tie she was delicately working on. Yet another thing I’d come to expect in life. We’d been stuck roommates since my second year here with the idea that her puritanical rigidity would somehow rub off on me, giving me a divine transformation more pleasing to the Sisters that run this ancient Academy, but by now I assume they knew better. I found Megan to be an interesting specimen of human life but that was as far as my interest went. I had long given up on conversation with her. Every time I tried I would be quoted another scripture; she had one for every deadly sin she was of the opinion I committed and who was I to set her straight?

There isn’t a day that goes by without me being told I’m going to hell and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t flash her a wicked grin and inform her of my plans to meet her there. First time I did, she cried, but now I like to think she’s used to it.

My eyes remained transfixed on the blue silk of her tie as she wove it around, until it’d become the perfect knot she always got it to be. “You’re going to be late if you sit there, like that.” I heard her say stiffly as she caught my eyes on her. “Sister Morgan will not be happy if you are late for Mass again and you know she’ll blame me.” My eyes followed her as she crossed the room to shrug into her blazer but I made no immediate moves to get up, feeling a swirling in my head that could only have come from last night. “I warned you not to go to that party, Eleanor; they are against school rules for a reason. Do you think Sister Morgan will be happy when I tell her—”

“I don’t think Sister Morgan will do anything because you’re not going to tell her.”

For a moment she fiddled with her blazer but said nothing to me, her gaze against the floor. My expression grew darker as I waited on a response that didn’t seem to be coming. Finally, as the last of my patience trickled through the non-existent glass that was my tolerance she lifted her gaze to me once more.

“You shouldn’t be drinking. You could get caught and expelled—do you even know the risks?? Do you know the risk of smoking? I found the pack of cigarettes in your draw and I think you should know that the Dean may want a word with you later.”

Were I less hung over I may have been startled, worried even but as it stood, I had a headache and needed some breakfast. Megan preached about hell a lot, sometimes, I wondered if she ever thought she’d be the reason I’d end up there. With a heavy sigh, I rose from my bed and stumbled my way to the closet. “Christ, you can be such a twat sometime, you know that?” I mumbled, raising a hand to shield my eyes from sunlight pouring in through our window. Of all the days to sun, it chose today. I supposed I was meant to be grateful for the sun given we didn’t see it often here but today would have been a brilliant time to have one of those grand spanking English weathers we’ve got other countries talking about.