Book One: Trunk & Chopbox Girls

Chapter Four

October

Because I was still in my grace period, I was exempted from Saturday's chores so while my mates were up and running, I was still in the dorm reading a book I had packed along from home. The seniors were having breakfast and all the items, which had been dubbed as 'Contraband' was in full use. I saw kettles, heaters, instant noodles and even a bottle of red wine! They were living the life. The Form 2 girls still had some work to do but most of them were done and were relaxing on their beds.

As much as I hated BAGS, I had to admit that they had pretty amazing Saturdays. We went for breakfast at the usual time and returned to work. Josie, who seemed to have woken up on the bright side after talking to her boyfriend on her phone secretly in the bathroom last night, told me how a typical Saturday was like in BAGS.

"They are the best. After breakfast, you have the day to yourself. Most clubs hold their meetings. You just have to show up for meal times and then at six we have entertainment", she informed me.

"What's for entertainment tonight?" I asked her.

She scrunched as if she was trying to remember and then told me to check the notice board on the corridor to be sure. We had a movie night.

"If we're lucky we get the chance to go into town some Saturdays", she said.

"Where do you go normally?"

"Sometimes we meet up with the boys from Clarence", she smiled shyly, "My boyfriend Jason goes there."

I smiled glad that she thought I was cool enough to share this information with. It also meant that she wasn't mad at me after the whole Tasha Fierce issue. So I felt comfortable asking her the next question.

"Who are The Queens?"

She stopped smiling. "How did you hear about them?"

I thought about telling her about the letter I had received but I bit my tongue. It had stated on the letterhead that the letter was for my eyes only. "I heard a couple of girls mentioning The Queens. I know Rowena is here in Aylward."

Josie nodded. "Yeah, they are just a group of friends."

"I see."

I felt that Josie was hiding something from me and for a second I felt she knew that I had received the letter. Maybe it was just a prank they were playing on me.

I found the letter under my pillow the night before when I put my head on my pillow. There was a sweet powdery smell emanating from under my pillow so I raised it up and saw the neatly typed out paper signed by Rowena Golightly. I knew who Rowena was because she was in Aylward and I knew that she walked with a bunch of girls who seemed to admire her but I had never heard of The Queens. It was hard not to admire her. There was just something about her. It was as if she was a walking oxymoron. She seemed unfriendly yet friendly. Like maybe, she could be a very nice person once you got to know her and even though she was just in Form 2, even the seniors were weary of her. The people that followed, even some of the seniors, always walked around looking blessed to be in her presence.

I wasn't sure Aku would have had any information on Rowena Golightly or The Queens and Josie certainly was not going to talk further.

I spent my first weekend wondering what exactly The Queens wanted from me. I didn't fit the description all the other girls in the group had. They were all so...intriguing and interesting and I didn't think I was. They seemed like the kinds who were always in the mix, hanging out at grown up parties, drinking alcohol and dating university boys. What exactly were the perks of being part of The Queens? There wasn't much going on in BAGS and the outside world. The nearest town was about fifteen minutes away. But I decided to observe them and how they related with the student body. By the time we had entertainment I had learnt that The Queens were exempted from any punishment. How? They casually strolled into the dining hall, twenty minutes after lunch had started. Even the teachers on duty decided to overlook that little fact. They refused to touch their meals and continued talking while lunch was going on. I kept on glancing over at where Rowena and some of the girls were sitting but this time she never looked at me. Well, she hadn't looked at me since my first night here. Was this part of the initiation? Rowena was now pretending I did not exist. I also learnt that The Queens were not only in Aylward but also in all the other houses. Rowena, who was in Aylward, just happened to be something like the queen bee. But even if I had found out this information, it still did not alleviate my anxiety. What did The Queens want from me?