Sing A Song Of Sixpence

Chapter 1

The Maiwand Preparatory School was admittedly not my favorite place in the world, albeit having a world-class biology program. Of course I was serious about becoming a doctor, but I was 16 years old, for God's sake. I was introverted enough, but anywhere where kids were suspended for the elsewhere routine whispers during class was a little too uptight for me. Every day for the past month, I had eyed the stack of pamphlets for the Musgrave Academy at the entrance to the South Hall. It had a prestigious medical program, and was 100 miles away from Buffalo - much further from home than I was now. See, my parents were urging me to put myself further out in the world. Doctors should be fiercely independent, they said. The issue was the cost of tuition. Only children of senators and CEOs could afford to attend, and scholarships were few and far between.

"Did you hear that Miles Perry and Angela Lorde hooked up Saturday night?" I heard a whisper from three lockers down. "My brother's in Miles' grade, and he told me he told her every muscle he was using while he was on top of her."

The girl's friend made a tsking noise. "Well I heard that she called out the names of the muscles twitching inside of her."

The first girl immediately shot back, "Well I heard that she called 'Carl Linnaeus' at the end."

I had to physically bite my lip to keep from laughing as I shoved my anatomy book into my backpack and headed down the hall.

Ellis Murray, my roommate of two years, master of cheating on exams, sprinted up to me. "Jackie! Did you or did you not hear about that brilliant dissection 1st period?"

I sighed. "No, Ellis, I did not. I don't care to, either."

Ellis rammed my shoulder lightly as we walked through the courtyard to reach the South Hall. "What is up with you this week? You're chickening out all of a sudden."

"I am not!" We pushed open the huge double doors to get into the hall. "I had a virus last weekend, I'm still queasy."

Ellis snorted. "Whatever you say, man. You didn't look ill at the bar Friday night."

"I didn't drink anything, did I?"

"You never drink anything! Christ, Watson, you're such a lightweight."

"Just because you've never seen me drink doesn't mean I'm a lightweight. I'll bet I hold my booze much better than you."

"Listen dude, I'm sure as hell gonna hold you to that someday, but right now I'm just worried about you. What the heck's goin' on up there?" She flicked my upper temple playfully, and I flinched away from her.

"Listen, Ellis, don't you ever just hate this school? It's like prison without all the piss in the courtyard," My eyes subconsciously drifted to the Musgrave Academy table.

Ellis tracked my gaze. "I'd personally remove and sell my own kidney to go there," she muttered, hunger in her eyes. "My brother Al's friend went to one of their parties, like five years ago..." she shook her head in awe before snapping her head back towards me. "And the students! You know that's where Violet Holmes goes?"

I knitted my eyebrows together as I removed my water bottle from the side of my backpack. "Who?"

"Violet Holmes! She's a genius! I'm sure she'd be on a full ride to Yale by now if she hadn't been kicked out of ten high schools her freshman year."

I almost choked on my water. "Ten? How the hell does a 14 year old get kicked out of ten schools in one year?"

"That girl has some kind of a reputation. Fuck, you sure you've never heard of her blog?"