Never Look Twice

-1-

As the chauffeur opened my door I felt slightly sick. 

The combination of skipping breakfast and starting a new boarding school was definitely getting to my stomach. I stepped out of the black car and was amazed by the grand hall I was presented. Its high stone walls stood strong and grand large windows shaped its appearance. The chauffeur took my bag and I went in the grand hall hoping to find the office. After passing a few rooms, which looked like workspaces, I finally found the office. The middle-aged woman told me to wait till someone called me, which I did.

 After a while of passing time by writing in my journal, which I had packed in my backpack as an essential, a tall, brown haired, elegantly dressed boy asked me:,, Hey! Are you the new girl? Grade nine?" 

,,I guess, why?", I wondered, slightly confused by his blunt question.

 ,,Oh, sorry, I'm Oliver. I'm giving you the campus tour", he said smiling.

 ,,Thanks, but I think I'm good. I'll just go find my dorm", I said, and walked down the other end of the hall. ,,Are you planning on living in the gym? Because that's where you're heading", he said and laughed. 

I put my hand on my forehead in embarrassment and asked:,, Are you still open for that tour?" ,,Sure! Come on, it's this way", he said and gestured for me to come his way.

 I followed him down the hall and out of the old oak doors. While passing through the halls I observed all of the glass cabinets filled with awards, trophies and medals. ,,Why so many medals?" I asked as we left the building. ,,We have quite a few talent programs, and by making them mandatory, the school has a large selection of athletes, artists and musicians. What can I say?

 We are a pretty talented school", he said, and I wondered what program I would choose. But this question was quickly answered by Oliver saying:,, They placed you in advanced mandarin, med 1, legal practice and horse-back riding" 

,,What is junior law court? A fancy name for debate club?", I said and he laughed. ,,Oh no, its basically a court, but it's the students that present cases. Meaning that any sort of problems on campus, go through our own court. The students get assigned a junior lawyer, which you will become fairly soon, and then their case goes to court. The only person that's not a student, is the judge, which is mister Jeffords, our Dean." 

I was quite amazed by the advanced system they had in place. I was about to ask another question, but before I could, a handsome, athletic boy linked his arm with mine.

 I was so startled that I almost didn't notice that Oliver stopped walking. ,,What do you want?", he asked, and seemed quite annoyed.

 ,,Relax bro! I was just going to ask the princess from what kingdom she was?", the handsome boy replied and started walking again. Our arms still linked, I was forced to follow. 

,,I'm not a princess, Oliver was just giving me the tour, you see I'm new here", I said. ,,I see, why don't I join you?", he said, which made me laugh, because he already had. 

,,Come on, don't you have some game to be at?",, Oliver asked annoyed. ,,No, you see, I play a lot of sports", the athletic boy said, turning from Oliver to me. 

,,That's nice, so what's that field over there?" I asked, trying to actually continue the tour. ,,That's the-", before finishing the sentence, the boy dropped in and said, ,,it's the hockey field!"

 ,,Sweet, do you play, wait, I never caught your name?" ,,That's because the bird brain never introduced himself", Oliver mumbled. I laughed and the other boy rolled his eyes and said:

 ,,I'm Mason, team captain of the ice hockey team, popular kid, king of-" , before he could finish, Oliver said, ,, While some of us enjoy sliding on ice, others actually like to spend time doing educational things, like reading! Would do you some good!"

 ,,Nah, too many letters", Mason said and smirked, which earned him an eye roll from Oliver. I laughed and asked:,, Why the bad vibes?" ,,You'll get it after living with him for two years", Oliver answered. ,,Wait, so your brothers?", I asked.

 ,,No!", they both yelled.

 I laughed and looked at the sports centers and houses we were passing. Then I asked sounding quite confused:,, So why do you live together? And why will I live with you?" After saying that I felt even more confused, and I also must have looked quite confused, because Mason just laughed.

 Oliver finally answered:,, The schools living arrangements are different than the ones of other schools. Our school decided that by putting mixed-gender groups of students together in small houses, would lessen loneliness in students." ,, We eat together, study together, spend weekends together, and the cool houses party together, but our house chief is boring and won't let us", Mason said and rolled his eyes. 

"I'm not boring! And besides, why do you want to throw a 'party'?", Oliver exclaimed, adding air quotes to the word 'party'. ,,Because some people actually like to have fun! If they would have voted for me in the chief-debate, we would be having a party every night!" I had read about this in the leaflet they had given me at the reception. The house chief gets voted every year, and there is a full-on voting system and everything. Whoever gets the most votes, is house chief. Apparently they also call the shots. 

The conversation continued when Oliver said, ,,Why would you want to vote for someone who's slogan is 'vote for me, I'm cool!'?",, At least I was honest!", Mason yelled, seeming slightly embarrassed by his bad motto. ,,So that means that I'm living with you guys, Oliver is house chief, and no party's?", I asked, mainly just needing a conformation that the last five minutes of conversation were not a dream, as they were so ridiculous. But suddenly we stopped in front of a white house with large windows. I looked around and noticed that the house was followed by multiple more houses in its row. ,, Yup! This is our house", Oliver said, and unlocked the door we stopped in front of. The interior of the house was nice and tidy. The tidiness definitely did not come from Mason. ,,This floor has the kitchen, living room, study space, dining room and entrance space. Upstairs are the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets. Want to check it out?", Oliver asked as he put his key in a small dish in the shape of a fish. ,,Sure", I said, walking up the stairs, eager to see my room.

The boys followed and Mason opened a door at the end of the hall, which I assumed to be the door to my room. Inside was a large bed with a white headboard and lilac sheets. Large bookshelves lined the walls and big windows flooded light in to the lovely room. I sat down in the tufted chair in the corner and looked at the box that was on the matching ottoman. ,,Open it, I'm sure you'll like it!", Mason said, as he fell on to my bed. Oliver leaned against the wall and watched me as I opened the wrapped box. After undoing the ribbons I opened the box. It revealed a device with a black screen. I looked at it in confusion, which Oliver must have seen because he said:,, It's a thinkpad. Every student has one. Progress is uploaded to the school network. You do all of your work on it, and teachers and mentors check it from their thinkpad. So keep it close because you need it in every class!" ,,That's cool, definitely more modern than my other schools", I said.

 At my last school, the teachers were even older than the school itself, and that's saying a lot! I had been to two other private schools, but never to a boarding school. ,,So this isn't your first boarding school?", Oliver asked. He seemed very curious, but before I could answer, Mason asked:,, Can we please talk about this over dinner? I'm starving!" ,,I swear, you eat as much as a hippo!", a small brown-haired girl said, as she entered the room and sat down next to Mason on the bed. ,,I'm Chloe, Oliver's sister", she said while smiling at me. ,,Younger sister", Oliver said, which made Chloe huff. I smiled at her. Not only because she seemed nice, but also because I was happy to not be the only girl. 

Their short conversation reminded me of myself and my brothers.

 I too was the youngest sister. 

But I didn't only have one brother, I had four.