Pink Or Black

chapter 2

Tiana had been very excited at the prospect of going to study in boarding school. Most of the kids in her previous school had laughed at her enthusiasm when she had confided in them. They told her that it would be like living in a jail; the food would be awful and she would not even have a proper bed of her own.

Well, you can't blame them..... that is exactly the kind of picture that is painted into the average kid's mind-nightmarish, cut off from the joys of life and imprisonment! Tiana understood where their fear steamed from. They were scared of boarding schools because parents usually threatened to send their kids to one if they didn't behave properly. Tiana's case was different. Thanks to the long and frank talks that she had had with her parents, she knew what she was in for and that going to a boarding school was going to be nothing less than an adventure.

At the age of ten, she found herself gazing at the beautiful Hill View High. Set on a hilltop with red tin roofs and conical style stone buildings, which were almost 150 years old, the school looked like a cozily perched buildings in a beautiful land scrape painting. Students lived in huge dormitories which had fireplaces ( though they didn't work anymore, but probably did 150 years ago when the school was filled with kids of officers from the British army ). In fact, the very founder of her school was a British military officer who had died during the revolt of 1857. When Tiana was new to this school, she had no idea that it had once been a strict military school. Being put right in the middle of life which was filled by sounds of bell, shrill whistles and bellowing voices of orders from day to night was not exactly what Tiana was expecting for herself! Every thing was compulsory and guided by a strict set of rules and regulations .... this meant anything from wake-up calls to strict classes and even games and hobbies ( Ya! You read it right ... even hobbies, which under normal circumstances are usually the outcome of your wishes, were compulsory here! )