Outrunning Her Shadow

Chapter Five - New Friends, New Rules

As the week went by more and more events would come up, mostly for the benefit of the new first years who were being inducted into Marlborough life. For the upper year groups, it was a time to relax and settle in, see friends from the others houses and to prepare for the year ahead. Ellie took part in a few Ivy House parties alongside Ashley and her friends, expanding her new social circle to other leading figures in the girls houses of Mill Mead and New Court, as well as the boys house Barton Hill.

Her phone never seemed to stop buzzing ever since she'd become Ashley's new best friend, with at least a hundred notifications constantly waiting for her each morning that she would have to go through. Eventually she gave up trying to handle everything and just decided to avoid social media unless one of her new friends brought her attention to something important.

What was much more important to her was making sure she got onto one of the sports teams at Marlborough. Ellie knew she could do well in a lot of subjects, but if she had an average time in class it would be team achievements that would make her fourth year feel like a success.

Even days before her try-out for the girls Football team, Ashley had been saying how easy it would be for Ellie to get selected. With her as Captain of the 'A' team, she had full control over who was picked for her squad. The heavily distracted Coach Morgan had a say, of course, but with multiple teams for him to handle and Ashley's influence over the teachers, it was really down to what Ashley wanted, and Ashley wanted a team full of her friends only. Ellie didn't feel like she played very well and her feet felt like clumsy sacks of coal that struggled to control the ball, and yet Ashley still picked her to play as a central midfielder.

Her try out for the Hockey was much harder going. Summer seemed to vanish for three hours as the rain poured down on the floodlit blue astroturf pitch where over a hundred girls were practicing, making the ground slick and treacherous. Ellie slipped over a dozen times, and on most of the occasions the ball came to her she sliced it with her stick and sent it up into her stomach rather than another player. She was relieved to see that a lot of the other players were having the same issue, with everyone being nervous and struggling in the vastly unexpected weather. Even more challenging was the team that they were practicing against, the U16A Girls, the top-rated hockey team at Marlborough.

They were led by their Captain Madeleine Howard, a tall blonde who clearly spent a lot of time in the school gym working on her cardio. She commanded the field with a steely gaze and swept past other players with ease. Her blonde hair was tied tightly back in a ponytail and whistled behind her like a flag for her teammates to follow, which they did with an infectious enthusiasm.

Ellie couldn't think of a better team to be a part of at Marlborough, even if it was Maddy Howard's hockey stick that tripped her up several times, and she collapsed in exhausted glee when she managed to bundle in a goal towards the very end of the try outs. It seemed to be the deciding moment that earned her a place on the B team, the lowest of the girls U16 teams at Marlborough who only played eight games a year, compared to the twenty-five that the A team competed in.

Ellie didn't mind. She didn't know anyone on the B team, or any of the hockey teams. It was going to be harder than the Football team, but she could tell immediately that she was going to enjoy it more. Her hands had always been better than her feet, so being able to use a hockey stick to hit the ball was what made the difference. Her clumsy feet didn't feel so clumsy, instead they were skittish, darting around and making it easier to get out of tangles with other players and other sticks.

Mum would be proud, even if it is the B team.

Five days after moving back in at Marlborough, Ellie woke up a full half hour before her alarm was set to go off at half seven. She'd struggled to sleep the night before because it was Monday, and it was the first day of classes of the new year. As was tradition, every student was to gather in the massive Norwood Hall at the centre of campus for a whole school assembly that would welcome in the new students before everyone had breakfast together.