Outrunning Her Shadow

Chapter Six - Shades of Scarlett

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"I just had a music lesson. Hi!" They shared an awkward, tentative hug. The memory of their last meeting and of Scarlett running away from her was sticking at the forefront of Ellie's brain.

"And...it's Abby now." She did look decidedly less like a Scarlett, a pale blonde wearing the dark blue and green of Marlborough instead of her ripped jeans and band t-shirt.

"You go to school here now?" Ellie studied Abby's uniform closely, as if it would be any different from her own. It seemed strange to see Abby as anything but the rebellious runaway rocker girl that she'd met in the summer, but in that moment she stood before her looking as refined and elegant as any Marlborough girl, even Ashley.

"Are you following me?" Ellie joked.

"Not everything revolves around you, Princess." Abby smiled at her briefly, but with the students around her she quickly hid it. "It's a long story, do you have time later?"

"I've got this guitar lesson first." Ellie said taking out her timetable. More students were squeezing past to get to their next lesson and pushing Ellie and Abby closer together, with several of them stopping and staring at the new girl talking to the Princess.

Abby leaned closer, her sweet perfume invading Ellie's nose as she tried to angle her head enough to read the timetable. "Cool, we have history together later. Sit with me?"

"Sure, I'll see you then."

With a firm nod, Abby left her. She blended back into the crowd, lowering her head and sneaking away whilst other students watched her leave.

She's as uncomfortable here as she was at my birthday party.

Throughout her guitar lesson Ellie lost track of the chords she was practicing as her mind frequently drifted to thoughts of Abby and what she was doing at Marlborough, considering she was an orange haired runaway the last time they'd been together. Ellie was already expecting Ashley to be disgusted at the thought of a homeless person going to the same school as her when they met up in Drama in their next period, but at least it would be a more interesting conversation than talking about her attempts to learn Guitar. In just over a week of knowing Ashley, Ellie had never had a proper conversation about their interests. Most of the chat had been about school gossip, powerful families, being famous, and who to add on Facebook.

Abby was the only new person she'd met in the last few months that she had shared a somewhat real connection with, even if they barely knew each other.

"You need to put in at least twenty minutes of practice each day Ellie." Her youthful teaching assistant Mr Norman told her as he packed away their instruments. "And I'd like to see some more focus from you next week."

"Sorry Mr Norman, I'll do better." Ellie said, trying to sound genuine as she mentally noted down the extra homework. She already had twenty equations to solve for Maths and a dozen plant cell diagrams to copy down for Biology, with two more classes still to go before the end of the day.

"Don't worry about that." Ashley told her vaguely as they gathered at the foot of the Marlborough Mound waiting for their Drama lesson to start. Homework and the other pressures of school never seemed to bother her. "Tell me more about the Watts-Digby girl that you met."

Mrs Moon opened the doors of the Ellis Theatre and let the class inside, demanding in a mock old woman's voice that they take off their shoes as they entered. "No scuffing my floors!"

It was clear that everyone in the class had been looking forward their first lesson with Mrs Moon, widely seen to be one of the most popular teachers in the school. She was one of the main reasons Ellie had decided to study Drama at GCSE level, aside from her Aunt Emma's massive amounts of stories from her acting days, plus the added confidence some acting experience would provide for Ellie's future.