Scotland.
It's not as amazing as everyone told Myrtle it would be, she had already decided she was not a fan of the weather as she laid down in bed, occasionally letting out of groans of annoyance that she was unable to fall asleep due to the strong winds hammering on her window. She sat upright and sighed, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She felt warm tears begin to stream down her cheeks as she thought about how much fun all her friends would be having in the coming weeks back in England. She glanced over at the corner of her new room - which still smelt very unfamilar - towards her old worn out backpack sat gloomily in the corner. She had already tried time and time again to presudade her mum to let her have at least a couple more days off school before she would have to meet her new class, but there was no budging her. Myrtle wiped a few stray tears from her face before laying down again, closing her eyes and cupping her hands over her ears to try to at least muffle the sounds of the world outside.
The sound of a phone alarm blasting beside Myrtle's head rudely awoke her. She mumbled some incoherante words to herself before swipping the alarm away. She let out a heavy sigh as she got up out of bed, stretching her legs behind her. She opened the curatins to see a clear, sunny day, she coulld still hear the wind rushing past but the view was nice. Maybe Scotland won't be so bad after all. Myrtle made sure to spend lots of time on her appearance, she didn't want to lose out on any oppourtunities to make some new friends. The school uniform left much to be desired, it consisted of a white shirt, a green tie, a checkered green skirt and a green jumper over the shirt that itched Myrtle's neck. She made a swift exit out of the house, her father had already left for work earlier this morning and her mother was still asleep, Myrtle didn't care much for breakfast anyway.
Myrtle had walked this way with her mum a few days prior so she knew where her school was. Their new house was quite secluded, they had a long driveway and the back of their house was sheltered with thick woodland - but Myrtle didn't have any interest in exploring it until she had some friends to bring with her, forests had always unnerved her. As she walked closer to the school, more houses appeared along the road and thus more children - all wearing the same green uniform as Myrtle. She gave a soft smile to anyone she caught the eye of but made sure to put her earphones in as she got closer to avoid having to interact with anyone just yet. The school itself was quite big, not as big as her previous school but not what you'd consider small. The building was quite plain - gloomy grey brick surrounded the outside and the inside didn't stand out much either. Myrtle had been to visit with her family last week after school hours so she knew roughly what was going on and had her shcedule, but it felt a lot more packed now everyone else was here. She walked briskly through the reception and towards her homeroom, it was the only room she really knew so far so it was her goal to at least meet someone friendly enough to show her around for the day. She noticed a few pupils stood outside the classroom that she had been show the previous week but decided not to interact with any of them just yet - none of them really seemed like the type of people she got along with anyway.
As Myrtle aimlessly scrolled on her phone, more and more people began to gather around the door as Myrtle felt people's eyes darting towards her every once in a while. She had never been the new kid in school before, but she kind of liked all the attention. She felt a tap on her shoulder and took one earphone out, turning to face the person beside her.
"Hey," a girl said softly, she had wavy blonde hair secured behind her head in a high ponytail and welcoming blue eyes.
"Hey," Myrtle smiled back at her, she noticed two other girls stood behind the blonde; one had thick auburn hair and freckles planted acoss her face whereas the other had dark brown hair neatly put into a bun atop her head.
"You're Myrtle, right? I'm Jess, your hair look gorgeous today by the way," Myrtle blushed slightly and lightly grazed a hand over her brown hair,
"Aw, thanks. Your make up looks stunning,"
"That's thanks to me," the girl with the bun smirked, leaning across Jess to offer her hand to Myrtle, "Hullo, I'm Coira"
Myrtle noticed that Jess didn't have a scottish accent at all, Coira had a slight one but the third girl definetely had the thickest of the three, "Ma name's Leslee, do ye wann us to show ye roun' school after tutor?"
"Sure," Myrtle smiled quickly, she hadn't thought much about how different scottish accents are to english ones, she just hoped she wouldn't have to start speaking gaelic.
"Our teacher's called Mr Oak, dinnae mess with him - he's a right radge," Coira chuckled as an old man waddled up the stairs, he carried a pile of heavy looking books in his right arm and had a thick grey mustache covering his mouth and small black glasses perched across his nose.
"In we come laddies and lassies," he said gruffly, holding open the door as everyone began to slowly make their way to their seats. Myrtle was slightly tentative walking into the class and could feel everyones eyes on her, but luckily there was a spare seat next to Jess so Myrtle didn't have to wander around looking for somewhere to sit.
"I know what you're feeling girl, I moved her just over a year ago from England as well. Don't worry it's not that bad, the only confusing thing is the different ways of speaking," Myrtle was already pretty sure Jess was not born in Scotland, but it felt comforting to know someone else had gone through the same thing she was and seemed to have some really strong friendships already. Myrtle glanced around and noticed a boy staring at her, he had slightyl curly ginger hair that passed just below his ears and murky green eyes. They locked eyes for a second before the boy blushed slightly and looked away, instantly starting a conversation with the boy he was sat next to.
"Ye got googly-eyes for Jasper, ay?" Leslee teased from across the table, noticing the two exchanging glances.
"Ay, she does!" Coira chuckled as Myrtle began to blush, she knew she had no feelings for the boy but everyone teasing her always made her face red.
"Stop teasing girls, she's way too good for that nerd," Jess giggled, glaring slightly at Jasper and his friends, "that's Jasper and his buddies Arun and Harris - if Jasper keeps staring at you tell me and we'll show him not to mess with you."
The three girls giggled before beginning to talk about their new phone updates, or maybe it was about the weather, Myrtle wasn't really paying attention. She kept glancing over at Jasper throughout tutor, something about him seemed familar yet she was certain she'd never met him in his life.
"Ye listening Myrtle?" Leslee said quite loudly, snapping Myrtle's attention away from her own head and towards the group she was sat with.
"Oh? Sorry, thinking about... stuff,"
"Ay, dinnae worry, everyone is nice enough here," Coira smiled at her, "and ye'll get used to the accents soon enough."
The day passed by quickly surprisingly, Myrtle got to know Jess, Coira and Leslee better at lunch and break and managed to sit next to Coira in her science class. She found out they all seemed to like similar things: photography, social media, drawing - but they all had their own quirks like Jess did flower-pressing, Coira was into sewing and Leslee enjoyed teaching her border collie Rupert new tricks. Myrtle returned home satisfied, she made sure to message all her old friends from back in England as soon as she got home, but now she wasn't feeling so lonely up in the Highlands.
School began to drift away from confusing and slightly exciting to boring and repetitive as Myrtle fell into a weekly routine and began to learn her way around. She found herself drifting closer to Jess due to the shared experience of moving to a new country, but all four of the girls made sure to make time for one another. Myrtle had met a few other people in the past few months but had stuck mainly to her origional friend group, but she didn't mind sitting or talking to other people every once in a while. Myrtle sat down in her usual chair as she entered her first lesson of the day - science - and waited patiently for Coira. The bell rung and class had officially begun, Myrtle wasn't too worried as Coira often came in late due to her bus etting stuck in traffic but it didn't mean she would be paying attention to the lesson or engaging with any of the learning. Myrtle periodically checked the clock. 9:05, 9:10, 9:15... Myrtle was getting worried now - usually Coira wasn't much later than five minutes even with the hold up of the bus.
"Sorry I'm late!" Coira hurridly rushed through the door, sitting down next to Myrtle briskly and receving nothing but a glare from the teacher for interuptting her lesson.
"I was getting worried for a second, what happened? Was there a crash or something?"
"Na, we wur actually earlie but this great big dog bolted o'er th' road and managed to get hit by the bus. Bus driver got oot to see the damage but 'twas gaen. Pure weird, ah think the bus driver was just seeing things but-"
"Hope am not interrupting your conversation lassies, but ye meant to be listening - not chatting," the teacher, Mrs Smith, glared at the two girls from across the room. Myrtle could feel the rest of the class turn to glance at the pair, usually Myrtle would just shut up and stay quiet is she was called out on it but Coira wasn't Myrtle.
"Am tryna have a conversation here miss!" Coira snapped back. This rightfully annoyed Mrs Smith who scoffed at her. "Coira, Myrtle ye splitting up. Myrtle - go sit over there next to Paige," Mrs Smith gestured to a empty chair next to a tall girl with dark brown, almost black, hair. Myrtle silently obligeting, collecting her stuff and walking over to her new seat. She wasn't extatic about the movement but at least she and Coira were still in class - any of her old teachers would have sent both of them to detention just for talking let alone talking back.
"Hey!" Paige smiled at Myrtle as she sat down, Myrtle had never really spoken with Paige much but she seemed nice enough.
"Hi, sorry for moving here, I bet you don't really want to talk to me after that," Myrtle chuckled awkwardly, rubbing her neck a bit.
"Aw no it's fine, ye just need to be more aware. Mrs Smith has ill hearing so if we keep our voices quiet enough she'll never hear us from over here - that's why I like sitting at the back, but as you can probably tell I haven't had anyone to talk to for a while," Myrtle sat smiling at Paige as she rambled on, Paige stopped for a second and giggled nervously, "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to drag on so much, I have a tendancy to blether too much."
"Where are you from?" Myrtle said inquestitivley, her accent wasn't very recognisable but she seemed to speak with a few Scottish words Myrtle had encountered over the past few months.
"Scotland, if you couldn't guess," Paige chuckled, " But I don't have much of an accent since mah parents weren't born in Scotland - they were born in England like ye," Myrtle felt comfortable around Paige, she didn't have any reason to be uncomfortable but it was a strange comfortable, almost as if they'd been friends for months rather than just meeting a few minutes ago.
"Anyway, we should probably get some work done," Paige sighed as she returned to focusing on the content they were supposed to be learning.
