New Girl

The First Day

 I sat shivering on the pavement, raindrops melding to my tears. I couldn't help it, my emotions were stronger this time. I shut my eyes and breathed. One. Two. Three. It'd be over in a second. As I opened my eyes, someone else was standing beside me. A girl with a head of blonde and a kind face. She was looking at me. I looked back. Then a few others emerged from the surrounding penthouses. All wearing the same uniform, the same straight private college hair an the perfectly polished leather shoes. Those were possibly my class mates. It had been only five minutes until the bus rolled around, and I followed the crowd of reuniting students inside, taking the first empty seat near the back by the window.

 On the double seat beside me sat the blonde girl, we exchanged a smile. In front of her was another girl, brown-haired with a pearly set of teeth, attempting to spark a conversation with me as she waited to meet my gaze:

"Hi!" she said. Her voice was inviting and her eyes seemed kind. I felt I could engage.

"Hey." I answered, my voice still shaky from sentiment.

"So, you're new here right?"

"Yeah, I am."

"What's your name?" 

"Giselle."

"I'm Madeline, nice to meet you." she rummaged through her bag. "Want a lollipop?"

It was seven in the morning and I was not a sweet tooth. I waved her off kindly and looked back at the window. I felt a bump on the seat beside me.

Ordinarily, I never liked it when strangers made themselves too comfortable around me. But I needed a friend, and Madeline could be it. She was kind enough, very bubbly and she seemed to know her way around the college as they had all moved in from the Knights lower school where my sister went. She told me about the school and the teachers she had heard of. She told me about her friends and her summer and everything she had visited. Then we spoke about me and my home. I couldn't help but feel a weight in my throat as I spoke of Paris.

 Every morning I'd take the bus to school. My best friend Sabrina lived in the same building and we had sat together for the past twelve years. It was a ritual. She'd bring down her morning wraps with a cucumber, and I'd be sipping on coffee on the way there. Sometimes we talked, mostly we laughed. And if we were exhausted, we'd sleep. We were too familiar with each other to be afraid of being ourselves. In school we'd hang out with our group and then after school we'd probably see each other. She always sat to my right and I to her left by the window. This never changed and everyone on the bus knew. Bus fifteen. Now, it was bus nine. I still sat by the window, but someone else sat to my right. I felt a sort of comfort remembering Sabrina but knowing that I wasn't going to see the familiar Lycée faces made me shiver.

                                                                                         ***

 The school was enormous. Almost like a palace. It was a refurnished castle from the seventeenth century turned sixth form. No wonder my parents had paid a fortune to put me in here. As I entered following Madeline, I saw the walls ornate with awards, medals and trophies the school had won. Diplomas, and honorable mentions and even top staff. It was a typical competitive school, renown for their high-achieving students. Most were sports trophies and the rest were academics. I understood they prodded themselves on sports. Framed pictures of teams over the years, dating back to the seventies even smiled proudly at the camera. It seemed as though no one could lose in this school.