Outrunning Her Shadow

Chapter Ten - The Marlborough Ladies Society

October 4th 2028

Several weeks had passed since Ellie had enjoyed her late night drinking session with Ashley Mills, and with the warmth of summer becoming rarer as they entered the month of October, her life at Marlborough College had finally started to settle into a pattern. After the first couple of weeks, having survived the all-out attack on her body that her packed timetable was providing, she was certain that she could keep it going. With a total of fifty classes every fortnight, Ellie was doing just as much as every other student, but it was the extracurricular activities that were really punishing.

From daily Guitar practice to Cadets on Wednesday, to Gymnastics on Thursday and Tennis on Friday, Riding Club on Saturday followed by Swimming not long after. Sunday afternoons would soon be occupied by Drama rehearsal once Mrs Moon had decided what theatre production they would be throwing at the end of the year, a production which every Drama student was expected to take part in.

In amongst of all this Ellie still tried to fit in quick sessions with the Conservation Society, which she wanted to get into for the sake of her parents, as well as the Shakespeare Society and the Astronomy Club late on Thursday evening. It was even a struggle to fit in a twenty minute Skype call home every week, something that Alex constantly argued with her over.

'It's always me that has to explain to them where you are!' she says, but they should know how important this schedule is. I'll call when I can!

Sitting on top of everything was still Hockey and Football, with Football practice on Tuesday and Sunday morning, and Hockey practice on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Football was still not a sport that she saw herself excelling in, even when Ashley wasn't exactly making it hard. It was only through Ellie's insistence that the squad actually got any training done, and even then it never felt like any of them could truly work as a team.

Hockey was her biggest challenge, worse than the horse manure and saddle sores of Riding Club, or the uncomfortable leotard she was still getting used to wearing in Gymnastics. Nothing was as gruelling as Hockey. Seemingly as a price for making breakthroughs in her relationship with Ashley, Maddie Howard had easily turned the whole Hockey squad against her, convinced that she was a mole planted by Ashley to annoy them and ruin their success.

They even find ways to ignore my two goal average for every practice.

Each time she entered the changing rooms to get ready, she was greeted by narrowed, judgemental eyes and a wholly unwelcome atmosphere, which carried on to the pitch as illegal tackles that went unnoticed and complete refusals to pass her the ball. If anything, it made her more motivated to get on the A Team and prove Maddy wrong, but since the A Team had already played and won four league games whilst Ellie's B Team season had yet to begin, she had had little chance of truly impressing Coach Sawyer in the proper setting.

One particularly messy exchange with Maddy at their last session was sticking painfully in Ellie's mind like an old war wound that refused to heal. With all that she had done to ruin Ellie's reputation in the past, Maddy still had the absurd idea to say to her "She's all up inside your head, isn't she?"

The words seemed to drip poisonously from her lips as they jostled for position, a response to Ellie confronting her about the latest rumour that Ashley had revealed to her.

The rumour didn't matter as much, she was fairly sure that none of the women in her family wore wigs, but Maddy's words stuck with her days afterwards. The idol that she once saw in Maddy Howard was completely gone, replaced by a monster who only wanted to make the sport she was best at also the hardest to enjoy, and was intent on making everyone at school dislike her. She had become exactly what Ashley said she was, a lying and scheming bitch.