Her

Chapter four

I'm woken up the next morning by Samantha shaking me telling me I've overslept. This is a pretty typical thing for me to do. I stretch and swing my feet out of the bed and into my old pink slippers. I hastily tidy my bed then grab my uniform to go get dressed in the bathroom.

This time I'm able to get dressed undisturbed and I even have enough time to do a fishtail style braid in my hair. I leave the bathroom and try navigating my way down to the dining room using my memory of how I got there last night. I feel quite proud of myself after I'm able to walk into the large room without taking one wrong turn. I sit in my spot from last night beside Lucie and eagerly wait to see what's for breakfast. After sleeping in this morning I was still able to make it to breakfast early. Four maids walk out of a wooden door carrying plates and jugs loaded with food and drink. I pour myself some cereal and a glass of orange juice and help myself to two slices of creamy, buttery toast. I don't want to be feeling hungry on my first day and my stomach is quite prone to letting me know that I am.

I head back upstairs to brush my teeth and grab my schoolbag. It's nothing special, just a plain black backpack, but I do have key rings with names of some of my favorite bands such as AJR, 5sos, Guns n' Roses and Queen. I've started already becoming more friendly with the girls in my room including Abigail, who offered to walk with me to class because we both had the same first period. Classes take place five days a week just like a normal school, but instead of having nine periods in one day like in my public school, we only have four, with breakfast before classes and lunch in the middle. Today is a Monday so I have History, English, Maths and PE.

Abigail and I walk into history together and take seats next to each other near the back of the classroom. I prefer sitting in the back of the class because I like to avoid the teacher calling on me but today my new history teacher Ms. Green seemed to only want to do just that.

"I see we seem to have a new student, stand up and introduce yourself miss...."

"Gray, Ellie Gray," I answer, internally screaming because I'm normally a shy person and talking about myself in front of a class is something I'd rather skydive than do.

"Well Ellie, tell us about yourself." The history teacher is nice bless her, but man is this really essential?

"Uh, I'm Ellie, I'm fifteen and I'm new," I say and I cringe at my response. I hear someone laugh to themselves and I turn to see the girl from the bathroom last night.

"Anything else?" Ms Green asks.

"Nope," I say and take my seat. I put my head on my hands. It's bad enough speaking in front of a bunch of strangers but realizing that girl had to witness it too made it even worse, which I didn't think was even possible.

"Right," Ms Green continues and I'm glad the attention is off me. I can't help but keep glancing at the girl to see if she's still laughing but she catches me looking so I don't dare risk it again.

The class finishes up pretty soon and I gather my things and try find the English room. Abigail heads off in the opposite direction to go to her science class and I try looking for a familiar face that's in my English. I notice Samantha walking into a classroom and I check the sign and see that it is the English classroom. I follow her in but notice she's already taken a seat beside some other girl. I notice an empty seat at the back of the room so I make my way towards it. I'm glad this seat was at the back and not the very front. I dump my books on the table and sit down. An old looking man stumbles into the room and a few girls giggle. Mr Stephens is his name and I already acknowledge the fact that this is going to be an extremely boring class.

After forty minutes of trying not to fall asleep on my desk the bell for lunch rings throughout the classroom. Everyone scrambles out the door and runs towards the dining room. Even after my breakfast I'm still starving and can't wait to get something to eat. I stroll into the dinning room and I begin heading towards my normal seat when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see the girl from last night.

"Come sit with me," she says and walks off towards one of the tables.

I stand there, gobsmacked. I look over to where I'd normally sit and Lucie and Abigail are calling me over. I awkwardly point towards the girl and mouth a "I don't know" and follow her over to the bench she's now sitting at. When I reach her, she's already dipping a slice of bread into a bowl of soup. I take the seat next to her and start buttering a small baguette.

"Ellie isn't it," she says, still focusing on her soup.

"Yeah, and your name is.." I ask. I can't keep calling her the bathroom girl forever.

"Anna," she answers and finally looks up from her food.

"Pretty name," I say.

Her eyes narrow and she turns back to her bowl.

"What? You don't agree?"

"It's just a bit boring isn't it? Besides, a name doesn't tell you much about who you are as a person," she shrugs.

"I guess not," I take a bite out of my bread, "how long have you been going here?"

"Two years. I was the last "new girl" before you appeared. How long are you here for anyway?" She looks into my eyes.

"Just this term, then I have to go back to the school in my hometown," I answer.

"Oh, nice for you," she says and finishes her soup, wipes her mouth with a napkin, and leaves the table.

I sit there a bit shocked for a couple of seconds before coming to my senses and moving over to sit back beside Lucie and Abigail.

"Why were you over there?" Lucie asks when I sit down.

"She invited me over, why?" I ask.

"I don't think she's spoken to anyone here yet, and she's been here for two years," Abigail states. "What were you talking about"

"She just asked me about how long I'm here for," I answer, "she seems nice."

"Mmm, I don't know, she's a bit weird," Abigail finishes her cup of tea and stands up to leave. "Coming Lucie?" She asks.

"Not yet," Lucie answers, "I'm gonna get a slice of toast."

"Sure, do what you want," Abigail leaves the room, arms folded.

"What's up with her?" I ask Lucie and pour a glass of cold water.

"Kind of a long story," Lucie sighs. "See, when Anna arrived here two years ago, she was staying in our room with me, Abigail and Samantha, just like you are now. Abigail and Anna were best friends but a load of shit went down and it went so far that Anna had to be moved to a different room."

"Oh. What happened?"

"That's not really my place to tell you, sorry Ellie. We must be going, there's only a few minutes of lunch left. I think you're in my maths class, you can sit beside me if you want."

The maths room is down a long, dark corridor near the back of the building. It seems kind of fitting for maths in my opinion. Lucie sits in the middle of the room and although I prefer the back, it's better than sitting in the front. Ms Han is the maths teacher. She seems really nice so this subject might be slightly bearable. As It's the first day of term, she just let's us play an online maths game and we can shout the answers out. I don't take much part but the atmosphere is actually pretty fun. The class is soon over and a girl called Jasmine got the most questions right, but according to Lucie, she nearly always does.

Because Lucie's also in my PE class, we leave the classroom and I walk with her out of the school door where I entered just yesterday. We follow the rose surrounded footpath towards the back of the school where another huge building labeled "GYM" stands. The teacher, Mr Scott, is arriving late and we're left standing outside the gym. The wind has a cold breeze and I secretly wish that these cardigans were a bit thicker. When Mr Scott finally arrives, he opens the door with his set of keys and we all pile inside, shivering. He apologizes and turns on the heating and directs us to the changing room. It takes him a few minutes to realize that he hasn't seen me before and then he hands me a set of clothes for PE. I follow the rest of the girls to the changing rooms and notice that nearly every girl is queuing outside the bathroom to get changed. Nearly every girl, except one.

(Hello if there's anyone reading this lol, I won't be able to post a new chapter for a while as I'll be away for the next few weeks and won't have my phone to update, sorry about that but I'm excited to see where this story goes. x emily)