Prissy

Peculiar Place

Prissy sat herself on the harsh chair and tucked herself in, determined not to squirm despite the tough and jagged feeling of the overly-brown chair. She firmly crossed her ankles and made a point to straighten up, her posture would not suffer just because she was sitting on what felt like wooden razor blades. Her right hand lightly rested atop the left just as her primly done hair lightly rested atop her shoulders. Her prudently-cut, lilac dress flowed around her legs yet strangled her slim torso.

She quickly fixed the frown that appeared on her face, she had never sat on a chair so incommodious! All the chairs around Alcott Academy were highly cushioned and attractive while this chair was the exact opposite.

She looked around the unsightly room with a hidden sigh, Prissy could not believe the people who decorated this house were in any way related to her. The colour-scheme of the house looked as if it had been chosen by an intoxicated five year old, the walls being a loud chartreuse and the floors a louder red, at least said intoxicated five year old understood colour theory-to a point. The very table she sat at was a neon yellow and made of plastic, just like all the other furniture-other than the chairs. The house only held horrendously carved wooden chairs, all having an odd and uncomfortable jagged cut throughout but most noticeably at the top. There were some framed scribbles of young Jack's that her "parents" had hung up, Prissy stopped her nose from flaring at the sight of them, she could do much better.

Just then her uncomfortably young looking step-mother, Susan, pranced in with four brightly-coloured, plastic cups filled with apple juice and placed them on the brightly-coloured table, Prissy thought about the academy and how dearly she missed it-math and all, she would do pages and pages of math work just to get away from her family.

"How's school, happy to finally be out?" She asked Prissy as if she were a kitten-faced infant.

Prissy shook her head, softly pulling the cup towards her, "I am longing to go back."

"Fancy talk," Susan giggled, "You always come here talking so fancy, it's so cute!"

Prissy sighed, choosing to ignore this battle, "It must be my outside upbringing, Susan."

Susan giggled, "I always tell you to call me Susie!"

"I'd rather not, Susan."

Susan giggled once more and went back to the kitchen. She was truly around fifty but acted like an infant, teen at best, and dressed like one too. She put anti-aging cream on every night and had a very visible breast augmentation along with casual botox on her face. Her nose was as perky as her personality and her eyes as blue as Prissy was when she discovered she was coming home for the summer. Her hair was bottled gold, meaning she dyed it, and her skin was bottled-tan, she was naturally ghostly pale.

Her father then came in, chuckling at her arrival as if she were a joke, "Prissy, I haven't seen you for ages!" He then hurdled her way with his arms open like the gorilla he was.

Prissy silently endured the hug "I was hoping to keep it that way." She mumbled to herself afterwards

Luckily, her father didn't hear, "You haven't seen Jack!" He said with a gasp, "Jack come down now! Your sister's here!"

Jack came down the steps quickly, "Hey, Sis!" he said with his arm casually out

Prissy got up from the chair and firmly shook his hand, like the school had taught, and was shocked to feel how soft and unconvincing his handshake was, the headmistress would be appalled!

"Hello, Sir." She responded as she sat back down in her exact previous position. She understood why she had to spend time with her father and step-mother, but she didn't get why she had to talk to Jack. Jack wasn't related to her at all, he was her step-mother's son with a man she didn't remember, he was already born when she met Prissy's father and they started a new life together-without Prissy. Jack was two years older than Prissy but acted younger.

"So how old are you now, Priss?" Jack asked

Prissy did not enjoy her newly given nickname, "I'll be 14 years in March." She promptly replied

"Sick." was all Jack had to say prior to sitting down next to Priscilla

Prissy took a sip of her apple juice only to be harshly reminded that she had a distaste for it, she hid her look of disgust and slowly let the juice sitting in her mouth slide down her throat, placing the childish cup down.

She then proceeded to stare at the obnoxiously-coloured wall blankly only to be rudely interrupted by Jack himself, "So what kind of stuff does your academy do?"

"The same as your school, I'm sure." Prissy replied stiffly

Jack tapped his cup before his next question "What do you do at night?"

"Sleep." She answered simply.

He smirked, "I mean before that."

Prissy held her cup uncomfortably, "Learn."

"That's all you do, just learn and sleep?" he said with a disgusted tone

Prissy thought for a moment, "We are given an hour to prepare for bed and converse before we sleep, and we eat."

Jack smiled, "How many girls in a dorm?"

"There are none in the boys dorms, it is strictly forbidden, but in the girls dorms there are four per dorm."

Jack nodded, "Girls are allowed in my room."

Prissy nodded, "I am sleeping there, afterall."

Her father and Susan wanted the kids to bond so they fit a spare bed in Jack's room, much to Prissy's disdain.

Soon Susan re-entered with some box-made mac and cheese and John with some utensils and napkins with cartoon characters on them. They swiftly sat down and began eating with Jack, Prissy only stared at her bowl with a confused expression.

"Where would the table-mats be?" She asked

Susan giggled, "Table-mat? Fancy-talk!"

"We don't use those, silly!" her father responded

Priscilla furrowed her brows, "But what if the table gets untidy?"

"We clean it."

Priscilla switched her focus to the contents inside the bowl, "Are we not eating vegetables, fruit, or meat?"

"No, we're eating pasta." Jack replied

Prissy was even more confused, "That isn't very healthy."

Her father slapped his plump stomach joyfully, "Nope!"

She sighed as she picked up her pink plastic fork and began to eat, ignoring her multitude of remaining questions.