Broken Soldier ~ Assassin's Creed 4

Chapter Fourteen

Rows and rows of tables were set up for lunch, each table holding at least twenty girls. They were all chatting incessantly with each other, and I even heard the occasional squeal. With a sigh, I sat on the edge of one of the tables filled with girls of my age. They stopped what they were doing to stare at me. I gave a sheepish smile, to which they grinned.

"You're a new girl!" A girl with chin length black hair exclaimed in her high pitched voice. The three others around her joined in on the screaming, to which I winced. "Oh, sorry. We didn't mean to be that loud." They all cackled. I then learnt their names; Hannah, Julia, Elizabeth and Tina.

"It's nice to meet you."

"Are you married?" I shook my head at Julia's mystified look. "So, you're engaged?" I shook my head again. "Well, what are you?"

"Not ready to marry just yet."

"Are you interested in someone? Are you waiting for them?"

"I'm only waiting for my friend to come back to England. I'm not even sure I want to marry at all." They furrowed their eyebrows at me.

"What? But you have to have a family!"

"I feel that my real father wouldn't care, and I love him more than anyone." Their faces began turning red.

"We all already have at least one child at home!" I opened my eyes wide. These girls weren't older than twenty. "I didn't know I was pregnant until I got here and my husband had to come down to take our child back with him." Tina grinned. "I love my baby boy so much."

"There is nothing that could make me want to have a child at twenty." The four girls scoffed and got up, storming out of the hall. Congratulations, Elisa. You're are well and truly a buffoon. I huffed, tucking into the food on the table. It was nothing more than a few chopped up carrots and peppers, but I was thankful for the food anyway.

Just as I was about to leave, I felt a cold hand on the back of my neck. I turned to see a girl fiddling with the chains from my necklaces. I snatched them both away with a scowl.

"I would rather you didn't touch those." She held her hands up.

"I beg my pardon, but I was simply untangling them." I slowly removed my hand from my neck.

"Sorry. I'm a little anxious about everything at the moment. I'm new, not sure who I can trust and these necklaces are just very important."

"I bet they were expensive too." We both began to walk. "My name is Freda, in case you were wondering. Freda Schmitt."

"Elisa Ward."

"My parents work with your step-father." I nodded.

"I thought I recognised your name from somewhere." Freda smiled.

"I hope we can be friends, Elisa, since those girls don't seem to like you. That's something we have in common, at least." She twirled a strand of her shoulder length hair between two slender fingers.

"Does everyone have to have short hair here?"

"Not unless you make sure to tie it up every day. Besides, most girls came here with shot hair anyway. I just kept accidentally dragging mine through paint so I cut it myself. Needless to say, the headmistress was in no way happy with that."

"I wouldn't be able to have short hair. I've spent most of my life growing it to this length." I patted the plait on my shoulder.

"You won't be in lessons today, am I right?" I nodded. "Right, well, count me as your personal guide, Miss Ward." She gave a bow, to which I giggled.

The grounds were a lot larger than I had originally thought. From the window in my room, only a small tool shed and tiny flower bed could be seen. However, there was a gate beyond that, where a lot of the younger girls were running about and climbing the playground's equipment. A few trees were dotted around with the older girls sitting underneath. Even with the pink on their noses from the cold, none of them showed signs of going inside. A few droplets of rain began to fall, but still, they stayed where they were. I didn't blame them - if there was somewhere like this back in Bristol, I would probably spend all of my time there with my sisters.

The playground then lead to another building. Freda opened the door for me. Inside, we were greeted by the smell of strong paint and clay. A few paintings were hung up, some of them of previous students from the school. They were a good likeness, if the students actually did look like the paintings in real life. Even without knowing what the girls really looked like, I still knew the paintings were amazing. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the previous students was a well known artist.

The teacher allowed me into the classroom just to look at everything. A circle of easels was set up with a canvas on each one. Two of the easels had finished paintings of bowls of fruit on them. One of the other canvases had a half finished painting of a naked man - the bottom half was the only part finished. My cheeks burned slightly as I thanked the teacher and turned on my heel. Once we were out of the building, Freda grasped my arm and began running towards the main part of the school.

"Why are we running so fast?" I giggled as my hair bounced in the wind.

"I have something amazing to show you." We were inside and near the headmistress's office. "She will still be at lunch. Quickly, before someone rings the bell." Her hand fell into mine as she dragged me through the door.

"Are you trying to get us-"

"Shush!" She slapped her free hand to my mouth. I nodded and she removed both of her hands. "Search for a key. A big bronze one." Freda went straight to searching the desk, mumbling to herself and me in a hushed tone. With a roll of my eyes, I began to search windowsills, door frames and even under the rug. In the end, I found the key inside a large vase full of balls of wool.

"Here." I passed it to Freda. She grinned evilly and unlocked a white door. Her eyes flitted from side to side before she used all of her body weight to shove the door open. I rushed inside. The door then shut. Inside was a huge array of feathery outfits and hats. Freda threw on the summer hat with the largest rim. A few white feathers spilled out from a ribbon sewn to the hat. She then spun a feather scarf around her neck and strutted from one side of the room to the next. Her feet trailed directly in front of each other and she was on her tip toes as if she wore high heels. I gave a small laugh, but then burst into full blown laughter when she tripped over a bump in the rug. I slapped my hand over my mouth, stifling the laughter slightly.

"Elisa, be quiet." She chuckled at me.

"I'm sorry, I'm just overwhelmed by how beautiful your hat is."

"Jealous, are we?" Her fingers danced along the edge of the rim. "There's a bigger one under the box in the corner. More feather things too." I grabbed three of the 'feather things' and also slapped on a hat. "Bea-u-tiful, darling."

"Why thank you, my sweet." We giggled at each other until we heard a door open. My eyes went to the door handle as I threw all of my stuff into the corner. "Lock it."

"I don't remember where I put the key."

"Freda!" I hissed and threw myself to the floor. "Shit. I can see it on the other side of the door!"

"Bollocks. Let's just hope she doesn't see it."

Our prayers were answered about ten minutes later when the headmistress left. I opened the door, grabbed the key, locked the door and we both left the office. Luckily, no one was there at all. We dashed down the hallway, giggling at each other.

"We are so very dapper, Elisa!"

"We are indeed."