The Mix up

Chapter 1 ♕

"So, are you like rich?" Stacie asks, twirling a curled strand of her ginger hair around her perfectly manicured, slender finger.

I sigh, fighting the urge to roll my eyes for the thousandth time this week.
Still, she is the only girl willing to talk to me, a "poor scholarship student without anybody to be with", and I don't want to offend my only so-called "friend".  God, I've hated labels ever since I found out about their role in the cruel society at the ripe age of four, yet ever since I stepped through those tall, silver gates separating Westwood academy from the rest of the world, I've been nothing but labeled by others.

Being put in a box based on a freaking stereotype, is actually not what I was expecting I would be dealing with here. No, instead, for some reason I thought I would be reading a ton, meeting new intellectual people I could have interesting conversations with, and actually get to expand my wisdom and knowledge, just by having the opportunity to attend one of the most elite Switzerland boarding schools in Europe.

Looks like their precious website and all the exclusive interviews forgot to mention the ammount of inclusivity present among the students.

Apparently, as a foreign girl coming from a middle class income family, I am not worth anybody's time. Kids around me have been constantly giving me dirty looks, gosipping not so subtly, and avoiding my presence every chance they got for days. I mean, I get it, being the new kid is never easy. They must feel like I'm invading their territory, or some other weird shit. But all the childish games and bullying methods have really gotten boring. Not to mention pointing fingers is so kindergarten like.

If it weren't for Stacie, I would be standing in some dark corner, sulking in my brand new uniform as I ate my sorrows away.  She was the first person to approach me on my second day here, a wide smile on her face and her hazel eyes glinting with obvious excitment. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time, but even with that friendly attitude, I couldn't help but feel like I was just another charity case to her.

It's not that I don't trust people easily. I do, unless they give me extremely creepy vibes I cannot ignore. Like that guy at the local supermarket in my hometown, who just happend to be dropping a pencil each time I walked past him. But somehow, I was afraid that if I let myself get to know her, I would end up getting hurt after she ditched me for another girl she wanted to use as a toy. Another girl she could toss around and make fun of.

Still, I befriended her easily, soon finding out that  when she wasn't prying into my personal life, she was actually a good company to have. And, after a while I felt bad for doubting her generosity when she hadn't given me a reason to.

"No, Stacie, I'm not," I reply, trying my best to ignore the frustration building inside of my body.

Money is never my go-to subject to discuss, which is another thing that makes me different from my new friend. Especially talking about my parents' finances is not something I usually look forward to when I'm having a conversation with someone. I mean, it's not like they can't afford giving me and my siblings a comfortable life. I have clothes on my back, some of them, in fact, slightly more expensive than others. I have a place to live at back home and delicious food to eat. Hell, I even have an iphone as well.
But knowing how wealthy Stacie is, I'm aware she thinks of my financial situation as poor. I can say I'm privileged, because I truly and sadly am. But my type of privilege is minor compared to hers.

So, I try my best to end the conversation right then and there, by giving her a simple, straight-forward answer.

"Oh." She sounds genuinely confused, her eyebrows scrunched into a slight frown as she stares at me with squinted eyes, as though she's attempting to figure me out on the spot. Her fingers have moved from her hair to the keychain dangling from her designer handbag, their red color popping out against the pearly white material. "So, are you like, poor?"