I slept well for the first time in weeks. The bed was soft but firm and the whiteness of the room seemed of soothe me now I was used to it. 1
I padded downstairs in my pyjamas following the smell of breakfast.2
I entered the kitchen and the smell of eggs spread up my nose and into my head. 3
“Hi Aunty Carol.” 15 years of only seeing her once a year had made that a habit. 4
“Call me Carol.” She said; placing scrambled egg on a plate. “I didn’t know how you like you’re eggs, so I made 3 different kinds.”5
She turned to me, revealing scrambled, boiled and poached eggs. 6
“Boiled please!” I smiled widely as she placed an egg in an egg cup and brought them over to me with toast. 7
“I told your Mum I would get you to school as soon as possible.” Carol stated as I broke the top of the egg. 8
“I can see where this is going.” I nodded at her before dipping my toast into my egg till it was saturated. 9
“Your uniform is in the living room. School starts at 8:40.” 10
I quickly shot the eggy toast into my mouth before it disintegrated, and then took a look at the clock. It was 7:20. I had enough time to make myself look presentable. 11
“Cool.” I nodded again at Carol as she sighed.12
“I was thinking you’d want to stay here for a while. Like most kids would.”13
I couldn’t quite put into words how I was dying to get to school. I realised I could be who ever I wanted here, no one knew me.14
“I’m looking forward to it.” I scrapped out the last of the white egg from its shell and glanced up at her. 15
She took the plate and I strode into the living room. 16
The uniform sat on the sofa, the only dark thing in the room. I grabbed it and looked it over. It was just a shirt, black trousers, black tie and deep purple jumper. I could pull that off.17
Running up stairs, I turned on my straighteners, slid out of my PJs and into my new uniform. It didn’t look to bad. My last school had lilac! This was a walk in the park compared. 18
I ran my hair through my straighteners as quick as possible to get it into a manageable state. A couple flicks of lips gloss and a run over with the mascara brush and I look almost normal. 19
When I got down at 8:20, Carol was flicking though the TV channels. I slid in beside her and decided to ask her what I’d avoided last night.20
“Carol? That house of the end of the street.”21
Carol turned down the volume and turned to me. A signal that this was not going to be a light conversation. 22
“Who are they?” I finished.23
“The Emorys.” She stated. “They moved here 11 years ago when they had their 4th child. Only, a while ago, the parents passed away.”24
She fidgeted a little. 25
“They moved to the end of our street with their grand-father after that and they’ve been a part of the community ever since.”26
I didn’t want to press much further as Carol had gone serious on me for the first time since I’d known her.27
After a little silence she released the tension and smiled again. “Why?”28
“Just when I was out yesterday, I got to the end of the road and saw someone in the window.”29
“I wouldn’t worry about it. They usually keep them-selves to themselves. It is how they like it.”30
I glanced at the clock.31
Carol followed my eye line. “We’d better get you go-ing.”32
“Will I need anything?” 33
“A pen maybe. Nothing much else on your first day I suspect.”34
I nodded and she drove me to school with the only noise being the radio between us. I suddenly felt nervous, like the butterflies were seeing who could ram into my stomach wall hardest. 35
We parked outside the reception and Carol carefully walked me to the head’s office. I sat outside the office door, feeling more nervous as kids passed by us to get to class. 36
We were called in and I sat opposite Mr Richards, the Head. 37
“Alyssa?” 38
I nodded - as if I would be anyone else.39
“Well, we’ve got your Key Stage 3 grades from your old school and we think you could be a very valuable mem-ber of our Year 10.”40
I tried to smile politely.41
“We’ve already drawn up your timetable,” He passed it to me. “And if you have any problems here, feel free to talk to me. I’m not just a teacher,” He leaned in a little closer. “I’m a friend.”42
I had to suppress my laughter to keep my polite atti-tude up. 43
“You first lesson is Maths. Matt will take you there.” He gestured to a year 11 who was standing in the corner.44
As we walked, I glanced over my timetable. I had a depressing amount of double periods, but I was happy that my options I took in my last school had been carried on here. Music, Drama and History. I had no idea what I wanted to be but I thought a wide range of subject might help. 45
Matt stayed quiet the whole way till we got to the maths room and then said goodbye. 46
Knocking slowly, I clutched the note the receptionist had given me, telling teachers who I was.47
“Come on in.” A soft voice called and I slowly pushed the door open.48
Every head in the room shot to me, making me feel in-creasingly uncomfortable. 49
I handed the teacher my note and she read it quickly. Smiling at me she spoke in a sweet voice. “I’m Mrs Wilson.” She turned to the class. “We have a new student. Her name is Alyssa Cormack.” Someone at the back snickered but I tried not to focus on it. “Do you want me to call you Alyssa? Or is there another name I can use?”50
“Ally’s fine.”51
“Ok Ally. There’s a seat at the back next to Kassie. Kassie wave!” 52
A small blonde girl at the back sighed and lifted her hand a little. 53
“That’s Kassie.” Mrs Wilson stated unnecessarily.54
I took a long walk over to the seat at the back of the class as Mrs Wilson carried on with the lesson. 55
Kassie looked me up and down before she turned to the girl next to her and mumbled something, making the girl snicker.56
I couldn’t have cared at this point, watching board as it filled with equations I already knew and Mrs Wilson ex-plained things I’d already learnt. 57
“So...” The blonde girl leaned back in her chair and stared at me. “You’re new.” She smiled. 58
I tried to keep my mind occupied with the numbers, but I felt her burning her gaze into my head. 59
“It's just that, I haven’t seen you before.” She leaned forward trying to catch my eye. “You see, this town’s small. After a while you get to know everyone... but you.”60
“I just moved here.” I smiled turning to her, hoping that little contact would keep her quiet, but it spurred her on. 61
“So you don’t know anyone at all?” She asked, a hint of pity lacing her words. I shook my head. “You want to hang with me and my friends at break?” She asked casu-ally. 62
“I guess.” I smiled. I thought it was a distant smile but Kassie took it as a real one.63
“What you got next?”64
“English.” 65
“Me too. I’ll walk with you if you want.” 66
I was surprised at how friendly she was being. Maybe it was just that in a small town, you can’t afford to make enemies. I knew I couldn’t and so I humoured her while she muttered though out the lesson, nodding and responding where necessary. 67
The English teacher put me away from Kassie but she waited for me outside the lesson afterwards. 68
Other people gathered around her and I found myself walking slower. 69
She notice and dropped back a little to link my arm and pull me forward with the rest. 70
“Oh by the way, I love your hair. Is that colour natu-ral?” She asked, ignoring the people around her trying to get her attention that I was managing to keep a grasp on. 71
“No, it’s naturally dark but I sometimes dye it red and it fades out.” 72
She nodded, taking in every word.73
“I was thinking about dying my hair.”74
I glanced over her perfect bottle blonde hair style, watching it curl out at the ends. 75
“What colour were you thinking of?” I asked out of po-liteness.76
“I was thinking black!” She smiled a mischievous glint in her eye. 77
“Black would wash out you face. You should go with light brown low-lights.” I smiled. “It would deepen the colour without washing you out at all.”78
She pulled a little bit of hair close to her eyes. “Maybe your right. Blacks a little drastic. How do you know what suits people so well?” 79
“My Mum used to be a hair dresser for a while; I picked up most of her tricks.” 80
She looked impressed. 81
“Tell you what, when I go to buy this dye, you think you could come with me? I wouldn’t want to go overboard.”82
I nodded.83
“Cool.” She said and carried on walking.84
The rest of the day passed as most school days do. My double history went well as I knew the stuff already and could spend the lesson doodling and my biology and chemistry lessons were fine because I’ve always loved the subjects. I spent both breaks with Kassie and her friends, not picking up anyone else’s names as they weren’t introduced to me. I zoned out for most of it till Kassie would bring me back with a question about my last school or- as she put it- my last life. 85
When I got home, I found myself surprisingly tired. 86
After eating, I showered and slipped into bed with a good book. After about 50 pages, I found myself asleep. 87
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