a sun that never sets

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | ME & MY GIRLS

LESS THAN A week before we had to go back, Louisa, Gwen, Audrey and I all met up together for dinner. It was our last chance of gossip before we got back, before life got hectic and busy again.

We gathered together at a steak restaurant, laughing at the latest post from one of our schoolmates that looked absolutely ridiculous. It was the kind of stuff we'd never dare say while in school, because you didn't know who was listening. But here? All alone with no one we recognised around?

We went crazy.

We all had complaints. Plenty of them. Most of us looked at the local kids in England every day and couldn't comprehend for the life of us how they were even alive. It was in the small things: climbing onto their beds in their sweaty PE kits and dirty sneakers, not washing their hair for days and days without a care in the world, the obnoxious amount of makeup some of them put on their faces every day, even though they looked far better without it. It was sometimes a bit difficult to understand how they worked so differently from the rest of us, even though we were all the same age.

Culture, I supposed.

But at the same time, we had all started putting down our prejudices in the past year. Sure, we were different, but we still had similarities. And that was enough for us to all be friendly with each other.

"I really don't like Nadia's new hair," Audrey was murmuring. "Like, I get that she wants to try something new, but it really just isn't her colour."

"Wait," I narrowed my eyes, "she dyed it? I haven't seen it yet, what colour?" I tugged on the pendant around my neck. Theo had given it to me as a gift the second time we'd met up. His parents had said it was okay for him to purchase it at an extremely low price (I rather expect they'd given it to him for free after hearing the purpose), and it hadn't left my neck since. It was both the meaning, I thought, and its actual properties.

"Orange highlights," Louisa offered. "She posted it on her story a few days ago."

"Yeah," Audrey said, fishing out her phone. "I screenshotted it. Look here." She pushed her phone in my direction, and I took a great glance.

Nadia Sorren had always been pretty. Unfairly so. In the picture she wore an arsenal that was clearly meant for a party—a short, sleeveless black dress, a bright silver necklace and knee-high boots. But the centre of attention was on her hair. Most of the natural brown was still retained, but there were streaks of orange running down the sides.

It didn't look bad, honestly. It felt a bit odd, but it looked pretty decent.

"She looks like a Kpop star," I offered. "I don't think it's that bad."

"It's so weird," Audrey huffed. "I don't like it. I hope she gets rid of it before we go back, I don't think the teachers are going to like it either."

"Orange isn't natural colour enough, eh?" Gwen laughed. "Yeah, she'll probably have to dye it back. The teachers are trying to be fair." Someone must have complained about the nepotism that existed in school some time ago to our headmaster, very likely because of Clark Ford. And while I never noticed Nadia being treated differently from the rest of us, I trusted Gwen's word for it. They lived in the same house, after all. If anyone knew, it would be the three of them.

"She's smart," Louisa shrugged, "I doubt we'll ever get to see this new hair in person. Save that picture, Audrey, it might come in useful someday."

I was baffled. "For what? Blackmail?"

"God no," Louisa said with a laugh. "Just like, as a funny reminder. When we want to embarrass her."

"That's basically blackmail," I deadpanned.