Paint it RED!

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The dormitories were fine. Emilia preferred the rest of the school. To her, the place looked a little like a hotel, or something similar.

The corridors were long, and the doors to the rooms were all on one side.

Yeah, this looks kinda like a hotel.

Emilia saw that some of the doors had been personalised with stickers, pictures and plaques with names on. One of the doors simply had the words GET OUT painted in black.

'What's that all about?' Emilia asked.

'That's Anastasia's room. She's a bit of a princess' Gloria explained. 'She's only here half the time, her family are rich or whatever and...well, she keeps to herself. No one really knows much about her. I doubt you'll ever see her.'

'How come she gets her own room?' Emilia asked, pausing at the door and lingering there for a moment.

'Honestly, I'm not really sure. It maybe because she's caused so much trouble for the headmistress, poor Anna.'

'What did she do?' Emilia asked.

'Oh, nothing really' Gloria waved her off. 'Just a few pranks here and there. I never saw any of them myself but...well...I heard stories.'

'Oohhh.' Emilia swirled her head in a big ark, taking in all she could see around her. 'So why are the doors all...uh...?'

'Personalised?' Gloria offered.

'Yes.'

Gloria's eyes sparkled, shooting a glance back at her, before turning ahead again.

'Anna lets us give our own personal touch to the doors of our rooms; she lets us express our creativity. Plus, it helps to tell the doors apart. At the end of the year the doors are all painted white again, ready for the new students.'

'That's so cool.'

One of the doors had a large painting of a mermaid, surrounded by an array of multicoloured fish with bright scales, covering every corner of the door in intricate and vivid patterns. Another was painted a single colour, a few were left pure white.

Gloria paused in front of one of these doors.

'This is your room?'

'Our room' Gloria corrected.

'You haven't painted your door yet?'

'Eh' Gloria shrugged. 'I hadn't planned on it. I was thinking of leaving it white.' She paused. 'You can paint it if you want though.'

'Nah. Can't be bothered.' She noticed the door beside theirs.

Woooow...

'Pretty, isn't it?' Gloria noted, seeing Emilia's intense interest.

Emilia moved closer to get a better look at that door.

It was a painting of a mermaid trapped in a large glass bottle, her tail spilling out from the narrow neck. Outside the bottle were twisting and gnarled branches, blooming with flowers. Brightly coloured yellow-birds were shown flitting about the scene.

'This has been here for years.'

'Is that allowed?' Emilia asked, 'I thought the doors were painted white at the end of every year.'

'Technically no, it's not allowed. But this is an exception,' Gloria replied, 'That room hasn't been used for years, not since she went missing.'

'Missing?'

'No one knows what happened to her. She just vanished one day. Most think she ran away, but no one knows why.'

Gloria stared at the mural.