Thameswood League of Advanced

Chapter 2- Grace Patchers

I had met her during the second week of school when I was still new to the place and had been trying to get used to my surroundings.

I had already made friends with Victoria but we were just budding acquaintances so I was still flying solo.

I was in the school library, trying to find a book about civilisation for a History assignment.

As I searched for the book in another section, I saw a girl reading what looked like about 50 books at a time with a concentrated face.

I gave her an odd look which she didn't notice because she was so indulged in her books. I thought of asking her if she had any book on Ancient Civilisation that she wasn't using.

I groaned as I spent time looking for the right book but couldn't find it. I glanced back at the girl and saw that she was still very focused in her reading.

I shrugged and decided to ask her anyway. "Do you have anything on Ancient Civilisation there?" I asked with my arms crossed.

She looked taken aback by my sudden approach but smiled and searched through her pile.

"Ah, here it is! Ancient Civilisation; Europe. Sorry if you were looking for this for a while," she said handing me the book.

"Thanks," I told her sighing in relief.

"It's a really good one too!" She continued. "I'm sure you'll find it exciting."

"I hate History," I told her bluntly scrunching my nose.

She gasped at me. "I find it very intriguing if you ask me. It's always so fascinating reading about what our ancestors invented and the mistakes that made the future generations learn from."

"That's um nice I guess?" I told her, not really knowing what to say as I made my way out.

"You must be new here. I haven't seen you around before," she noted.

I stopped walking and turned to her. "Yeah, kinda. My name's Aj Diamond."

The girl widened her eyes. "Alicia Diamond. Daughter of the famous Diamond of Diamond inc?! It's nice to meet you. The rich life is fun, I presume?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at her. "Call me Aj instead and aren't you rich yourself?" I asked a little confused.

The girl chuckled. "No, not really. I'm not poor but I'm not rich," she explained.

"So how'd you get into this school? You know, it being very expensive and exclusive?" I questioned, becoming more interested in the girl, mainly because she was the first person I met who lived like a regular kid, which I kind of admired.

She smiled. "I got a scholarship to enter this school after they saw my records. I was really surprised because I could never afford to attend such a school like this but they had provided me the uniform and textbooks and convinced me that I would fit in nicely."

"So you're a smart bookworm," I teased smirking.

"Precisely," she answered back.

"Well I better go now. I need to plan how I'll pull my first prank here," I told her getting ready to leave.

"Prank?" She questioned. I nodded back. "I'm gonna bring this school down, that's all I can say. So you better put that brain to good use," I informed her.

"Oh, okay then. It was nice meeting you, Aj. My name's Grace Patchers," she told me with a smiled.

I waved a goodbye at her. "You're not so bad yourself, Miss Bookworm," I remarked and then took off, ready to cause mayhem.

Since then, all three of us became really close with each other. I would even get them to join me in my schemes. Victoria would help a lot of the time, wanting to get a laugh out of seeing the horrid looks of the teachers and students while Grace helped occasionally but mostly just watching, hiding her amusement and panicking about us getting caught.

Having two best friends as more than I anticipated for when I moved to London but I was fortunate to have them, even if we would bicker, tease and insult each other. We each had different and weird personalities but it's those weird features that built our friendship.

But I would never admit it.