Bethmire Academy : Night School

Chapter 4 - slobs, snobs and greetings

A thousand voices echoed in the large hall. Hundreds of conversations were only paused to hear what other had to say or to put food into their hungry mouths. Cutlery clashed together and glasses were soaked back down onto the table.

The girls stood at the entrance to the main dining hall looking for a space in the throng of people. The hall was large, consisting of three sections each cut off by a long table that spread the length of the room. Six crystal chandeliers hung above in two rows of three. Plates of food was set out on the tables in front of each student. At the far end of the hall were two other doors leading, to what Leah presumed, was the rooms she was not allowed to enter.

They had arrived here exactly 3 minutes after serving and already the hall was in almost chaos to Leah, but to Olivia this was only the half of it. She knew that this was all for show and if her new room mate new what happened in the other dining halls, she would run to the authorities. Some boys threw meatballs as the other caught it in their mouths and ate it. The girls laughed as the sat on the edges of the tables with their skirts just covering the essentials.

"Hey, I think I see Ralf," Olivia said trying to get a better look by balancing on her toes. "yeah, its him, c'mon."

Olivia lead Leah through the first two tables where she revived glare after glare. By the time they had reached Ralf the entire hall was silent and staring directly at her. Leah would have put it down to the fact that her hair was blue but she had seen other students -not just the girls - with unusually coloured hair. Within seconds the hall was back to its earlier buzz, which freaked her out more because it felt like they had taken a mental picture of her and pinned it to their brains and were judging her purely on how she looked. 'emo',they had called her before and that was the nice name, she hated to think of what she would be called here since there was no escape from all these kids.

The group of girls who had drawn her daggers in the hallway were watching her very move. They sat surrounded by boys with brown or blonde hair all perfectly groomed much like they were. As soon as Leah had caught their eye they all turned away with their noses turned up as if something awful just walked past. "just ignore them," Olivia whispered into Leah's ear, "they do that to everyone who isn't part of their little clique."

They had reached the third table at the very back. Olivia stopped at a small group of four, three boys and a girl. The girl had white pixie hair, blue eyes and a small face painted with freckles. She sat in on of the boys arms. He had long black hair that sat like a mop on top of his head. His thin white shirt outlined his muscles and his eyes were dark chocolate. The two, who were clearly a couple, sat opposite two boys. They both wore the same short-sleeve shirt with black brims around their collars. The boy on the left had short blonde hair and dark eyes that hid behind long eye lashes which contrasted with the final member of the small group who looks like Olivia. Well, he would if he weren't a boy. He had her eyes but his hair was brown.

"Leah, this is the rat. Also known as Ralf, my incredibly annoying brother" Olivia introduced the brown haired boy. "this is Elliot," motioning towards the blonde haired boy, "and the two love birds over there are Ben and Phoebe".

Leah waved awkwardly after a few murmered greetings. And then everyone turned. Towards a door at the end of the hall. The one with the sign that read 'feeding hall' in big capitals. Leah turned to see what everyone was looking at when they found her. Big green eyes that gazed into as if she were glass. He was tall, with black hair that sat perfectly on his head. The white shirt he wore clung perfectly to his beautifully sculptured body and his black suit trousers made him look even more muscular. His lips were unusually red and Leah was frozen to the spot. His path was cut short after seeing her, and he two stood frozen. Then he turned and walked towards her, his footsteps echoing in the quite hall.