Anonymous

Part I - The New Home

Vanessa tried not to cringe about the gothic cathedral-like Victorian campus on top of the hill - which was going to be her new home from today.
After Natalie Verona had died, many bad things had happened. Mrs. Verona apparently ran off; rumour has it that she was anyways cheating on her husband, and the child was the only thing that kept her with him. Now that Mrs Verona's daughter too was dead, she had taken it as a perfect opportunity to escape from her husband and the memories of Natalie.
Rumour also had it that Vanessa had killed Natalie Verona. Of course it had to come; that queer wild little girl from the Orville's household always meant Trouble to others in the society.
When a two-year old Nessa had eaten toilet cleaner, the Orvilles had been worried, but fine. When a five year old Nessa had set her father's Mercedes on fire, the Orvilles had been again worried, but fine.
When an eight-year old Nessa had dropped her backpack down the mountains on a field trip, and had nearly knocked down one of the teachers unconscious, the Orvilles had been worried, but still fine.
When a ten-year old Nessa had accidentally flushed her mom's favorite cherry blossom and pomegranate flavoured perfumes in the toilet bowl, the Orvilles had still been fine.
Yet, when according to the rumours, fourteen-year old Vanessa Orville had drowned her best friend in Lake Granby, the parents couldn't take it any more.
The Orvilles had been strangely numb ever since the accident, even after Nessa had gone back to living normally - well, as normally as she could minus her only friend. But when her mother had out of the blue blurted out that she wanted Vanessa to go to a boarding school, the girl knew that her family wanted her as far from here as was possible.
She tried to argue that her school was pretty 'good', but then Mrs Orville raised her voice and for the first time in days really screamed at her daughter. So without much protest, Vanessa had been obliged to accept her invitation to her new boarding school.
Okay, some really cool ultramodern school with luxurious dorms, a sophisticated sports pavilion with an all-season indoors swimming pool, a really fabulous cafeteria and lounge, and very technical classes and laboratories - that would've been quite attractive. And Nessa knew that her parents could afford it.
And yet she was unwillingly being shipped to some gothic old Victorian school in the mountains of Jackson, in Wyoming.
"I . . .hope you'll try your best here. Stay out of trouble." Mrs Orville finally turned to bid farewell to her daughter, when the matron assured her that from there, the woman's company was not required and that she would escort Vanessa to her room.
"I'll try." Nessa muttered.
Her mom looked at her with a thousand broken and conflicted emotions, and then holding her face, kissed her. "I'm gonna miss you so much. Daddy will, too."
"I'm sure you will." She murmured back in a reply, and then Mrs Orville turned her back to Vanessa - setting back to Colorado. "So, what next, goth?" Nessa turned to the matron.
"Excuse me, what did you just call me by?" The lady squinted at her.

Vanessa thought that her room was horrible. She of course started jumping around in joy when she learnt that she wouldn't have to sleep in a dormitory or share her room with anybody else, but then . . .the room itself stated that the designer had possibly had no sense of beauty or comfort.
There was a tiny twin bed with musty plaid covers, standing by the corner. There were shelves along the walls, a study table with a lamp that glowed too dim, and the tiniest wardrobe to keep her clothes.
Matron had left Nessa a few sets of the boring school uniform she was supposed to wear; she offered helping Vanessa unpack and introducing her to the other girls in the campus, but sullenly, the girl refused.
Throughout the evening, Nessa lazily unpacked, wandered around the campus and then almost got electrocuted by her table lamp while rolling around her bed in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Obviously when Nessa had finally been able to lay calm and get five seconds of sleep, the matron came to give all girls their waking call.
After clumsily dressing up in the white shirt and blue skirt - and further getting frustrated because the skirt was much longer than she would've preferred -Vanessa spent an hour over collecting and arranging all her required books for the day.
So, when she finally walked out of her room, almost tripping on her untied laces, matron was glaring at how late she was. "What?" Nessa said. "I'm new here."
First class was biology, where the teacher gave a long - and extremely fatal to the brain because it was so boring - lecture on cells and tissues. Halfway, he stared at the class and barked out "Why don't you note down all the important points that I am saying. Will you remember the location and features of all glands?"
History, Nessa decided straightaway, was boring. She didn't want to know about what stupid people did in the Jacksonian era, and therefore spent the entire class doodling a random blonde kid from the class, making him look a little too skinny with a slightly out-of-proportion nose, but still stunning.
Nessa wished the boy would be in her next class, so she could complete the doodle.
Sketching. Doodling. Art, in all, was a dangerous topic that threatened to remind her of Natalie Verona's art - of Natalie Verona herself.
The Political Science teacher decided to make his students write an essay on the contribution of the US in the formation of the Islamic State Of Iraq and Syria . Physics was like an extra large basketball flying and hitting you straight in the face out of the blue; Nessa practically threw her pencil at the very annoying dwarf of the physics teacher, but then she remembered that it was the only thing she had to write with and that she couldn't just waste it out like that.
Last of all, was math. And even though the class ended quite soon, Vanessa felt it was unfair that she was supposed to attend classes in a school at this time of the evening.
All meals were served in the great cafeteria - which might sound very attractive afar, but Vanessa learnt wasn't so good up close. In the entire day, the only good thing that she had had was some orange juice during breakfast.
After maths, the day was to be dedicated entirely to completing homework, studying and hanging around with your friends. And since Nessa had none of the options applicable to her, she decided to go around exploring the places in the campus which she had already visited yesterday.
Despite all the gothic Victorian essence in the architecture of the school, she had to admit that the grounds were just massive. You could practically go up to the centre and feel that all around you there was nothing but short-cropped grass.
There was a dirty pond towards the end of the grounds, where the bare land turned into mild coniferous forests. A boy and a girl were making out against the bark of a tree, and naughtily Vanessa coughed.
Immediately the boy and the girl broke up, and whipped their heads at her direction.
"Um, I think I lost the way to the girls' dorms. Could you tell me, please?" Nessa asked with a mock innocence.
"Bitch." The girl - who had some really sleek black hair, perfectly even from the ends - said, clambering on top of the roots to stand right in front of Vanessa.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Vanessa Orville. PS: I think your name truly suits you."
Both the girl and the boy stared at Nessa's face for some time, before the guy burst out laughing at the joke cracked. "Okay, sorry for that outburst, and no offence, but you've got a nice sense of humour." The boy laughed.
"So I've been told." Vanessa rolled her eyes.
"Now, if you could please stop acting ridiculous, and get out of here." The girl pulled out a really hard stare as if to say that Nessa was going to get killed if she delayed even for a moment.
"Exactly. You two are acting ridiculous. I mean, why not just get out of here and grab a bed? I've heard trees give out carbon monoxide in the night; it cannot be good for health."
"Carbon dioxide, actually." The boy piped in.
"Whatever, geek." Nessa replied.
The girl cast a look of calm disapproval at Nessa, and said "Since I've never seen you before, you must be new around here, aren't you? And I'm telling you girl; you're making a big mistake trying to mess with me. Because you will regret it." Okay, so admittedly now the girl with sleek black hair wasn't looking in a very good mood.
The fake smile that came later, along with the "Also, I heard you needed the directions back to the girls' dorm. You've come to the right place.", was pretty scary.
"Oh, well, duh. I just realised that it had been right behind me all the while. So, sorry for disturbing, and continue making out. Also, PS: get a bed. I am not kidding this time." Nessa said, and then walked away slyly with a mock salute, catching the girl muttering some insult and the boy chuckling behind her.
Well, congrats to you Vanessa Orville, you've made a new enemy.....already.