Tweetie

25

The weekend drifted by without much happening. Hazel heard nothing from Roderick, and quietly in a doubt-filled mind, she worked at the cafe. The boys, to her surprise, went to school for the full day on Friday, leaving her bored and tired. She didn't see them until Sunday when they had all gone to the cafe for half an hour, complaining about how they had to actually go to school the next day or risk getting detentions on the upcoming Friday.

And now, after the slow-moving weekend passed, Hazel walked, feeling more uncomfortable than she ever had.

It was strange. She felt more comfortable when she stood out in her weird jumper choices and knee socks covered in ducks. She would have thought that wearing the exact same uniform as everyone else would be more comfortable, but it was far from the truth. She felt too restricted, the only solace she had was in the oversized tan coloured jumper that covered most of her and the plaid blue skirt.

It was her first day at school. The last time she went to school was when she had just turned fourteen. That was before everything went downhill. And that was an all-girls school, private and only for the rich families who were more prestigious than anybody in the city she was in now. That was the school that taught her Latin and how to properly eat her lunch alone in an empty classroom without causing too much sound to bother the teacher there. Then she moved and didn't think about anything from that life.

But, her anxiousness didn't come from joining something she had no knowledge of. It came from an ill-thought-out plan. She didn't know what she would tell the boys if they asked why she was there. She supposedly went to the posh school in the North, she lived in the North and they knew she did. So what was she supposed to tell them?

She considered saying she was expelled, but she knew she didn't look like that type of person. She knew that the Northern school was expensive though, so she wondered if she could play it off as being kicked out for not being able to pay for the tuition. She could reason that it was linked to personal family matters... It seemed like a reasonable thing. They didn't know much about her family background and wouldn't be inclined to push on the subject.

So as she walked, approaching the terrifyingly large school gates, she planned out exactly what she would say.

It didn't take long until she was inside the school, realising that maybe she was wrong. Maybe she was anxious about the life of a student.

It was... frightening.

Hazel could barely keep her mind focused on one thing, there was so much. It was cleaner than she imagined, yet, it was still somewhat scrappy as if nobody really cared about it looking nice but they cared about hygiene. The white paint chipped away in places, the bottom of the walls, the edges of the ceiling. But, everything else seemed well maintained. The lockers that lined the halls were dull blue, similar to the shade of her skirt but not quite matching. It was bland, but, the subtle signs of life gave it more character than she had seen in the cleanest buildings. Tracks from shoes running late only to stop suddenly, trash left hidden on top of the lockers, lockers that were dented and some rare few that had words and names scratched into them that would soon be painted over. It might not have been clean, but it had life at the very least.

Hazel didn't know where to go, she didn't know where to even begin looking for her classroom, let alone her locker.

So, she shuffled through, passing students who sent her odd gazes, recognising her from the cafe but also acknowledging her black eye and swollen nose that didn't suit her very well.

Eventually, she found her locker. At least, she hoped she did. By the time she found it, she was hopelessly lost. And as she was going to hesitantly try and open it, she stopped.