My eyes opened lazily. There was no incessant beeping of an alarm clock, no shouts warning me to get up. Nothing but a white ceiling staring back at me, Katie's low snore, and the immense feeling that my life was about to change significantly; like the gravitational pull of the Earth had just shifted, for no particular reason.
I turned in bed uncomfortably and shut my eyes tight. Curse my subconscious for waking me up at, I opened my eyes and glanced at the clock, 5:32 in the bloody morning on my first day of Senior year. I groaned and flipped over, willing myself to go back to sleep. After half an hour of twisting and turning, I accept the fact that my attempts are futile, and with one final annoyed sigh, I head towards the bathroom. At least I'll have a warm shower, for once.
An hour later and I'm startled out of my shower-induced haze by banging on the bathroom door. "Get the fuck out of there, bitch!" I roll my eyes and shut off the shower.
"Fuck's sake, Katie. Keep your vagina on, I'm coming," I grumble while wrapping a towel tightly around my damp body. I make a quick stop in front of the mirror. Tired eyes stare back at me, clearly showing the lack of sleep I attained last night. My usually bright red hair looks purple, soaked through with water. I jump at the sound of another loud bang on the door, which is shortly followed by an annoyed "What the hell you doin' in there, lezza? You can scrub all you like; you'll still smell like shite". I let out one last frustrated groan and head out of the bathroom, shooting daggers at my smug looking twin on the way out.
Six hours later and it's still just another ordinary day. Sure, there was the staring and the low murmur of the entire school whispering about the 'new foreign twins', so maybe not an ordinary day; but after four new schools in the past three years, you get used to it. But for some strange reason, I still couldn't shake that feeling, that same feeling that jolted me out of sleep this morning. Five out six classes on my first day were through, and yet still nothing has set this day apart from any other. Just another boring day in the uneventful life of Emily Fitch, I thought to myself bitterly.
A strong hand pulling me into the bathroom breaks me out of my wallowing in self-pity. "Fuck. Tear my arm off why don't you, Katie," I bite as I rub the sore spot on my arm that had to suffer through Katie's death grip.
"Oh, wah," Katie scoffs. I look up at the sound of a clicking of the door lock and find Katie glaring at me. I back up in fear. Trust me; you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of Katie's glares. She takes the phrase 'if looks could kill' to a whole other level. And if looks could kill, these dirty bathroom walls would have a fresh new coat of sticky red paint, with little chunks of Emily strewn randomly about the room. Katie laughs menacingly at my reaction. "Have you got any idea what the whole school is talking about, Emily?" she asks in a low voice, creeping closer to me. I step back in time with her approach.
"I don't know. Us?" I reply in a weak voice. Katie's cool exterior broke then, no longer finding any amusement in making me squirm.
"No, you twat. You! All they're talking about is you, and how you're a filthy lezzer! Christ, Em, do you have to dress like such a man?" Katie shouted. She harrumphed and marched over to one of the sinks, leaning her hands on it and staring into the mirror. I looked down at my outfit. A black Pink Floyd shirt hanging off my shoulder, a pair of faded skinny jeans, and black high-top Converse folded over at the top. Certainly not my best outfit, but not anything I thought really shouted 'look at me, I'm a big fat lesbian!'. I scoffed.
"Yeah, I see how that could be really embarrassing for you. Now, if you're well done being a child, this lezzer's got Politics class to get to. Don't want to keep my fans waiting," I retort, sarcasm dripping off my every word. Katie opens her mouth to respond when one of the cubicle doors flies open. A lanky brunette with enchanting eyes floats out, her face covered in an amused smirk. She stares at me as she walks up, stopping right in front of the two of us. She turns her head towards Katie and looks her up and down. Katie's mouth snaps shut, all evidence of her anger completely vanished, replaced with a look that could be compared to a mixture of awe and terror. The girl turns back to me with raised eyebrows and opens her mouth.
"Come on, lezza," she says, void of any emotion, and turns on her heels. I follow after her without realizing I'm doing so. We brisk past Katie, still rooted to her spot, and float though the door.
We don't stop when we hear the bathroom door fly open. Don't look back when we hear Katie's voice shout after us, "You didn't even wash your hands, you nasty bitch!"
It wasn't until we stopped in front of a door that I realize that I have no idea who the hell it was I was following or where exactly I was following her to. "Er, excuse me-?"
"Effy," the girl responds, turning around to face me with that same amused smirk from before covering her face. I scrunch my eyebrows together in a questioning look.
"Pardon?" I ask, confused as to what exactly 'Effy' is supposed to mean. I step back and let people walk between the weird girl and I, giving them access to the door we're currently blocking.
"Effy Stonem." She extends her hand and shoots me a forced lopsided smile, the act of actually smiling seeming painful to her. My eyebrows only scrunch together closer. What the hell kind of name is that? I can't help but to think to myself. Effy keeps her hand outstretched and lifts an eyebrow in what seems like amusement. Creepy.
"Emily Fitch," I stretch my arm out to meet hers. She shakes my hand firmly once before fluidly retracting her hand back to her coat pocket. That amused smirk of hers has reared its ugly head again.
"The one and only," she offers, clearly amused with her joke, and turns back towards the class. "We've got politics together," she says with an airy tone and saunters through the door. I stand there, mouth agape, trying to wrap my head around what had just happened. I snap my mouth shut and scramble for my schedule, not sure if I exactly trust this Effy girl to have actually led me to the right place. I glance back and forth between the piece of paper and the sign next to the door, confirming that Effy had indeed taken me to my politics class. Well, at least she's not evil yet.
I walk into the room to find every seat taken, except for the one next to Effy, who is wearing that damn smirk again and has an eyebrow raised at me. I march over to her, eyes trained on the ground to make sure I don't trip over anyone's book bag and make a complete tit out of myself on my first day. I make it to my seat in one peace and thank every god I know that I managed to stay upright. I hear Effy chuckle besides me, and I turn towards her questioningly.
"Thought I'd lead you astray, did you?" she asks, not seeming at all insulted. I chuckle too, because it was a bit ridiculous. She did save me from being brutally murdered by Katie, after all.
"Yeah, well. Wasn't so sure I could trust someone with a name like Effy." I smile cheekily at her, and win a genuine smile back in response.
"Fair enough," she responds and turns back to the front of the class, where a dirty looking man with a scruffy beard has taken his place behind a podium.
"Right, you fuckers," he spits, thick with a Scottish accent. I'm the only one who seems remotely shocked by his use of language. "For those of you who don't know me, my name's Kieran. I'm not even going to bother with my last name, because I've no doubt any of you idiots will be able to pronounce it anyways. Now, introductions. You, the dirty one with the funky teeth. Tell us something about your beautiful life." He waves his hand at some bloke sitting at the back corner of the class, and plops down, grumbling profanities to himself under his breath.
The boy kicks his feet up onto his desk, leans back, and throws his hands up in the air, seemingly not remotely taken aback by the jab at his teeth. "I'm Cook!" he shouts, and a few whoops and giggles erupt around the classroom. The class settles after a second and the boy continues. "The ladies call me the Cookie Monster," more giggles, "and I'm the man to come to if you're looking for a good time." At this he looks over at me and smiles in what I assume he thinks is a charming way. "In every sense of the word," he purrs, and the class giggles some more. Cook winks at me, then proceeds to high five one of his mates. I try my hardest to keep from throwing up.
"Inspirational," Kieran deadpans. He's about to pick on me, pointing some metal stick in my direction, when someone mutters a cold "tosser" from one of the seats towards the front of the class. The entire class falls completely silent, only to be broken moments later by a low bellow from Cook.
"Who you talkin' to, Blondie? Me, or one of those voices in your head?" The class erupts in laughter. I'm totally confused. What the hell is Kieran doing? I look to the front of the classroom to find his chair completely deserted. I'm not even remotely surprised.
"Careful, Cook. Shouldn't be poking fun at me, or I might just listen to what those voices in my head are telling me to do to you right now," the girl responds emotionlessly, still facing forward. A few stray oooh, burns and ouches come from the class, but the room remains mostly silent.
"One of those voices telling you to fuck me, Naomikins? I've always wanted to do a crazy chick." The class bursts with laughter again. The girl I assume is named Naomi scoffs.
"I'm psychotic, Cook. Not blind." A few people laugh at this, Effy among them. I turn to the girl besides me and raise an eyebrow, trying to silently ask her what in the bloody hell is going on. She scribbles something on a piece of paper and slips it to me.
Naomi Campbell. Rumor has it she's mental.
I read the sharp lopsided letters and scoff to myself. I already hate this school. So far it's been nothing but gossip and wankers. I flip the note over and write something down sloppily, then slide it back over to Effy.
Key word being 'rumour'?
Effy just smirks at me approvingly and turns back towards the bickering pair. Cook is now leaning forward in his seat, a wicked look covering his face. "You sure 'bout that, Blondie? The way you're dressed is telling me otherwise." The class howls with laughter, all but Effy and I joining in.
Several things happen all at once. Naomi whips around in her seat wearing a death glare, seemingly ready to tear Cook apart, Effy shoots out of her chair and announces "My name is Effy Stonem, and my mom is having an affair", and my world both explodes and finds its meaning at the same time.
The blonde has the most beautiful icy blue eyes I've ever seen. And even though her face is contorted with anger, she's still stunning, with very elegant features. I struggle to breathe.
An awkward silence settled over the classroom, the fight completely forgotten after Effy's introduction. Everyone is too baffled by her confession to even notice me drooling over Naomi, who is now looking at Effy with a puzzled look. The girl besides me floats back down into her seat, seemingly completely unfazed by the several pairs of eyes looking at her like she's a mad woman. I break out of my Naomi-induced trance and rise, deciding to break the tension. I awkwardly clear my throat and keep my eyes down. "Er, hi. I'm Emily Fitch, and when it's cold enough to see your breath, I like to go outside and pretend I'm a wolf." I blush and awkwardly sit back down. The class remains silent for a few dreadful seconds, and I'm about to run to the bathroom and commit suicide for making such a nob of myself when Cook erupts in a hysterical laughter. The rest of the class soon follows.
I look over at Effy, who is smiling at me approvingly and slides me another note.
You can stay.
I smile to myself and relax. I look up and see Naomi looking at me, an amused smirk gracing her face before she turns back around in her seat. The class continues on with their introductions, and after Kieran returns from who-knows-where the class goes on as normal, everyone seemingly unaware of my heart doing back-flips over the elusive blonde at the front of the classroom.
After class, Effy waits for me to pack up my bag. I inwardly smile to myself, glad to have managed to make a friend on the first day. Despite the fact that the girl kind of creeps me out, she seems nice underneath it all, and I'm in no position to cast aside the one person who has bothered to speak to me all day. So when Effy murmurs "follow me" I follow without objection.
She leads me to a shaded area under a tree in the school's expansive green. She sits down against the huge trunk, and I mimic her actions. She wordlessly offers me a cigarette and I gratefully accept. "So, lezzer," she starts as she's lighting my fag. I roll my eyes at her and she just smirks and continues. "You're not from here." I scoff, but accept that that is Effy-speak for 'where are you from?'.
"Was it the accent that gave it away, or have you already done a background check on me?" I cheekily replied. I wasn't going to play her games, whatever they were. If she wanted her questions answered, she'd have to ask them directly. And if the pleased look on Effy's face was anything to go by, she respected me for that. She just chuckled in response and turned to look out towards the field, and I did the same.
We sat in a comfortable silence for a while, both enjoying our cigarettes and people watching, when Naomi walked into view, barefoot and carrying her shoes in her hands. I swooned a little at her adorableness. Both Naomi and I jumped when Effy shouted "Campbell!" very loudly across the field. Naomi smiled upon realizing who was beckoning her, and started heading towards us. My head snapped to Effy, who turned and looked at me with a quirked eyebrow.
I looked up and saw that the beauty was now standing over us; giving Effy a smirk that very closely resembled the one the brunette had given me several times today. "Stonem," she greeted.
Effy smiled with closed lips and nodded towards the shoes in Naomi's hands. "Nice shoes."
"I'm not sure whether you're actually complimenting my shoes, or poking fun at the fact that I'm not wearing them. For your sake, I'm going to pretend it's the former and thank you kindly," Naomi responded. And fuck me, that voice. It quite literally sounded like music to my ears.
Effy chuckled and shook her head. "And what if it's the latter?"
"Then you'll get a shoe to the head," Naomi responded with a shrug, obviously trying not to smile. I looked back towards Effy, who was regarding Naomi with a playfully quirked eyebrow.
"What a lovely first impression you're making, Campbell," Effy nodded her head towards me. Naomi chuckled and quickly looked at me, then back to Effy.
"At least it's an honest one," she said with a smirk and a shrug of her slender shoulders. My breath caught in my chest when she turned to regard me fully. "Wolf girl, right?" Effy burst out in laughter and I blushed.
"Er, yeah. I usually go by Emily, though," I responded shyly and looked up to find Naomi smiling warmly at me.
"She also goes by lezzer," Effy butt in. I swear to God I could have killed Effy then, if I weren't so busy being thoroughly embarrassed. I looked down and tried to cover my furious blush with my hair. Naomi just laughed.
"I think I like Wolf Girl better," she said warmly. I looked up through my lashes at the blonde, who was smiling down at me. I smiled shyly back up at her and took another drag from my cigarette to try and settle my nerves. Naomi's eyes followed the trail of my cigarette, then quickly looked away from me and ran her hands through her hair. "Right, well. I've better be on my way. It was nice meeting you, Emily," she said hurriedly then scurried off away from the school. Effy chuckled and I punched her as hard as I could.