Gina stumbled into the house clumsily. It had been snowing outside, again. The middle of winter, her least favourite time of year. But that was okay. She was going to boarding school tomorrow anyway, and she was going to go to the warmer climate of France instead of the rough, Canadian weather. Lazily, Gina dumped her backpack, coat and scarf onto the floor. She shook out the snow in her hair and felt lots of little shivers fall down her spine as the snowflakes dropped down her back. As she stretched out, she noticed the air smelled slightly burnt and the house seemed smokier than normal.
"I'm home!" she called into the house, concerned. There was a very muffled response of "okay!" from the kitchen. Her mum, Alice. Gina rolled her eyes and grinned, smothering giggles. She jogged down the hall and into the very smoky kitchen. Alice was standing over an oven, trying to pull something out. Gina raised an eyebrow. She walked over and took Alice's hand. Alice looked at her and smiled, handing the oven gloves over. Gina smiled back gently, then yanked out the oven tray and placed it onto the stove, closing the very smoke stained oven.
"What happened this time?" she chuckled. Alice half smiled.
"Your father was trying to cook, but he left the oven on when he went out," she explained, "he said he turned it off, the lying sod," she added, a grin on her face and her cheeks reddening. She somehow liked the forgetful, clumsy nature of Will, her husband. Gina stared at her. Sometimes she couldn't believe they were related. Her mother had dark tanned skin and an elegant, beautiful face. She was practically perfect. She was stylish, she worked out, and she was even an excellent cook, unlike Will. But Gina had olive skin and deep brown eyes that looked almost black. She was a natural at most martial arts and she was a complete tomboy. Sometimes she even dreamed about people she'd never met, faces she'd never seen. But the most vivid was that of a woman dressed in almost completely black, Japanese, with short black hair that caressed her shoulders gently. She had a kind, yet fierce face and a pretty smile. But the thing that trumped Gina about this woman though, was that she had the exact same eyes. Their slight gleam in the corner, the piercing, curious gaze, the knowing and understanding glow, it was the same.
"Gina," Alice said. Gina looked at her, "your miles away, sweet pea," Alice told her. "Something on your mind? Boys? Puberty?" she added with masked defence. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was talking about personal matters. Gina shook her head with a convincing smile.
"No, it's nothing, just a weird dream about some weird lady," she said. Alice's forced smile seemed to falter slightly. But she didn't say anything. "I'm going to get packed, new school, new friends, new clothes?" she tried, subtly asking for a new wardrobe. Alice rolled her eyes. She hurried Gina out, promising a shopping spree if she packed in under ten minutes. Gina winked and ran to her room. Her room was small. It was crammed high to the ceiling with boxes from previous moves, and there was an empty suitcase on her bed. A note was taped to it that read "gotcha! Kadic is waiting". Gina rolled her eyes and began to toss her stuff inside.
Kadic academy was a tall school. It had three main school buildings, a massive oval and separate dormitories and a lunch hall. It had a huge gymnasium and a bunch of other buildings that people said were for study and after school activities. It had a dull green paint and yet looked extremely elegant. Not a single leaf was out of place, there were perfect classes, perfect students, pretty much perfect everything.
"Um, Georgina Gomez? The principal will see you," said the receptionist. It was a man, tall, elegant and handsome like the rest of the school. Gina stood up, biting her lip with worry. Alice held the door open for her and she was led inside. The principal was sitting at her desk. She had dark hair that was tied back in a neat ponytail, her face was covered in a reasonable amount of makeup and her face looked like she wouldn't mind if someone punched it. She had a large, toothy grin on as she gestured to where Gina and her mum should sit.
"So, your Georgina, right?" the principal said, she held out a perfectly manicured hand, "I'm principal Elizabeth Delmas, nice to meet you, Miss Gomez," she said fondly. Gina smiled and shook Principal Delmas's hand. She glanced around Principal Delmas's desk. There were pencils neatly arranged, picture frames with an old man and a young looking Principal Delmas, and there was also a piece of paper with phone numbers. Yumi Ishiyama, Odd Della Robbia, Jeremy Belpois and Aelita Hopper's phone numbers. There was one last one with hearts around it. It said Ulrich Stern. Gina quickly grabbed the list and shoved it into her hoodie pocket. She was always too curious for her own safety. Principal Delmas smiled at Gina, then turned to Alice. She didn't seem to notice the list was gone, but she seemed like a good actress.
"so, don't worry, Mrs Gomez, everything is worked out, Georgina is ensured a healthy, sociable community here at Kadic, she'll learn lots from our specialist teachers and she will..." Gina tuned after that. Her mum was talking about school rules and promises, best time to run like hell if you can. She looked at all the walls. There were thousands of pictures of five kids. One of them was short with blond hair, spiked with a purple splodge in the center. Another was a pink haired girl with a cheeky grin and yet stressed eyes. there were two other boys, one with brown hair and a stern gaze and one with glasses who seemed too authoritive to be how every old he was, like, twelve? The only one that really stuck out to Gina though, was a tall, beautiful Japanese looking teenager. She had her arm wrapped around the brown haired boys shoulders and a relieved smile on her pretty face. And the reason she stuck out, was that she looked exactly like the woman in Gina's dream.
"so what do you say to that, Georgina?" Gina's head snapped back to Principal Delmas.
"yeah, cool," she said. Principal Delmas's welcoming smile fell slightly and seemed more concerned. She looked at the photographs around the room that Gina had been looking at. She bit her lip and almost seemed to glare at the japanese girl. She blinked her pretty eyes and turned back to Gina, her smile returning.
"Miss Fi-Kay will lead you around," she said, gesturing to a woman at the back of the room that Gina hadn't noticed when she came in. The woman was lean, fit and blonde. Yet she seemed vengeful and seemed to dislike Principal Delmas.
"yes, I will," she said. It seemed like a spiteful remark though. Miss Fi-Kay glared at Principal Delmas, while the pretty head mistress smiled back as if Miss Fi-kay had given her backstage passes to the sub digital juniors. Miss Fi-kay was suddenly standing next to Gina. She pulled back her chair and gestured her to get up with a short, shrill whistle. Gina scrabbled up and followed Miss Fi-kay out the door. Principal Delmas looked at Alice. Alice smiled lightly, unsure on how Principal Delmas would react, realising who she and her daughter were. Principal Delmas's face became serious and irritated. She stood up.
"so, how are Ulrich and Yumi?" she asked.
Miss Fi Kay was silent as she led Gina towards one of the dreary looking dormitories. There was an awkward feeling in Gina's mind, she felt that Miss Fi Kay was, almost jealous of Principal Delmas. It wasn't surprising. Principal Delmas was glamorous, kind, practical. At least that was Gina's view. Miss Fi kay glanced back at Gina gently, this time.
"you're gonna share a room if that's okay," she said simply. She had a tingly voice, that made Gina's heart melt like butter. It was shocking that such a sweet voice came from such a rough, vengefully looking woman. "your room is room 236, it's upstairs on the right, here's your key," she said. Gina smiled. Miss Fi kay fiddled in her pocket for a few seconds and pulled out a small key. She dropped it lightly into Gina's hand and smiled.
"good luck with your room mate, you'll need it," she added.
"thanks?" Gina tried. Miss Fi kay smiled genuinely and waved her goodbye. Gina gave her a little smile and headed upstairs. There were lots of rooms upstairs, most of them had some form of heart or flower design on and they all seemed kind of feeble. Gina continuously repeated her room number as she passed the many doors. 233, 234, 235, 236. Gina stopped at a large door. it was lined with some shiny, silver stuff and there was a plaque of 236 instead of the little wooden label. There was loud music from inside, by Kumi Koda. Cautiously Gina clicked the key in and unlocked the door. inside the music came in a sudden wave of sound and Gina almost stumbled backwards from the volume. The room was artistic, it stood out from the rest of the school. It was a baby purple colour with little blue flowers dotted here and there, and the occasional musical stave and treble clef. There was a single table at the back of the room, beneath a window. It had a large stereo sitting on it and a few drawers underneath. Sitting on the bed on the left side of the room was a short girl. She had straight red hair that came to about the middle of her back, but it was tied up in a stylish French plait. The girl had a soft face, that seemed unimpressed and kind of snobby. The girl saw Gina and smile, jumping off her bed and standing in front of Gina.
"hello, my name's Erin Campbell-Logan. I'm your roommate," she said pleasantly. Gina held her hand out to shake.
"and I'm Gina Gomez, nice to meet you," she said, not understanding why Miss Fi kay had given her luck. Erin looked down at Gina's hand. she had an amused smile that seemed oddly confused.
"uh, sorry, but I can't possibly shake hands with you," she giggled. Gina looked at her, puzzled. "sorry, but I'm much too high a class to shake hands with such a second class citizen," Erin explained. To her it seemed perfectly reasonable, but Gina was almost ready to wring the girl's neck.
"sorry I didn't meet your high standards?" she said sarcastically. Erin smiled and curtseyed sweetly, skipping out. Gina stared after her, not believing anyone could be such a snob. Especially not such an angelically cute looking girl like Erin. Suddenly, Erin's head poked round the corner.
"aren't you coming? You may be low class but I'm sure you still wanna eat, right?" she said. Gina shook her head and followed her.
"don't worry," she said.
"I won't," Erin said, turning her nose up and running off.