Hey guys! I know I just posted another story, but I did mention that I was intent on another, and this is it! I've done the first 3 chapters so I can update hopefully once or twice a week as I have time to write more. I'm only posting the first for now and gradually adding the others... Hope you like it! (ohohoh also! Before I forget, I'm from the UK so I had to think through my language as it's an American book, so sorry if I get anything wrong! Peace out.)
The first look of the school? I guess it was intimidating, but I wasn't exactly the type of character who was intimidated. It's grounds were well kept, mowed lawn, flower beds homing many exotic and colorful blossoms, and the polished brickwork of the school, gleaming to it's very core. No one was in sight, and to any normal person sure, it may have looked like a prestigious "stuck-up" boarding school. But the truth couldn't have been any more different. The school looked soulless, and represented half the people with in it. This was no ordinary school… This happened to be Coates Boarding Academy. The school for very messed up kids.
This school was for kids who had no-where else to go. For kids who were determined to fight there way into society in the most violent means possible. For kids who had been kicked out of just about every school there is. For kids whose parents had given up on them, who wanted to smack some manners into them. It had its reputation for being the strictest school in the district, with its outstanding improvement scores and blah blah blah, all of that tosh. I knew if I wanted to get out of this alive I was going to have to play this very, very safely, and that was hard work when you were in a school full of game players.
Oh yes. Sorry how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. This is my story, Sarah Lillian Clark. I'm not going to make a long drivel about myself, that's far too tedious, so I'll give you the basics. I'm fourteen, but people say how I act older then I am, and I was sent here, to Coates, for reasons you have yet to discover, but dear Lord when you do it's an eye opener. I was born and raised in the United Kingdom. Yes the big UK, known for its crap weather and it's posh folk. And my parents decided it would be a wonderful idea to send me here after everything I'd been through, which was more the case of they didn't want me with them anymore… One plane journey later here I was, America. I welcomed the opportunity at first, but the closer I got to Coates the less I wanted to actually be there.
I thanked the taxi man and paid him $30 before hopping out onto the gravel sidewalk that rolled off to the left and right to me, either way probably leading to a far more appealing place than this. Taking a deep breath I composed myself and not taking my eyes off the entrance to the school, knowing it was my only option, I dragged myself forward. The more I walked the further away the door seemed, as if it were taunting me, the gravel sidewalk turned into a stone slab pathway leading up to the steps which lead into the school. I felt as if I were moving in slow motion as I walked up the path, but eventually I got to the few steps, which never really seemed convenient, just there to make the school seem taller, more powerful, more scary. I stopped a moment before opening the door which would be the official moment that I started Coates, I calmed myself and confidently opened the door and stepped inside.
The inside was grand and seemed impossibly to look much bigger then it appeared from the outside. Crimson carpet covered the floors whilst the walls were smothered in cream paint. There wasn't much to the room; it had a few rich old looking chairs were gathered around two wooden tables, a woven basket in the corner contained a few gardening magazines that no one in their right mind would voluntarily pick up and read. By far the grandest thing in the room was the big chandelier which hung in the centre, delicately adorned with crystals and it seemed to make the room look even grander and larger then it was already. I guessed that this was the reception area when I noticed a wooden hatch over on the far wall, it was open and as I strode closer I could see clearly a small modernised office, with paperwork all over the show, but from what I could see there was no one in sight. I rang the small waiter's bell on the hatch sill and waited patiently for someone to come.
I waited for at least five minutes, then rang the bell again, this time I heard a small rustling coming from the far corner and A small lady appeared from a side door that I hadn't noticed before, she was an old lady with long grey hair stuck up into a messy bun and looked as if she should have been dead long ago, her face was wrinkled and her eyes sunk ridiculously far into her face, and underneath were very dark rings which seemed to droop down her cheeks. She had big frame glasses on but still squinted as she shuffled her way over to the hatch, almost tripping up over the office chair half way across. She stopped just over half a metre away from the hatch, well, I mentally noted, more like just out of arms reach. She squinted at me and had her lips pursed together so tightly you could barely even tell she had lips to start with.
"This is Coates academy. What do you wish to enquire about?" She recited in a scratchy, annoying voice, like it was her first words she'd spoken as a baby, she still squinted at me through the giant glasses that just made her look older.
"Ur," I thought they'd be expecting me, mentally I panicked slightly, but I remained cool and confident. "Sarah Clark, I'm due to start here today, I believe your expecting me?" The receptionist's eye opened slightly and she stared for a moment before turning back and started rummaging through paperwork, muttering incoherently. After a moment she turned back and handed me a huge folder which looked as if it were about to burst I picked it up and was surprised with how heavy it was, even though it was big it was only paper, what horrors awaited me in these damned files?
"Welcome to Coates academy, rehabilitation school and a wonderful experience for all of our students; I hope very much that you enjoy your time here." The lady murmured unenthusiastically, "In the folder I just gave you," she gestured towards the ginormous thing weighing down my arms, "Is all the things you will need for this semester, books, revision material…" I sighed loudly, the wonders of education. "And also on the top you will find a map of the school, the school rules and policy, also your timetable." I opened the first page and found the delicately drawn map of the school laid out clearly on the first page, and behind that was sure enough in royal calligraphic handwriting the school policy and rules. I only read the title of that page before I decided not to read the entire page, and flipped immediately to the next page which had my timetable, before I could start reading it the receptionist reached through the hatch and slammed the folder shut.
"I wasn't finished speaking," She barked, her lips curling back to reveal very few rotted yellow teeth. "Now, you might want to start in here by learning some manners! First impressions are the best you know." She tutted at me and waggled her finger like my teacher in infant school did when I once ate all the cookies meant for the other kids whilst they were napping. I gave her a snarky glare in return.
"Sorry for my initial rudeness." I said with a very forced and very sarcastic smile. "I do hope you will forgive me."
"That's better! Now, do you have any questions about Coates or shall I get someone to show you to your room?" I had a million questions in my head that I wanted to ask, What is the school like? When are meal times? Who runs this place? When will I get to go home? But I decided against it, asking questions made me seem weak, I needed to keep a strong mind and figure out these things for myself.
"No questions, just get me to my room."
"Swell, oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Mrs Kelly, the receptionist." She grinned crazily showing yet more or her teeth deprived mouth. "Sit down, I will send for your roommate…" And with that she slammed the hatch door down.
That is chapter one! Hope you liked it folks, reviewing would be really appreciated. Happy new year too! Ciao!
