I wake up and groan. The weekend is already over? Great, now it's my second week at Alfea. I reach over for my timetable and see what I have first. Self defense. Why do we even have that, I mean we're fairies aren't we? I thought. I put my dressing gown on and open the door to the core of our dorm. I find 1 of my 5 roommates already sitting on the couch reading. She sees me and looks up and smiles. She's probably the most positive person I know.
"Good morning, Stefani!" She says cheerfully.
"Morning, Mandy." I say back, dully. Mandy just smiles at me and carries on reading. I head to the bathroom to get washed. As I splash my face with water I realize how I have 10 more months here until the end of the year. I hate it. I'm not with any of my old friends and I'm not good with making new ones. My mum knew that so I still haven't forgiven her for sending me here. Before I went away Mum said to me:
"You use to be so happy before I said you were going here. I thought you would get over it; you were just making a fuss over nothing. Now I realize I may of made a true mistake…" And she just walked off. Yeah she was right about that. That was a couple of weeks ago now, the last time she spoke to me. I walk out of the bathroom and hear my phone vibrate in my room. I grab it off its charger and see who was texting me so early in the morning. 'Mum' I open the message. 'Hi sweetie, I know you still haven't forgiven me yet but at least make it easier by trying.' Trying what? Try to forgive her? No thanks. I put my phone down and go back to the main room to see another one of my roommates had awoken. Ruby. Short red hair and loud, but gets on with everyone. I go over to the computer and turn it on. I need some new winter clothes so I start surfing different shops. I'm not an eavesdropper but what Mandy says to Ruby catches my ear.
"Oh Rubs, I won't be here for dinner today. I'm meeting some of my old friends. Tell the others ok?" She says. That's when it hits me. What Mum means. She means I should try to make friends. I sit down on my bed and sigh. Maybe I should just forgive my mum and make some friends. There has to be some people here I like, I hope. I hear other people talking, they must have woken up. I walk back into the room wondering if I should just smile and say 'Morning guys!' Probably not, they'd probably think I was ill or something. I just grab my bag and leave for the food hall. I find myself an area where there weren't many people around and sat there. As I was helping myself to a bowl of cereal a shadow covers over me. I look up to find my roommates standing around me.
"Mind if we sit here?" Asks Jasmine; a girl will long black wavy hair.
"Not at all." I reply, trying to make an effort. They all sit down and start chatting to each other and helping themselves to food. I carry on silently making mine and pour the milk into the bowl and start eating. Mandy, who is sitting next to me, turns around to face me.
"We didn't see you on the weekend a lot, where were you? With your other friends?" She asks brightly.
"I was talking to my friends from my old school. I miss them…" I say.
"That's nice. We don't see you much either at lunch and break. Who do you hang out with?" She asks.
"I uh," I look down at my lap; I'm suddenly ashamed of not having friends. "I spend my time in the library most of the time."
"Oh. You should totally hang out with us then if you haven't got many friends!" Then she covers her hand to her mouth. "Oh my god! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound rude. I'm really sorry." I smile at her.
"No, it's okay. It's the truth still."
"Then totally stay with us at lunch and break." She smiles back. I can hardly hear the bell over Anastasia's high-pitched laugh. We grab our bags and I walk next to Mandy to self-defense.
"Good morning, ladies!" Miss. Cleo chimes as we take our seats. "I hope you're all awake and ready for a fun lesson of self-defense!" Everyone groans.
"Now, now, we won't have any of that!" She waves her hand and a sheet of paper appears in front of us. "This piece of paper tells you the partner you will be working with today. Go on, go find them!" I look down at the list and find my partner. Great, I got Maisy. The 'popular' girl. The kind of girl who thinks she's better than everyone else. I look over to her to see her smirking to her friend and saying:
"This'll be fun." I clench my fists in anger. Walking over to her, I put on my shy face.
"Hi Maisy…" I say in a small voice. She just looks at me, not even smiling. I would punch her if we weren't in school.
"Okay, everyone up!" Miss said and all the tables and chairs disappeared. "Now I want you to practice the punch-and-block technique we were working on last week. Go!" This time it's my time to smirk.
"What are you smiling at?" Maisy snaps.
"Oh, nothing. You gonna go first?" I say coolly.
"Sure." She says but I can feel the coldness in her voice. She tries to strike me but I quickly block her. By the way she tried to hit I can tell she is actually trying to hit me.
"I'm just going to have to make sure I hit her first." I think.
I punch out but she's also quick to reply.
"Hmm, she's going to be tough." I think.
While thinking, I see something heading towards my face. I block it just in time. She frowns. She obviously thought I wasn't going to be able to block. She opens her mouth to speak but that's when I go straight in to hit her. Successfully, I punch her in the cheek.
"Oh my god! Ow!" She cries out. Everyone turns to us, everyone is silent. Miss. Cleo rushes over to see what's wrong.
"What's happened?" She asks frantically. She turns Maisy's face from side to side. "I see no blood." I butt in just before Maisy can make up a dramatic story.
"Well we were practicing, like you said, and Maisy just wasn't quick enough to respond so I accidentally hit her." I say, smiling at the end.
"Oh, right, that explains. Are you okay Maisy?" Miss asks.
"No!" She whines.
"Okay, carry on then." And Miss. Cleo just walks away. I can hear a few sniggers around me. I have to hold back my laugh. I continue to smile at Maisy.
"What, you think you're funny, huh? We'll see about that." I keep smiling and nod at her. She tries to strike out multiple times but I just block each one.
"Ladies! May I have your attention, please?" Miss. Cleo shouts. "Alright, next, we're trying something new. You kick your leg upwards and your partner dodges it! Mary-Lou can you demonstrate, please?" Mary-Lou and her partner perfectly demonstrate and Miss claps her hands and parts them signaling for us to continue working.
"Now Maisy, make sure you tell me if you're struggling to dodge my kicks. We don't want me to hurt you, again." I say. She just gives me a dirty look. She goes first and I can easily move out of the way. It wasn't even near me. She must be weaker. I decide not to try and kick her this time, let her have her fun trying to aim for me.
The lesson ends and I join Mandy and the rest of my roommates.
"Alright ladies. See you next lesson! Enjoy your break!" Calls Miss. Cleo to us as we walkout. Maisy glares at us as she walks past us. I just put on my fake smile again.
"See you later Maisy!" I shout to her in a squeaky voice.
"What was all that about?" Asks Delilah, a small girl with straight pink hair.
"Oh, Maisy was my partner and she was trying to actually punch me so I 'accidentally' punched her." I reply. The girls giggle and Ruby pats me on the back.
"Nice one." She says. We continue to walk and reach a big fountain and sit down around it.
"So Stefani, what made you finally want to hang out with us? Not being rude or anything." Asks Anastasia, a girl with super long red hair.
"I might as well tell you the whole reason why, not partially. I had a fight with my mum about coming to this school because I didn't want to leave my old friends behind because I'm not good at making friends. So I sulked for the first week and I got a text from my mum this morning. The first time in like weeks since she had spoken to me. I realized that it was time to forgive her and I decided to come out of the darkness and speak to you guys!" I explain. They sit there and take it in. I'm not sure whether they'll disown me now or accept me. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea telling them. Oh god, what am I going to do? I'm panicking now.
"Oh wow. Well I'm glad you've decided to make up with your mum and finally come and spoken to us. You're so lovely." Says Anastasia with a smile. I let out a sigh of relief.
"I thought you were going to disown me or something!" And they all laugh.
"Well come on, let's get going." Delilah says. "We're going to be late for class!" We all get up, gather our things, and walk off talking and laughing together.
"I'm glad I finally came to my senses." I think.
We get home that night and all put our bags down onto the couch. I scramble my hand into my bag looking for my phone. As I find it, I take it out and walk over to my bedroom.
"Hey Stef, where you going? We're going to play a game!" Ruby calls to me.
"I just need to do something quickly, then I'll join you." I call back. I walk into my room and close the door behind me. I search through my contacts and dial one. I'm just about to hang up because it sounds like nobody is there but some picks up.
"Hello?" They say.
"Hey Mum, I just want to apologize…" I begin.
END OF CHAPTER 1