I slammed the door of the glossy black limousine shut, listening to my new bracelets make jingling sounds and they moved down my wrist. I walked to the back of the limo gracefully. The constant yells of the boys playing rugby and girls giggling and sharing gossip awakened me to the fact that I was back at Easton Academy. Another year, but a text the day before from Tiffany informed me that there was a new girl coming to the school, and she had automatically been put in Billings. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about it ever since I opened the text. A girl being immediately placed in Billings dorm was unheard of. Everyone in Billings earned their place, but now there was a new member who no one had even met. And the worst news was that instead of me keeping my bedroom to myself, I was going to have to make room for her. Amberly Johnston. The thought of having my Prada bags and high heels moved into only half of the room made a chill run up my spine. But if I wanted to get the bed next to the window, I would have to get to my room quickly and dibs it. Harvey, my limo driver, helped me carry all of my suitcases to the door of Billings and then smiled at me.
"It's this time of year again. We will see you soon, Noelle. And don't kick this new girl's butt to hard," Harvey warned me, adding a silent 'or else' to the end of that sentence.
"Oh don't worry, I won't," I smiled sweetly, although there was no use in trying to trick Harvey into thinking I wouldn't make Amberly feel as if she were in boot camp. There was no doubt that she would be up at 5.30.a.m every morning scrubbing the toilets.
"Sure you won't," he laughed and embraced me in a hug. "Au Revoir," he said and waved good bye.
As soon as he was out of sight, I looked around campus, searching for Reed. I walked to the middle of the soccer field - people making a path for me when I walked through - to get a better view. Finally I found her, talking to a girl our age with streaky blonde hair tied back in a high pony tail. I pulled a piece of my hair forward to examine it. My hair was dark brown, almost black, and dead straight. Don't worry, I told myself, mine is still way cuter.
I held my head up high and walked over to where Reed was talking with the blonde girl, Amberly, I assumed. People stopped and stared at me as I walked past, but I was used to that. After all, I was Noelle Lange, leader of Billings.
"Ohmigod! Noelle, I was just about to call you," Reed grinned when she saw me and held up her brand new iPhone 4, waving it in front of my face. Personally, I liked my new Blackberry way better, but there was no time to argue about phones, we had business and by business, I mean getting rid of Amberly A.S.A.P!
"No need to now, though. And you are…" I looked expectantly at the girl who I knew was Amberly, but I just wanted to hear her say it.
"Amberly Johnston, you must be Noelle Lange," she smiled kindly at me, I glared back at her.
"Yep, leader of Billings," Reed announced. God, she could be a suck up when she wanted to. "She's beautiful, smart," she continued on.
"Hmm," I nodded in agreement, although I never took my eyes off Amberly. Suddenly I had an idea. I really cruel idea, but mine always were. "Hey, Amber," I purred, "Come and I'll give you a tour of the Billings dorm."
Her face lit up and she grinned, showing her pearly white teeth. "That would be great."
I spun on my heels and led the way, knowing that she would follow me. She seemed pretty desperate to find some friends. Reed started to walk behind me also. "Reed, how about you stay here and tell me when Tiff arrives?" Tiffany was another Billings girl and also a freak photographer, wherever she went, so did her camera.
Reed hesitated but finally shrugged and agreed.
Perfect, I thought. I pushed the old fashioned wooden door to Billings open and entered, making sure to lock it behind us. I had way to many valuables in Billings and if the door was open, anyone could just walk in and take it all and I was NOT prepared to lose my new red leather Prada bag.
"So this is my bedroom, and now yours, as well," I gestured to the room at the top of the stairs. I put my hand in the pocket on my denim mini skirt one more time to check that the keys to the bathroom were there.
We continued strolling along, Amberly struggling to keep up with me. "And finally, the bathroom," I took a step in and she followed, like I had planned. A few more steps and then I jumped out quickly, hurrying to slam the doors shut. I fumbled for the key in my pocket, keeping my weight on the door so that she wouldn't escape. It wasn't hard, seeing as she wasn't nearly as strong as me. Finally I chose the right key and pushed it into the key hole, locking the door.
"Amberly! The door! It's jammed, it won't open!" I pretended to be panicked, although I was grinning and trying to hold back a laugh. "I'll go and get help," I called from the outside of the door. Tucking the keys back into my pocket, I took my time to get to the bottom of the stairs and make my grand departure from the dorm. Just then, my phone beeped. A text from Reed.
Girls going 2 be late, didn't tell me Y. I'm Coffee Carma. Xx
I replied 'OK' and slipped my phone into the back pocket of the skirt, happy that I could finally relax with a cappuccino.
When Reed asked where Amberly was, my excuse was that she was just getting settled in. We waited on the seats next to the fountain with our sunglasses on for at least two hours before Tiffany and the other showed up. It was great to see them again and I looked forward to bossing them around once again and while we talked, I couldn't wipe the smile of my face. The first person to open the bathroom door is going to find Amberly and damn, she was not going to be happy.
Chapter 2
Amberly was more than happy to forgive me when I finally decided it was time to let her out of the bathroom, although, she wouldn't have even known that I had done it on purpose if Portia hadn't blabbed the second that we unlocked the door. Immediately, she was sucking up to me so that I wouldn't kick her out of Billings, but Portia wasn't the one I wanted to kick out. I was going to make sure that I made Amberly's life living hell while she was in Billings, she'll just be begging for a transfer to another dorm. What disappointed me more than having to let her out of the bathroom is that Reed is becoming friends with her, when last year she was saying how much she didn't want to ever welcome a new member to Billing's ever again. But she does have a bad taste in friends, I mean, she actually cooperates with Ivy Slade, who hates Billings more than she hates me.
There was a knock on my door and before I could even tell whoever it was to go away, they came strolling in. It was Amberly, of course. She looked like she owned the place, with her head held high and her Gucci handbag placed on her arm. I wasn't used to people looking at me like I was trash, normally I did that to other people. But obviously she didn't mean to look at me like that, unless she'd given up with the whole 'Oh Noelle, we're going to be best friends,' act.
"I have a present for you," she sang, walking over to my side of the room. I watched as her feet stepped over the imaginary line in the middle of room, trying to keep myself from snapping at her. Besides, I loved presents almost as much as I loved my new leather jacket. Amberly held out a card, the size of my Credit Card, with my name on it and a ribbon. I inspected it closely.
"And uh… what is this?" I asked, pretending to be pleasant although I had killed her three times in my mind. I really didn't have time for this. I tapped my foot impatiently.
"It's a Coffee Carma card, you get free coffee for a year," she explained.
That made me a bit happier, but I didn't show it.
"Just dump it next to my laptop," I ordered, continuing to unpack. Maybe having Amberly as a slave might be useful.
"I thought I told you to get me one of the little umbrellas with my papaw juice," I snapped at Amberly. I could see the sweat on her forehead and her face was turning red from running around for me all the time, but she hadn't complained once. When she had gone to fetch my umbrella, Reed moved her chair over to mine. It was a perfect first day at Easton, the sun was shining bright and all the Billings girls were sitting by the pool with bikini's on, enjoying the freedom before classes start.
"What was that about?" Reed whispered.
"What are you talking about?" I asked innocently.
"You are totally using Amberly as your maid!"
"Reed, I thought you would have learnt by now, before we accept anyone into Billings, they have to go through weeks of hard work, we raised the standards when you came, though."
"Whatever," Reed shrugged and I rolled my eyes. Amberly was already coming back with my umbrella. I smiled and walked to the deep end of the pool.
"You can put the drink there," I gestured to a table next to where I was about to jump in. She bent over and I lowered my knees. And 1…2…3… The splash was huge, but Amberly was the only one close enough to get wet. She was also the only one not wearing a swim suit or bikini. I opened my eyes when I came up for a breath and saw Amberly, frozen, right next to the pool, soaking wet. I couldn't wait to see how she would deal with that, since she had mentioned before that it took A-G-E-S to do her hair and eye liner. Oops.
Chapter 3
I looked at myself in the mirror. The glamorous short, dark blue dress fit me perfectly, just like Mum had said it would. It was strapless, showed off my slim legs and looked great with my silver dangly earrings and high heels. I had curled my hair for this special occasion and it looked great, if I did say so myself. The Day Before School party was an annual event at Easton, one that the teachers didn't know about. All the seniors would go to the hill about the school and play spin the bottle, seven minutes in heaven and other stupid games. A good thing about the walk up to the hill is that it's very easy to get lost, well, not so good if you don't know the way off by heart. Like Amberly. I already planned to take her for a walk when it got dark and then ditch her, she would be one step closer to leaving Billings. I looked down at my check list and crossed of all fifteen things that I had written down earlier. Beer, iPod, the list went on.
