The first day of school dawned bright and early.
Maria checked the time, groaned, and shoved her face back into the pillow. . She'd set her alarm so she would have enough time to lie in bed for a bit, do some makeup (just the basics- she didn't really bother from day to day, but she liked to establish a precedent), brush her hair, and eat breakfast with her friends before the start of term assembly. Unfortunately, as often happened when she was a bit nervous, she'd woken up earlier than planned.
Squinting through sleep-blurred vision, she glared at the deceptively bright sunlight trickling in. Much too bright for five in the morning.
In reality, the weak morning sunlight was barely enough to illuminate the room, but at that time in the morning, it may as well have been a flashlight into Maria's eyes.
Holding the pillow over head, trying to fall asleep again, she heard a noise.
She lay still, trying to catch a hint of the source of the noise.
After a moment, it came again, but quieter this time. It sounded like a fanfare of some kind. Straining her ears, Maria thought she heard a voice of some kind, but she couldn't be sure.
Rolling over, her eyes locked on the fake wall of the adjoining room. It appeared to be open a crack, and a soft orange glow came through the gap. Maria stared blearily at it; it was too early for this shit.
The warmth of her bed lured her back towards her dreams, her mind falling back into sleep. She had enough time to get at least a couple more hours sleep before she had to get up, and she planned to make the most of it.
—
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Maria flailed at her alarm clock, knocking it off her nightstand in her hurry. God she hated the sound of that alarm. Unfortunately, that was why it was so effective.
Leaning out of bed, she finally managed to turn it off, then lay back with a thud.
She felt her something flop over her face and groaned. Her hair, which was a force of chaos at the best of times, was at its most forceful in the mornings. It somehow covered her entire pillow, as well as defying gravity and sticking straight up. She definitely should have braided it before bed.
As she dragged herself out of bed, her eyes fixed on the fake wall to the adjoining room. Did she have a dream about that room? She looked at it for a moment longer, but the memory slipped from her grasp.
She looked over to the other bed, suddenly remembering that she may have disturbed Sarah Jane with her scrabbling, but relaxed to see the bed made with no signs of an occupant.
The other girl must have left earlier- Maria appreciated not being woken. She wanted to start her first day at a new school well rested.
—
She came out of the bathroom half an hour later dressed, made up, and hair somewhat tamed. Checking her watch, she noticed she still had a bit of time before she had to be at breakfast. Not looking where she was going, however, she bumped the side of Sarah Jane's nightstand with her hip, hurting herself and knocking everything on it to the floor.
She swore and clutched her hip (and why was pointy furniture always hip height anyway?), staggering over to collapse on her bed.
She pulled up the skirt of her uniform down to examine her hip. The skin was slightly reddened, and the soreness of the area told her it would bruise soon. Typical. Great way to start her first day of classes. Looking across the room, she sighed. She'd knocked the nightstand entirely over. Luckily, nothing seemed to be broken, or she'd feel really bad.
Still favouring her bruised leg, she returned to the nightstand, picking up the small lamp, photo frame, and notebook that had been knocked off.
Thanking her lucky stars that Sarah Jane didn't keep more stuff on her nightstand, she noticed the picture was in an old fashioned frame. As she fixed the back to allow it to stand on its own, she noticed it was a picture of a man wearing a long scarf, with his arm around Sarah Jane. Possibly her dad? Interestingly, the image had the sepia colouring of old photos.
After a moment she shrugged and returned everything to the nightstand, making a mental note to apologise if anything was damaged or missing, and left the room for breakfast.
—-
"... and students are expected to complete with due diligence all tasks set by the school..."
Maria sighed, making eye contact with Rani and very deliberately rolling her eyes. They sat next to each other in the uncomfortable chairs provided by the school for assemblies (though why they would choose such uncomfortable chairs for such long assemblies she wasn't sure). It just went to show that no matter how fancy the school, the crappy plastic chairs remained the same.
Maria tuned out the assistant/deputy/whoever was talking as they droned on about expectations of the students, particularly the senior students. Honestly, start of term assemblies were so boring. Nothing had even happened in the school year yet, so there was nothing to cover except the generic welcome to a new year stuff.
And cover it they did; it felt like every single teacher had something to say, and Maria swore a couple of them had gone twice.
"And now welcoming our school principal, Mr Chandra, to the stage. Mr Chandra will say a few words..."
Eugh.
Wait. Chandra- why was that name familiar? Rani's dad! Seeking confirmation, she made eye contact with Rani, who nodded and made a 'what can you do' face. Maria sat back in her seat, feeling bad for Rani. It had to be awkward having your dad at school with you, especially with everyone knowing who you were.
She loved her dad and all, but she would probably go crazy if he was the principal of her school.
Apparently Rani's dad also liked giving long speeches. Maria felt her eyes glaze over again, almost drifting off to sleep. She came back to herself suddenly, when Rani nudged her.
Vaguely, she realised they must be wrapping up.
"This brings us to the end of our assembly today. One final thing-"
The school gave a quiet but collective groan-
"We have a couple of new teachers with us this year. Please welcome Mr Blakeman, the new assistant principal, and Mr Jeffery, the junior science teacher.""
Scattered applause sounded through out the hall, and the mentioned people put their hands up and waved.
Maria tried not to stare too obviously- the two men were strong contenders for the fattest people she'd ever seen!
While she watched, the older looking man let out a loud fart. This proved to be too much for the watching school children, and a wave of giggles swept the room. The new teacher took it in his stride though, laughing and waving. He even bowed slightly.
Maria was impressed despite herself; most of the teachers at her old school wouldn't have been able to laugh off something like that. Maybe this new school wouldn't be too bad.
—-
Over the next few hours, that sense of optimism was slowly squashed. She'd always liked school- the feeling of learning and understanding more of the world, and broadening her horizons- but this was a little ridiculous.
She shook her notebook at Sarah Jane as the two sat in their room before dinner. Between classes and dinner they had time for private study or extracurricular activities. Personally Maria didn't see how they'd have time for anything other than study, given their work load.
"Homework for every class and it's only the first day! This is insane."
Sarah Jane smiled in commiseration.
"Yes, I know what that's like. And trust me; I know from experience it's easier to keep up than catch up. And I'm sorry to say I don't think it's going to improve any time soon."
Maria sighed.
"You're right, it's nothing I didn't expect from my final year. Just... geez, hopefully they're trying to intimidate us a bit to start with, so we develop good study habits? I can dream, right?" This last bit was said with an air of desperation that was only mostly feigned.
Her friend smiled at her reassuringly.
"I'm sure you'll be fine. There's more important things than grades, anyway. There's a whole world out there, waiting to be explored."
Maria tilted her head to look at Sarah Jane. Something about the way she said that sounded... odd. Unable to put her finger on it, and agreeing with the sentiment regardless, she sighed.
"I guess you're right. Thanks."
They sat in companionable silence for a while, Maria contemplating the trials and tribulations of high school and Sarah Jane contemplating... whatever it was she spent her time thinking about.
Maria knew she should start on her homework, if only to make it seem less intimidating.
She decided to give herself five more minutes of lying in bed. Then she'd get up.
The silence was broken three minutes later by an abrupt knock on the door, causing Maria to jolt slightly.
Sarah Jane jumped up from her desk, where she appeared to be actually doing something productive, writing in some sort of notebook. The enthusiastic knocking continued until she reached the door.
Curious, Maria sat up on her bed.
The source of the knocking turned out to be a small boy, probably around eight or nine years old.
"Sarah Jane! The new part time science teacher is amazing, I think we're going to be friends! He said he's starting a science club for that meets every few days. And we went on a tour of the new technology block. It has cutting edge facilities and we get to use them starting next week! You were right, school is fun."
Maria was impressed by how fast all of that came out. She guessed this was Sarah Jane's little brother, Luke. She had mentioned he was very interested in science and technology.
Sarah Jane was smiling fondly. "I'm glad to hear you enjoyed yourself, Luke. And I spoke to your teacher about getting you some harder work, as long as you make sure to prove your understanding of the basics. You'll get quizzes every fortnight, to be completed and handed in by the second Friday." Luke was nodding, eyes shining. Maria thought she'd never seen a kid so excited at the concept of more school work.
Sarah Jane waved her hand in Maria's direction.
"And this is my new roommate, Maria Jackson. Maria, this is my brother Luke."
Luke nodded, walking across the room to Maria and holding his hand out to her. Maria took his hand, trying not to laugh at the solemnity rarely seen on a nine year old's face. "It's good to meet you, Maria," Luke said, shaking her hand exactly three times, then letting go. Maria smiled at him. He was oddly formal, but his big optimistic eyes and small stature made her think of a puppy. "It's good to meet you too, Luke," she returned politely, still trying not to laugh. Something about this kid's manners felt...a little off, as if he'd learnt social norms from a book he'd found somewhere. Possibly a slightly old fashioned book, at that
Said kid stayed for a while longer, babbling something about neutrino rays and gamma radiation that went way over Maria's head before leaving for the library, once more flawlessly polite. Apparently the school had recently acquired- that was the word he used, 'acquired'- a new collection of encyclopedias he wanted to look at. Sarah Jane and Maria returned to their companionable studying, with Maria even managing to get a good start on her homework before they took a break for dinner.
After dinner, Maria rang her dad to update him on her first day of classes. He congratulated her on not getting into any feuds on her first day, and sympathised about her homework load. Unfortunately, he'd also reminded her of her obligation to her other parent; her mum would also be expecting an update. Probably. It was always difficult to know what her mother did and didn't remember. Chrissy practically made a career out of obfuscating, Alan Jackson had said numerous times, increasingly less affectionately over time. Maria tried not to let the growing animosity between her parents get to her, but it was harder than she'd ike to admit sometimes.
This led to where she was now; phone balanced on her shoulder as she lay in bed, making agreeable noises every time her mum stopped for breath. "And then Ivan said he preferred chartreuse, if you can believe it! But I put a stop to that right quick, I did, I said-"
Maria tuned her out. She did love her mum, but Chrissy Jackson was exhausting at the best of times. She waited until it sounded like her mum was winding down (though possiblly she was just out of breath), then said "Okay, sorry mum, I have a fair bit of homework to get done. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
They said their goodbyes, and Maria let her phone fall onto the bed.
Phew. The call log said they (well. Chrissy.) had been talking for nearly fifty minutes, so Maria felt justified in her tiredness. Not that talking to her mother was necessarily a chore, just that... it sort of was, honestly.
She dragged herself through brushing her teeth and braiding her hair, before collapsing onto the bed, managing to switch off the light and mumble a 'goodnight' to Sarah Jane before sleep knocked her over the head and dragged her into dreams.
She was too out of it to notice the fake wall opening, or Sarah Jane going through the gap, or the (hurriedly shushed) fanfare, or the soft orange glow that was abruptly cut off by the fake wall sliding shut.
