Chapter Eight - Worries and White Lies.
She had to shield her eyes from the blinding sun to make out who had spoken, and standing before her Alice saw a girl with bright red hair, plaited to the waist. Panic rushed through her; she knew her but what was her name?
"It's Ashleigh, from primary school," the girl said, as guilt at not recognising her fled through Alice's body, causing her to blush slightly.
"Of course, Ashleigh! How are you?" she said, genuinely pleased to see her. They hadn't spoken much at primary school but she had always been kind enough from what Alice could remember. The girl took a seat in the next swing across.
"I'm good!" she grinned back, "Long time no see. I heard you got in to some private school."
Alice's heart was racing now; this was the first time she had had to actually back up the story that had been passed around after she had gotten her Hogwarts letter. The story that she had gained a scholarship to a top boarding school was not completely unbelievable, she'd done fairly well in primary school, finishing with high marks in her SATs but she still felt somewhat of a fraud. She swallowed hard.
"Yeah," was all she could muster.
"I'm not surprised, you always seemed really bright," Ashleigh replied, and Alice was relieved to see she was still smiling. "You had a lucky escape from
Elm High anyway!" and she laughed.
"That bad, huh?" Alice smiled.
"Oh the teachers are all right you know," replied Ashleigh, "but the students not so much," Alice wasn't sure whether this was a topic of conversation Ashleigh particularly wanted to continue, so gave a sympathetic nod. "You were friends with Caitlin right?"
"I was," Alice answered, Caitlin being one of those people who had yet to reply to her letter since Alice had moved away. "We don't speak anymore," she added.
"Probably for the best, she's… changed,"
"How so?" asked Alice, curiously. Caitlin had always been the timid sort.
"Well, she got in with a bad crowd I suppose, so did a lot of the primary school girls," Ashleigh looked away, staring into the distance with something resembling sadness in her eyes. Alice felt a rush of sympathy for her, and was quite glad to have escaped and ended up at a school that made her happy, not miserable.
As the two of them sat there Alice thought about how different her life could have been. It had only been a few months ago that she'd found out about Hogwarts, beforehand she had always presumed she'd end up at Elm High, living the life Ashleigh was now living. Here sat a girl who could have been Alice in another life, it was a scary thought.
"What's your school like then?" asked Ashleigh in a far more cheery tone, and Alice racked her brain for things she could actually say.
"Oh it's good!" she grinned, "lovely people you know. We have houses, the house I'm in is really friendly, everyone's lovely."
"What are the subjects like?" asked Ashleigh.
More panic.
"Errm, well we do history. The teacher's a bit dull though," and she smiled,
thinking of Professor Binns. Ashleigh laughed.
"Do you study French? We do it, it was that or German but I chose French."
"Oh, I do German," lied Alice, going with the theory that Ashleigh wouldn't be able to test her. The guilt of the lie crept up the back of her throat, and she felt hotter all of a sudden, despite the freezing conditions. This was the start, she thought, the start of the lies. If she were to keep in touch with the muggle world at all then she would have to lie her way out of many a situation like this.
Alice couldn't help thinking about the life she was missing out on, going to a muggle school and learning languages instead of potions. If she could have her life as it was before she was a witch, would she go back? No, not now she'd seen Hogwarts. Not now she'd been in the castle, found out what she was capable of, used her wand, felt that sense of belonging as she walked through the ancient corridors. Her future was in the magical world. She would never leave the muggle world behind, after all her parents will always be in this world, but she was happy with the life she had.
"Are you ok?" came Ashleigh's voice, as Alice's mind slipped back into the present.
"Fine, listen, do you want to keep in touch? You know, after I go back to school," Alice asked, shyly. To her delight, Ashleigh's face lit up.
"I'd love to! Does your school have an address I can write to?" she asked, still beaming at Alice's questions.
Another small flutter of panic.
"I'm not sure, but you can write to my parents and they can forward it on if you like?" Alice said, impressing herself with the haste at which she had come up with this answer.
"Ok, sure!"
And so the two girls swapped addresses, scribbling on the back of a couple of bus tickets Ashleigh had found in her bag. The two of them parted with a hug, and promised to write soon. Alice couldn't help feel relieved at finding someone in this place that still wanted to talk to her. All the fears she'd had of being left out lifted from her shoulders. She could belong in the muggle world and wizarding world after all. She left the park positively skipping.
Remembering to divert her path towards the corner shop and pick up the milk she had initially left home to buy, she returned home five minutes later to find her parents anxiously waiting for her.
"Where were you? You've been gone ages!" her mother shouted, the second Alice stepped over the threshold into the house.
"Oh, I just bumped into a friend,"
