It was almost midnight when Victoria, cold as an icicle, finally made it back to the Georgian-style Swankton Butte student house. It looked more like small castle than a house, with two main wings containing apartments and common areas, the left for boys and the right for girls, and two smaller ones where the staff had their offices, storages, garages and workshops. Over everything throned a fat square clock-tower with a tall flag pole that disappeared up in the dark night sky, that made the complex look like a sprawling castle instead of a housing complex.

Victoria's tipsiness was long gone as she trudged over the yard between large hills of plowed up snow, and with every step a spike of pain shot up from her blistered feet. It was lucky she was so cold because that ought to numb the pain somewhat. The large wooden door at the student housing was locked, so she had to ring the bell to get in. After some pulling on the small brass contraption, the lamps in the hall lit up, and when the door lady, Mrs Moore, finally came down, Victoria was jumping up and down. The concierge gave her an evil eye through the door's little square glass window for coming home this late, but she unlocked and opened, albeit during a verbiage of reprimands. Ignoring the woman's bickering, Victoria took off her pumps with a sigh of relief and, with the shoes in her hands, stomped up the two flights of pompous marble stairs in her socks towards her student apartment. She grabbed her icy cold keys in trembling hands and, after some frantic tries, managed to unlock the door. With a contorted grimace and a rising wail, she rushed into her small hall, threw down her shoes and continued right to the bathroom. She shot out her hand and the toilet lid crashed open with a bang that must have echoed through the whole building, then she quickly pulled down her pantyhose and knickers and sat down in the darkness with a loud moan as she began to pee; she hadn't even had time to turn the light on. Damn, that had been too close for comfort.

Except for the last painful part when all the drinks she had had during the evening made themselves known with a vengeance, it had been a long boring trip home from downtown London, and her feet had become woefully chafed by her new pumps. But she didn't regret it one bit. Well, except for the last fifteen minutes of agony, maybe there had also been times during the cold nightly walk home when she had cursed herself, shivering with cold and trying to get some blood into her cold hands, where she had questioned her decision and also her sanity. But then she reminded herself that this must be every day reality for that homeless girl and many more like her in the absolute bottom of the pile. And where the hell did they pee when they didn't have the entrance fee? And now, when she finally closed the door to her student apartment after her and had thrown herself down on her big cozy bed and rolled her in its thick blankets, it had been totally worth it. What was nine pounds eighty compared to the looks on Marc and Peter's faces when she let that homeless girl keep the money? The memory made her snicker in delight. Definitely money well spent. She would miss those gloves though. They were hand sewn from Ethiopian sheep's leather that fit like a second skin but still kept her fingers warm and had probably been crazy expensive. But that was not why she missed them. They had been a gift from her younger sister Elizabeth when they were still talking to each other. Victoria sighed. What was done was done and no point shedding tears for.

She fell asleep in the bed with her clothes on.

In class the morning after, Wednesday the week before Christmas, everyone seemed to know what had happened the day before, and no-one seemed impressed by her good deed, despite it being the season of giving and all. Instead she heard sniggering and whispers behind her back, especially when she limped around between lectures on her well-swathed feet. 'Saint Victoria' she heard several of her classmates call her. Alyssa gave her some worried looks but didn't dare to come forward and speak to her. Even though they sat together in class the whole day, she didn't utter a single word to her. Victoria didn't care. She had never had many friends to begin with, not real friends, and had never relied on them for success or the feeling of belonging or self-worth. But it felt strange. In college back in New York, she had always been at the center of everything; elected school president every single year, the best in her swimming class for as long as she could remember, and the queen bee that every girl in school either feared or admired, or, in best cases, both. But here she was just another rich kid among other rich kids and no-one seemed to give a fuck about her. To be fair, that was why she had come here in the first place; to begin again, to get new friends where the old ways, old constrains and old habits weren't present. To not always have to watch your back and be all mama bitch all the time, but to have friendships and relationships in a more relaxed and mature way. That was what she had hoped for, but things hadn't worked out like she had planned at all. Well, it was only the end of the first term, and things could change. But one thing was certain; the winter break couldn't arrive soon enough.

The day dragged on. Marc was still angry and pretended not to see her, and Peter barely said hi. The last test before the break was in trade economics, something Victoria would need to prepare for, so it was just as good she had to be all by herself these next couple of days. Right now she missed her old henchmen Taylor and Courtney to help her out with the studying, though she suspected they didn't miss her as much. Victoria had never realised how much help she had gotten from them until she had moved over here and had to do everything by herself.

Victoria went back to the apartment alone, ate dinner alone, and sat and studied at her desk alone, when a careful knock sounded at her door. Victoria felt a small jolt in her chest as she put down her pencil. Could it be Alyssa who came by after all? Maybe to apologise for being such a turd the whole day? She lived just two doors down in the corridor and often dropped in for a chat now and then. Victoria rose, cleared her throat, adjusted her pony tail, smoothed out her blouse and skirt and donned her best friendly smile before she turned the handle to her door.

"Hey–" She began.

It was not Alyssa, instead a limber girl from the first floor stood there, chest heaving as if she had been running.

"Victoria Chase?" She asked out of breath.

Victoria gave her an undeservedly sour look before answering.

"Yeah, that's me."

"There's a girl downstairs, but Mrs Moore won't let her in. She said she wanted to speak to you."

Victoria stared back with a scrunched brow.

"Who wanted to speak to me, did you say?"

"The girl I meant, sorry," The first floor girl huffed, "She seemed weird, though. Should I say you weren't home?"

A weird girl at the door who wanted to talk to her? What the hell was this about? Anyhow, at this point anything that could keep her from studying for the test was welcome. Victoria stuck her feet in her tartan slippers and widened the door.

"No. No, I'm coming."

The concierge stood, arms crossed, and gave her a loathing stare when Victoria came down the steps to the main hall. It seemed like her reputation had improved little since yesterday then.

"Where's my visitor?" Victoria asked in a lofty voice, and Mrs Moore nodded towards the front door.

"Outside, and there she stays."

A small gathering of girls stood watching it all. Victoria ignored them as she walked past the group and out in the snowy afternoon. The wind outside was freezing cold, and she regretted not taking real shoes and her coat, or at least a hat.

A tall girl clad in old baggy clothes and an oversized Santa's hat stood leaning against one of the lamp post just out in the yard door. Victoria couldn't believe her eyes; the fucking homeless bum from yesterday. What the hell was she doing here? Victoria felt a bit creeped out. Had this homeless girl followed her all the way here? How? And why? Well, the why was obvious.

The girl looked up.

"Hi."

Victoria wasn't in the mood for pleasantries.

"How did you know where I live?"

The girl raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

"I heard you talking about Swankton Butte. Didn't need to be Sherlock to figure it was here."

Victoria crossed her arms, mostly against the cold.

"What are you doing here? I have no more money for you."

"No, no, I didn't come for lolly."

The girl stuck a hand in her pocket. When she took it out again, it held Victoria's old leather gloves.

"Just wanted to give you back these and say thank you for the loan."

Victoria took them.

"Oh."

She stroked the gloves to feel their well-known texture under her fingers and felt a lump form in her throat that she furiously tried to swallow down.

"Thanks," She managed to get out, "That was nice of you."

"Well, my turn to play Santa, I guess," The girl said and tipped the large red-and-white hat on her head so it slipped sideways. It made her look ridiculous, which was the point, Victoria guessed.

"Also, it says 'with love from Liz' in them, in gold stitching, so I thought they maybe meant something to you."

"Yes, they do actually." Victoria mumbled. "They're from my sister."

Victoria felt her words began to bubble up, about how she and her sister had had the mother of all fights a year ago and that Lizzie didn't speak to her anymore, and that everything had been Victoria's fault and that she wanted to apologise and make everything good again but didn't know how, and that she hadn't told anyone of this and it was murdering her inside, but instead of doing anything about it she had fled to London on the other side of the Atlantic to study something utterly unimportant and soul-killing. Luckily she could hinder the words from from spilling out of her, instead she stared at the girl in silence. The girl just nodded, as if she understood.

"I'm glad, so I didn't come here for nothing." She said, "It's quite a walk to get here from the city, erm, the North Pole, I mean."

"Tell me about it," Victoria said, glad to change the subject, "My feet are still all skinned from walking home yesterday."

"Yes, kind of a dick move from your friends, making you walk all the way for no reason. They seem to be kind of dick friends."

It was true. They were dick friends. With a heavy heart, Victoria realised her only friends here where dick friends.

The homeless girl watched Victoria while she stood in silence and turned the gloves around and around in her hand. The girl cleared her throat.

"Well," She said, "It was nice meeting you again, but I'd better head back before it get's too late. Long walk and all. So, bye then."

The girl turned and began walking away from her. Something twanged inside Victoria. Maybe this bum girl was the only kind soul she had ever met since coming here to London? At least the only one who cared even he littlest about her. Victoria knew she was grasping at straws, but suddenly London felt very big and cold, and very far from home.

"Wait!" She shouted after the girl. "Can't we do something? Now that you're here?"

The girl halted and glanced over her shoulder.

"What?"

Victoria felt her cheeks burn, but there was no point in backing down now. She shrugged and splayed her hands and pretended this was the most normal situation ever.

"Like, hang out, or something?"

"You want to chum with me? Why?"

"Why not? We could just talk and have a coffee or something? I mean tea, we could have tea?"

"Sorry, miss, but I'm not dressed for high tea. Maybe another day."

Victoria breathed out in frustration.

"We can hang out in my room then. It's right there, my windows are the third and fourth to the left on the third floor. Or second floor in British, I suppose. I'll make you sandwiches?"

"This is a guess, but I 'm hardly welcome at your place either."

The girl nodded at the door to the student house. There were a lot of faces looking out at them through the windows now. This turned out to be quite the spectacle. Then the girl broke out in a mischievous smile as she lifted her gaze and began studying the rows of windows of the house "But maybe I have a solution."

Victoria didn't follow at all.

"Meaning?"

The girl turned her eyes upward to study the sky before looking back at Victoria.

"Meaning it'll be dark in an hour."

"Uh, and meaning what, exactly?"

"Meaning I'll see you then. Just be in your room in an hour and we'll stick it to the man."

Chloe glanced to the door where she could see the grumpy door lady watching them through the window.

"Or woman."

Victoria shook her head, feeling annoyed over all the secrecy, but she sure would be alone in her room for the rest of the evening regardless, nothing seemed to be able to change that.

"Uh, okay? I'm Victoria by the way."

"I know."

Victoria frowned.

"You seem to know a lot about me, but I know nothing about you."

"I'm Santa's little helper, remember?"

The girl turned and began walking away again, and Victoria felt anger flare up inside.

"You can at least give me your fucking name!" She shouted.

The girl stopped and glanced back at Victoria with raised eyebrows.

"Sorry," Victoria said, "Didn't mean to shout at you."

"Nah, don't worry," the girl answered with a shrug. "And it's Chloe."

"What?"

"My name is Chloe," She said and winked. "See you in an hour."

When Victoria came back to the hall, the group of girls still stood there glaring at her.

"Who was that?" One of them asked.

Victoria scrunched her brow at her.

"No-one."

"Looked like you knew each other pretty well."

"But we don't."

Victoria ran up the stairs, saying nothing more.