Chapter 3

The sound of high-heels accompanied by a clipped demand awoke me.  "I must have fallen asleep.  How long was I out?" I asked, still groggy.  Ms. Harper stood over me like a hawk, eyeing its tiny meal.

"About an hour.  You missed lunch, but dinner is sooner than you'd think.  It's already 1 'o' clock!  Dinner is at 6:30.  You must be exhausted to sleep like that." Ms. Harper said, eyeing me like a rotten fish again.  I looked down at myself.  I was half sitting, half sprawled in the uncomfortable, high backed chair.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so." I agreed.


"Yes."

"What?" I asked, totally confused.

"Ladies say yes, and never grunt.  Sit up straight, cross your legs at the ankle, and never ever use slay in my school.  You suppose, you hope, you know, you are; never I guess so." Ms. Harper said.  I tried to comply as quickly as she commanded me, but my baggy jeans refused to let me.  I fell out of the chair and landed hard on the floor with a thud.

"I see this is going to be harder than I anticipated.  No matter, you'll be a lady in no time.  We've got a lot of work ahead of us, Elizabeth." Ms. Harper sighed.  "Come, Elsa will show you to your new room, where you'll be living this year and possibly the next three."  Elsa stepped forward, took my suitcases, turned, and shuffled softly out the door.

"Follow me, Miss." Elsa said, coldly.  She led me up a massive flight of stairs in the front hall.  The oriental carpet silenced our footsteps as we made our way up to the first landing.  Elsa paused there, looked back at me, and continued up to the top.  I followed along quietly; the portraits on the walls of girls long gone were disturbing and somehow made me nervous.

I followed Elsa down the hall, the eleven pairs of eyes following me, peeking out their bedroom doors.  Someone shouted, "Dead girl walking!"  Elsa glared at the girls and several pairs of eyes disappeared behind heavy oak doors.  The rest closed their doors almost completely, but still peeked through the cracks.  Elsa stopped, and snapped her fingers.  The remaining doors closed loudly.

Elsa reached the end of the hall and opened the last door on the right.  "This is your room, Miss."  I stepped into the room, and took a look around.  There was a queen size bed in the center of the opposite wall, a nightstand to the right of it, a chair to the left.  On the left wall was a pair of sliding doors, presumably the closet, and a little dresser with a mirror hanging above it.  On the right wall was a door, hopefully my bathroom.  The wall holding the door through which I had entered had a small table and two chairs.

The bathroom was nice and clean, though somewhat cramped.  It was just a shower, a toilet, and a sink.  Elsa left the room, while I unpacked.  I hadn't brought anything decorative; Mother said I couldn't have it, so the room had no personality whatsoever.  I decided to freshen up and clear my mind, so I headed for the shower.  While enjoying twenty minutes of scalding water, I thought about my new life.

A small time later, while I was getting dressed, there came a soft little knock at my door.  I answered it, and there, standing before me, was a thin little wisp of a girl with short brown hair and hazel eyes.

"Hi, can I come in?"  I nodded and stepped aside.  "You have a nice room, just like mine, except for the closet of colorful clothes.  They don't let us wear those here.  My name is Carissa.  The girls call me Cara, though." The girl said, fingering my favorite lavender sweater hanging in my closet.


I looked at Cara's clothing, compared to mine; a blue pleated skirt, a white button up blouse, and a matching blue blazer.  The only thing of color was her pink fuzzy slippers.  She caught my appraisal and said, "We usually wear black flats and blue ties, but most of us ditch those by the time we get to the classroom door."  She laughed a big, booming, rich laugh, one I didn't expect from someone her size.

"Have you seen the campus yet?" Cara asked, plopping on my bed in a very unladylike manner.

"Nope, I just got here a few hours ago.  So where's your room?" I replied, changing the subject.

"Follow me." Cara drawled.  She hopped up and went into my bathroom.  She opened the door on the other side and I followed her through.  Her room really was exactly like mine, only hers was a mirror image.  "Neat, huh?" She laughed.

We walked back into my room and sat down at the table.  "So, tell me about the outside world.  I've been in private schools my whole life, practically.  I went to a public school for a month last year, but the school burnt down." Cara sighed with her last statement.

"Wait, I thought this was a reform school, but you didn't do anything." I replied.

"The fire was my fault." Cara whispered.

"Oh." I said, biting my lip.  "Sorry."

"It's alright, everyone else was just as surprised, but I'm just another one of the girls." She said, perkily.

"So, how did you do it?" I asked.  She opened her mouth to answer when Elsa barged into my room.

"Ms. Parker, I brought your uniforms.  There are seven, one for each day of the week.  Every Saturday is laundry day, so send your week's uniforms, and anything else you've worn down the chute in your closet floor.  I've taken the privilege of putting your name in these already.  You will have no need for that kind of clothing here, so I'll just take it to the Salvation Army." Elsa said, hanging up the uniforms and taking down my clothes.

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to hold on to those, thank you very much." I replied, catching her hand.  She shrugged and hung them back in the closet.

"I see you've already met Ms. Carissa.  Since she's here, she can give you a tour of the grounds.  Don't bother changing, there's no uniform for outside.  The girls just wear them because it's all they have.  I hope the campus is to your liking." Elsa said on her way out the door.

"Oh goody, just wait right here while I go get my shoes.  You'll like it here, I just know it." Cara laughed, bouncing into the bathroom and right through.  A few minutes later, she was dragging me out the door.  "I'll introduce you to the girls on our floor." She said, and she gave a shrill whistle.  Ten girls lined up in the blink of an eye.


"Cara, you have to stop doing that, we thought you were Harper." One girl whined.

"Sorry guys," Cara giggled.  "Meet the new girl, Elizabeth Parker."

"Hi." I said, quietly.  The girls mumbled angry hellos.  Cara took over the introductions from there.

"This is Courtney and Monica." She said, indicating two tall brunette girls.  "We call them D," pointing to Courtney, "and T," pointing to Monica.  "Double Trouble." She explained.  "They have a way with matches."

"And this is Sidney, we call her Auzzie.  Get it; Sidney, Australia!"

             "I get it, Cara.  What's your crime?"

Sidney smiled, "Armed robbery."  She flipped her long blond hair.

"These two are Laura and Danielle." Cara continued.  "Laura did time in juvi for hot-wiring a car in Los Angeles.   That's where she got that short hair." She laughed, roughing up the girl's bobbed black hair.  "Danielle hacked into the FBI database and screwed with their accounts because they were looking for her uncle."

"What can I say," Danielle laughed, "never mess with the Carter clan."

"We call them LA and FBI." Cara finished.  "And these two are the twins, Lydia and Julie.  They're just the twins."

"Are they ours, I mean, they don't look much older than nine." I asked, staring at the two little Asian girls with long black hair.

"They're eleven, and yes, they're Harpy's.  They're freshmen." Cara answered.  I looked at her with a cocked eyebrow and she said, "The twins are super smart, they dropped a bomb on China.  They thought it was a game, but they found it in the US defense computer system and cracked the encrypted code."

"Hey, how's it going?" I laughed.

"They um, they're mute." Cara explained softly.

"Mute?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah, you know, they don't talk."

"Oh." I shaped my mouth into an O for emphasis.

"And these last three," Cara said, pointing at a skinny brunette, a tall blond, and a curvy, curly-haired red-head, "are the baddest of the bad.  Meet Melanie, Megan, and Mandy.  Otherwise know as Shadow, Ice and Fire."        

"We can sneak in and out of anywhere.  By the way, I like that mini skirt in your closet, real nice." Melanie laughed, obviously the leader of the trio.

"If you're so good, why are you still here?" I laughed.

"We've got nowhere else to go." Replied Mandy.

"Okay, well I get all their nicknames, but I don't get yours." I replied.

"Shadow – you don't hear me, you don't see me, I follow without notice." Melanie explained.


"Ice – I freeze anything that sees me with blindfolds, duct tape, and sleeping gas." Megan said.  "I even have a little gizmo that freezes locks and windows so you can't hear us come in."

"Fire – Well, I'm a red-head, I use my obvious attributes to distract and burn guys who stand in the way, and I have a torch to melt metal." Mandy said.  "The three of us broke into a jewelry store, I think you'll recognize the name; Tiffany's.  It was a few years back, so we weren't good enough to get away with much, but we got away with some."

"The Tiffany's robbery of '99, that was you guys!" I exclaimed.

"You betcha." Melanie replied.  "So what are you in for?"

"Nothing big, I just broke a few trespassing laws, screwed around with the wrong chemicals, and have a nasty habit of sticky fingers." I replied, feeling out of place.

"What were you doing when you were trespassing?"

"I was shredding." I answered nonchalantly.

"You were what?"

"Shredding, ripping, tearing it up." I explained.  Eleven blank faces met mine.  "You know, skateboarding." I mumbled, embarrassed.

"Oh, okay." They murmured.

"I also put the chemistry teacher in a coma, but I blew up the lab in the process." I laughed nervously.  They seemed to understand that better, and looked somewhat impressed.

"Alright, so now you've met everyone, let's continue the tour, shall we?" Cara said brightly.  We walked to the end of the hall, down the stairs, past the creepy paintings, and across the marble entrance to the door.  Cara pulled the door open and a small shaft of light penetrated the gloom.  She lightly ran down the front steps I had come up mere hours ago with Mother, and I followed.  The sunshine put me in a better frame of mind, and I felt at ease.

Cara and I followed the cobblestone sidewalk to another part of the building.  The grounds formed and L shape, according to Cara.  The dorms, dining hall, and school formed the longer side while the gym formed the shorter leg.  She led me up another flight of stairs and into the school.  Thank the Lord it was built the way it was, there was no chance of getting lost.

There were only 30 classrooms, split into 3 halls; the fourth hall went unused because it bordered the gym.  The three halls were Math and Science, History and Language, and Art and Music.  The main piece of the school was the library in the center, as if the school built around it was an after thought.  I swear it was the length of a football field and the height of the statue of liberty.  Okay, maybe not that big, but it was impressive.  The ceiling was completely glass; letting in the natural light and every wall was floor to ceiling bookshelves.


The library floor was carpet to silence footsteps, and the furniture looked soft and inviting.  Plush, overstuffed chairs dotted the room and ladders made access to the books easy as pie.  The only somewhat appalling thing in the room was a massive oak desk standing between that beautiful library and me.  A woman in black sat behind it, resembling Elsa, her hair in a bun, and her spectacles sitting on her nose.  She looked over them at me the same way a cat regards a fly; annoyed.

"Hello Ms. Apple, this is our newest student, Elizabeth Parker." Cara said, pulling me up to the desk.

"I know who she is, don't you think I'd recognize her if she wasn't new?  I know every girl in this school, not to mention their preferences in my library." She replied.  She spun in her chair, eyed her computer monitor a moment, and then began typing furiously.  "Ah, here we are, Elizabeth Parker, originally from St. Louis, then has been seen in Illinois, Florida, and finally back to St. Louis.  Then she moved to the county, then to the country down around Bonne Terre, Mo.  Am I right?" She said, spinning back to face me.

"How do you know all that?" I exclaimed suspiciously.

"My dear, your library cards.  Everywhere you've been you've gotten library cards and used them furiously.  I can't even begin to count the number of things checked out on each card, not to mention not a single fine, ever.  Your tastes in literature aren't exactly my cup of tea, but they are highly regarded authors.  I myself didn't read Little Women until I was in high school, and here it says you read it in 98, why, you must've been 10 years old, quite heavy reading for a 5th grader, my dear." She chuckled softly.

"Umm, yeah, it's one of my favorites." I mumbled.  It was embarrassing; I mean, I'm supposed to be a tough, out-of-control teenager, that's why I'm here, right?  But here I was, showing all the school that I'd never even had a library fine, some tough girl I was.

"So Cara, what are we up to today?" Ms. Apple asked, and I sighed, thankful she'd stopped paying attention to me.

"Nothing much, I was just giving Elizabeth a tour of the grounds." Cara replied.

"Well then, why don't you do me the favor of dusting off the mythology, and I'll show Elizabeth our humble library." Ms. Apple said, handing her a feather duster as she stepped from behind the desk.  Cara nodded and bounced off to a corner somewhere and I was left to follow Ms. Apple.  She showed me the fiction, nonfiction, biography, fantasy, science fiction, mythology, and anything else I might look for.  "Our library is a trilingual library, meaning it's written in English, Latin, and Greek.  We have a section on other languages here," She said, pointing to two cases of books, "and you can find any language known to man, dead or spoken. 


I nodded and thumbed through a book of Arabic legends.  "If you need any help finding something, come ask me and I'll search for it on the computer." Ms. Apple said, wrapping up the tour.  I looked around for a little while before choosing a book of ancient Japanese cultures and finding Cara.  We then continued the tour, and she led me out of the library.  We went to the gymnasium next.

The gym wasn't nearly as exciting as the library, but it wasn't what I'd call plain.  It had a weight room, a rope to climb, and a sauna to steam in, but that wasn't what excited me.  The place had a swimming pool!  I met the coach, who explained the curriculum of the class and what was required to pass, but I dimly remember hearing it because I was just itching for a chance at the pool.  I do, however, vividly remember Coach saying the gym was open until 9, every night, the pool, the weight room, everything perfectly accessible.  From the gym, Cara led me back to the school, the indoor path this time, and through the school to the dining hall, which was also connected to the dorms.

The dining hall was a large room decorated like a medieval castle with tapestries on the walls and a chandelier hanging high above.  Ten tables, each twenty feet long, took up all floor space.  On the opposite wall were the double doors leading to the dorms, and on the wall to the right was a large, huge, incredible fireplace.  It seemed fitting that a dumbwaiter big enough for two good-sized adults was set into the left wall.  The dining room was impressive to say the least.

Cara led me back outside and around the side of the dorms to the back lawn.  There was a patio with a small wrought iron table and chairs covered by a large umbrella from the sun.  A padded gliding porch swing sat almost against the building.  From the patio, the lawn went down hill and leveled out fifty feet from the edge of the woods.  I saw those hard-nosed, delinquent girls running around, blowing bubbles, jumping rope, hula-hooping, playing croquet and tag, practicing flips in the warm, late summer, early fall grass.  There were even a few hanging from the trees just inside the forest.  It was as if they never were the troublesome girls they had been to get here, they seemed to gain back their youth here, behaving as if they were still in grammar school.

"This is our only chance to relax, we only get until half an hour before sunset to be outside." Cara explained.  She gave a shrill whistle like before and the girls looked up, frightened.  "Floor formations!" She bellowed.  The girls immediately dropped what they were doing and formed 4 groups of twelve, plus the rest of the second floor girls.  "Ladies, this is Elizabeth Parker, the newest addition to the second floor."

"I love fresh meat." Laughed a voice from behind me.  "So this is the new inmate, looks too good to be here."

"Well thanks, and who are you?" I replied sarcastically.

"I'm Rebecca Morgan, you're worst nightmare." She sneered.

"And exactly why is that?" I asked.

"I'm one of the senior girls here and I'm in charge of enforcing bedtime, curfew, and everything keeping you here around the clock." She answered, sneering again.  "Basically, I own you, so if I say jump, you say how high, because Ms. Harper trust me completely.  Got that?"


             "Well, if you're supposed to keep me here, who's keeping you?  Who's got a hold on your short little leash, Rebecca?" I laughed.

"Why you –"She began, grabbing a fistful of my shirtfront.

"And another thing, when you say jump, do you mean oiley, 180, 360, grind, or a kick flip?" I laughed.

"A skateboarder, huh?  I don't like skateboarders, they don't know when to keep their mouths shut." She hissed.

"Well, good, because skateboarders don't like anyone who isn't one, so I guess that includes you, huh?"

"I'm going to personally ride you like the ass you are until you learn to check your attitude." Rebecca growled, setting me on my feet again, slowly releasing my shirt.

"Yee haw." I whispered, straightening my shirt.  Rebecca stormed away, flipping her long black hair.  "Too bad, " I murmured, "such a pretty girl, for such a mean person."

"She's known as the lust of every guy at Carson, the public school in town." Cara said.  It was understandable for Rebecca to be sought after, I mean, she really was beautiful.  She had large, almond-shaped eyes the color of moss, set below perfect arched eyebrows.  Her nose was a strong, aristocratic one that curved up on the end just above a perfectly formed mouth with full pink lips.  Rebecca could have been a model if she'd been anywhere other than Ms. Harper's School for Girls.

I sighed and followed Cara back inside.  Not long after, all the girls gathered in the dining hall for supper.  The food was delicious, but the atmosphere was one of rigid silence and unfriendliness.  I sat with my floor, as was customary, according to Cara.  I tried my best to be a perfect lady, but someone gave an exaggerated sigh and they did their best to ignore me.

After dinner, the girls lingered in the front hall.  "What's up, Cara?" I asked.

"We're waiting for Ms. Harper.  Every night, she tells us what our chores will be for tomorrow.  Everyone does chores, everyday, so we don't have to pay so many servants, and to teach us responsibility.  She likes to use chores as punishment too, especially for having an attitude, so just keep your mouth closed.  Don't speak unless spoken to, and answer everything as yes ma'am, or no ma'am." Cara explained quietly.

A few minutes later, Ms. Harper appeared in front of the throng.  She clapped her hands and gave the same shrill whistle Cara liked to use.  I grabbed Cara's sleeve so as not to get lost as we split into the five rows of twelve.  Second floor girls were right up front, followed by the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.  Ms. Harper walked back in forth in front, appraising us slowly.


She stopped, stared at me a moment, and moved on again.  "Second floor, you're looking ship-shape." Ms. Harper said happily.  "I see Ms. Parker is learning the rules quickly, fitting right in here.  Since I've heard no trouble about you girls at all today, tomorrow's chores will be light.  You will be in charge of folding and delivering fresh sheets to everyone, and refilling the soap in the bathrooms, if necessary."

It sounded like a lot of work to me, but my floor smiled and seemed happy about it.  Ms. Harper smiled and moved on to the other floors.  She gave them laundry, dishes, polishing, trash, windows, mopping, vacuuming, and any other cleaning job to keep the school "ship-shape".  Compared to other floors, we really didn't have a whole lot to do.  Once chores were dispensed, we went upstairs to our rooms.  

I followed Cara upstairs, and excited whispers greeted me at the top.  Forty or so girls overwhelmed the hall.  The bulk of which gathered in room eleven.  Cara was just as excited as the others, if not more.  I shoved my way to the door and stared, dumbfounded.

A man, about six feet tall, broad shoulders, incredibly handsome, stood in the middle of the room.  Girls crowded in around him, asking him questions, talking excitedly, and giggling.  He smiled and looked up from the short crowd towards me.  The man caught me staring, and his smile grew into a grin as he stared back.  My cheeks grew warm from his attention and I averted my gaze.  He pushed his way through the girls, as politely as he could, and walked right up to me.

"Hi, I'm Dane." He said.

"Hi, I'm Elizabeth.  No offense meant, but what are you doing here?" I replied breathlessly.  His attention and close proximity was doing all sorts of crazy things to my brain, and my body.

"My mom just died about a month ago, so I'm staying here with my aunt." Dane answered.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I'm such a dope." I muttered.

"It's alright, you didn't know." He laughed softly.

"So, who's your aunt, and since this is an all girls school, and you most certainly aren't, where do you go?" I asked, changing the subject to something a little more comfortable.  I eyed him up and down, and thought yes indeed, he most certainly was a man! 

"She's a servant, she helps out here and there with lots of things.  Her name's Samantha, do you know her?  Anyways, I'm going to Carson for the year, but I don't know quite how long I'll be here." Dane replied.

"Wow, the whole year, what does Ms. Harper think of all this, having a fox in her hen house?" I laughed, thinking he certainly is a fox.

"What she doesn't know can't hurt her!" He whispered, smiling mischievously.   "Can you tell me what floor I'm on, because I had to sneak into the dumbwaiter to get a ride up here unseen?"


Meanwhile, the crowd had encircled us and was listening attentively to our conversation.  To shoo them away, I waved my hands in the air to get their attention and said, "He's only new help girls, that's all.  Go on about your business."  The girls grumbled, but they wandered off pretty quickly.  "You did a real good job of sneaking, Dane, and this is only the second floor." I laughed, gently punching his arm.

He feigned hurt, rubbing his arm and said, "Yeah, real good.  So I guess I'll see you later, Elizabeth.  I have a feeling I'm going to like living here."  He laughed again, a twinkle in his gray-blue eyes, and I laughed with him a moment, but he quickly turned solemn and sighed. 

"Uh, yeah, later." I agreed, stumbling over my own tongue.  I walked him to the dumbwaiter in room eleven's closet.  He climbed in, was about to close the door, when a sudden impulse seemed to grab him.  Dane reached out, took my hand, kissed it softly, and then disappeared behind the dumbwaiter door.  I stared after him for a while before returning to my own room across the hall.  I lay awake in bed long after my encounter with the mysterious man from the dumbwaiter before finally drifting off to sleep to delicious dreams of Dane, his gray-blue eyes, and his dark brown hair.