"Are you nervous for your first day of school?" Biko asked as we walked out the door.
"Yeah! I've never been to a school for more than three months straight…"
"You can do it," Biko replied and squeezed my hand. "I'll be praying for you, Kelsey."
I was so happy that someone would be praying for me that all my worries immediately evaporated, until I reached the school. It looked so much like the last school I was at, it was scary. For some reason I expected my mom to send me to some goody-two-shoes school, but this was far from it. I was scared out of my wits. If I would have been back home, it would have looked like a rebels paradise, now it only looked like a place where I would end up in trouble with the law, and God.
Miss Thomas' Academy, or M.T.A. as the big sign in front said, was huge. It looked like one of those American College campuses' on T.V. There were three towers in back of the main building that said Girls Dorm, Boys Dorm and Co-ed. It definitely didn't look like a high school. I set my mind that I'd get through it.
I entered what looked like the main building and I was blasted with a giant cloud of smoke, and it wasn't only cigarette smoke. In front of me there were about ten kids who stared at me. "Newbie, right?" one of them asked me.
"Uh, no, I'm- My name's Kelsey Anderson, not Newbie."
"I didn't as you what your name was, stupid. Your new right?" he didn't wait for me to answer again. "Look, nobody besides us is allowed to enter the school this way ok? Since you're new… and I think you're hot, we'll let you go, this time." I was stunned. "Use the east door." I backed away.
If it would have been me in Canada I would have stood up to them and asked them for a joint, but this was not me in Canada. I took a breath of fresh air and walked around the campus. Finally I was getting hungry and my bags were heavy so I tried another door, this one was safe. The inside was as beautiful as the outside. I went straight to the main office to ask for directions and to confirm my year here.
"Yes, Miss Kelsey Anderson… Your mother signed you in the Girls Dorm," she looked me up and down suspiciously. "I suppose you'll want to sign-in for the Co-ed dorm; well there are only two more spaces left. How lucky of you to come by this morning! Oh, no worries, you mother won't know about it. I remember how it was like to be young. Now your room will be…"
"Oh, no! I- I don't want to switch into the Co-ed. I'd rather stay in the Girls Dorm, thanks," I replied cutting her off.
"Oh, I see! You're one of those new, up and coming Women's Rights Lesbians. Alright. We have a whole section reserved for you, you'll be in heaven!" she shrieked.
"No, you misunderstand me. I'm not gay," I said quickly, embarrassed that she would think this. "I just don't want to risk being in the same room as a guy… If you know what I mean."
"Mh-hmmm," she hummed. "I see… Well…" she continued on with her mindless chatter until finally she gave me my room number and I moved my stuff upstairs, slowly.
My heart sank when I saw my roommates. There were three other girls in the huge dorm. It was more of an apartment than a dorm. There was one room with four beds in it, each with a little side desk beside it with a lamp. One of the girls was putting up a curtain between her and the next bed. The kitchen was small, but already furnished. My mom was going to come around the next day to bring all the stuff I needed that I couldn't carry with me. There was a list above the sink of all the rest of the appliances needed. I checked off microwave, toilet plunger, and garbage can.
One of the girls was on her bed listening to some very loud music. Let's just say she didn't look like the happiest girl in the world. "Her name's Corrine," said another girl, the one who was fiddling with the curtain. "I'm Tammy. What's your name? I heard that the girl that's in our dorm comes from all the way from Canada. My aunt told me. She works at the main office. You might have noticed the resemblance. Can you believe that? That a girl comes from Canada, that is. Canada! I'm originally from London, London England, that is, not London Ontario. Do you think she'll get confused with the two? Do you suppose she'll think I'm from Canada and start talking French to me? It's across the ocean, London that is, London England. You're new here this year aren't you? Well, then I expect you'll get along enchantingly with the new girl from Canada! You're both new. Where did you say you came from? Ireland? Your hair isn't really red, but maybe you're a mix of something else. Maybe your father is from the Netherlands? Her father sent her here because she was getting in too much trouble, the new girl's father that is. My aunt told me, the one that works at the main office, not the one who lives in Paris. Can you imagine that? Your own father sending you all the way across the world because you were misbehaving?-"
"He did," I interrupted. "I'm from Canada, and I don't speak French." I dumped my bags on the farthest available bed from Tammy.
"Oh," she snorted. "Well, then. What have you done?"
"What?" I asked irritated, getting a headache. Did everyone talk non-stop in this building?
"What's the worst thing you've done? You've had to have done something bad to be sent here, South Africa, that is."
"Nothing that anyone else wouldn't have done; smoked, stolen, done every kind of drug you can think of, slept with all kinds of guys my record is forty years old, but that didn't really count. -" I stopped. Why was I boasting about all my life? That was in the past. "But I don't do that stuff anymore."
"Oh my goodness gracious! Hey, what's your name? In English I mean, not French. You do speak French don't you? I speak a little. Ji prlee une pet of French! We'll be able to converse! How lovely. So what did you say your name was, darling?"
Didn't she listen to anything I said? "Yes… I'm Kelsey Anderson. But like I said I don't speak French and I don't-" she didn't wait until I had finished my sentence but ran out of the room across the hall to chat with another girl, apparently about me. Great, my first day and I've already set a reputation for myself. I set up my stuff and then went to the cafeteria to find Selena and Arielle.