"What the fuck was that?" Bianca heard Zoë ask from behind her. Bianca looked behind her to see Zoë slap her cousin in the arm. A group of them was heading into the library with Annabelle to see why someone had gone done there.
"What do you mean?" Rosë asked her cousin.
"You know exactly what I mean," Corpse Kisser hissed angrily.
"Well, maybe I would've helped you," Rosë began, "If you hadn't called me a facile, turbo-skank." Bianca covered her snort with a cough as they entered the dustiest part of the library.
"Quit eavesdropping chav," Corpse Kisser snapped at her and she was about to retort when Rosë crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them as if daring them to start an argument. Bianca sneered at Zoë but turned back to walking through the gross center of the library.
X
Rosë watched as a blonde, dreadlock-haired girl opened a round case and pulled out a ring. Annabelle cleared her throat, startling the girl as she turned around. The head girl reached out and took the ring from her, holding up by her face. "Care to explain what's going on Celia?"
"Her hair could so do with a good washing," Saffy remarked grossed out.
"Truly," Rosë agreed.
The dreadlock-haired Celia girl rocked back in forth on her heels, "Maybe…no,"
"I'll geh ma tahngs," café girl remarked loudly and turned to head off.
"On second thought," Celia called out, "Why not? Happy to."
Café girl stomped her foot childishly, "Aw, I neva geh tew use ma tahngs." She crossed her arms across her chest.
"Basically, like, this man totally asked me to find it." Celia told them.
"What man?" Annabelle demanded.
"I can't say," Celia remarked with a shrug.
"I'll geh ma tahngs," Café girl remarked, Annabelle nodded.
"No, I can't say, 'cause I don't know." Celia explained, "I've never seen him before. He told me where it was and said he'd pay me twenty-thousand if I got it."
"Twenty-thousand pounds for that?" Chelsea pointed at the ring, "It looks like something Bianca would wear," Chelsea pointed to Café girl. Rosë made note of the girl's name.
"What were you going to spend twenty-thousand pounds on?' Annabelle interrogated as she examined the spiraling ring.
"Turbines," Celia remarked excitedly. Most of the girls looked confused. "Wind power," she elaborated. Most still looked confused. "The ice caps are melting! Sea levels are rising! Climate change is the most important issue our generation faces. With this money, we could make this school carbon neutral." Celia grinned.
Everyone stood in silence for a moment, but then Chelsea spoke. "Yeah, or: slide the ring over, split the cash, and get our Gucci on!" Chelsea, Saffy, and Bella clapped excitedly.
X
A few hours later, Rosë was running back into the library with the head Posh Totties and Zoë. "Judging by the shapes and the markings," one of Bianca's friends remarked studying the ring with one of the small magnifying glasses jewelers use. "I'd say it was a ring," she paused, "Yep, definitely a ring."
"Good," Annabelle remarked, "How old?"
"Yep," the girl replied.
"Thah's ma goil!" Bianca cheered. The geeks readied notepads and pens to write down what she said.
"Ih's wewl ohld," everyone groaned.
"Wha' aw ya uhp tew?" Bianca asked irritated at her friend.
"Give it here," Rosë told the girl, holding out her hand.
"Why, yew fink yew can dew a behtta jahb?" the girl snapped.
X
"Yeah, I do, actually." Rosë snapped back and took the ring from Jess. Bianca raised an eyebrow in speculation.
"As been stated before, it's a ring. More specifically it's a posie-ring."
"A wha'?" Bianca asked confused.
"A posie-ring," she repeated, "It pretty much means that it's a ring with an inscription on it, they were most popular during the Shakespearean era."
"Wha's da ihnscription den?" Bianca asked, interested that the girl actually knew something about the ring.
She took the magnifier from Jess, "Zero, five, thirty-five,"
"What's that mean?" Annabelle asked.
Rosë shrugged, "Usually posie-rings are used as engagement rings, the m–"
"Why wewld suhme geeza use zero, five, thir-y-five tew propose to a gawl?" Bianca cut her off.
"I said they were usually used for engagement rings. The man would have something sweet inscribed on the inside of the band that was a promise to whomever he was intending to marry. They weren't always used that way though, this one, I reckon, was used to convey a message to someone."
"Wait, so some geeza wehnt frough aww da trouble of makin' a ring, just so 'e could tell some ovah geeza somefink?" Jess asked Rosë.
"That's the gist of this one, yeah." Rosë told her.
"So 'ow much is it worf?" Bianca asked.
"Well, taking into account that it's mostly gold…" she looked like she was trying to think of something that she had forgotten, "Last I checked, it was about a thousand and thirty pounds," she remarked, Bianca grimaced, "Per ounce of gold." Rosë finished.
The girls around them eye's grew wide.
"Yeah, buh ih ain't abouw ihs mawrkeht vaalew," Jess argued.
"What do you mean?" Chelsea and her air-headed followers asked in unison. Yet, Rosë just watched Jess, waiting for her to continue speaking.
"Ih's abouw wha' ih's worf tew dee ihndihvihdual." Jess explained, chomping on her gum.
"She's not wrong," Rosë remarked as she set the ring back down in front of her.
"So," Bianca watched Jess turn to Rosë, "Maybee twen'y's just 'is openin' bid."
"Yeah," Rosë agreed, "We could probably squeeze him for double."
"Maybee eeven fifty grand," Jess added.
"Fifty thousand pounds?" the girls around the group of three whispered in awe.
X
Her and Jess' suggestion sent everyone a buzz with excitement. She heard the geeks gushing over an all-girls moon mission. Chelsea, Saffy, and Bella were talking about a Malibu beach house, and Bianca did some dance while just saying, "Naw. We. Aw. Tawk-in'."
All their chatting was stopped soon, though, by the sounds of dolphins. "Um…" Celia spoke up, "That's him." Every girl near the phone dove for it. Rosë stood in the background and watched. She didn't really care for the money, she couldn't really think of what to do with it and she didn't just want a portion of 50,000 pounds burning a hole in her pocket.
"Head girl badge," Annabelle remarked. Every girl sneered and pulled away, "I'll do the talking." Annabelle flipped the phone open, put it on speaker, and set it on the table.
"Go on," Lucy whispered.
Annabelle brushed her hair over her shoulders, "You're talking to Annabelle Fritton, head girl of St. Trinian's." Rosë and half of the other girls in the room rolled their eyes.