First Term: Arrival

July's POV:

There they were. The gates of Virgin Hills Boarding School. The marvelous white brick wall was only separated by this copper-colored swinging gate. There was already a crowd outside so my driver stopped on the opposite side of the road and helped me unload. I bid him farewell and pulled my suitcase towards the gate. My eyes were wide with awe at the size of the building behind the gate. It kinda resembled the White House in appearance, with the pillars supporting the balcony above the entrance and the massive flag pole in the middle of the fountain in front. Just no USA flag waving from it, but a deep blue one with the emblem of the school, a white shield-like crest with pinkish, red ribbons around it, and the letters 'V' and 'H' emblazoned on it in the same dark blue of the flag. The crowd outside was as fascinating as the school building itself.

The first to catch my eye were two black guys that seemed to resemble the most prominent stereotypes of black guys you get. One was tall and muscular with a bald shaved head and thick black sunglasses on his nose. The sleeveless shirt showed his bulging bicep off quite well and was so tight you could see his abs through it. The other one was short and slim, with his hair in dreadlocks and tied in a ponytail. He had a massive gold necklace dangling around his neck and wore a very baggy pair of pants along with an oversized jumper.

They were talking to two blonde girls. The two of them looked almost identical. Long slender legs that ended in tartan skirts. Or maybe what you could call more of a belt than an actual skirt. The crop tops were the only thing setting them apart since one wore a gray one while the other wore a white one. Even from here, I could tell none of them wore a bra, though. If I had to describe their looks in one word, I'd choose 'Barbie'.

I internally frowned on myself. Here I was talking about stereotypes when I was pretty much the stereotypical redhead. My straight, ginger hair was combed down over my right shoulder where it reached just below my c-cup breasts. My pale face was littered with freckles that reached down my neck to my shoulders and my baby-blue eyes. I always hated those, to be honest. They made me look so incredibly soft. The sharp, piercing green eyes my sister and my dad shared were so much more interesting.

I ended up just standing at the edge of the crowd and letting my gaze wander. Many of them matched your typical bunch of high school students. Girls and boys in similar numbers. All kinds of hair or skin colors. A wide variety of clothes and styles.

Another pair of people caught my eye in particular though. Two girls this time again. Both of them were similar in size and build. One was dressed in a tight red shirt and black pants that ended just below her knees. The other one is in a black skirt and a pink hoodie. Her headphones were quite funny, though, as they had cat ears attached to them on the top. They both had mostly white hair that was black at the base but while one had it tied into a ponytail the other wore it kind of side bob. Guessing they both were related wasn't hard.

It was then that the gate opened, and two men walked towards us. One was wearing a dark blue suit along with a pinkish red button-up and a white tie, while the other wore a pinkish red jacket and a dark blue shirt along with white dress pants, and also no shoes. They were also accompanied by a woman in a very tight blue pencil skirt and a white blouse that was thin enough that you could see the outline of her bra through it. She wore a pinkish-red scarf around her neck too.

The man in the blue suit looked a lot younger than the other one and let his eyes wander the crowd before he began to speak, "Welcome you all to Virgin Hills. My name is Kaycee Ryder, but you may call me principal Ryder or headmaster Ryder. These two people besides me will be your homeroom teachers for this year. Seeing as there were so many applications, it's better to split it up a bit at least, so no teacher has to handle all of you alone outside of class."

With that, he made way for the man to step forward, "My name is Drew Dearborn, but please just call me Drew. I'm not a fan of formalities. I will also be your English teacher for this year."

He didn't say much, but I immediately knew which one I would want to have as a homeroom teacher. His voice was so calm and warm. Almost like you picture your friendly grandfather talking to you in your mind. The way he always had a smile on his face also made him seem like the most gentle soul ever.

When the woman stepped forward, her voice was way different, commanding, and strict, "My name is Jade Holland, but please refer to me as Miss Holland at any time. I will be your sex education teacher, and I expect nothing but your best behavior and effort in my classes."

When her eyes wandered over the crowd and stopped at me for a second, I froze. She adjusted her glasses and I could almost feel her undressing me. The people standing closest to me shuddered too, which I guess is a good indicator of them feeling the same.

"Come on in. It's time to get you settled in before classes start on Monday." the principal exclaimed again and motioned for us to follow inside.

The school grounds were stunning. There was a huge sign with the school's name written on it on the right-hand side, while a pond was to the left with a few ducks and swans swimming inside. The whole building was in perfect white which made it seem like solid marble. As soon as we got into the entrance hall, we were met by a lobby that had a receptionist table in it. Above that was a screen and the staircase leading up was parted around it.

"This is the entrance hall. From here you can access the rest of the main building. The main building houses the classrooms as well as the teacher's offices and the headmaster's office. There is also a library here for research." Mr. Dearborn explained. "Please get your school uniforms from the receptionist, and then I and Miss Holland will show you to your corresponding dorms."

School uniforms. Finally.

Don't get me wrong. I like to wear my style of clothes. I was all for the expression of your mind and all that. The uniforms were something that showed perfectly what this school stood for, though. When you applied here, they never asked you for a gender. Instead, they asked you what gender you were associating with. If I was, for example, feeling like a boy, I would get to wear the male uniform. However, that also meant I would go to the guy's dorms and needed to use the guy's lockers and toilets and stuff. If a guy wanted to be seen as a girl, it would be the other way around. It was also perfect because a guy could also not be sneaky and say 'yeah I feel like a girl to snoop into your dorms and stuff because that would also mean wearing the female uniform with a skirt and all.

As the first people approached the secretary about their uniforms, the screen lit up to show the models of the uniform. The female uniform was consistent with a tartan patterned pencil skirt in the pinkish red of the school and dark blue. On top was a white button-up with either a blue or red blazer. The outfit was completed with white over knees and black shoes that came either with or without heels. The male uniform was white trousers with black suit shoes. The top was either a blue shirt with a red blazer or a red shirt with a blue blazer. The tie was always colored white. It was also stated that the uniform was technically only mandatory for classes. In your free time, you could wear whatever you liked.

The brown-haired secretary handed each of us a package that contained our uniforms, and we made our way into the backyard. It was rather spacious out here with a fountain in the middle that had benches all around to study. There were stables to the left of us with a paddock attached to them. A few horses were running around there. To the right was another large building. The signs pointing to it read 'cafeteria', 'gym', 'pool', and 'auditorium'.

The homeroom teachers split us off into two groups as we walked towards the two buildings straight ahead. They were like a mirror copy of each other and given the way the groups looked it seemed to be the male and female dorms respectively. Once inside, Miss Holland instructed us on how the number systems worked so each of us could find the room that matched the key we got along with the uniforms.

I found mine up on the first floor. The rooms were quite basic. They were technically split in half, with both sides mirroring the other. One single bed, one closet, and one desk with a matching chair to study. Nothing major and out of the ordinary. I was just about to walk up to one when the door behind me opened again. Turning around, there was the girl with the cat ear headphones standing in the doorway, her sister behind her looking in.

"She's your roommate? You're going to have a hard time here, I guess," she remarked and walked off.

What?

I just stared at her, and she kinda stared back before I shook my head and broke the silence, "Hey. Uhm ... seems like we're roommates. I'm Julia. But people tend to call me July."

She pulled her earphones off and rested them around her neck, "Yeah. I'm ... I'm Tammy. Nice to meet you, too."

She sounded nice enough. I guess trying to be friends was going to be easy.

"You want a certain side of the room, Tammy? I'm cool with whatever side." I offered her.

"No. No. They are the same anyway, right?" she answered and made her way over to one of the beds to place her uniforms and suitcase on the bed.

"Guess that's true," I said as I began to unpack. "I'm kinda surprised they did not put you with your sister."

"Well ... I'm kinda glad. She can be kinda mean." Tammy said and gave me a small smile.

"You won't have those troubles with me. I tend to get along with almost everyone as long as they try to be nice to me too." I tried to convince her by tossing her my sweetest smile.

"Well, if you say so," she replied shortly.

I continued to unpack, not wanting to bother her too much. After I was done, I sat down on my bed and just watched her go at it. After a few moments, she seemed to realize I was looking at her.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just don't want to annoy you."

"By staring at me like a creep?" she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Didn't mean to do so. I just think since we're going to be stuck here together, we might as well try to be friends." I said with a slight shrug. "You know ... get to know each other."

"And what do you suggest?" she hopped onto her bed, kicking her legs a little.

After a moment of thought, I made my way over and sat down beside her, keeping a slight distance, so she wouldn't feel cornered, and looked at her, "I don't know. You could just ask me stuff you want to know."

"Like?"

"Just anything. How about this? Are there things you don't like at all? I mean, like certain music or something." I gave her a suggestion. "Don't want to annoy you by blasting music you don't like."

"I listen to just about anything. Just keep it to a bearable level," she answered with a shrug.

"Okay. Well, I don't like German rap music, so I hope you won't keep turning that up to full volume. And no Justin Bieber please because ... well it's Justin Bieber." I told her and giggled a bit at the last part.

"Okay noted. Are you an untidy person? I don't like chaos." she questioned back.

"I'm not. I'm well organized, mostly. Just don't hope I will keep cleaning your half of the room too. You can do that yourself." I tossed her a smirk.

"I wasn't going to ask for that. Don't want you to snoop around in my stuff anyway," she replied with a small grin and narrowed eyes.

"You think I'm nosey?" I put one hand to my chest in an overly dramatic way, like I was hurt.

"Sarcasm? Great, I'm fluent in that," she replied with a chuckle, I soon joined in.

We did some more casual small talk to learn more about each other. I told her I came to the school because of the music program. It was the second great thing about this school. You could learn focused on some of your preferences, and they offered major courses in arts, writing, music, and acting. Each student had to take two. Mine was music since I loved playing guitar and writing since I could learn a lot about writing songs there, hopefully. Tammy was here for the arts and writing courses. I also learned that she was no morning person, actually asking me to help her get up in the mornings, so she wouldn't oversleep. That was doable. I kinda didn't need much sleep most of the time.

Suddenly my stomach made itself noticeable with a small grumble, and Tammy gave a small giggle, "Seems like someone's starving."

I gave a playful pout, "Hey, I just landed on my plane today. I only had breakfast."

"Still seems like you're-" she was interrupted by her stomach now.

"Who's starving now, huh?" I retorted and giggled.

"Okay, okay. Let's check the cafeteria?" she suggested and I more than quickly agreed.

As we made our way out and over toward the cafeteria, we could see a few of the other students mingle together too. The taller black guy was doing some workout routine together with a guy with long flowing black hair and a guy with short blonde hair. A kinda nerdy looking girl was sitting alone near the fountain and reading a thick book, while a darker-skinned girl with long flowing black hair sat with the two blonde sisters I saw before.

The cafeteria had a huge buffet that seemed to be open throughout the whole day. There were some small empty spaces in between, likely from where stuff was already taken. I settled for a slice of pizza while Tammy went ahead and grabbed herself a cupcake with a big strawberry on top.

Her first bite was enough to get a bit of cream onto the tip of her nose, "No wonder you look so sweet with all that stuff over your face."

Tammy blushed hard and quickly wiped away the cream and gave me a tiny pout but a smile at the same time, "Aww, you. You're pretty sweet yourself, you know."

"I try to be. Not much of a sweet tooth, though. So, no worries about your cupcakes. I won't eat them, most likely." I gave her a grin and took a bite from my pizza.

She mumbled something under her breath.

"Excuse me what?" I asked again.

"Oh. Nothing." she waved me off with a slight blush again and began eating her cupcake again. "I just like strawberries a lot. Especially with whipped cream."

I could not help but chuckle and earn myself a pouty glare again, "I'm sorry. I just have a way too dirty mind."

She stared at me dumbfounded and began giggling, "If your mind wanders to those places immediately, you do. At least, means it won't be getting boring any time soon."

"Oh, I hope we won't be bored here right away," I remarked as we continued our small talk again.

I think I hit off quite well with her. This means I got a new friend right away. Go me!