Welcome To Fancy School!

After the boy left, no one dared to utter a word. We all stood still with our heads bowed, hoping that the giant flamming dragon in front of us will have least have the word 'mercy' in her vocabulary. Principal Williams continued to glare at us.

To be honest, it was starting to get uncomfortable until, she finally spoke. "Since none of you are willing to talk, you will all have detention for a month."

The sound of loud gaps filled the parking lot. This was not fair! I arrived at this school about 15 minutes ago, and I already have detention? Trust my luck. Why? Just, why? At least I won't be alone. There were about 40 people with me in the parking lot.

Principal Williams was about to leave when someone called out her name. It was the girl who stood next to me. The one who had come to my aid.

She nervously raised her hand up and said, "I can explain to you what happened, Principal Williams."

The Principal's cold, icey gaze fell on her. I noticed her gulp, feeling nervous as their eyes met.

"It's too late for that." ,Principal Williams said, coldly but the girl wouldn't give up so easily.

"Please, Madame. Give me a chance.", she pleaded.

The Principal sighed then said, "Fine. You have two minutes."

The girl began explaining, "Our new student here" refering to me, " got into an accident. I came here to help her out and Miss Stephanie had no idea what was going on. She only found out when she was doing her daily routine inspections.We are terribly sorry, Madame."

The Principal's brown eyes drifted from the girl to me. She eyed me from top to bottom, sighed then said something under her breath. Something about having to fix the hole in ground earlier. To my relief, she also said,

"Fine. Clara, take her to the school's clinic." She didn't have to say it twice. The girl took my hand and rushed me out of there.

I later heard that Principal Williams apologized to Miss Stephanie and she got her job back. However, the Principal stood by her word when she said that the rest of the students will have a one month detention.

....

We walked in silence to wherever the school's clinic was. It was quite a relief for me to be able to get out of there. To finally be able to breathe again. I took a careful look at the girl walking next to me. She looked like she was my age.

She had short curly brown hair that danced above her shoulders. Her flat nose sat gracefully on her round face. She had full lips that were as pink as raspberries and smooth olive skin. Her brown eyes looked happy and healthy. Her thick eye brows and natural blush complemented her face perfectly.

"Sorry about what happened. Are you okay?" ,she asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." , I answered.

"Well, we are here.", she informed me.

I looked up at the two storey building that stood in front of us. Although it looked old, it had a very serene and neat environment. On the bright green lawn, grew beautiful sunflowers. The place was so quiet, the only sounds that could be heard were the sweet singing of birds in the nearby forest trees, and the satisfying sound of water flowing from the nearby water fountain.

We walked through the large brown doors to meet a woman who was sitting behind a counter. She was too busy filing her nails to notice our presence. It was not until the girl let out a loud cough that we got her attention. She looked startled at first, but when she noticed me, her expression immediately changed from startled to 'EW!'

She looked at me like I was a chewed piece of gum that someone had swallowed, then vomited out. She felt disgusted by the sight of me, and she did not try to hide that. I couldn't blame her though. I looked like a log of poop!

"Aunt, Zoey, we have a situation here!", she called out. Immediately, a woman came out from one of the rooms in the hallway. She had silky white hair that was tied in a messy bun. She was elderly and looked like she was on her late 60's.

"What is the problem, Sandy...Holy macaroni! What in the world happened to that child?!", she asked, as soon as her bottle green eyes fell on me.

I stood there, feeling awkward and not knowing what to say.

"She got into a little accident earlier." ,the girl explained, coming to my rescue.

"Ha! How the dirt taste?", Sandy asked, then giggled.

The elder woman, shot her a warning look that shut her up.

"It looked like some giant thought that you were a strawberry and decided to dip you into chocolate." ,the elder woman told me, in an attempt to make me feel better, but I still felt embarrassed.

"Come with me, dear.", she told me, in her sweet southern accent and I followed her into a room that was at the end of the hall.

That was where I took a shower and changed into clean clothes. You know those little bottles of soap you get at fancy hotels? I used so much that I stopped counting after 50. Even after my shower, I still felt dirty!

The head nurse, who insisted that I call her aunt Zoey, was really good to me.

"Are you friends with Clara?", she asked me.

"No. She is just here to escort me." ,I answered her.

"I'll advise you to stick with her like bees and honey. She will be good to you.", she told me.

Before I left, she told me that I could drop by the school's clinic any time I pleased and I promised to do so as I waved to her goodbye.

..,....

I tapped my feet anxiously on the floor as I waited in the Principal's waiting room. I was not alone. There were other new students who were there for an interview with Principal Williams.

Earlier, after my trip to the clinic, a woman named Olivia, who was the Vice Principal's assistant came to escort me to the Vice Principal's office. I smiled to myself as I recalled meeting the young and exuberant woman for the first time. Not only was she young, but as beautiful as a goddess.

She had the perfect radiant skin, long silky blonde hair, her pointed nose danced perfectly along her face and down to her full lips and up her 'v' shaped jaw line. Her eyes brows were perfectly trimmed and her long eye lashes protected her dazzling hazel eyes.

I remember nervously walking into her office to be greeted by tons of shining trophies that sat in their giant trophy case. The sun's rays shone gracefully on them, making their shine pop out in all it's full glory. A feeling of warmth spread through my body as I stared at them for a while.

I must have been staring for long, for she walked over to me from her desk and asked, "Admiring my victory?" Her lips curled up into the warmest smile I have ever seen. I was so stunned, I could only nod in response.

"I like to admire them too sometimes. There are much more. The trophy case could only carry this much.", she said, then chuckled.

"I am Mrs. Veronica Parker Williams.", she introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Chelsea Manchester." ,I said, then shook her outstretched hand.

"It's nice to meet you. So are you a fan of Chelsea or Manchester?", she asked, jokingly.

I looked down feeling a bit embarrassed because I was not a fan of soccer.

"Relax. I was only teasing you.", she told me.

Upon further conversations with her, I found out that she was actually really good friends with my aunt Ruby.

"You are very lucky to have a cousin like Cassandra by your side." ,she told me.

"Sure.",I said, but between you and I, Cassandra is the worst.

"Did you know that she was the one who reported your incident to Principal Williams?", she asked me.

"No.",I answered.

Did Cassandra really call Principal Williams when I was in trouble this morning? Maybe, she wasn't that bad. Maybe, just maybe, we could go back to being what we were before. Sisters.

"You guys may go in", Sophia, the Principal's assistant informed us, drawing me back to reality.

I stood up from my seat and took in a deep breath before following the others to the door. In my head, I imagined a scenario where I was trembling before an angry flamming red dragon that looked like Principal Williams, and wanted to devour me. You couldn't blame me for thinking that she was a monster. If someone had told me that she would suspended a kid and almost fire a teacher on my first day, I would never have believed it.

To my relief, there was no angry red dragon that was waiting for me inside but rather, a Principal who was busily engaged in some paperwork.

"Good morning, everyone. Please have a seat.", she instructed us, without looking up.

As soon as I sat opposite her she looked up at me and said, "My apologies, Ms. Manchester for the incident that occurred this morning. I have seen to it that your bullies have been severly dealt with.

I was still too terrified to speak, so I nodded in response, as a way of saying, 'Thank you.'

"How are you feeling, Ms. Manchester?", she asked after a brief paluse.

I nodded in response.

She stared at me for a brief moment then said, "Ms. Manchester, when you are asked a question you are expected to respond using your words. Non-verbal responses will be considered rude, do you understand?"

She had a very stern look and I felt like she was staring me down.

"Sorry...uhm...yes, I do.", I answered. Oh, this woman gives me anxiety.

"Good", she told me.

She then turned her attention to the rest of the students, and said, "I don't know what you have heard about this school before coming here, but I want you all to drop that, and just keep this one thing in mind. You are at a very prestigious school." She ended with a little smirk.

"From the complicated fields of natural and applied science, we are the best. To the amazing sports of football, tennis and golf, we are the best. Even in the fine arts of drama, theater and music, can you guess it?". she asked us.

"We are the best?", we responded, not really sure of the answer.

"Precisely", she said, and continued. "In order to keep it that way, we expect a lot from our students. That's right. You make us what we are. See, we are not called 'The Egales' for no reason. Like an egale, we sore high up in the sky, claws out, and ready to destroy our prey. Like an egale we..."

Okay, paluse. Let me save you the trouble. She gave us a very, very long and boring speech about how much awesome they are and how much better they are than every other school. And now, for the final part.

"Do you all agree to these terms and conditions?", she asked us.

By the time she was done, we all got so bored, some guy even started to drool. Gross! "Yeah...sure...whatever", we each responded.

"Good. Now, if you would be so kind to sign here, here and here.", she instructed us.

I took one of the documents and pens that were being passed out and signed my name at the areas required.

"Congratulations! You are now official an student of Lavender Hills Academy. Welcome. We expect the best from you." , she told us.

After that, we were all taken to a room where we took the photos for our school ID cards and were given name tags for our uniforms and free school merchandise. I received a bagpack and a gold pen. I walked out of the building, feeling much better. I was finally a part of Fancy School!