New Girl

by Laura Sieveking

  Zoe and I stared with wide eyes. I’d never heard someone speak so fast.

  ‘Sorry, my mum warned me not to be such a chatterbox. She said I might scare people off a bit, so I should just “chill out”. But once I start talking, it’s hard to stop, you know? What are your names?’

  ‘I’m Ella,’ I laughed. ‘And this is my best friend, Zoe. We went to the same primary school.’

  ‘Oh, you are so lucky!’ Grace gasped. ‘I don’t know anyone here. I’ve been so nervous about who will be in my room, but you two look nice!’

  Zoe giggled.

  ‘Excuse me, can I please get through?’ a small voice said behind us.

  ‘And you must be our number four!’ Grace said, jumping off the bed to welcome the fourth member of our dorm. ‘I’m Grace, this is Ella and that’s Chloe …’

  ‘Ah, it’s Zoe,’ Zoe corrected.

  ‘Oops! Sorry, Zoe!’ Grace said, hitting herself on the forehead. ‘I’m terrible with names! Mum says that’s because I’m always talking and never listening properly—can you believe that? How rude! What’s your name, number four?’

  The newest member of our room slowly looked up at us from behind her round glasses. She was a tiny little thing—probably only the size of Olivia, who is two whole years younger than me. Her skin was pale and her eyes were deep brown.

  ‘I’m Violet,’ she whispered.

  ‘Hi, Violet! Do you like Violet or Vi? I have an aunt called Violet. She’s horrible. But you look nice!’ Grace’s words tumbled out of her mouth.

  ‘Just Violet,’ our new roommate said in a flat voice. She walked over to her bag and pulled it to a bed. Without looking at us, she began to unpack her things, quietly sorting them into piles.

  Now, my Nanna Kate says ‘never judge a book by its cover’. I always thought this was a bit of a silly thing to say—of course I’m going to judge a book by its cover. If the cover is full of sharks, like Max’s Great Guide to the World of Sharks, then there’s no way I’m going to touch that book. But Nanna Kate says what she really means is not to assume you know all about someone just from your first meeting. I wasn’t sure what was up with this Violet character, but she was either super shy or super unfriendly.

  I guess we’d find out pretty soon, considering she was going to be living in our room.

  Chapter 3

  × −

  From: Ella

  Sent: Saturday, 5:40 PM

  To: Olivia

  Subject: Day one done!

  Hi Olivia!

  Do you miss me yet?! I’m emailing you from the study in our dorm. It’s a room full of desks where we can do our homework and projects and stuff—we’re not meant to use our laptops in our rooms until we’re older. Whatever.

  Did Mum show you the photo I texted her of my dorm room? It’s so annoying you don’t have your own phone yet. Don’t worry though—you’ll get one next year, like I did for my last year of primary school. I guess we’re stuck emailing until then!

  Have you taken over my room yet? You’d better not. And keep Bob off my bed! Just coz I’m not there doesn’t mean my bedroom turns into the dog’s room.

  Guess what? Zoe is in my dorm room! I’m soooo happy! There’s this other girl, Grace, and she is so funny. She never stops talking—a bit like you! And then there’s Violet. I’m not sure about her yet. She’s really quiet and she kind of never smiles. I don’t know if she’s shy or if she just doesn’t like us.

  There is one girl who definitely doesn’t like me. Saskia. I totally stuck my foot in it when she heard me laughing at a painting of her old great-grandma. Oops!

  Anyway, I’d better go. We’re about to go for dinner. It’s just Year 7 here today, but tomorrow all the other year levels come back to school.

  Email me back!

  Love, Ella

  xx

  Opulent. That’s another word I use in my writing sometimes. It means luxurious or expensive. And that’s the word I thought of when I entered our dining hall. It is a massive, cavernous room with high, pitched ceilings. Chandeliers hung from the ceilings and the floor was beautiful, polished, dark wood. Very chic. There were massive, long tables with wooden bench seats in long rows. The room looked pretty much empty with only Year 7 in there for dinner that night, but I knew once the rest of the school arrived tomorrow it would be a bustling hive of chatter.

  As we entered, we lined up along the left wall where the kitchen and service counter was located. I took a tray and moved along the line. A group of women stood behind the counter with ladles, spooning food onto everyone’s plates. I think Nanna Kate would have described them as ‘matronly’. I held out my plate and one of them placed a serve of lasagne onto the white porcelain.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said cheerily. The server didn’t smile, already serving Zoe behind me. I shuffled along and received some salad and garlic bread, then walked over to the cutlery containers to fetch a knife and fork.

  ‘Where should we sit?’ Zoe asked. We scanned the room until we saw Grace waving wildly from her seat. She had been ahead of us in the line and had already found a place to sit.

  ‘There’s Grace—let’s go sit with her,’ Zoe said, racing ahead of me.

  As I approached the table my stomach dropped. On the other side was Saskia, flanked by two girls who looked equally annoyed.

  ‘Oh, not there,’ I whispered to Zoe through clenched teeth, but she didn’t hear me. By the time she saw Saskia, she’d already sat down and it was too awkward to move.

  ‘Well, well, well, if it isn’t the art critic,’ Saskia said coolly as I sat down.

  Grace looked confused. ‘Saskia, have you met Ella and Zoe? They’re my roomies! Girls, this is Saskia Bellavance. We met on orientation day last year.’

  Saskia gave me a fake smile.

  ‘And these two are Saskia’s roomies,’ Grace continued. ‘Portia and Mercedes.’

  ‘Hi,’ Zoe and I chorused.

  ‘So, how are you finding things at Eden?’ I asked, trying to make conversation. ‘It’s all pretty new and weird, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well, not for us,’ Saskia said. ‘Portia, Mercedes and I all have sisters in Year 9, so we’ve been coming to events at this school for years. And as you’ve already seen, my family has a long history at this college. I’ve had my name on the list to come here since the day I was born!’

  Portia and Mercedes laughed. ‘Me too!’

  ‘The minute my mum found out I was a girl, they were filling out the Eden forms!’ Mercedes said, flicking her black hair over her shoulder.

  ‘When did you put your names down?’ Portia asked.

  ‘Probably when I was a baby,’ laughed Grace.

  ‘I think sometime during primary school—I don’t really know,’ Zoe said, a little uncertain.

  ‘What about you, Ella? Does your family have an Eden history?’ Saskia asked coldly.

  ‘Oh, no, not really. We only decided I was coming pretty late last year,’ I said, my cheeks reddening. Why was I so embarrassed?

  ‘Last year? How on earth did you get into Eden if you only put your name down last year? The waitlist is, like, ten years long!’ Saskia said frowning.

  ‘Unless she’s on a scholarship,’ Portia interjected.

  I flashed a look at Zoe. I’d said to Zoe earlier that I didn’t want people knowing I was on a scholarship. I don’t really know why—I just felt like people would expect me to be the best at everything if they knew I had the All-Rounder. And I felt a little weird about coming to the school for free.

  ‘Oh, a scholarship,’ Saskia cooed. ‘How interesting.’

  ‘What’s a scholarship?’ Mercedes asked.

  ‘It’s a free spot at the College they give to girls from poor families,’ Saskia said.

  ‘It is not!’ Zoe said. ‘It’s for the smartest, most talented girls they can find!’

  Oh, how I loved my BFF (that’s Best Friend Forever).

  ‘Yes, but think about it. Why would they give a scholarship to a girl they k
new would come anyway? They say it’s for talent, but really it’s just charity.’ Saskia looked me straight in the eyes.

  I looked away, my cheeks burning. I stabbed my fork at my lasagne, pushing a piece around my plate, but not actually picking it up and eating it. The word charity stuck in my mind like a piece of gum on the bottom of my shoe. I tried to shake it off, but it hung there like an accusation.

  ‘Who cares anyway?’ Grace said, breaking the silence. ‘That’s boring. I want to know all the goss about this school. So, what are some of the Eden secrets? You girls must know if you have sisters here.’

  Saskia’s eyes lit up and she smiled warmly at Grace. ‘Well, there’s old Montgomery for a start,’ she whispered, her eyes darting up to look at Ms Montgomery. We all leaned in closer to hear.

  ‘What about her?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘Well, years and years ago, she was engaged to the Eden Head of Science,’ Saskia whispered. ‘They were going to get married, right here in the school grounds, but then on the day of the wedding, he disappeared!’

  ‘Ran for his life, more like it,’ laughed Portia.

  ‘Nobody knew where he went and he was never heard from again,’ Saskia added.

  ‘Maybe he got cold feet,’ suggested Grace.

  ‘Or maybe she got cold feet. And maybe she was too embarrassed to end the wedding, so she … dealt with him,’ Saskia hissed dramatically.

  ‘You mean, killed him? As if!’ I laughed.

  ‘Some people say his ghost still haunts the school, wandering the halls at night, trying to find his lost love,’ Mercedes said in an eerie voice. ‘You can hear the clinking of the science beakers he carries around.’

  ‘Wooooooooo!’ Grace wailed. We all cracked up laughing.

  ‘She does seem kind of sad though,’ I said, glancing over at Ms Montgomery. She sat by herself at the head of the table. Her brow was furrowed and her beady eyes darted around the room, looking for someone to reprimand. Suddenly, her eyes locked onto us. We all jumped and quickly looked down at our meals. Ms Montgomery frowned.

  As I ate my lasagne, I noticed Violet looking for a seat.

  ‘Hey, Violet! Want to sit here?’ I called out as she neared us.

  Violet shook her head and continued to the end of the bench, which was empty. As she sat down, she picked up the book resting on her meal tray and began to read as she ate. Her body was turned so that her back was facing the rest of the table. As if she was guarding her dinner tray.

  ‘Girls, attention please,’ Ms Montgomery’s voice boomed from the front of the dining hall. Everyone immediately stopped talking and looked up. ‘When you finish, please take your dishes and cutlery to the wash area over there and load it into the trays for the dishwasher. Then I want you all to go back to your dormitory for quiet reading before bed. It’s been a big day and you need to rest before the remainder of the school arrives tomorrow.’

  I gulped. It would be different with all the older girls joining the dorm. And then with school starting on Monday. I wondered if I was going to fit in at Eden. As a scholarship girl, I felt like I had a lot to live up to.

  I lay in my new bed, gazing up at the dark ceiling. I could see the moon peeking through the blinds and I knew it was late. I whispered across to Zoe, but all I heard back was her slow, measured breaths. She was definitely asleep.

  I crept out of bed and walked past Grace. Her blankets were in a big, tangled mess and her arms and legs were splayed out all over the bed. Violet was curled into a ball, snoring quietly. I tiptoed over to the bay window and sat down on the window seat cushions. I gently levered open the blinds, just enough to see out but not enough to wake my roommates. It was a clear, dark night, the sky full of stars. The moon shone round and bright. It was beautiful.

  My breath fogged against the window as I held my face close to the glass. It reminded me of those long, summer holiday nights we’d enjoyed just last week. It stayed light for so long that Olivia and I would jump on our trampoline after dinner! I could still smell the barbeque. When it finally did get dark, Mum would let us stay up extra late because it was holidays. Dad would light the fire-pit and we would all push plump marshmallows onto sticks and cook them in the flames. I liked mine lightly toasted but Olivia always burnt hers to a crisp. Max was more interested in using his as bait to catch fireflies.

  What were they doing right now? Sleeping? Missing me?

  A warm tear trickled down my cheek.

  I miss you, Olivia.

  I breathed a hot puff of air onto the window, fogging it up again. Then I used my index finger to gently write into the fog ‘E+O’.

  Suddenly, I heard a gentle clinking sound. It was very soft, but seemed to be getting louder. It sounded like drinking glasses, rattling in the dishwasher draw. Or perhaps like a tiny, glass mouse, tiptoeing along a frozen lake. Weird.

  Clink.

  Clink.

  Clink.

  I thought back to dinner. Saskia could be funny but also mean. Nanna Kate called girls like that ‘hot-cold girls’. She said it’s best to avoid them because you never know if they are going to be nice or mean. I definitely had a hot-cold girl in my primary school. I wonder what she’s doing now.

  Clink.

  Clink.

  The noise was getting louder. How annoying.

  Grace seemed funny. She was going to be a fun friend to have around. I giggled as I thought about Ms Montgomery staring at us at dinner.

  Clink.

  That story about her missing fiancé was pretty hilarious.

  Clink.

  Ghost—ha! I mean, as if there was a ghost walking around carrying glass beakers …

  GLASS BEAKERS?

  The clinking was even louder now. I leapt off the window seat, ran across the room and jumped into bed, just as the clinking noise stopped outside our door. I yanked the covers over my head. Then I heard the door creak open and saw a tiny sliver of light shine into the room. I squeezed my eyes shut tight.

  It’s not a ghost. It’s not a ghost.

  The door creaked shut again, and I let out a breath.

  It was definitely time to sleep.

  Chapter 4

  I smoothed my hands over my lap, straightening out the little creases in my school dress. The uniform wasn’t exactly what I’d choose to wear—it had no flair about it—but it was a smart-looking dress. It had royal blue stripes running down the teal fabric and white buttons up the front. The sleeves had a nice little cuff, just below the shoulders, and the top of the dress had a white collar. Since it was summer, we were instructed to wear our panama hats whenever we were outside to avoid sun damage. I don’t mind this rule, because Nanna Kate says too much sun can ‘wreak havoc on your complexion’. Complexion is a posh way of saying skin.

  The royal blue blazer always had to be worn in winter, however in summer it was optional when inside the grounds. Although if we were to leave the grounds for any reason, we had to have the blazer on at all times. It seemed like there were lots of rules at this school, and it was going to take me some time to get to know them all. I’d already been in trouble once with Ms Montgomery, so I had to be careful not to break any other rules. I really didn’t want to start my time at Eden College on the wrong foot.

  While the older year levels were arriving back at the dorms after their summer break, the Year 7 girls were taking a tour of the rest of the school. As I walked around the campus with the other students in my year, I thought about what a paradox this place was. A paradox is when two opposite things are put together. The school was a funny mix of grand, old-fashioned buildings, made of stone with ornate sculptures and columns, and completely modern fitouts inside. For example, to get to the science labs you had to walk through a big, stone archway with a lion statue at the entrance, but when you got inside it looked like something out of a science show. The room was filled with sleek, long benches, high, wooden stools, rows of microscopes, smartboards and cabinets full of glass beakers, test tubes and Bunsen burners. We hadn’t done many
science experiments in my primary school, so I was pretty excited to try that out at Eden.

  We walked back outside the main building and across to the auditorium. Inside, it looked like a concert hall. There was a big stage with plush, velvet curtains and a lectern in the centre. We filed in quietly, slightly awed by the size of the room. Each seat was a flip-down one, like they have at the cinema. Grace side-stepped her way along the row towards the centre, and Zoe and I followed. We sat down and waited.

  ‘Pretty fancy, hey?’ Grace whispered, smiling brightly.

  Ms Montgomery and Mrs Sinclair walked onto the stage, along with some other teachers. They sat on the chairs behind the lectern. Mrs Sinclair stepped up to the microphone.

  ‘Welcome again, Year 7,’ she said brightly. ‘I trust you all enjoyed your first night at Eden College?’

  There was a murmur of agreement amongst the girls.

  ‘Excellent. You will have noticed the other girls in Years 8 to 12 have been arriving on campus throughout the morning. I hope you will begin to get to know them—they’ll be like your big sisters in the dorms,’ Mrs Sinclair said. ‘I have a few announcements to help orientate you all as you formally begin your time here at Eden. Tomorrow, Monday, you will begin your lessons. We will put you into classes, however these classes are only temporary. In the next few weeks you will undergo some testing and, following that testing, we will re-form the classes based on your ability.’

  There was a collective groan from everyone in the auditorium. We hadn’t even started our classes yet and we were already being told about tests!

  ‘Now, now,’ Mrs Sinclair laughed. ‘These tests are nothing to be worried about. We are simply working out which classes you will be in so that you can learn at the appropriate pace. It’s not a competition.’

  This didn’t seem to cheer anyone up.

  ‘In more exciting news,’ Mrs Sinclair continued, ‘this afternoon we will be holding our clubs and activities fair in the gymnasium, which is inside the sports and aquatic centre. This is run by our Year 9 students. Many of our clubs are divided into Juniors and Seniors, and therefore the Year 9 girls will run the clubs for the Juniors in Years 7 to 9. There will be various stalls with information about all the different clubs you can join at the school. None of these clubs are compulsory, but this is your chance to see what is on offer here and think about what you might like to join.’