Chapter 6
The dormitories were fine. Emilia preferred the rest of the school. To her, the place looked a little like a hotel, or something similar.
The corridors were long, and the doors to the rooms were all on one side.
Yeah, this looks kinda like a hotel.
Emilia saw that some of the doors had been personalised with stickers, pictures and plaques with names on. One of the doors simply had the words GET OUT painted in black.
‘What’s that all about?’ Emilia asked.
‘That’s Anastasia’s room. She’s a bit of a princess’ Gloria explained. ‘She’s only here half the time, her family are rich or whatever and…well, she keeps to herself. No one really knows much about her. I doubt you’ll ever see her.’
‘How come she gets her own room?’ Emilia asked, pausing at the door and lingering there for a moment.
‘Honestly, I’m not really sure. It maybe because she’s caused so much trouble for the headmistress, poor Anna.’
‘What did she do?’ Emilia asked.
‘Oh, nothing really’ Gloria waved her off. ‘Just a few pranks here and there. I never saw any of them myself but…well…I heard stories.’
‘Oohhh.’ Emilia swirled her head in a big ark, taking in all she could see around her. ‘So why are the doors all…uh…?’
‘Personalised?’ Gloria offered.
‘Yes.’
Gloria’s eyes sparkled, shooting a glance back at her, before turning ahead again.
‘Anna lets us give our own personal touch to the doors of our rooms; she lets us express our creativity. Plus, it helps to tell the doors apart. At the end of the year the doors are all painted white again, ready for the new students.’
‘That’s so cool.’
One of the doors had a large painting of a mermaid, surrounded by an array of multicoloured fish with bright scales, covering every corner of the door in intricate and vivid patterns. Another was painted a single colour, a few were left pure white.
Gloria paused in front of one of these doors.
‘This is your room?’
‘Our room’ Gloria corrected.
‘You haven’t painted your door yet?’
‘Eh’ Gloria shrugged. ‘I hadn’t planned on it. I was thinking of leaving it white.’ She paused. ‘You can paint it if you want though.’
‘Nah. Can’t be bothered.’ She noticed the door beside theirs.
Woooow…
‘Pretty, isn’t it?’ Gloria noted, seeing Emilia’s intense interest.
Emilia moved closer to get a better look at that door.
It was a painting of a mermaid trapped in a large glass bottle, her tail spilling out from the narrow neck. Outside the bottle were twisting and gnarled branches, blooming with flowers. Brightly coloured yellow-birds were shown flitting about the scene.
‘This has been here for years.’
‘Is that allowed?’ Emilia asked, ‘I thought the doors were painted white at the end of every year.’
‘Technically no, it’s not allowed. But this is an exception,’ Gloria replied, ‘That room hasn’t been used for years, not since she went missing.’
‘Missing?’
‘No one knows what happened to her. She just vanished one day. Most think she ran away, but no one knows why.’
Gloria stared at the mural.
I never knew her’ Gloria went on. ‘I don’t know who she was, she’s since graduated. I’ve been told by one of the teachers that she attended this school a long time ago. There’s more of her art about the school. It’s fun for new students to find.’
‘She graduated? I thought she went missing’ Emilia said.
‘She did’ Gloria explained. ‘She spent many years as a teacher before that happened. She loved this school, which is why it was so odd that she left so suddenly. This was her room, she shared it with her sister.’ Gloria went on. ‘She lived at this school, here in this room for ages, and rarely left unless she was teaching. I’ve been told the room is full of her paintings, paints and easels and all kinds of arty-stuff. All left just as they were the day she and her sister vanished.’ Gloria paused. ‘I bet its all dusty in there now.’
‘Maybe her sister knows what happened to her’ Emilia offered.
‘No, her sister was never found either.’ Gloria paused. ‘Now that I come to think of it’ Gloria scratched her chin, ‘maybe they weren’t sisters at all, I can’t actually remember if they were even related…did I accidentally make that up?’ she asked the ceiling. ‘Maybe they were lovers. Or were they enemies?’
‘Lovers hu? Maybe they ran away together.’
‘It doesn’t matter. You won’t hear much about her, all this happened a very long time ago apparently, and no-one goes in that room anyway.’ Gloria shrugged. ‘I bet the truth is a lot more mundane. Maybe she never even existed at all, and the paintings left behind are something else entirely.’
‘Oooohh’ Emilia said.
Occam’s razor.
‘When you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras’ she mumbled.
‘What?’
‘It’s nothing’ Emilia hastened. ‘Just thinking out loud. I bet it was an ARG.’
‘What?’
‘Don’t worry’ Emilia waved the matter away.
Emilia leaned back towards their own door, a blank door. The only thing upon it, were a few numbers painted onto the wood at its centre to identify it.
‘I wonder how many layers of paint this door has?’ Emilia murmured.
‘What?’
‘Nothing’ Emilia gleamed. ‘Shall we go in?’
Gloria stepped forwards, turning the handle and holding the door open for Emilia.
Emilia stepped into the room, looking around.
‘I didn’t expect it to be so spacious’ she said.
Gloria stepped into the room herself and closed the door behind her.
‘Well, this is an excellent school. They want to make sure the students are happy and well cared for.’
For a price Emilia thought to herself. How much did this place cost you mother?
And then her mood suddenly soured.
Where were you hiding all of that wealth when I was hungry all those times? You still had money to get blazed.
‘Stupid’ Emilia muttered quietly under her breath.
‘I’m sorry what was that? I didn’t hear you.’
‘I said splendid!’ Emilia declared excitedly, throwing her arms out. ‘This room is just beautiful.’
‘I’m glad you like it.’
‘Which bed is mine?’ Emilia asked, stepping further into the room, drifting towards the centre.
She tilted her head up then, eyes growing wide.
‘Oh no way, there’s even a little chandelier in here. Wicked.’
‘This one’s mine’ Gloria said, moving over towards the bed on the left and falling forwards on top of the covers.
‘I guess this one’s mine then’ Emilia said, moving over to the bed on the right. ‘What’s this?’
Emilia reached down to pick up the plastic packet that sat in the middle of the sheets, bringing it closer to examine it.
‘Oh! That must be your uniform’ Gloria said, springing and skipping over towards her.
‘You mean I get to wear one like yours?’ Emilia asked, looking Gloria up and down briefly.
‘Yes, you do’ Gloria winked.
Emilia’s eyes travelled down Gloria’s uniform again.
The uniform of the school was a dress, the same one the three girls had been wearing when they so kindly introduced themselves, and Emilia introduced herself in turn by kicking out a tooth.
Ahhh…blissful memories….
‘Wait a second…’ Emilia voiced suddenly. ‘I um…’ she looked down at herself, then to the uniform she was still holding in the packet.
‘What’s wrong?’ Gloria asked.
My leg…
‘Nothing at all’ Emilia waved her away. ‘Don’t worry yourself. I was just thinking how pretty you look in your uniform.’
‘Oh um, thank you.’
Oh god maybe I shouldn’t have said that last part. What if she thinks I'm flirting with her? Wait, AM I flirting with her? Cripes I don’t even know myself.
Emilia sighed wearily.
Since when was I such and air-head?
‘I mean the uniform is really pretty’ Emilia said.
‘Well, I think so too.’
The uniform was a one-piece dress, pale grey in colour with a white collar and cuffs. The skirt was knee-length and the tie that came with the uniform was dark green.
‘That’s the standard uniform for students. The teachers have their own uniform. You might have seen it; the headmistress wears the same too. I like the little red neck-string.’
‘Oh yeah, I did see that.’
‘Some of the students that come here for further education, science and medical classes, wear the same uniform as the teachers, so it can be hard to tell them apart.’
‘Higher education, eh?’
‘Yeah, but the bar is really high’ Gloria said. ‘Only very few make the mark to be accepted in those classes. The best of the best, you know?’ She paused. ‘What would you do if you could, I mean…what higher education would you like to study?’
‘Radiology.’
‘Oh wow. You didn’t even pause. Don’t you need to be good at maths for that?’
‘Maybe.’ Emilia replied. ‘What about you?’
‘I want to be a chemist, just like my daddy.’
Emilia looked away from Gloria, and back to the plastic sheet she held, inside the uniform, her uniform, was new and folded neatly.
‘Mmmm’ Emilia whispered to herself. ‘Factory-sealed. I bet it smells lovely.’
‘They should already have your sizes recorded’ Gloria said to her. ‘Unless you didn’t fill out that paperwork.’
‘No, I did.’
‘Great! Then they should fit just fine. Its nice material and it will stretch a bit so…. anyway, if it doesn’t fit you can always request another. They have tights too for when it’s cold.’
Emilia looked back down at the bed, seeing a second smaller plastic packet there, inside was black material.
Tights.
‘What about shoes?’
‘Right there’ Gloria pointed.
Emilia glanced towards the end of the bed, where there waited a new pair of shoes.
Not really my style but….
‘Do you mind if I change real quick?’ Emilia mumbled in a distant voice. ‘I want to get out of these clothes.’
‘Oh! Yes of course.’
Gloria turned her back on Emilia, facing the wall.
Emilia hesitated; she looked down at her uniform briefly. She opened the packet, pulling the dress out and placing it out on the bed.
She stared down at it for a few moments, before reaching for her shirt, beginning to unbutton herself slowly.
Gloria continued to stare at the wall, standing with her hands held together before her.
Emilia slipped the dress over her head, grabbing the tie from the bed and throwing it over the back of her neck, fixing it in place.
She turned to face Gloria, who was still facing the wall.
‘What do you think?’ Emilia asked.
‘Can I turn around?’
‘Yeah.’
Gloria spun round cheerily, cheeks rosy and eyes bright.
‘Oh wow.’ She clasped her hands together before her. ‘You look really nice.’
‘Do you really think so?’ Emilia said, dipping her head and examining herself. ‘I mean, I’ve never worn anything like this before. You don’t think I look silly, do you?’
‘No no of course not. Why? You don’t think I look silly wearing this uniform, do you?’
‘Oh gosh no, that’s not what I mean’ Emilia fumbled.
‘It’s ok’ Gloria laughed. ‘I’m just playing with you.’
‘Oh, thank goodness.’
‘You know’ Gloria began, ‘I think…’
The silence stretched on.
‘What?’ Emilia finally said. ‘Come on, don’t leave me hanging like that. What do you think? Honestly.’
‘Maybe I shouldn’t say anything’ Gloria began, ‘but…I feel like you put on a front. You’re not as confident as you pretend to be.’
A flicker of annoyance coursed through Emilia’s body.
Dammit, am I really that easy to read? No, I don’t think I am, maybe it’s just her…
‘I don’t know what you mean’ Emilia replied sweetly, hugging herself.
Gloria giggled lightly at that, hunching her shoulders.
Cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!
‘Are you going to wear your tights?’ Gloria asked.
‘Oh’ Emilia said, ‘I guess…’
She reached for them, taking them out of the packet.
‘It might be a little awkward with your leg’ Gloria spoke absentmindedly.
Emilia froze suddenly, a memory striking her abruptly then.
Pain and misery, being unable to run or even lift herself as the other students surrounded her, one of them waving her fake leg around as he mocked her.
Emilia straightened up, dropping the tights back on her bed.
‘Hm?’ Gloria blinked curiously.
‘I won’t wear it.’
‘What?’
‘I won’t wear it’ Emilia spoke more firmly this time. ‘I want to show the world my so-called faults. I believe you should embrace them, do so and they can never be used to hurt you.’
She turned around to face Gloria, a frown upon her lips.
Gloria looked surprised, hesitant for a moment, before a smile spread across her face, grinning widely at Emilia.
‘Lovely words’ she said.
Emilia simply gave her a nod in return.
‘You’re really an interesting person’ Gloria said to Emilia. ‘I’m glad you’re my new roommate.’
[END OF CHAPTER 6]
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