How to Survive Boarding School

Emily gasped softly, the common area was beautiful. It was covered in deep green hangings and had several deep-set windows framed by green curtains that matched the walls.
The walls and floor seemed to be made of the same grey stone that made the green seem much more prominent.
There was an enormous fireplace set into the wall to Emily’s right, it was made out of black stone.
To her left were two doors, both made from the same white wood as the door to the common area.

“Now Miss Corkish, here is your dorms.”

Sumter gestured towards the left hand door.

“I’m afraid I cant go any further, your room is the third one down.”

He handed Emily her trunk and pushed the door open for her.

“Thanks sir. See you in class.”

Emily said, sounding a lot brighter then she felt.
She took the trunk and pulled it after her into the dimly lit corridor.
The door behind her slammed shut and a feeling of sick excitement settled in the pit of Emily’s stomach.
She counted the doors carefully, she came to a stop outside the third white, handless door she came to. They were fond of these doors around here, huh?
She took a deep breath and pushed the door open with her shoulder, it swung inwards silently.
The room had the same green and grey décor as the common area, with four beds lining the walls, two beds on ether side. The beds has two lockers each and a curtain around them. The middle of the room was taken up by a large pot bellied stove. There was a window directly across from her, it was set abnormally close to the floor and went nearly to the ceiling. She could see a riverbank and a willow tree through it, the river itself must come right up to the window.
She could see another door to her right, she presumed this must lead to the bathrooms.
She also noticed that the room was empty, none of her roommates were here yet, which mean she had first pick of beds.
She took a look at the beds, none of them seemed better than any other.
She chose one of the two on the right-hand side, the one in the corner beside the window.
She pulled her trunk over and dumped it onto its side at the foot of the bed and opened her trunk.
Its neatly folded contents had shifted during her flight but because of the sheer amount she had brought with her nothing was too out of place.
She took out her clothes, packing them into different drawers in her lockers or leaving them on the bed if they wouldn’t fit.
She left all her school books in her trunk and folded things like jeans and dresses back into the trunk.
Emily sat on the bed and sighed, she was tired. School started tomorrow and she wasn’t used to the heat of Florida yet, her flight had only landed a couple of hours ago. Scratch tired, she was exhausted.
Emily stretched and yawned. She put her hands behind her head and lay down on the bed. She watched the light from the window make patterns on the ceiling.

“No shoes on the bed.”

Laughed a playful voice from her right.
Emily’s head turned so quickly she was surprised the bones in her neck didn’t crack.
There was a girl standing in the doorway, she was tall and gangly with a cascade of slightly wavy red-blond hair. Her eyes were a beautiful deep brown and she was wearing a white day dress and light sandals.

“Oh, erm, I, erm.”

Emily stuttered.
The red-headed girl laughed again, she swept across the room to Emily.

“I’m Stacy Philoser. I’m your roommate.”

She flashed a grin at Emily and held out her hand.

“Emily Corkish.”

Emily took her hand and shook it, she smiled tentatively back at Stacy.
Stacy walked back over to her trunk, looked thoughtfully at the room and pulled the trunk over to the bed beside Emily’s.
Stacy started to unpack, Emily lay back down.

“So, are you a noob or a transfer?”

Stacy asked while she rifled through her trunk, picking out odd pieces of clothing and putting them in different drawers.

“A bit of both I suppose”

Emily replied.

“If noob means I’ve never been to boarding school before and transfer means I’ve switched
schools.”

Stacy laughed, Emily grinned.

“At least you learn fast. You got a thick skin too?”

Stacy asked.
Emily shrugged.

“Your gonna need one around here. Not from your roommates, but the other classes aren’t
so nice to each other.”

“I think I’ll be okay. Is there a lot of class rivalry?”

Stacy nodded.

“Can you fill me in?”

Emily asked, rolling onto her side and propping herself up on one elbow.

“Sure.”

Stacy popped back up from behind her trunk grinning.

“Well there are four classes, Emerald, Diamond, Sapphire and Ruby. Think of them as the
four Hogwarts houses.”

Stacy glanced at Emily’s Slytherin t-shirt.

“You can guess who the two biggest rivals are.”

“Slytherin and Gryffindor?”

Emily laughed, Stacy grinned in response.

“But everyone pretty much keeps within their own house group, unless they have to talk to members of the other classes.”

Stacy smiled and Emily grinned back.
The girls jumped as the door smacked open. A small girl with abundantly curly black hair and green eyes stood in the doorway.

“Jeez Stacy, could you get and louder?”

She laughed.

“YES!!!”

Stacy yelled.

“Sorry I asked.”

Muttered the girl, she glanced over at Emily as she pulled her trunk over to the bed facing
Emily’s.

“I’m Amelia.”

“Emily.”

Amelia smiled.

“Jeez, where’d you get this one, she’s like a baby turtle or something.”

Amelia walked over to Emily and prodded her in her stomach causing Emily to giggle. She then turned and began to unpack.
Emily waited a minute and then turned back to Stacy, who cleared her throat.

“As I was saying-”

Amelia cut her off.

“Not turning her against the Rubies already Stacy?!”

Stacy turned a bright red and ducked down into her trunk mumbling something about ’evil Rubies’
Amelia continued, laughing.

“Rubies aren’t that bad really, they’ll leave you alone if you leave them alone, just like all the classes. Stacy just hates Rubies in paticular because her cousin’s one of them and they hate each other.”

Emily smiled.
Stacy had popped back up while Amelia was talking and was continually glancing at the only empty bed left.

“Hey Amelia, do you know when Hannah-Kate is showing up? She’s usually the first one here.”

Amelia shrugged.

“Maybe her flight go delayed or something?”

Stacy nodded.

The girls spent the next ten minutes in silence, unpacking.
Emily was just putting some posters up when the door opened again.

This time the girl who entered was very tall and broad, Emily recognised a swimmers body. Her blond hair shone golden in the glow of the setting sun. She smiled and spread her arms wide before collapsing face-forward onto the last bed.

“Hannah-Kate!”

Amelia squealed and jumped on top of the newcomer, hugging her.
Emily laughed and Stacy started to sing.

“Hannah-Kate and Amelia sitting in a tree”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“S-N-O-GG-I-N-G!”

Emily and Stacy yelled at the same time, Stacy looked at Emily then dissolved into laughter.

“What?”

Asked Emily through her giggles.

“Snogging?”

Asked Amelia, Emily just grinned and shrugged.

“We use it in Ireland all the time, it’s a real English word though.”

The other girls dissolved into giggles again.

“You know what?”

Thought Emily.

“I think I’m gonna like it here“