Éclair Academy

I lugged my bag up the stairs after the excited girls in front of me. I can’t believe first years had to carry their own bags! The outrage! I was tempted to complain to the matron leading the way to our dorm but I when I spotted a girl carrying a bag twice her size as if it weighed nothing I shut my already open mouth and grimly carried on walking.

Inside, the dorms were smaller than they had appeared on the brochure. When I unlocked my own door with the key I had received upon entry into the academy I did a double take when I saw a girl with her back to me, unpacking her tog bag.

I took a deep breath and put on my sweetest smile although my sisters regularly called it my sickly spoilt brat expression. But they weren’t here to tell me off now were they?

“I think there’s been a mistake,” I said to the girl. “This is my room and I…” She turned around and I trailed off. She had large baby blue eyes, framed by thick dark lashes and golden blonde hair that fell in curls to her shoulders. What a babe.

But the voice that came from this angel was emotionless and hard, “Look around Heidi.”
I snorted at that but did deem to look around and my face fell. There were clearly two beds, two of everything in fact, even two wash basins and two reading lamps on each bedside table. It was sickening. And wrong.

“I can’t share a room with another person! I know the brochure said something about single rooms!” I shouted, my voice deepening as anger took over. I snapped my mouth shut and glared at the girl.

“You’ve got a big annoying voice for someone so small.” The girl stood up. She was slightly taller than me which isn’t saying much but her curves were clear under her large yellow T-shirt and long grandma skirt. For such a good looking girl she dressed like a nun on vacation.

“Listen here,” she said folding her arms over her expansive chest and narrowing her pretty eyes. “Only third years get to choose if they want to share or not. Your choice was made for you long before you applied.”

Without consciously knowing it my eyes had drifted to the front of her T-shirt where a frilly bra peeked out. I coloured up slightly but then commented snidely, “Your lingerie is exposed.”

Her hands flew to her chest before she frowned at me and tugged up her T-shirt. I noticed that she didn’t refold her arms probably as doing so had pulled her shirt down in the first place.

“Have a fetish for bad clothes and good underwear?” I told her before dumping my luggage on my bed.

But she didn’t reply, I just heard her sigh slightly and return back to her unpacking. I had expected more from her and disappointed I began to unpack my own clothes into my own set of drawers.

Argh! It was simply humanly impossible to unpack neat squares of clothing and keep them like that. I began to throw shirts and socks in without bothering but then my roommate shoved me out of the way.

“Hey!” I protested about to push her back. But she was methodically working, sorting my clothes into neat lines and I deflated before peeking over her shoulder.

“Always have underwear in the top, then PJ’s, then your normal clothes. Shoes in the entire bottom row. And clothes that can wrinkle you must keep in the closet. And yes, we are sharing that.”

“Oh…”I said by way of thank you and took over the work hoping she hadn’t seen…

“I may like having nice underwear,” she said. “But you scarcely have underwear at all. Do you even have a cup size yet?”

Her voice was once again flat and I couldn’t tell if I was being mocked or not. But when I turned to look at her she was staring at me mildly interested, her eyes soft and gentle.

My cheeks heated up and I said heatedly, “So I’m small for my age, so what?”

“Nothing…‘Earlier ripe, earlier to rot’, so you should count yourself lucky to look so young still.” She looked down at her herself then and I looked away from her not before catching the text on her shirt which read, Sunny side up. I quite like that, I thought smiling.

When I had finished my clumsy but much neater unpacking she was lying on her bed, reading a magazine. The title was foreign and I couldn’t recognise the symbols. Some Asian language perhaps?

I caught myself in the mirror above the wash stand across from me. I had completely forgotten what I was wearing and looked like after…that. My hair was shorn in a messy brown bob to just below my earlobes and my overlong fringe hid my fuzzy eyebrows from view. I grinned remembering when my sisters had complained about how long my hair was…And only last night I had dyed it brown. Less chance of anyone recognising me…

“Hey Heidi,” the girl said snapping me out of my thoughts. “You want me to keep calling you that?”

“Eh?! Oh,” I muttered realising she was asking for my name. “Call me Quin.”

She smiled for the first time in an hour (yes, it took me that long to unpack!) “Call me Jenna.” She unwrapped a bright red lolly pop and stuck one into her mouth. She offered me one from the pack lying next to her and I shook my head. Instant teeth rotter! I wanted to say but didn’t. I was rather surprised at myself that I didn’t.

“Jenna…” I said realising it suited her. It was prim and pretty at the same time.

“How old are you?” she asked, her eyes still on the open magazine in front of her.

I sighed and turned away knowing what was coming. “Sixtee−”

I could hear her choking from behind me but I ignored it and began to rummage in my bag. When she had finally collected herself enough to ask me if I was serious I said I was.

“You can’t be younger to enter this Academy,” I told her rolling my eyes. Meanwhile my arms were so deep inside my bag I could just as well climb in and close myself off from the world. And this crazy situation I had landed myself in. I’m such an idiot. Someone will realise.

“I know but…Hey! You read manga too?” Her voice sounded mildly excited.

I reconsidered my escape plan and stuck my head out of my bag, a glossy manga in my hand. I hadn’t been looking for that, hadn’t planned on taking it out unless I was completely alone terrified someone saw me reading the girly looking pink book.

I bristled when I saw her small smile, thinking she was mocking me. “So? You have a problem with that?”

“No…I enjoy reading manga if I ever get my hands on one. What’s that called? It looks familiar.”

We began talking and she laughed at some of my opinions of the manga she liked. She had recently moved to sit beside me and when I looked up again she was bending over my lap, reading the blurb of my book, her hair brushing my cheek.

Just then a bell shrilled and I jumped. She patted my head and laughed. “It’s probably just the dinner bell…I hope; I’m famished.” She stood up and opened our door. Sure enough girls were streaming down the hallway and Jenna beckoned me to follow.

I gulped inwardly and took a deep breath. Just chill Quin. Everything will work out fine. I looked around me at all of the girls. Which one will be the one to tear me to shreds?