Of Ramen and Secret Meetings

There was something about girls like her, the brunette currently glaring at me, something I never quite got down. The way I saw it batting your eyelashes could only get you so far in life, but with girls like her that didn’t matter. They were like sirens, drawing men in without a further question. Luring them in to get what they want (without the death and whatnot, though I guess to get dumped by one of them was considered a social death). Unfortunately this school was filled with them. The perfect girls, the clones, or the cornflake girls. And yes, I am content just to make a whole shit load of references to things you may not know.

Anyhow, the cornflake girls were, without a better word, demons. They were manipulative and harsh. The world in their hands, they never had to worry about their actions or the consequences and that showed blatantly in the way they used people and tense situations to their advantages. You think, oh, I know people like that, but you don’t. if you think the snobby girls at your public school are bad you wait until you’re shoved into a private school for the rich that’s packed full of em. You think they won’t go for the kill as soon as they see you’re not like them? You bet your life she will.

It didn’t take me very long to see this truth, in fact it nearly smacked me in the face as I got out of the taxi in the front drive. The courtyard was full of them, all giving me dirty looks and suspicious glances. I noticed a few of them moving away from me, and holding their Prada purses like they thought I was going to rob them in desperation for a scrap of something good. My taxi ride and clothing choices seemed blanket in their minds the fact that to be attending this academy I would have to be as ridiculously rich as they all were. Still it served as a great big welcome into hell.

I, Shiloh Green, seventeen years of age and facing only minimal anger management issues was kicked out of my Beverly hills home and sent here, the glorious Springleaf Academy for Proper Girls, for what my parents called an ‘attitude adjustment.’ I was nothing like the cornflake girls so at first I was a little confused on what there was to adjust. Was I supposed to be more like them, because seriously I thought I was pretty normal? Apparently though, yes. My goal for this year was to become a proper heiress, and not act like a ‘commoner.’ Their words not mine.

I told them it wasn’t likely but still they shoved me in here, to learn. It wasn’t al bad though. One girl actually got up form her seat and approached me, in a friendly manner. I could see the other girls behind her laughing, and I assumed she was probably committing social suicide doing this unless she was just coming to tease me.

She stuck out her hand, a wide smile on her face. “Hi. I’m Lindsey.”

I couldn’t help but smile back in return. “Shiloh.”

“You’re the new girl right?” she asked helping me grab my bags form the back of the taxi.

I nodded. “Do people know about me?”

She laughed. “Yeah, we don’t get new students often.”

“Ah, well. Guess I should make a good impression then.”

She shook her head.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t one of them” she gestured towards the cornflake girls “so you already have. All you have to do now is worry about impressing the boys and-“

“Wait,” I held up my bag filled hand. “I thought this was an all girls school.”

She smirked before starting to walk in the direction of what the road signs around the courtyard said were the dorms. I assumed I was supposed to follow her. It was a lucky break that there were directional signs placed around, as I had the worst sense of direction. When I was little I’d managed to lose my mother in our own backyard. In my defense at the time the acres of land we owned were still covered in trees and the forest environment was really confusing, but it was still pretty lame. I wasn’t much better these days though.

“I can’t say much now about the boys, it’s more of a ‘you have to experience it’ thing.” Lindsey finally spoke as we reached the large brick building. It looked like an apartment complex but much larger and it was probably fancier on the inside.

“All you need to know is, if you want to see any, then go to room 205 on Fridays at 9. A group of guys from the Boys section of Springleaf, which is a few miles that way” again with the gesturing “drive up here and pick up the girls willing to go out. Sometimes there’s a party, others it’s a night spent driving random places.”

I nodded and muttered my thanks.

“Now.” She turned to me, handing me my bags. “This is your badge, it’ll get you through all forms of security at a student level. So basically into class and onto the premises, just not off.”

I took the plastic card with my photo (which I guess my parents had sent in) and my basic information, pocketing it for safe keeping until I could find someplace better for it. I’d probably lose it, but who knows, for once in my life I might hold onto something properly.

“This is your information.” Lindsey was pulling papers from thin air now it seemed. She had a small purse with her but it didn’t seem big enough for this stuff. It was a small packet that she handed me, complied of my schedule pattern and dorm registration.

“Why do you have this?” I asked mildly curious.

“Honestly, I was supposed to welcome you today, but I didn’t really plan on doing it until I saw you.” She shrugged.

For a moment it processed that maybe Lindsey wasn’t as nice as she seemed, maybe even a little scary if you were to get on her bad side, but I let that pass. Clearly I was okay with her, or I’d still be really lost right now.

“My dorm is 327, and I go on Fridays.” Her smile actually seemed more ominous now if I really looked at it. “We have math together, so I’ll see you around.”

And there she left me, her knee high combat boots surprisingly not making a noise on the stone path we’d just walked up. I felt just by this I could write a manual. It’d be called ‘How to Go From Liking Someone to Actually Kind of Terrified For Your Future In Less Than Five Minutes.’

It wasn’t that Lindsey herself was scary, it was more the idea that people here were the kind who’d just leave someone confused and alone on their first day. I mean, I was a big girl, and I could handle it, but I don’t know, weren’t people supposed to be friendly by nature? The damn TV channel lied to me!

I shook off the paranoia and glanced down at my registration. I would figure out my schedule and how it was split later, for now I just wanted to unpack and get comfortable in this hell hole.