Notorious

It's hot and musky on this plane. The air is getting harder and harder to breathe, as it always does on these things. I don't usually feel sick on planes, but I find my stomach in knots on this one. My hands are clenching my bag and I'm pretty god damn nervous about going to this school. I'd been out of the country about twice I think, and for pretty mundane reasons. My mom wanted to go see Quebec, so we drove from Maine to there, and there was nothing exciting really. Just really fucking cold weather. Then we went to Poland and ventured around literally the whole country without a real agenda.

I guess now I have an agenda.

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In summer I expect all places to be warm. When we landed in Milan, Italy it was more than warm. I was boiling in my own sweat and there was nothing to do about it. My mom insisted on seeing the city, so we ventured to the various sights that were unamusing as usualy. I think I had gotten sick of sights ever since going to Poland, so I wasn't in the mood to look at Leonardo da Vinci's house or anything of those sorts.

We caught a train from Milan to Switzerland. In Poland the guards never check your tickets, the swiss do. Our lack of tickets was a bad sign for things to come. I was standing with my mom with my 2 large suitcases near the bathrooms. We couldn't find a seat.

"Bigletti, ragazzi" The conductor said to us. I stood to the side and chose to ignore this conversation while my mom ruffled around in her purse pretending to find the tickets that were apparently stolen from us and we didn't even notice.

"I bought tickets! The man stole it from us when he bought them." My mom shrieked at the conductor. However, he didn't speak english. He was figeting around and telling my mom in broken english, " I ...speak...no....good...english" and my mom kept ranting at him with her Polish accent. Should I mention she was screaming too?

Finally a black haired woman who apparently can speak 4 languages gets up and talks to the man in italian. I'm sure she's telling him our problem. The bathroom we're standing right outside of smells like shit and people keep on walking into it, hitting my luggage with the door. The man finally understands.

"Okay madame, buy ticket now" he says to her. I could feel my mom tense up with the thought of spending 300 euro on some tickets.

"Just buy them, ma. Otherwise they're going to kick us off" I said to her.

"No! I bought the tickets already I'm not spending 300 dollars on something I already bought." She screamed at me. Everyone was looking at us from their carts. I could see their reflections on the window on the side, as the swiss scenery passed by us. It was pretty and the alps were barren of snow. I remained out of this conversation and was annoyed. I can't be bothered to write what else happened because it pisses me off to this day. My mom screaming at people is the most annoying thing in the world. She screams with her accent and they can't understand, so she gets frustrated, then makes even less sense. Then she asks me to help, but when I help, she tells me to shut up. I'm looking at the scenery now and I don't give a shit if we get kicked off. I'm not even embarassed I'm just wondering if I made the right choice coming to this school while listening to my Warped Tour playlist I made in May.

--

"THANK YOU SIR" My mom said to this obese Italian conductor after 1 hour of arguing. We were 2 minutes away from our destination and we didn't have to buy a ticket. Smart move, ma. We get off the train. It's brisk outside but I'm not cold after sweating out of nerves and tension on the train.

"Put on a jacket, Lauren you'll be cold." My mom says to me, still annoyed after yelling with 2 foreign people for an entire train ride.

"I'm fine, it's not even cold." I say.

"Put it on! You'll be cold in 5 minutes." I'm annoyed and I want her to stop yelling at me so I put on my god damn cardigan as I lug my heavy suitcase down the stairs and to the exit of the train station. My mom refuses to take taxi's so I'm pretty sure we will be waiting for the bus.

I was right. We caught a bus to the hotel my mom was staying at. The Holiday Inn*. It was shitty, it was old, and the rooms were big and ugly. I had to pee, there is a scale in the bathroom. I didn't use it--the scale. I had to register for school so we took the (god damn) bus to school. I lugged my suitcase around for all of this.

--

As we approached campus I see that it's beautiful. It's really pretty and colourful compared to my old school. I'm carrying my suitcase and leading my mom what to do, because she has no idea. These people in red and blue t-shirts take my luggage and put a name tag on it. This girl* comes up to me.

"Okay now follow me, I'll take you to the reception." I nod my head in reply, "Are you new this year?"

"Yeah I am."

"Where are you from?" She asks. Luckily I'm one of the first people here so she's not exhausted of asking that question yet.

"California" I say.

"Ohhh how nice. I'm from Italy"

"Coool." I say. I hope I sounded nice. I was just staring at her gums which took up more than half of her teeth, the other half which were covered with blue braces. Her teeth were yellow, what you could see of them at least, and her hair was frizzy. I thought she was black but she's italian. I thought everyone at this school would be like this. Ugly and weird.

I arrived in the reception I think I was sweating a lot, I hope it wasn't noticeable though. I was wearing my low cut boots I had just bought in Milan the day before and i realized I didn't fit in. I got in line by myself since Ma insisted on sitting down in the corner of the library. Closing her eyes and rocking back and forth. What. The. Fuck?

The faculty greeted me and asked what my interests were. I said film and tennis because I really don't give a shit about extracurriculars. We had to wait in this huge line to go and get papers from the nurses. I was buy myself, Ma still in the corner.

This girl with long black hair turns towards me. She was really pretty* and girly. I didn't feel inadequate next to her, but I sure did feel out of place. Her parents were talking to me to. I think they forced her to talk to me. I must've looked lonely or stressed.

"Helloooo" She said in a thick accent.

"Hi!" I was really ethusiastic since she was the 2nd person at this school to talk to me. Besides that weird girl.

"What is your name?"

"Lauren, You?" She took a while to process what I had said.

"Isadora. Where ...are you from?" The pauses between her words showed she thought about what she was going to say. She just wanted to practice english.

"California"

"Ohhh!!! So niceee!! I love california, where in california?"

"I live in Newport Beach" I received blank stares in return, "like 40 minutes south of LA.."

"ohh! LA! So Nice!" Her ethusiasm was annoying me and I wished this conversation would be over. *** But i still had to ask her where she was from.

"Brasilll!!" She said and her parents looked at me with eyes wondering if I approved of this South American Country. It was the first time I'd heard of someone from Brasil. I thought it was only for poor people and those youtube comments that say "COME TO BRASILIA" to Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. I was sure that they couldn't pay $70,000 to come to this school. I was mistaken.

"Wow thats so nice!!" I said and by that time they had to talk to the nurse. They talked and I stood in silence for a little while, until when the finished and she screeched at me, "Byeee Lauren!"

I had to talk to the nurse now, and get my mom to sign papers. She was in the corner still doing whatever she was doing and it was still embarassing me that that was my mom. I got over it though. She signed the papers and finally we were done.

We walked down a hallway to get the uniforms. OH yeah, this school has uniforms. When I was ordering them I was surprised about how expensive they were. 220chf for a skirt? 180 for a dress shirt? It was crazy so I didn't order a lot. I ordered a sweater, a shirt and 2 skirts. Obviously not enough to last an entire year, but I hadn't thought about that. I tried on the sweater and it was too small. My mom was yelling at me about how I have Body Dysmorphic disorder or some shit and how I pick small clothes. But it wasn't a problem for them to replace it with a bigger one. I didn't want to try on the dress shirt, even though I wish I had. Because months later I still regret how its kind of tight and small.

As we wander around this new and unfamiliar building looking for my dorm room, my mom gets excited about all of this. it's making me uneasy.

"Oh wow!! Look at these classrooms. Lauren stand for a photo!" She says, and I flash my incredibly sexy awkward smile. I'm surrounded by a nice modern small classroom with a view of the Alps, "the classes are so small! There are only 10 desks in here" She says to me. I don't really care at this point and I just want to find my room.

"Ma, I think the dorm rooms are one more level up." I say to her. We find the stairs and a woman is standing at the top.

"Hi there what's your name?"

"Lauren Ashby?" I say with an uneasyness. Introducing myself to people is always awkward for me.

"Nice to meet you Lauren, I'm Ms. K and a dorm parent in here. Let me see what dorm room you're in....." She fumbles through her notes until a short girl with long brown hair walks by and says, "Oh, Lauren is in 7."

"Okay You're in room 7, thanks Raina, your luggage will be in your room." It's not far from where we were standing. Just past the common room, which consisted of a yellow couch, a very ugly red carpet, and 2 little stands that held drawers. My room was much nicer. It was white, everything, and very bright too. The window was in the center, with 2 beds on each side of it. At the foot of the beds there was one long desk with 2 chairs and above that was a shelf.

"I don't know what bed to pick!" I say smiling to my mom.

"Pick the one with the shelves next to it!" She says, and i think about it. But I don't want that bed because it is visible when you open the door.

"No I like this one better." I lay my suitcase on the bed. my mom screams, "NO! Take it off you've been traveling everywhere with that. You will put bacteria on your new clean bed."

I take it off and begin to unpack. I take out my comforters and other various items and make my room look like someone has claimed it. There is a pink umbrella on my bed. I'm confused as to why its there, but then I see its on my roommates bed too. It's a gift from the dorm I think.

---

I look at the activities schedule they gave us. I go to lunch with Ma, and on the way I run into a boy who comes up to me in a suit and tie, dark hair, and a big watch.

"Hello, I'm Ali. are you doing the IB?"

"Lauren. No, I'm just taking regular."

"Oh, let me see your schedule....." He looked at it for a few moments and I was wondering if everyone was so friendly here, "3 science classes ?? are you crazy?"

"Nah, I just wanna be a doctor." I told this to everyone, in hindsight, I wish I hadn't.

"Wow, smart one." He said and walked away. My mom and I continued to Lunch.