Perfect Ladies and Charming Gentlemen

Clara Garrett

Clara still couldn’t wrap her mind about why Miss Tilley would do this, begin to accept boys into a school that has always been for girls since it was built. But that wasn’t something neither she nor the girls would be able to figure out right now, they would need to speak with Miss about this later.

The four friends walked towards the sleeping quarters, their footsteps echoing around the high ceilings and wooden floors. Clara had already gotten herself ready for day, unless Remy but that wasn’t something unusual for the redhead.

Voices could be heard down the hall as they neared the sleeping quarters, it was Gwen who pulled the thick door open and stepped inside first. The girls followed closely behind her, causing the voices and movements to cease as all attention was placed onto the four girls and cause Clara to feel slightly uncomfortable.

“What’s going on?” Annie was the first one to break through the silence, she was a tall girl with short shoulder length raven hair that she always wore pin straight. Thick brimmed purple glasses sat on the bridge of her nose, she was someone who would be considered a geek but she had always been a sweetheart to all the girls.

“Miss is changing the school, as of tomorrow morning Bartholomew Brighton’s School of Perfect Ladies will be accepting boys.” Clara announced to the awaiting students that were standing in front of them, she waited for the gasps which only took a few seconds as none of this had been mentioned or discussed with them.

“Are you serious? Boys are coming here?” A voice shouted out from the back of the group, confusion settled onto the girl’s faces and Clara wanted to just say that it was all a joke but sadly she couldn’t because this was going to be true.

“Sadly yes, we are serious. Miss wants us to organise a little welcoming party, so let’s throw around some ideas.” Gwen spoke as a small mischievous grin formed across her face, Clara glanced at her friends all the while the rest of the girls let out a cheer.

If this was going to be thrown upon them, then it was only fair that the girls had a little fun with these five boys. Clara would make sure that nothing went too far, like she normally does on a daily basis as she didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Even if she didn’t want any boys near her school, since arriving this has been the only place where she has felt completely comfortable and she could be herself.

“I’ll go get the explosives!” Emily called out with glee in her voice which only made Clara shake her head lightly, she really didn’t know how all the first graders stayed alive with all their limbs still intact.

“No! No explosives, we aren’t trying to injure or kill these boys. Miss is doing this for a reason, a reason we just don’t know yet.” Remy had to speak quickly because the first graders were beginning to rush towards the door, so they could sneak into the garden shed where they hit many things.

“Whoever hasn’t had breakfast yet, go eat and the rest of us will get to work.” Gwen’s soft voice sounded once all the groaning from the first graders stopped, Remy nodded her head in agreement as she was still in her pajamas as she hadn’t had the chance to get herself ready.

Clara watched as about half of the girls split so they could eat breakfast, while the rest either sat on the floor or on some beds. Annie pulled out a notebook with a pen so they could brainstorm ideas for this welcoming party, Clara was sitting on a bed with her legs folded with Gwen beside her.

“Paint filled buckets on arrival,”

“Desk accidently pushed out the window,”

“Water squirt guns for whoever brings the boys here,”

“Terrorizing the boys once the front door is shut,”

“Kidnapping them in the middle of the night,”

The girls fired off suggestions while Annie tried to keep up with writing the ideas down on paper, all the ideas were good ones but they wouldn’t be enough. All new girls saw similar things happening around the school on their first week, but none of it was able to scare any of them away.

“If Miss wants us to welcome these boys, than that is what we’re going to do. We’ll make a welcome banner, we’ll dress nicely and look presentable. But once these boys are inside our walls, we’ll let them know that this is our school.” Clara announced loudly over the voices that were still discussing ideas, she wasn’t about to let anyone overtake the school that she loved and needed.

The door to the sleeping quarters opened once again as some of the girls arrived back from having breakfast, “Excellent plan Clara. Let’s put this into motion,” Remy smiled as she was now dressing in her uniform and her wavy flaming locks were brushed and smoothed down.

“This is all good and that, but I still want to know why this has to happen in the first place. We need to get Miss to open up, surely she would have mentioned something if this was her idea.” Gwen lowered her voice once Remy had joined their small group, the body of girls had separated so everything could get done before tomorrow morning.

“She didn’t seem herself this morning, she never keeps secrets to herself. Especially if the school is involved, she loves this place just as much as we do.” Gwen pointed out as her eyes landed on each of the girls, at that moment concern had filled her eyes much like their own eyes.

“I don’t think we’ll get her to talk now, we could try again tomorrow but it could be too late then. She’s never made a student leave nor has she ever expelled one, what if there isn’t anything we can do to fix this?” Clara asked her close friends as her fingers fiddled with the hem of her skirt, a habit she had whenever she got nervous or worried.