Chapter Three: Settling in

Warning: A VERY GIRLY CHAPTER!

The dorm was large, white and held eight beds. At least, it was supposed to be white, I thought. The walls were covered with posters and pictures, and the beds held colourful decorative cushions and rugs. There were pretty doilies and picture frames on the nightstands, and some had draped tulle over the bed frame, to decorate the plain white curtains. Only one bed was undecorated and plain. I assumed that would be the bed I was going to be sleeping in. 

Sure enough, Georgia pulled me in the direction of that bed and pointed. ‘’You’ll be sleeping there. Feel free to decorate it with whatever you want- nobody’ll get mad at you or laugh at your taste, if it’s different than theirs. We’re all crazy here.’’

I laughed. ‘’I didn’t bring anything to decorate though. Are we allowed to go shopping?’’

‘’Of course! Every Saturday, we’re free to go down to the village. It may be small, but it has a lot of gorgeous little boutiques and an amazing teahouse. You should have their fudge or sponge cake, it’s amazing,’’ Georgia gushed.

I wondered if that would be the teahouse I’d gone to this morning, but I didn’t say so.

‘’Let me introduce you to our dorm-mates. There’s me, the most important,’’ she grinned at the others, who pretended to look offended. ‘’The cute red-head over there is Marlia, the accent on the �"lia¬.’’

The said Marlia shook her head and laughed. She did indeed have very good looks, with a fair skin and twinkling green eyes. Georgia went on: ‘’The one next to her, with the dark curls is Brittney, she’s the fashionista of this dorm. Any fashion troubles, go to her. The one next to her is Tori Lawson, our very own girl-jock. She’s the best soccer player there is. All the boys are jealous, and she plays in the team. Excuse me- football player. You’ll have to get used to calling it football. Soccer is football here, and football is rugby, or something or other. The last one in that row is Jamie Maye, she’s the bookworm of the dorm. She knows everything. Information needed? She’s your girl. On this side of the room, the far end, is Heidi Morgan with those blonde tresses. She’s our top-model, although you’re going to be tough competition. She can’t help being beautiful, she just is.’’

Georgia spoke without a trace of envy, and Heidi laughed and threw a little blue cushion at Georgia’s head. Skilfully, the girl ducked and turned back to me, unperturbed. She continued.

‘’Next to her is Katie Anderson. She’s artistic. See those paintings on the wall? She made them. I tell you, that girl has the talent of a million famous painters all at once. She needs to be in an exhibit.’’

The said Katie laughed at Georgia, pretending to throw her paintbrush at her. I couldn’t help the smile that appeared on my face. From what I could see and hear, these girls were quite close. They seemed friendly, so maybe I wouldn’t be a total misfit. I couldn’t help feeling that this school was completely and utterly different from high school back home. Or maybe only these girls were this down-to-earth and nice. I hadn’t met the rest of the school yet, and there were bound to be mean girls among the nice ones. 

‘’It’s nice to meet you,’’ I smiled, ‘’I’m Isabelle Wynne, but you can just call me whatever.’’

‘’Alright, Whatever. Nice name!’’ Tori called out, grinning. It wasn’t a mean grin. I recognized the grin. It meant: ‘We’ve accepted you. You’re one of us now.’

I grinned back. ‘’People at home generally call me Izzy. Except Ryan.’’ I frowned. ‘’He calls me Bella, because he insists I must be Italian somehow. Just because I enjoy pasta.’’

The girls laughed, and walked closer to Georgia and I. I sat down on my bed and opened my bag, starting to unpack the few things inside. I would have to unpack my trunk later.

‘’Ooh, who’s Ryan?’’ Marlia gushed. ‘’Is he the boyfriend?’’

‘’No way!’’ I exclaimed, ‘’he’s my very annoying cousin and probably best friend, whose head is only filled with food, football (pardon me, rugby), beer and girls.’’

‘’Shame. If he wasn’t your cousin he’d be a good candidate as your boyfriend,’’ Georgia laughed. ‘’He sounds fabulous.’’

I snorted, thinking of Ryan in his sweatpants, hair messed up, bags under his eyes, a bottle of beer in his hand while snoring on our couch, the drool dripping off his chin. Fabulous indeed. I had to have that picture somewhere on my phone still. He was anything but fabulous.

‘’He wouldn’t be my type,’’ I replied, putting my make-up bag into the top drawer of my nightstand. ‘’Too much of a player.’’

‘’Speaking about players,’’ Georgia grinned, quieting her tone, as if she was about to reveal a big secret. ‘’Let’s gossip about You-Know-Who, shall we?’’

The girls grinned, except Tori, rolled her eyes and sighed. I grinned. ‘’This is starting to feel a little too much like Hogwarts, guys.’’

‘’He’s as dangerous as You-Know-Who, that’s for sure,’’ Marlia giggled. ‘’We’re talking about the hottest male in the school of course. You’re bound to meet him sometime or other and I promise, you will swoon. Big time.’’

‘’Why? He can’t be as hot as Taylor Lautner,’’ I said, matter-of-factly. I was trying to find a spot for a little snow-globe my grandmother had given me when I was about five years old. 

‘’He’s hotter,’’ Georgia grinned, fanning herself with her hands to show me how hot this person was.

Heidi laughed. ‘’Which of the three are you talking about?’’

Okay. That caught my attention. I wasn’t exactly a boy-crazy girl, but now I was curious. Three blazing hot males in one place? That had B-A-D B-O-Y-S spelled all over it. In big neon letters.

‘’Okay, you got me,’’ I admitted, putting my valise aside and leaning forward. The girls laughed. 

‘’Simple,’’ Georgia smirked. ‘’Some lucky mother had triplets, almost seventeen years ago. Those triplets grew up almost identical, and are now attending Cherysford Elite at this very moment.’’

‘’Except that mother wasn’t so lucky,’’ Tori joined in. ‘’My mother used to call those boys ‘handsome devils’ and my neighbour called them ‘three holy terrors’. My word, do they have some tricks up their sleeves. They don’t shrink from anything!’’ 

‘’Don’t ever dare them to do anything, because they will complete that dare, thoroughly, no matter the consequence. Detention room is their second home, and seriously, the teachers don’t even try to control them anymore. The thing is, they get such good grades they can’t be expelled, so the teachers have nothing to say. Also, Mr. Heart has a soft spot for them because he’s their uncle,’’ said Brittney, eager to have her share in the tale.

‘’Those boys disgust me, no matter how good they look. They literally treat girls like rubbish,’’ Jamie spoke up, her voice soft, but heavy with disgust. ‘’I saw Rose Harmer crying the other day because she’d been cruelly dumped by the youngest. I swear, they’re just gross.’’

Ah, here came the honest side of the tale. Not that I didn’t believe the others, but the boys sounded almost too good to be true. I mean, which girl doesn’t like a bad boy? It was such a shame those bad boys often came with player reputations and one want: to get what they wanted and break your heart.

The girls had gone quiet after Jamie’s outburst. ‘’It’s true,’’ Heidi finally spoke up. ‘’Those boys are players, and every girl who has some brains stays away from them. The problem is, you can’t help being attracted to them. They make it seem like they’re really falling for you, and just when you’re thinking nothing can go wrong, when you’re almost sure you’re the one that’s managed to change them, they dump you as fast as throwing a coke can in the bin after you’ve drunken up the contents.’’

Heidi’s voice was heavy with bitterness, and Brittney put her arms around her. I suspected Heidi had been in that situation once. It wasn’t hard to believe, she was so pretty, exactly the kind of girl boys like them would go after. The girls kept quiet, nobody confirmed my suspicions. I couldn’t blame them. I was new. They’d only met me today, and knew nothing about me. They didn’t know if they could trust me, what my character was like, and if I would get along with them after living with them for a while. Trust took time, and I fully understood that. That was the reason I didn’t ask.

‘’Well,’’ Georgia broke the silence. ‘’That took a depressing turn. Let’s not think about them any longer, alright? Can I see your schedule, Izzy? I want to know if we have any classes together.’’

With the silence broken, the girls seemed more at ease again. We pored over our schedules and I found out that I had classes with all of them. Not all on the same day, of course. I was overjoyed to see dance was indeed a class here at Cherysford Elite, and so was music. I already knew that those classes, drama and art would be my favourite here at school. Glancing at Katie, who hadn’t said much but seemed friendly, I knew I would never be as good as her. However, I hoped we could exchange some painting techniques and paint together some day. 

 

Brittney, Heidi, Georgia, Jamie, Katie, Marlia and Tori. I went over their names again and again in my head so I wouldn’t forget them. I had a feeling Georgia’s descriptions on my dorm-mates were pretty accurate, but I didn’t know them well enough yet. I found I was actually looking forward to my time here at Cherysford Elite. I’ll try and do you proud, mom, I thought. I’ll do my very best.

Author's Note

Very girly chapter indeed, and a little more character exposure of the protagonist. I hope you're getting to know Izzy a little more, and I hope you like her new dorm-mates as much as she does! Please leave your opinions below- very grateful to every review!

Reviews

[Mister T.]

To be honest, I'm a boy, and several times I couldn't help but laugh in front of my computer xD
I really adore the way you describe all kinds of personalities and also keep the character's personality in mind when writing the dialogue. This really makes the conversations seem realistic. I especially like Georgia's lively and unpredictable personality, and the way she talks.
Good job on repeating all of their names at the end. It could be me, but I had a hard time remembering all the different personalities as Georgia was speaking.
One thing which confused me:
- The said Katie, The said Marlia: I'm confused by these word groups. What do they mean?
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

[Cass Morgan]

There are a lot of girls to remember, it's true. I had a hard time remembering it myself, and I almost left out Katie because I'd forgotten all about her. I tried going back and making it six girls instead of eight (including Izzy) but found I couldn't delete two characters because I'd already grown so fond of them!!
- The word groups basically mean that the next sentence would refer to the person Georgia had just been talking about, if that makes sense. I've seen it before and I thought it fitted, but maybe I should change it, if it sounds weird.
Thank you for your comment! Really appreciate it.

[Lavorther]

It's certainly a girly chapter, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. You're really good at writing natural conversations and implying relations. You didn't just say that it seemed the girls got along pretty well, but the conversations proved that too. You can just feel the warmth and friendship.

The chapter was also much longer than the previous ones, without feeling slow. Good job on that!

[Cass Morgan]

That's the real girly-girl side of me showing. I did try and make the chapter longer, and found it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be :D Thank you for the tip :D