Leila took an awkward step forward; the whole class had stopped whatever they were doing and stared at her. She had gone to a lot of schools, done a lot of transfers, but never had she gotten a reaction like this before. It was as though she was an alien species, and the humans had just discovered her. Apart from that, she had never in her entire life seen a class like this before. It was like a fusion between a café, and a class. Somewhere from the back of the class came a whistle and people turned around to see who had done it.
"What? I'm just stating the obvious" someone said. It seemed to ease up the tension in the class room, as a few of the guys cheered him on.
Suddenly the classroom door opened and what looked like the teacher walked in. She too froze when she caught Leila standing in front of her class. She looked young, probably not even in her 30s, but she was the first person, who looked at Leila like she was an actual human being.
"Hello there, you must be our new bursary student?" she asked Leila kindly. There was a gasp from some of the other students and Leila distinctly heard someone whisper "Bursary?"
Smiling shyly "Yes" Leila managed a whisper, which to her horror came out like a croak.
"Great, well than take a seat here, right in the front row, you can put you're things down there, and then come up to the class so you can introduce yourself to us" she beamed.
Leila stared at her in shock. Really? Go up there and actually talk about herself to them? She took a big gulp. It seemed like time had frozen while everyone was still staring at her putting her bag down. The teacher too seemed to be waiting for her to come up and introduce herself.
She walked to the front, staring down on the floor, she barely managed a whisper. "Hello everyone, my name is Leila Adams, thank you…." she said. Just as she was about to walk back to her seat, a girl put her hand up,
"Yes Pearl?" Ms. Judy asked.
"Where did…that come from?" Pearl asked sneering at Leila and making a face as though Leila was something disgusting under her nose.
Leila looked up to Ms. Judy, she could see Ms. Judy take a deep breath as though to calm her nerves down, Ms. Judy smiled kindly at Leila "where did you come from Leila?"
"Well…I originally came from Saint Francis High school…." she said softly. The whole class erupted in laughter.
Leila stared at them in confusion; she didn't understand what was so funny. She looked up at Ms. Judy in confusion; Ms. Judy however gently guided her back to her seat.
The class seemed to go on from there; however Leila couldn't help feeling like she was going to regret ever agreeing to this bursary. Sighing to herself, "Just survive" maybe that's what the receptionist had meant when she said that.
Leila stared in awe at the 'class' around her, but something strange immediately caught her attention. As her eyes were scanning she could see distinctly that the chairs got more and more 'executive' going down the class. Right at the back of the class looked almost like the setting of some type of important office. They even had executive sofa/chair type of set up. She quickly gasped as she saw one of the eyes following her gaze. He was a handsome guy, staring at her unashamedly. She quickly moved her focus back to Ms. Judy.
When the bell rang, all the students got up at once, even though Ms. Judy was still talking. She looked as though she was used to their behavior. Leila was the last to leave her seat, waiting for everyone to file out. She heaved a big sigh of relief. Wiping her forehead, she was actually sweating. She heard small clicks; Ms. Judy was closing her briefcase.
"Leila…where is your next class?" she asked kindly,
Quickly checking her timetable, "err…its P.E." she said horrified.
"Oh….well, that's easy enough, you just go back up the stairs, and down the corridor, like as if you're going to the entrance, when you come out, you'll find a glass house, that's where you're P.E. class will be held" she said.
"Thank you Ma'am" Leila said politely, to her surprise, Ms. Judy stared at her, as if in shock at her politeness. "Call me…if you need any help….this place can be quite…cruel..." she said uneasily.
Great, just great. So far people have said "Just survive", and that this place can be "cruel", what the hell has she gotten herself into ?! Leila thought to herself furiously as she made her way to the glass building. It was just as Ms. Judy had described, "a glass like house". As she entered again, she was met with the same reaction, people ogling her like she was from out of space, and then there were some girls who plain stared at her with utmost hate. What had she done so wrong to make enemies already?
She was late, the other girls had already changed into their P.E. uniform looking like they were all part of some sport themed music video. As Leila was standing there, one of the boys walked over to her, he was quite handsome, but then again which one of these pupils didn't look well taken care of. He had a tall thin athletic physic, beaming at her, he stretched his hand out "Hey there, nice to meet you Leila….my name is Nico, pleased to meet your acquaintance" he said, while kissing her hand. Leila heard a small "pshh" of disapproval from the girl Ms. Judy had called as Pearl earlier.
"Er. Hi Nico…..nice to meet you too..." Leila said awkwardly. Another guy walked over to her, Nico smacked his back playfully "and this here, is Taylor,"
Taylor beamed at her too, "Hey there Leila"
"Hi..." Leila said shyly.
"I'm sure you're going to make school a very entertaining place for us this year" Nico said.
"Er…what? Why Im quite boring"
"Ahh…well let's see, I've never seen our girls like this before..." Nico whispered dramatically to Leila. She turned red,
"Ah wow…and she blushes too…" Nico said ecstatically turning his head back a bit towards his other friend; Leila caught a glimpse of him, just staring at them. He was the same handsome guy she had seen earlier at Ms. Judy's class. His face looked very cold; he had absolutely no expression on. His dark eyes again stared at her unabashedly. This time though Leila could really see him. Although everyone around her pretty much had an aura of being the socially elite, there was something much different about him. He stood out from them vividly. It was as though even in the upper social class, there were even further subdivisions into the upper social class and the upper-upper social class. And he was definitely at the top. Maybe it was the way the others kept glancing at him nervously, as though seeking his approval. Or maybe it was just him. Self-importance etched across his very being. He looked powerful, feared, and yet enigmatic at the same time. Blushing she looked away.
"Here come's fatso…" said Pearl. Leila turned to look at whom she was talking about. There was a huge obese man, huffing and puffing as he was making his way through to his student. He stopped before he could even greet them, huffing and puffing. The kids all started laughing at him rudely. Finally after catching his breath he walked over to them.
"Good morning folks" he said while wiping sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief.
"Eww..." a girl who seemed to be pearl's friend said, ignoring her, he continued.
"Today we will be doing group activities. Girls on one side, boys on the other. We will be focusing on core training. Right who here is the new bursary student? L. Adams?" he asked, reading a label on a clothing bag which he seemed to have in his hand.
"Here sir…" Leila said shyly, raising her hand slightly. Again he looked at her shocked to be addressed to politely.
"Oh right…here is your P.E. Kit, courtesy of the Royal High Scholarship Fund" he said, handing her an exquisite black paper bag.
"Thank you..." she responded.
"Gosh, she can't even afford her own P.E. wear? What a joke!" pearl's friend said, while pearl sneered looking at Leila.
"Ok, you can change and make your way back here please Ms. Adams"
Leila walked into the change room, and it took her a moment to regain her breathing. Wow….just wow. How can this be a changing room for a school? The changing room was glistening with the polish from the tiles, the whole room was surrounded with mirrors, and each cubicle was equipped with its own Jacuzzi, mini sauna and mini steam room. There were already white robes laid out neatly on the entrance of each cubicle with fluffy white slippers at the entrance. She quickly opened up her bag, and beamed again at the magnificent so called P.E. uniform. It was a white silk skirt with matching silk top, which fit her on snugly, as though it was custom made. Now that she thought about it, she did have to fill in details on her application form like her measurements, weight, height etc. Her outfit even had her name printed on it on the underside of her collar. There was a matching head band, long socks and even P.E. white shoes, without looking at herself; she quickly went out of the changing rooms.
And yep again, for the third time in a row reaction was the same, ogling, whispers, catty looks. How was this already getting so tiring at only her second class of the morning?
Nico came to stand by her, "Now ladies THAT is how you wear a P.E. outfit" embarrassing Leila, she didn't understand all the unwanted attention she was getting. All of these girls looked flawless, beyond beautiful, from their well-kept hair, accurately tweezed eyebrows, beautiful layer upon layers of endless lashes (could they be fake?), beautiful bronze tan….flawless. And there she was in stark contrast, chipped nails, hair tied in a messy one sided ponytail, wearing a uniform which she could never even dream of affording. What was the fuss all about?
"Ok now, divide yourselves up, girls onto one side, boys onto the other" the P.E. teacher said. Nico winked at Leila and went off onto the other side of the basketball court. Right now, huddle around in a circle. We are all going to practice, some warm up exercises. All through the P.E. session they worked on different themes, from general warm up, to strengthening their core, to relaxing tensions in the muscle.
Although he was unfit, he really did know his stuff, Leila thought to herself, as she heard the bell ringing signaling the end of the P.E. session. Suddenly from the boys circle came a terrible scream, still huddled in their circle, but there was a small figure being dragged to the center, and he was getting kicked in succession by each of the guys around the circle, almost all of them were having a turn kicking him except for Nico, Taylor, and their tall handsome friend. He just stood there gazing at the scene in front of him, with his hands in his pocket, with a strange expression on his face. Leila couldn't fathom it; it was a mixture of cruelty and sneering. Leila looked in disgust at the P.E. teacher as he ashamedly bowed his head down and turned away from the scene.
"Scholarship student" Pearl said approaching Leila. She was accompanied with two of her other friends. The rude one who had openly laughed at their P.E. teacher and another girl who too stared at Leila in disgust.
"You see that's what happens to them when they don't know their place, you might be here at Royal high, it would do you good to know you're place on the food chain. And here you're all just scavengers, begging off the bits and pieces we throw at you…like the clothes on your back you're currently wearing." Pearl continued, while every sentence she threw made her beautiful face look more and more ugly.
"My name is Pearl, this here is Alicia, and Oliya…know them…we're important" she said walking off. Leila stared at them in disbelief, she moved her gaze to the floor where the scholarship student was still being kicked, and saw in turn that she was being stared at by the same handsome face, looking at her with mild interest. Blushing she looked between his face and the guy on the floor being hit, and finally it dawned on her…the handsome man was actually enjoying seeing such brutality.