𝕊𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕨𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕪 𝔻𝕠𝕟𝕦𝕥𝕤 [𝐻𝒶𝓃𝒶𝓃𝑒𝓃𝑒] {𝘛𝘉/𝘑𝘚𝘏𝘒}
ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 5; ᴛᴀᴋᴀᴏᴋᴀ ʜɪɢʜ
Author POV:
"Would everyone please kindly welcome our new student, Yashiro Nene." the teacher, Miss Takahashi said as Nene stepped into the oversized, regal classroom.
"Hi, everyone," Nene said, waving nervously.
The students sitting in the classroom were absoulutely A-rank. The girls had either long hair pulled back into a slick ponytail or dead-straight short hair in pigtails. The boys' hair looked like it had been slathered with enough hair gel to make it look like they had come straight out of the pool.
Everyone's uniforms looked crisply ironed- one girl's skirt had corners sharp enough to draw blood, probably. Their eyes were blank and professional, no cheekiness or speaking out of turn at all. Their textbooks and matching pencil cases were positioned exactly the same on each marble desk, their hands folded neatly in their laps, shoes polished and shining under the classroom lights.
The more-sophisticated looking girls were wearing pretty earrings and their hair was a little more styled- curls at the ends of their ponytails and small things like that, as not to break the dress code. Other girls wore black square (square, it was always square)-shaped glasses that didn't have a single hint of a smudge on them.
The boys' fitted trousers didn't have a speck of mud on them, which was extremely accomplishing according to what Nene saw of boys' trousers.
Miss Takahashi, as the teacher, didn't even wear overly excessive or unique clothing. She wore a tight, navy office-skirt that was just loose enough to not be intimate, a flattering crisp snow-white blouse, black bamboo tights and rose-gold flats. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a single, high and thick braid which highlighted her sharp facial features. She wore a polished staff badge, positioned perfectly on her blouse. She wore lipstick, foundation, blush and mascara, but none too much. Just enough to make her seem naturally beautiful, but cool enough to be a strict teacher in a private school.
A girl with long ink-black hair in a high ponytail with those sophisticated curls at the ends and red ruby earrings raised her hand. Miss Takahashi called on her, "Chouka?"
"Forgive me if this comes across as rude," the black-haired Chouka said (even her manners were just as immaculate as the school) "But from what I've heard, dyed hair is strictly prohibited. However, Yashiro-chan seems to have aqua tips on her unnaturally blonde hair. Is this an issue by any means?"
"Well." Miss Takahashi surveyed Nene's hair with a conscending frown. "Yes, I suppose it might be an issue. Her hair, too, is not tied up. I will later speak to the principal regarding this matter. However, Miss Nene, might your hair dye by any chance be temporary?"
"Um... you see, Miss, my hair's not dyed," Nene explained nervously. "This colour is natural. You could speak to my parents about it, but, um.... I could tie it up, of course. I'm sorry. I forgot about that part of the guidelines." Nene quickly produced a pink scrunchie out of her blazer pocket and hastily tied her hair in a low ponytail.
"I will determine if that's true with your parents," Miss Takahashi frowned more at her hair. "By the way, Miss Nene, I'm afraid hair ties must be black or white here."
Black or white hair ties? Nene thought irediculously. There are even hair tie colour laws here? Wait till Aoi hears about this. But then again, she wears her hair down now.
"Oh, I apologise, I don't seem to have any black or white hair ties with me." Nene reflected, making a show of digging in her pockets. It was a half-lie. She didn't have black or white hair ties at all.
Nene POV:
"That's alright. You can borrow one from the school for today." Miss Takahashi motioned to Chouka. "Miss Chouka, could you please escort Miss Nene to the office?"
"Of course, Miss." Chouka stood up and carefully rounded her desk to stand next to me. "Come, Yashiro-chan."
Chouka pushed open the door and beckoned for me to go through first. Blushing, I hurried through, not used to having people hold doors open for me. Least of all a girl! Minamato-kun had done it a few times but this was completely different. Chouka's politeness was almost eerie.
As we made our way down the silent hallway, I tried to make conversation. "Um, hi-"
"I must ask you to keep silent. I apologise for interupting you, but we first-years are forbidden from speaking in the hallways." Chouka said suddenly, her voice monotone.
"Oh. Right. Sorry." I shut my mouth, embarrased, and followed Chouka to a neatly-labelled door reading 'School Office'.
"Excuse me, ma'am." Chouka approached the office ladies sitting in the marked-off corner.
"Yes, Miss?" The office lady responded, spinning around in her black chair. She had brown hair slicked back into a bun and wore a white blazer-style cardigan along with a neat blue office skirt. "How can I help you?"
"I have a new student here who requires a black or white hair tie. She will return it by the end of the day," Chouka explained. I gave a timid wave to the office lady.
"Very well. I will retrieve it for the miss shortly after I make a phone call to your homeroom teacher to confirm."
What? She needed to confirm with the teacher for a hair tie??!
Chouka and I waited patiently without speaking a word as the office lady spoke a few words to Miss Takahashi on the phone. After a minute, she put down the phone and beckoned us to follow her.
The office lady led us to a cupboard labelled 'Backup' and opened it to reveal multiple stacks of textbooks, nail polish remover, school uniforms, a box filled with jewerelly and other bits and pieces.
"This cupboard is for maintaining school dress codes and for borrowation." The office lady explained. "As you can see, confiscated jewerelly is also kept here."
"Does it get returned?" I asked, curious. There seemed to be quite a lot of jewerelly stored in that musty (but not really musty, it was shining like it had been polished just a second ago) cupboard.
"We contact the student's parents before returning the jewerelly. We ask for their opinion. Most parents want it pernamently confiscated until the end of the student's duration here, to discipline them." the office lady explained. "Of course, every single piece of jewerelly is very safely kept."
"I see." I said uneasily. It was lucky I had kept my skull brooch at home.
"Now, do you require a thin, average or thick hair tie?" the office lady asked. "Do you prefer black or white? Do you require a scrunchie? According to your classroom teacher, you seem to have a liking for them. I have a few here, I think."
"Ummm." Uncomfortable at being bombarded by such specific questions, I blurted out what I thought of first. "A thin black scrunchie, please."
"Thin? Are you sure? You seem to have quite a lot of hair. It might not hold," the office lady said, scrunitizing my hair with a look that I had quite enough of at this school so far. Now, what was the point of asking for my preference if you were just going to argue against it?
"Right. Um, maybe I could take a thick black scrunchie, then."
"White might compliment your hair better."
Wow. She was completely disregarding the fact that she had asked for my opinion. Obnoxious enough? "OK. Could I get a thick white scrunchie, then?"
"Oh, I don't seem to have any thick white scrunchies, sorry."
"That's fine. Maybe just a thick white hairtie, then?"
"Right... oh, I seem to be out of those as well. Would black do?"
I restrained myself from rolling my eyes. "Yes, it would do."
The lady handed me a hairtie. It even had the school's logo printed on it. To prevent any more confusion, I quickly tied my hair into a messy bun. "Thank you.... ma'am."
"My pleasure." The office lady gave my hair a look. "I trust you will sort out the... hair dye by tommorow?"
"With all due respect, ma'am, it's not hair dye," I gritted my teeth.
The office lady narrowed her eyes.
"What she means is, it's natural, but it could also be for a religious reason that might be influencing her to not be nesscarily telling the truth," Chouka spoke up. "However, she has given her word that it will all be sorted out. Our homeroom teacher will be consulting her guardians this evening. There is nothing to worry about."
I gave Chouka a look. She talked like a professor with a doctor's degree.
"Of course." the office lady glared at me one last time before turning her back to me to close the cupboard. "I will trust you to return to your classroom by yourselves."
"I give you our word that we'll make it back safely and responsibly." Chouka bowed her head before grabbing my arm to take our leave.
She didn't say a word to me as we made our way back, clearly annoyed with me for being 'rude' to that lady and probably ruining her perfect reputation. Her grip on my arm was stone-cold and unnesscarily hard.
Lunchtime
I balanced my tray carefully as I surveyed the canteen.
There were eight picnic-style tables in all, all for the first-years. I could see three tables occupied by boys- one for some sporty-looking ones, one for some nerdy ones, and one for some average-looking ones. It was almost funny how clearly the different cliques were split.
The other five tables were occupied by girls- number one being the nerds, number two being the sporty girls, number three being the rich ones, number four being the talented ones, and finally, number five being the popular girls- the one Chouka was sitting at.
It was laughable how everyone on table five looked almost the exact same- all wearing high ponytails with curls at the ends, jewel-based earrings, nail stickers (a smart round-about for the no nail polish rule), decorations on their shiny loafers, white socks with fur trimmings, short skirts and closed blazers.
I clutched my tray tighter, unsure where to sit.
Suddenly, a tap on my shoulder brought me back to reality.
"Hi! Are you new?"
I spun around, almost crashing into a girl standing behind me.
She wore a cheeky grin and had curly blonde hair tied in a high ponytail. She wore the uniform, her blazer buttoned up neatly, her white fur-trimmed socks perfectly ironed, her emerald earrings shining under the bright lights, her loafers decorated with metal chains and fake jewels, her skirt riding up.
I realised that was the popular-girl attire.
"U-um, yes." I stammered. "I was just wondering where to sit."
The girl laughed, a tinkly bell-type laugh that probably attracted tons of boys. "I get it. I dwelled on that for the whole night the day before I started here. I'm Marlee. Want to sit with me?"
I stared at her in disbelief for a second. A popular girl! Asking me to sit with her and the other popular girls! On my first day! "O-oh. Of course."
Marlee led me by the arm to table five. She sat down near Chouka and promptly swept Chouka's handbag to the side, leavingme space to sit. Chouka shot Marlee a dirty look, but didn't say anything as I sat down with my tray.
"Hey everyone! This is the new girl!" Marlee grinned. I cast a quick look around the table.
There was a girl with short, curly black hair sitting next to Chouka, a girl with really long, straight auburn hair, a dirt-blonde haired girl, a chestnut-coloured hair girl and a girl with pale blonde hair. They all wore the popular-girl-attire and now looked at me with conscending frowns similair to the office lady's.
"Oh yes. I walked her to the office to get a hairtie." Chouka shot a glare at me. "She really doesn't know the way here."
"Well, she is new." Marlee debated, still with that grin. "Want to introduce ourselves?"
"She already knows me," said Chouka with the tiniest roll of her eyes.
"I'm Aimi." the girl with short black hair said.
"I'm Hanae." said the girl with the auburn hair.
"I'm Mayumi." the girl with dirt-blonde hair said.
"I'm Ume." the girl with pale blonde hair said.
"Nice to meet you, Aimi, Hanae, Mayumi, Ume. Um, and Chouka and Marlee." I mentally tried to memorize each of them. "I'm Yashiro Nene."
"Nene! That's such a cute name!" Mayumi squealed. Chouka and Aimi rolled their eyes.
"Listen," Marlee leaned in and whispered to me, "Here's the basic guide. Chouka and Aimi are like sisters- evil ones, too. They're generally just mean. You get used to it. Hanae's the leader of the group, I guess. She's the most popular and is known for her hair- don't upset her, or you'll regret it. She's generally nice though. Mayumi's my favourite, personally- she's cheeky and cheerful, always positive. Aimi hates her though. Ume's always spacing out- she's the brains of the group. She generally has no opinions, just goes along with whatever Mayumi says. Mayumi looks out for her."
I nodded. Lesson learned- never get on Chouka, Aimi or Hanae's bad side. "Thanks."
"Somehow I get a feeling that Chouka already dislikes you," Marlee said thoughtfully. "You might want to be extra careful with her. Though that's pretty much impossible- Chouka could be rude about even a five-star hotel. You see, she grew up rich."
"That makes sense."
"Actually, everyone here is pretty much rich, except for me and Mayumi- we're not that rich. Hanae and, believe it or not, Ume, are the richest ones. Hanae's father is an important govemernet official, see. Ume's family owns this whole network of hotels."
"Wow." I murmured. "Impressive."
"I'm sure you'll fit in just fine, though."
I looked at her in suprise. I'd thought she had just invited me to sit with these girls just to be nice since it was my first day- I hadn't though she would actually invite me to be part of the popular-girl clique.
"Ume, finished my English homework yet?" Hanae asked sweetly, twirling a strand of her famous hair between her slender fingers.
"I gave it to Marlee," Ume said discreetly, spaced-out. "I got bored with it."
"I see." Hanae turned to Marlee. "You got it?"
"Mhm." Marlee didn't let her smile drop for a second, but I could see the discomfort in her eyes. "I've got it finished."
"Great. Help me with my math homework for today too?"
"Sure! Want to meet in the library at-"
"No, I meant you do it for me." Hanae interuppted. "Get it done by tommorow, 'kay? I'll treat you to an ice-cream."
"Right. Thanks." Marlee turned away back to her lunch.
The other girls kept talking. The chatter contuined. I didn't join in much, mainly trying to figure these girls out.
Soon, it became clear that Marlee was being bullied by some degree.
All the girl's homework fell onto her when Ume refused to do it. Nobody even argued with Ume- probably because of her money. Marlee also often got teased nastily. She just grinned and smiled and went along with it. I don't even know if she even realised the unjust behaviour being directed toward her. Mayumi didn't join in with the mean jokes, but she didn't say anything to defend Marlee either. Not having much money, and only just above Marlee in the popularity ranks, if Marlee got kicked out then Mayumi would be in her position. She just watched Marlee with pitiful eyes.
My heart twisted for Marlee. She was getting pushed around, and she just went along with it because she didn't want to get kicked out, probably.
It was so, so different from my simple but precious relationship with Hanako, Kou, Aoi and Mitsuba.
I just wanted to go back to them. But suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I spotted someone.
Someone gorgeous.
A/N: Sorry for not posting this chapter sooner! I was fine-tuning it. Hope you enjoy!
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