Lavcrots School for Girls
The second chapter of an in-progress book about friends, love, struggles, and how to overcome them.
The previous chapter can be found here.
Chapter Two
The next morning, I was back to my regular self, just as Ollie had prayed for. I was chatting up a storm after the caffeine kicked in. I talked mindlessly about the dream I had and about what I wanted to wear that weekend when the two of us went to the farmers market a few blocks away. I could tell Ollie wasn’t listening to me, but I didn’t mind.
Ollie was a little slower to wake up. She remained silent as I chattered along, and put her thick, curly hair into a ponytail, using gel to slick it back and to make designs at her hairline. She sighed at the stray curls poking out and added more gel.
I was still talking but I had moved on to reciting information for my music theory quiz that was today. “You know what I don’t get? This is a music theory class. So one, why am I even in this class if I already know it. And two, this is music theory, not music history. So why do we have to memorize stuff about composers?”
The timer on my watch beeped before Ollie could reply, and we immediately got up and grabbed our school supplies and breakfast from a cabinet by the door. A bagel for Ollie, and a protein bar for me.
I had been using the alarms on my watch since freshman year for everything and now, both of us had become accustomed to hearing them. So much so, that when we heard an alarm, depending on the time of day, we each knew exactly what to do without even thinking about it. It was a classic Pavlov’s dog kind of situation.
Surprising both of us, was Maggie. She was sitting outside her door down the hall, which was on the other side of the decorated common area. She had jumped up and quickly walked over to us before we could even lock our door behind us. She had her uniform on and was still wearing her white boots from the night before. Ollie and I exchanged glances and looked at our shoes. Matching, simple, black oxfords ordained each of our feet, and the feet of the girls walking around us. I snickered wickedly at the thought of what would happen to Maggie when the teachers saw, Ollie smacked me with a thick folder.
“Well,” Ollie started, “should we get started to class? What do you have first, Maggie?”
Maggie fumbled around in her packet, “I’ve got french.”
“Awesome! You and Rosemary can walk there together. I’ve got Latin. See you later!” And with a skip in her step, Ollie veered to the left where the Latin and history building was.
I sighed and walked right, towards where the french, art, and theater building was, always one step ahead of Maggie.
The categories the buildings were in didn’t make much sense to me, but maybe it did back when they decided. See, there is the Latin and history building Ollie just walked to. Which maybe makes sense, keeping the Roman-type stuff in one building which is what the whole campus is modeled after.
The French, art, and theater building where Maggie and I were headed could also be understandable, got the mixed arts in there. Learning french was a kind of art if you thought about it.
The library, grammar, and literature building in the NorthEast corner shouldn’t even be questioned. Of course, literature would be with the library. Granted, the library was 80% of the building, but that didn’t matter.
There was a small church-like building in the middle of the east wall for the kids who were taking religion or wanted to go to church. A different denominational pastor would come every Sunday so that kids would be able to go to a church within their beliefs. So that was a reasonable building.
Economics, home economics, and politics were all in the same building on the east wall. Sports or any physical activity class was in a massive building with an entire floor of basketball courts and swimming pools and gym equipment (all added on once the campus had expanded) were on the south wall. And the last building was for all the sciences which were part of the wrap-around building of the peristyle.
After I had thought about it, the only thing that didn’t make any sense to me was the fact that they didn’t name any of their buildings. It was just ‘The Science Building’, or ‘The French/Art/Theater Building’.
Maggie interrupted my thoughts as she finally caught up to my speed walking. “Hey. How’s the french teacher? Is she strict?”
I sighed and held back an eye-roll. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Maggie, I did. She was just still very new, I think. “She’s strict in the sense that she wants us to pay attention and get our homework done.” I glanced sideways at Maggie, her blond hair flowing in the cold breeze. “Will you be able to handle that?”
I meant it as a snarky remark but Maggie didn’t seem phased in her response, “Yes, of course. My Grandma is french. So I learned to speak it back when I was a kid.”
“Isn’t that kind of, I don’t know, cheating? Taking a language you already know how to speak?”
Maggie laughed, “I’m not sure, I never really thought about it like that. I only really knew some of the basics going into high school, so I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
I left the conversation at that, we were nearing the large oak doors of the building. We pushed our way inside and walked to the classroom. I sat down roughly in my assigned seat and left Maggie stranded at the door.
She remained standing there as the teacher stood up from where she was sitting at her desk in the front, “Bonjour Classe,” she switched to English, “We have a new student here today that I’m sure you remember from last night. Bienvenue, Maggie.”
The class responded in a chorus of “Bienvenue, Maggie’s” while Mrs. Collent, the teacher, gestured for her to sit in a seat near the back, a few rows away from me, thank the Lord for that.
Mrs. Collent continued in french after Maggie had gotten settled in, “Comme c’est encore le début de l’année aujourd’hui, nous allons passer en revue les noms.” This roughly translated to, ‘Because it is still the beginning of the year, today we will be reviewing nouns.’
I pulled out my french book, a pack of pens, and a worn spiral-bound notebook. It was a three-subject notebook, but I had been using it for french class since freshman. I flipped through the first few pages, looking at how my handwriting had changed and at the little drawings and quotes I had scribbled when I was bored. I smiled to myself, flipping to a fresh page to write down information from the review.
A light tapping alerted my ears and I looked over to where the sound was coming from. It was Maggie, tapping her pencil on the desk, staring right at me with her piercing eyes.
I glanced away quickly and looked up to where Mrs. Collent was, her back to the class writing on the blackboard. I whipped my head back to look at Maggie who was still staring at me, and mouthed the words ‘What’, in a violent matter that was as much as I could muster without drawing attention to myself.
She smiled at me despite my attempts to be mean and held up her notebook, she had drawn a sketch of me, using a red pen to scribble in my hair and a blue pen to add light shadows on my face and neck. Leaves were drawn coming out of the top of my head and behind me. Swirls of smoke were at the base of my neck. It was a truly beautiful drawing.
I grinned back at her, smoothing my frown lines from just a moment earlier, and gave her a thumbs up after checking to see that Mrs. Collent still had her back turned.
The first half of the day went on like that. Maggie and I had the classes before lunch together so we had a chance to bond a little, it was mostly just her distracting me during class, though I’m not complaining. Maggie had an indescribable ability to make people smile. She drew a lot, I realized after the first period. She frequently would get my attention during class and would show me a sketch of myself, or the teacher, or of some animal that she had merged with another animal.
By lunchtime, Maggie had drawn over ten sketches that I was still pouring over and admiring. It was weird, I never saw her take any notes, but I guess that isn’t really my problem.
We walked to the cafeteria and got our food, hot dogs, and potato salad, and went to find a seat in the grass, saving room for Ollie.
She skipped up to us not long after we sat down and began swapping hot dogs and potato salad with me as she talked, “How was your guys’ day so far?”
I took a bite of the suspiciously sour potato salad, “My day is going great. Maggie’s been helping the day go by a little quicker.” I picked up Maggie’s notebook, “You need to look at the drawings she’s done today.”
Maggie smiled shyly, hiding behind her long hair, and drank her water while Ollie picked up the notebook and began flipping through.
“Wow,” Ollie swallowed her bite of hotdog, “this stuff is amazing.”
Maggie laughed, “Thanks! I should draw you some time.”
Ollie looked at me, raising an eyebrow. I shrugged back, not sure how to respond.
“Okay, uh, sure, sounds cool.” Ollie wiped some bread crumbs off her skirt.
I glanced quickly between the two of them, my skin squirming at the increasingly awkward vibe that had been created. “How is your day so far, Ollie?”
“It was alright, slow. No different from usual.”
“We’ve got AP Lit to look forward to,” I patted her arm, “that class seems to go by quickly most of the time.”
“Yeah.”
The bell rang, ending the tension that was created.
I cleared my throat as we all stood up, “So Maggie, what do you have next?”
“I have literature.” She squinted her eyes at me in the sun.
“Okay, well we can all walk to the building together and split up from there then.”
Ollie and Maggie nodded in agreement, both quiet from the conversation earlier. Ollie led the way to the library where the too-small classrooms were also located. I walked behind with Maggie, slowing down so she wouldn’t have to walk alone. I thought about saying something here, maybe asking about what she thought of the school so far but something held me back. Quiet felt right at the time.
Once we arrived at the building I pointed Maggie in the right direction and caught up with Ollie who was already halfway down the opposite hall. I opened my mouth to say something to her but she silenced me by pointing pointedly at the “SHHH” sign on the door next to one of the many entrances to the library. I rolled my eyes but obeyed.
We walked into the classroom, surprisingly early to class, and took our seats that were somewhat close to each other.
I wanted to ask her what happened back there but Mrs. Bedleworth walked in before I could try getting Ollie’s attention once more, and started the class. I wasn’t really listening like I should have been. I love literature and reading classics. But when it’s for school it kind of loses its glamour.
I thought about passing Ollie a note but the last time I tried passing notes in Mrs. Bedleworth’s class I got detention for a week. So I decided against it, hoping that Ollie and I would be able to get a good talk after school.
The rest of the day flew by quickly after lunch. It was filled with note-taking and study guides. Not always fun but, I was used to it by now.
Ollie and I met by the gate, as usual, to decide where to go, and were just about to leave when we heard shouting behind us. We turned around and saw Maggie running up to us, barely out of breath.
“Hey, guys!” She stopped a foot away, “Can I come to hang with you guys? I already signed the logout book.” She said this last part with a smile.
I glanced at Ollie, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes, she was still unnecessarily mad at Maggie for no clear reason, “Uh, yeah, sure. I think we were just gonna go to the park today to work on some homework.”
“Alright, awesome!”
I smiled sympathetically at her, leading the way through the gate after the guard let us through. The park was just across the street, but we had to walk down a block to use the crosswalk. Cops were notoriously known for hanging out on this street to catch jaywalkers. Ollie and I had to learn that the hard way back in our freshman year.
I sent Maggie up ahead once we got to the park to find a nice shaded area for us to sit in while I hung back to talk to Ollie.
I grabbed her arm, stopping her from following Maggie, “Hey. What’s your deal with her?”
Ollie yanked her arm back, “I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s weird she wants to draw me? We just met, you know?”
“She drew me today, it’s what artists do.” I shrugged, “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Ollie untensed her shoulders, “But I don’t know. Something else seems off about her.”
I looked at her, then behind me to where Maggie was now settling down in the grass and getting her sketchbook out, her hair almost reaching the soft grass below her. I eyed Ollie, remembering the last time she had a feeling like this about someone, “Let’s give her a chance. Come on.”
I led Ollie over to where Maggie was sitting and prayed that she was going to act normal.
We ended up not talking about anything very special. Just talked about the dance rehearsals next week with the boys, and how Ollie and I were going to the farmers market this weekend.
Ollie spoke up at this point, emerging herself into the conversation, “You can come with us, if you want, Maggie. We’re going to be leaving right before breakfast.”
A smile lit up Maggie’s face, which seemed to happen a lot, “I would love to go!” She paused before speaking again, “We don’t have to wear our uniforms on weekends do we?”
“Nope!” I said this, happy that Ollie and Maggie were getting along again. All of Ollie’s doubts about her had thankfully disappeared after an hour or two.
Maggie brushed her hair out of her face, the wind getting the better of it, “Ugh, that’s a relief. I hate uniforms.” We all laughed and Maggie continued, “What are you guys thinking of wearing?”
Ollie started first, “I’m planning on wearing my white cargo pants with a tucked-in green polo, maybe my black sandals. How about you Rosemary? You were telling me this morning but I don’t think I was awake enough to listen, sorry.”
“I’m planning on wearing my overalls with a turtleneck sweater underneath it since it’s supposed to be cold tomorrow when we go.”
Maggie nodded at all of this, acting as if she was taking mental notes. “Alright, both of those sound super cute. I’m probably going to wear my big black pants, white boots, and my white single-shoulder tank top.”
The convo went like this for a while, mostly just girl talk. It was nice to talk to someone else other than Ollie. Not that I was sick of Ollie, but it added a freshness to our little group that wasn’t there before. However, I couldn’t help but think about what Ollie said about Maggie. I hoped with all my being that she was wrong about her.
The next chapter can be found here.
