Lavcrots School for Girls
The first chapter of an in-progress book about friends, love, struggles, and how to overcome them.
Prologue
The curtains breathed with the wind, sucking in and out with us. The cold unblinking eyes stared up at me, silently accusing me. I looked at my friends, eyes wide, mouth agape, and felt hot tears running down my face.
“What have you done.”
Chapter One
The Lavcrots School for Girls is an all-girls school with a population of exactly 1,786 students. It’s been around for over two hundred years and has kept all of its old-time-y buildings and statues. There is a lot of roman architecture, too. Columns and arches and whatnot. The peristyle is the center of everything. It is a giant courtyard in the middle of the school, pillars provide support. It is truly beautiful.
At the center of the too large campus, there is a marble water fountain, with pegasi coming out the top, spouting water from their mouths. I sat on the edge reading ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde, the only man I will ever let myself obsess over. I flipped through the pages, gently caressing the edges, and ignored the world around me, all that mattered now was the Dorian and his need to be encapsulated in a painting. Birds were chirping, students were chattering, walking to, and from class. I remained still, it was a skill I picked up back in grade school when I wanted to remain invisible from the other kids. If I don’t move, you can’t see me, right?
The warning bell rang, and my red hair whipped around me stinging my numb face from the breeze as I scrambled to put my book away and get to class.
I arrived breathless just as the starting bell had finished ringing, and took my seat near the colored windows, bumping into other students on the way, causing dirty looks to be thrown my way. I twisted my face into a nasty look right back at them.
“Miss Rosemary,” the wrinkled teacher at the front of the room took her beaded glasses off her nose, “Is there a good reason why I shouldn’t give you a tardy?”
I smoothed my too-short skirt, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Bedleworth, I was reading out in the courtyard before class and lost track of time. It won’t happen again.”
Mrs. Bedleworth eyed me as she returned her glasses to her face. She turned back to the rest of the class. “Today, class, we will be talking about the works of Shakespeare. Please take out your notebooks and take notes as I read his first play, Henry VI Part I.”
There was a rustle as students got out their necessary books and pens and pencils. Then soon began the monotonous, droning voice of Mrs. Bedleworth. All the girls scribbled furiously, despite the slow reading, but Mrs. Bedleworth demanded the most from her students.
I attempted to follow along as best I could but I found my thoughts drifting to home. School had only just started a little over a month ago, but since I boarded here that means I haven’t seen my family in a little over a month. I’ve been boarding here since freshman year, but it never got any easier to leave my family. I could just imagine my little puppy running around outside in the grass, or my mom making dinner and singing softly to herself.
Something brushed against my arm hair and I jumped. My relentless curls fell into my eyes. My best friend, Ollie, noticed I wasn’t paying attention and redirected me, knowing the consequences if I was caught.
I mouthed the words ‘Thank you’ at her, and Ollie smiled, her chestnut-colored skin glowing where the sun streamed through the stained glass windows.
We both went back to taking vigorous notes, all thoughts of home evaporated.
An hour later the bell had rung, and note taking and quiet reading time was finally over. Ollie and I had quickly packed up and walked arm in arm to the cafeteria, located on the west part of the wrap-around of the peristyle. The kitchen staff was serving chicken tenders and mac-n-cheese.
Ollie squealed when she saw the menu, “Can you get the chicken tenders for me, please?” She grinned, “I’ll give you my mac-n-cheese.”
I giggled and agreed, I didn’t eat meat anyway.
After getting our food, we walked outside along the brick pathway which stood out like a sore thumb in contrast with the old marbled walls. Weeds grew between the cracks, fluttering with the breeze. We took a seat on the grass in the courtyard, the sun beating down on our heads, the day had already begun to warm up despite it being chilly just an hour ago, but we didn’t mind.
I tied up my long hair into a large bun, stray curls fell out, framing my face. New freckles seemed to appear every moment I was in the sun, it was impossible to tell when they arrived, and when they faded.
Ollie swapped the chicken and the mac-n-cheese so that each was on its respectable plate.
“So. . .” Ollie pushed her wire glasses up her face before taking a bite of chicken, “Are you excited for the ball with the boy’s school next month?”
“Oh, please. You were always more into dances than I ever was. I don’t think anyone will even ask me to go.”
Ollie pushed me, “Are you kidding! You’re gorgeous and smart! Next week when we practice the dances with the boys, you’ll be asked for sure. No doubt about it.”
“We’ll see.” I rolled my eyes, “Who are you hoping to ask you?”
“Asher, of course. I’ve only liked him for three years.” Ollie giggled, blushing through her dark skin.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll ask you. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t.”
Ollie smiled, her dark eyes looked at me, “Thank you, I hope he does.”
“He will.”
We finished our food in silence after that. Birds sang and frogs croaked from within the old fountain. The rustling trees were interrupted by the warning bell before the next class. We put our lunch trays away and departed to our separate classes, vowing to meet up again at the end of school.
When the final bell had rung, signaling the end of school, we met up at the front gate like we had been doing for the past three years. Students were allowed to go off campus as long as they signed the logbook at the front desk (on the north side of the wrap-around of the peristyle) and were back by eight, in time for supper.
“Did you sign the logbook?”
Ollie nodded, her tight brown curls swaying behind her bandana secured atop her head. “Well, we have a few hours. Where do you want to go today? There’s the cafe, the park, the library? What do you think?”
I glanced down the street and back again through the bars of the north gate before finally making a decision, “My parents just sent me some money at the beginning of this week so I can buy us some drinks at the cafe.”
“Alright, cafe it is!”
Walking arm in arm, the guard opened the gate for us after checking the stamp on Ollie’s wrist that she got after signing the logbook. It creaked closed behind us, and we steered ourselves to the right to walk alongside the stone wall that separated the school from the outside world.
The cafe wasn’t far from Lavcrots, so we arrived in no time. Ollie broke free from me and went to grab our usual table in the back. I looked around the familiar shop, taking a moment to smell the freshly ground beans and the faint scent of tea. The wooden floor echoed as I walked up to the cash register to order our drinks, following the giant arrow stickers on the ground.
“Hi, can I get a large iced vanilla latte and a black coffee please?”
The barista, bags under her eyes, punched in some numbers on her screen, “And will that be all for you today?”
“Yes please.”
“Alright, that’ll be $6.49. Insert your card whenever you’re ready and we’ll have that out for you in a moment.”
I ended up using the cash my parents had mailed me then thanked the barista again before walking to where Ollie had already set up her homework and books.
“They had a new barista at the counter again!” Another barista came by with their drinks. Once she had left, I started up again after nodding thanks, “I wonder how many people that’s been this month.”
Soft piano music played in the background, covered by Ollie’s laugh, “Are you serious? We should definitely start keeping a tally.”
I sipped my plain, bitter coffee and nodded my head in agreement, “I agree. But alright, let’s get started on some homework. What do you have today?”
“I’ve got art history, Latin, and chemistry. You?”
“Religion and french. I did my music theory in a study hall.”
“Lucky.”
I smiled at that, my bunny teeth poked through my lips. I closed my mouth quickly. Ollie went straight to work, pausing only to take large gulps of her latte.
I took off my school jacket and hung it on the back of my chair. I was aware that my pale skin on my shoulders was showing through my slightly see-through white button-up, but I wasn’t at school, and I was just with Ollie. I pulled up my itchy, knee-high, cream-colored socks, and picked up a pencil, twirling it between my fingers.
My notebook was lodged in my brown backpack and took some time to work out but eventually it came flying out. Pencils and crumpled pieces of paper came out with it. I scrambled to pick it up and was faced with the oh-so coveted movie scene, where the boy touches the girl’s hand while helping her pick something up.
I looked up from where my hand had connected with the other hand and was faced with warm brown eyes and a freckled face that matched my own.
“Sorry about that, my notebook slipped out and everything fell out with it. I can pick it up.”
The boy smiled, a lock of thick brown hair falling into his face, “Oh no, don’t worry. It’s not a problem.”
Ollie had looked up sometime in the middle of the conversation and spoke up, “Hey, you go to the all-boys school down the block, don’t you?” She pointed to the crest featuring an eagle on his stiff blue jacket.
“Yeah, uh, I do actually, Glawits school for boys. Where do you two go?”
Ollie answered before I had the chance, “We go to Lavcrots, the all-girls school just a few minutes away from here. I’m Ollie and this,” she gestured to me still crouching near the ground attempting to unstick a single, extra sticky post-it note from the ground, “is my friend Rosemary.”
I could feel my face sink into a deep color of red, that I could bet almost concealed my freckles, “Hi.”
The boy smiled again, a deep dimple in his chin appeared, “It’s nice to meet you two, I’m Sage.”
He helped me up off the ground from my crouched position and returned the stuff I had dropped to the table, “Well I better get going, my friends are waiting for me. Maybe I’ll see you two at the dance practice next week.” And with a practiced wink, he sauntered off to the other side of the cafe.
Once he was out of earshot, Ollie grabbed my arm, causing me to yelp. “Rosemary! That guy likes you! Did you see the way he was looking at you! And isn’t it cute how you both have herb names!”
I rolled my eyes, my burning face not ceasing, “Let’s just get back to work.”
“Alright, if you say so.” Ollie hunched back over her papers but was still grinning from ear to ear.
The rest of the time before we had to leave was filled with not much talking. The occasional question about homework was whispered, but other than that we allowed the ambiance of the homey cafe to drift around us as we studied.
We were seated next to the clock wall, where it was just a wall filled with clocks that were all set to different time zones. It gave off the illusion of the cafe being a timeless place, not one clock was set to the correct time, funnily enough. But surprisingly, all the ticking was soothing, as opposed to the anxiety that one might think would accompany the ticking of many clocks.
An alarm went off on my watch (which was set to the right time) signaling that our time at ‘The Timeless Cafe’ was over and it was time for us to head back to the school. We gathered up our things and walked out the glass door, the bell chiming behind us and a worker yelling after us to have a good rest of our night.
After a few moments of walking silently back to the school, Ollie finally spoke up, “I didn’t see Sage on the way out.”
I performed my signature eye roll and ignored her.
Ollie looked at me, huffing a silent breath through her cheeks, “Alright, fine. We don’t have to talk about this.”
“Thank you.”
“So, did you get all your homework done?”
I sped up my pace as we neared the gate leading back into the safe walls of the school, “Yup, sure did. I’ll probably review for my music quiz tomorrow though. Did you?”
The buzzer sounded as the security guard let them back in after checking our school ids. “Yeah, I did too. I’m starved.”
“Let’s dump our stuff in our room first, I don’t wanna cart this along to supper.” I dragged Ollie behind me, her skirt flouncing in the fresh, dusk air.
More than ten minutes had passed when we finally made it to the dining hall where we ate supper. It was a different location from the cafeteria, the dining hall was located in the southeast corner, whereas the cafeteria was one of the center buildings that led out to the peristyle.
The kitchen staff was serving lasagna, and thankfully they had a vegetarian style one, even though there were few vegetarians enrolled at the school. But I, being one of them, was delighted.
Ollie and I waited in the long line for our food and began digging in once we had sat down at one of the long tables. We were nearly finished with our food before the Headmaster stood up to make her evening announcements.
There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. She talked about the dance schedules for next week and introduced a new student that had arrived that afternoon.
“This is Maggie, she is a senior here.” Headmaster Lavcrot (her family founded the school, all of the women in her family kept their maiden names to keep up with their feministic views) cleared her throat, “Maggie, would you like to introduce yourself, maybe share some of your hobbies?”
Maggie looked terrified up in front of everyone. And everyone means all one thousand plus kids at the school. Ollie and I looked at each other with wide eyes, knowing without having to say it that we were both noticing how heavy she was breathing and how quickly her eyes flitted around the room.
She wasn’t in uniform yet, she stood out like a sore thumb, wearing big pants, white boots, and a little cardigan on top. Maggie had the style all the girls at the school wanted, as opposed to our bland dark green itchy uniforms we were forced to wear from morning till bedtime.
Only a few moments had passed but everyone in the room had felt time slow down as Maggie mustered up the courage to speak into the microphone the headmaster was holding, “Yeah, uh, hi. I’m Maggie, I’m a senior like the headmaster said. And I uh, I guess I like to paint? And draw, and anything that involves art.”
Headmaster Lavcrot smiled a wide smile that exposed the gums of her teeth, “Thank you, Maggie. You may go have a seat now.”
Maggie took the opportunity before she was asked something else and attempted to walk quietly to a seat in the back, with difficulty because her boots were very thick-soled. Her steps echoed around the room before everyone went back to eating.
Ollie, the more sociable of the two of us, whispered to me, “We should invite her to sit with us! We should ask what room she’s in!”
“No way. She looks nice and all but, I’m fine with the friends I have now.”
“I’m doing it.”
Ollie called out to Maggie who conveniently was only a table away. Maggie looked around, pointing to herself, eyebrows raised.
Ollie nodded furiously, “Yes, you! Come over here! We have a seat for you!”
Warily, Maggie walked over, smiling as she neared the bench. “Hi, I’m sure you guys already heard, but I’m Maggie.”
“I’m Ollie,” They shook hands, “And this is Rosemary.”
I momentarily stopped cleaning the remnants of food off my plate and shook hands with Maggie briefly, motioning for her to sit next to me.
“So, Maggie,” My voice became low, a foreign feeling in my throat, unlike the light cheery voice I normally used, “Why did you transfer here in your last year?”
Maggie pushed her hair out of her face, dimples sinking deep into her cheeks as a smile crept onto her face at the joy of meeting friendly people, “Yeah, so it’s just me and my dad, he works for a big company across town. Wood Towers, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. It’s the business hub, you could say, for growing organic foods and whatnot. Lots of reducing, reusing, recycling going on over there.” She laughed, her dimples sinking even further into her cheeks.
“But anyway, I used to go to the public school near there, but my dad didn’t think I was getting a proper education and had just realized it now.” She rolled her bright blue eyes, “Plus, he got a promotion over the summer so he wouldn’t be able to be home as much since he’s working more, so he thought it would be easier on both of us if someone else was able to watch me while I simultaneously was able to get an education.” Her smile and eyes dimmed as she said this last part.
Ollie smiled sweetly at her from across the table, “Well, we’re super happy you’re here! Whatever the reason why.”
We talked and laughed throughout the rest of dinner, I eventually warmed up to her, internally sighing because again, Ollie was right.
We talked about Maggie’s passion for art and looked at some of her pieces on her phone. They were mostly abstract type stuff, with lots of mismatching shapes, and colors. It was unique. I had never seen anything like it before.
Maggie asked about our hobbies and Ollie answered for both of us, “Well, I write poetry. It’s not very good but it keeps me occupied, helps sort through stuff.” Ollie smiled at me, not pausing to let me speak, “And Rosemary here is a gifted musician. She also reads a lot of older books and poetry. Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, William Blake. You know, some of the classics.”
I cleared my throat and gave a pointed look to Ollie, who in turn, looked back wide-eyed and innocent as if she wasn’t just running me out of the conversation.
“Yeah, like Ollie was saying,” I paused for effect here glaring again at Ollie, “I read some older books and play the piano, violin, a little guitar, and the flute.”
“Oh, my goodness. You must be so good. I can’t wait to hear you play.” Maggie was getting more comfortable now, scooting closer to me, no longer with crossed arms, “If you’re up for it, I would love to paint the back of your guitar or violin! I did some instrument painting back at my old school to get some money, but yours would be free of course.”
I blinked hard, taken aback by the offer, “Uh, yeah. That sounds great, thanks. I’ll have to give one of them to you some time.”
Maggie nodded enthusiastically, and Ollie plastered a smile on her face.
“Well,” I began again, “supper is going to be over soon. Do you know what dorm room you’re in yet?”
“Yeah, I’m in room 53, floor three. How about you guys?”
Ollie spoke for us, “We’re floor three, too! Room 41. We can all walk back together.”
We took our plates and put them in the dish bin and walked the five-minute walk to the west side of campus, where the dorms were located.
The physical dorm building took up the entirety of the west wall. It was six stories high with twenty rooms on each floor. Since the dorms weren’t built until around one hundred years of it being open, the building did not match the rest of the buildings on campus. It was built up out of red brick and had ivy climbing up its walls. It was one of the most beautiful buildings on campus, especially with the mixture of large and small stained glass windows. It was chaotic in a breathtaking way. The only bad part about it was that it didn’t match the glossy stone finish on the roman styled buildings that could be found throughout the rest of the campus.
We used our key cards to let ourselves in and took the narrow stairs up to the third floor.
Ollie and I dropped Maggie off at her dorm room, waving goodbye and promising to find her tomorrow morning. Then we walked the short walk through the common area that each floor had, to our room.
There wasn’t much talking as each of us took turns in our bathroom to change and get ready for bed. I went to bed immediately when I was ready, but I could hear Ollie turn on a little book light to finish up some homework. I could feel the tenseness in the air even with my back turned, and when Ollie finished, I heard her clamber immediately into bed. I heard her whispered prayers about the school, her parents, and me being back to normal in the morning. I drew my blankets around me, huffing a breath at her last comment, and went to sleep.
The second chapter can be found here.
