Alyson woke me up at 7am to have a shower. She laid out my school uniform - which she had lovingly bought last week. I stared at it. A red and black blazer. A black tie, white shirt, black shoes and black trousers.
I put my uniform on and tied my dark hair up, adding just a touch of mascara to my eye lashes.


The drive to school was quiet and I was seriously nervous. My new high school was called “Hedge road Academy” and it was only a few roads away from our flat. Alyson drove me up there. The school was said to have been built in the 1950’s and not much had changed apart from the school adding computers in the 1990’s. I took a deep breathe.
“Good luck.” Alyson said.
“You too.” She started work today too.

I closed the car door and wandered up the office, after receiving my timetable, I walked along to my History class. It was small, around 15 people in there.
I sat at the back and tried to ignore everyone else’s eyes. There was a huge divide in the class. A group of very pretty boys and girls sat at one end of the class room, there was a whole row of empty seats ( I sat at the back of those) and then at the other side there was a group of kids, a lot of them in black, dark hair, some wearing very dark black make - up.

“Must be Goths.” I thought.

I turned back to the other group and noticed a blonde girl turn to give me a dirty look.
I quickly looked away.

The double period went in really slow. We were just starting a section on world war 2. I looked around again, no one seemed especially interested in what the teacher was saying. I tried to look as interested as I could, the teacher had an unbelievably boring voice.

During the “break” I wandered around the school, trying to familiarise myself with where everything was. It wasn’t a big school but knowing me I was bound to get lost. I walked out into the grounds at the back, there were boys in the younger school years playing football.

I sat down on the wall, alone. I did feel very sorry for myself but tried very much not to look how I felt.

Three of the girls I saw previously ( including the nasty blonde one) were standing not so far away from me. They came over and glared down at me, it was very intimidating.
“ Hi.” The blonde one said, suddenly looking kind.
“Hi.” I smiled.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Rebecca Thomas.” I said.
“ I’m Charlotte Brentford. My dad owns this school.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
I smiled at her with difficulty. I didn’t like snotty people.
All of a sudden her friend banged into her, Charlotte had been holding an open bottle of water which went spinning forward and landed all over my trousers.
“Fuck,” I said.
Instantly, all 3 of the girls started laughing.
“ God, you want to watch what you’re doing” I said angrily trying to wipe up the water from my trousers. It looked like I had peed myself which was VERY embarassing.
“Sorry.” Charlotte said in a very unconvincing tone.
They all turned to walk away before turning to shout
“Jock” at me.

They didn’t even know me - how dare they call me a Jock!
I was annoyed. Not only had I not made any friends but I had already made 3 enemies.

The next two periods I tried to stay as far away from that group as I could. I could see them looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I could not be bothered with this.
When dinnertime came… or rather lunch?
I was dreading it. I knew I’d have to sit alone and I hated school dinners - I was used to going to the nearby shops in my home town.
I got a tuna sandwich and a drink of apple juice. I kept my eyes down as I looked around for a table to sit at. I chose the one as far away from other people as I could. Sadly though, that group of people who didn’t like me sat diagonally across from me. One of the guys tried to throw something at me, I could feel tears filling up in my eyes. “
DON’T YOU DARE!” I told myself.
I was going to get up and leave when I felt a shadow over me. A tall boy with black hair was standing over my table.

“Hi.” He said.
“ I hope this isn’t another one of them.” I thought to myself.
“Hi.” I replied.
“ I’m Adam.” He smiled.
“ I’m Rebecca.”
“ Nice to meet you Rebecca.” He said and held out his hand.
I shook it.
“ I noticed you were sitting on your own and wondered if you’d like to join me and my friends?” He smiled and pointed over to the group of Goths I’d seen earlier.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“ Ok then.”

I got up and followed him across to the table.
All the people moved around and I sat in the only seat that was empty.
Adam began introducing me.
“ Everyone this is Rebecca, Rebecca this is Tyler, Janet, Louis, Michelle, Jared and Kimberley.”
“Hi.” I repeated.
“ Hello” they chorused.
“ So, you moved here today did you?” Michelle asked.

Michelle was sitting at the center of the table and it looked as if she was the leader. Her hair was a deep red and it was long and shiny. She wore dark black eyeliner around her eyes. She wasn’t wearing a blazer or a tie. She had the first 5 buttons on her top open and that showed off a dark black bra. It seemed quite slutty. I was uncomfortably trying to keep my eyes away from that area.

“ Yeah, I moved her yesterday actually.”
“ Don’t you want to kill yourself already?”

I found it ironic that a Goth was asking me this.

“Just about.” I replied.
“So, I saw you talking to the popular crowd earlier…you friends with them?” she asked.
“Nope, we don’t see eye to eye.” I admitted.
“ Better that way. You weren’t popular in your old school were you?” She said, scanning me.
“I had a lot of friends but no, no I wasn’t popular.”
“Good.” she smiled.

The girl next to her, Kimberley, turned to talk to me.
“Do you want to sit here for the rest of the week?” She asked kindly.
“-Kimberley, you don’t just put people on the spot like that.” She said angrily. I had a feeling that she hadn't wanted Kimberley to ask me that.
“If you guys want me here- I’d like that…a lot” I said.
“You seem almost too pretty to sit with us.” She smiled, suspiciously.
“What’s that supposed to mean Michelle?!” Janet exclaimed.
“I just mean she looks too innocent, too pure.”
I felt my face burning up. Nobody had said that to me before.
“We’d be happy to initiate you into our group, but you have to know there are some rules. We’re sort of an isolated group, a cult if you like. Do you like magic Rebecca?” Michelle said. Suddenly everyone in the group was leaning in to hear my reply.
“You guys don’t like…worship the devil or something do you?” I asked, feeling very worried for my safety.
There was a heavy uproar of laughter from the group.
“I’m sure they will say that, but no. You’re funny Rebecca.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“We’re going to the old castle just outside Whitby on Saturday night, you wanna come?” Michelle asked.
“Saturday…night?”
“Yeah. Its deserted. it’s a cool spot, a lot of our friends hang out there.” Michelle said.
“Its really cool, Becca!” Kimberley added enthusiastically.
“Only- you can‘t tell anyone about it.” Michelle said seriously. “This is a small town, if people knew that we were going up there they’d probably stop us. The last thing we need is the police.”
“Fair enough.” I smiled, I wasn’t going to pass up spending time with potential friends.
“Cool, We’ll pick you up then.” Michelle smiled.

The next two periods I spent in the company of Michelle and her group. They didn’t seem to care much about learning, they sat with their backs to the teacher. There was that same divide in my maths class as there had been in history. Charlotte turned to look at me again, sneering. Michelle turned around.
“You know, you shouldn’t let her do that. She gave me bother, my first few years of high school. Now she’s afraid of me.” She smiled menacingly.
“What changed?”
“ I did. I just realised I wasn’t like her. I didn’t want to be her. So I became this, Wiccan.” She lifted up her arm to show a small pentagram tattoo on the inside of her wrist.
“Like…black magic?” I asked anxiously.
“No, strictly white magic, but she doesn’t know that.” She laughed. “ I told her if she gave me anymore bother I’d hurt her. I’d hurt all of them. I don’t think I would but I have all their hair, in case I change my mind.”
“What’s the hair for?”
“Well, I need a little piece of them for the spells to work.”
I felt more and more wary of Michelle. I kept my mouth shut and nodded along.
“I’m not scaring you am I?” She smiled.
“No, course not.” I said, feeling my voice give way a little.
“Ha, don’t worry I only punish bad ones.”
I forced a smile.
“ I feel sorry for girls like that. I think she secretly wants me.” Michelle began.
I thought she was joking, but Michelle stayed serious.
“ Little blonde, what’s she so angry about? Is it because she dislikes the difference between girls like me and you and herself or is it because she’s secretly full of pent up sexual energy. Energy she could never use because daddy wouldn’t approve. So her angst will bubble over and she’ll fuck guys but it will never fill her curiosity, or her needs.”
“But, you like guys? Right?”
“ I’d never limit myself to just one gender.” She smiled and turned back around towards Charlotte.
Charlotte was still sneering at us, Michelle gave Charlotte a very suggestive gesture. Charlotte tensed up and immediately turned away from us.
Michelle laughed quietly to herself.

The school day ended and I climbed into the back of my sisters Toyota.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“Well I made friends and I made enemies, I’d say it was a pretty even day.”
“That’s high school for you.” She sighed.
“Also, a group of girls called me a..” I stuttered at the word, I knew my sister was going to go crazy.
“A what?” she said, knotting her brows.
“A Jock.” I said.
“What?! They don’t wait long to be racist do they? Jesus. Do you want me to go and say something to the principal? Because you know I will!” She said angrily.
“No. The girl who said it… her dad owns the school apparently. Plus, I don’t think I’ll be getting anymore bother.” I smiled, thinking of what Michelle had done in maths.
“Well if you’re sure. If they say something else though, you tell me ok” She said before starting up the engine.
“A jock…” she began, half to herself “ the f-bloody cheek of some people nowadays.”