I turned around to look at Vesper with the picture visible in my hand
"Oh I'm... I'm sorry, that's mine." He wanted to take the photo, but I shifted it back.
"Do you know anyone in this picture?" I asked.
"Yeah..." I gave him the picture and he pointed to the girl standing next to my sister.
"That's my sister, Chloe." He said with a mile until his face turned sour. "She died seven years ago."
I wanted to say something but I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Bree, It's almost 6" It was Alma.
We had to go to our room. I gave Vesper his picture and walked away with Alma. I spotted Archie and his ex. She was backing us. He saw me and I gave him a sign to round-up. His ex looked like she was crying on his chest, I knew I would just have to update him the next day.
When we got to our room, I told Alma everything. She was able to see us, but not hear us.
"Who knew you and Vesper would have something in common" she shrugged. I didn't answer. The event with Vesper just made me remember why I came to Celestine in the first place.
"I'm going to have my bath, Remember tomorrow's assembly." Alma said and stood up from my bed.
Alma and I had been roommates before we became friends.So when I got transferred to Celestine, I already knew her. She had always been a Celestine. She introduced me o Archie and we became a trio.
"I'm going too, tomorrow morning's gonna be long" I said with a small smile so she wouldn't know I felt awful, even though she already knew.
Every Wednesday, we had assembly. It's the most annoying thing in Divine high school. Each class's head (including juniors) would update the whole school on what's going on in their class. Then any teacher could come up to give an announcement (or complain about something), followed by the vice principal that would tell us anything important or warn us against things. At times a club or society would also announce. It's because of all these that we close early on Tuesdays. So that we would have a long time to sleep before 7:00 clock, which was when assembly started.(End of assembly varied)
*Bang Bang*
"All these years and all of you can't wake up after the siren! Stupid rich kids" The house mistress complained after banging our door. I lazily opened my eyes and saw Alma already dressed in her black suit, wine shirt and black skirt.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked in a tired voice as I stood up from bed and stretched.
"I woke up by four and if I did, you'll surely just sleep under the shower." She giggled and I laughed, it was true.
I got to the bathroom and saw juniors lining up in front of all of them. All I needed to do was stand beside the person leading one if the lines and they would all move back.
Most seniors take their bath early, but there was always the exception, like me and a bunch of twelfth graders.
While I was taking my bath, I started to remember my dream. I dreamt about my sister, but it was only about the memories we shared. Since I was done bathing, I sighed and put off the shower, then wore my robe.
When I entered the room, Alma was sitting on her reading chair, writing.
"What's the name of this one?"I asked her, walking to my wardrobe.
"To be forgotten." She answered.
"Nice..." I said while using a towel to dry my hair.
Alma wrote novels. She had been doing it since her first day in Divine high school. Since she couldn't have her phone or Laptop, she wrote whenever she was bored. I wasn't much of reader so I didn't read them all, but I enjoyed the ones I read. She was talented.
After some time, there was a small knock on our door.
"Excuse me, you left your bath kit in the shower." A tiny voice said behind the door.
"Thanks!" I smiled at her when I collected it. She was the same junior student that brought it for me every I forgot... Which is every morning.
"You gave to stop stressing that girl" Alma some seconds after the left.
"It's not like I do it on purpose... But okay, I'll try." I said dragging my last words.
"You don't even know her name." Alma said.
"How am I supposed to, I barely see her besides when she ring me kit for me." I said, already in my suit that was nearly the same length as my skirt.
"What?! (She turned around to look at me) that girl is a Celestine, she's in our part of the library everyday!" Alma argued.
"Oh... Well, maybe later." I shrugged.
"I'm hungry. I can't believe I forgot to eat last night." I continued, rubbing my tummy.
"You? Forgot to eat? You were just tired ." Alma hummed.
I threw a pillow at her and she laughed.
"At least I'm better now." I smiled.
"Yeah in eighth grade you were fat." She grinned.
"What? No! I was plump." I argued and looked at myself in the mirror.
"Yeah yeah. We should go. Remember if we're more than twenty minutes late we'll help in the kitchen." Alma warned. I frowned at the thought.
"How many minutes do we have left?" I said while applying perfume.
"25" Alma said.
I ran to her and sprayed my perfume on her. She never liked using someone else's things. I did it to annoy her.
"AUBREY!" She yelled and I winked at her. She went to her wardrobe and applied more of hers. I smirked and looked at the mirror again. I didn't leave my hair frizzy like the day before, I left it down and wavy. Luckily, I was blessed with long hair like my mom. I got all the features of my mother's hair, it was long and blonde. Though I always dyed mine black.
"I think I'll go back to blonde." I said. I had dyed it long before I entered Celestine.
"Whatever." She replied.
My uniform was well ironed, shoe polished ad you could see my black socks shine. I wore my lucky bracelet, because Wednesday always seemed to be my unfortunate days. I Also didn't forget to apply light makeup.
I picked up my bag; which barely contained anything and thought about anything could have forgotten. Alma was already opening the door to leave, I quickly picked my room key and left behind her.
"Now, about my hair. If not for stupid rules, I would have dyed it blue, maybe I would make blue at the tip? How about..." I wasn't just talking for no reason, I saw Helena with her friends also leaving the hostel and I wanted to act like her didn't see her so we could have peace of mind that morning. She really thought we were friends.
She was a jade and the only reason we talk is because we met on the first we entered Divine high school(and yes, she was still a chatter box). We even took our test together. I ended up in onyx and she in selenite. It was over the years she upgraded to jade.
I sincerely thought she would have changed a little bit, but it seems time doesn't always change a person.
We got to assembly just in time. When it was 6:20, an admin was already by the gate with a marker. There was a large board near the gate that she would write everyone's name that was late. A senior would stand beside her and jot the names in a book. If a student's name is written in that book a certain number of times, the would be penalized.
Late students were already forming a line in front of her as she wrote their names. Even if they tried anything stupid, the head boy was always there to make his list for a reason don't know.
"You didn't have dinner last night, I'm guessing you feel like you want to die." Archie came to Alma and I with a smug look.
"No. I'm not even that hungry." I lied and crossed my arms. "I can't say the same for Alma though, she can't wait for breast since she didn't have dinner too."
"Oh I ate dinner last night." Alma grinned
"What?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, after we took our bath, you wore your pajamas and slept. I knew that remembering your sister would stress you out, so I didn't bother to wake you up and left without you." She explained.
"I'm starting to think you're quite cold." I responded with an accusing glare.
"Archie you're a bad influence for Alma." I glared at him.
"It's always me." He chuckled and I was going to smack his head but the whole place went silent. Everyone quickly ran to their line. The vice principal, Mr Madlock, had arrived.
"Good day students." He said. We responded. "The principal is-" he was interrupted by almost every student there.
"Unavoidably absent." Most of us mumbled. He says that line every assembly. If I hadn't seen the principal once before in my first year, I would think he never existed.
"Yes. He is eh... Inevitably absent..."
I looked around and some people were already sitting on their bags. You would think a bunch of rich kids will be all posh, but after spending years in this school, we don't care of our appearance if we have to stand for over an hour.When Mr Madlock had spoken for 20minutes, everyone was sitting on the floor with their bags underneath. Even the cool kids (like me) were on the ground. Someone who only heard the good things of Divine high school wouldn't understand that it was overestimated school that admitted a bunch of students that were sent by their rich parents or guardians who expected them to be disciplined after they came home to visit or graduated.
"Now time for each classes review. 12th grade's Celestine?" Mr Madlock called. All the students in class Celestine in the 12th grade stood up. The class head and his assistant moved forward. They talked about their class's improvement and important students in the class. This was done so that the juniors would be better after they heard how good their seniors are... According to Mr Madlock.
After they were done, 12th grade's Onyx, Jade and Selenite did the same as their Celestine. Finally, it reached my class.
Our class head and his assistant, Luca and Yolanda moved forward. We stood up.
"11th grade's class Celestine remains top without a lagging student." Luca started.
"Even our newest classmates caught up without an issue." Yolanda continued.
I thought it was cute how they always finished each other's sentences.
"Our most recent test had an excellent performance." Luca called.
"And not a single student got less than 87%." Yolanda finished.
One could see the Jade's and Selenite's making fun of us until they were cautioned. It's something Celestine had to put up with. I won't lie that I didn't do the same before I entered Celestine, even though I knew I would get into the class.
Celestine contained the most arrogant and proud students in all grades, so it was only normal for them to have haters.
The situation would get you confused when you think of bullying.
Who would bully who? Would a Celestine bully a Selenite, or would a Selenite bully a Celestine. Celestine has the brains and most teachers and Admin's back up. Selenite's students had much more brawn that Celestine students. Even their population was higher- 20-30 students in their class. Celestine's highest ever population was 25. Lowest was 14. Selenite's also had the Jade students (and of course the corrupted teachers and so) with them. Onyx students were the intermediary.
This only gave room for bullying within the class and not outside it.
Well that's the the least of my problems. I was hungry and they were still talking.
'curse you Divine high school for your stupid assemblies !!!'
At last, they were done and they went back to their spot in the line. We all made our way to the cafeteria. Once we entered through the door, I could smell food. The smell alone could make me salivate.
We picked a table and sat. We needed out table to be a bit full because if we all left to get our food, our table would taken.
"You know what?! I'll get our food, I'm too hungry for this." I didn't wait for them to tease me or say anything like 'you can't carry all three trays' or something like that. I was hungry and impatient.
After picking my order, I realized that I obviously couldn't carry three trays by myself. It was one of those points in life that I felt stupid. Different things I could have done started popping up in my head. I decided to drop them one by one. I wasn't going to be like one of all those girls in movies that'd 'accidentally' pour food on a hot and cold guy while walking with full hands. As much as I like seeing beautiful people, I like food. So hot guys would have to be another day.
After I dropped Archie and Alma's tray, I went back to collect mine. I got back to the table and saw five unexpected people.