I looked outside the window of the car as water droplets raced among themselves down the window and disappeared. The sound of rainfall echoed in the car deepening the silence between me and the driver who drove the car nonchalantly.

We were strangers to each other, his only job was to pick me up from the airport and drop me to the hell of a school, Etnomia High, that my parents decided I should attend for two years forgetting my high school life as a punishment for the disgraceful inglorious act that I had committed.

The rainfall became heavy making the man frown in anger as he slowed the speed of the car to prevent any accidents from happening on the curvey road. I looked at his face from the rearview mirror and he looked like he was forced to be here, well I can understand him quite well in that regard.

The gloomy weather made my already wretched mood worse and the pace at which we were travelling took forever to reach the destination. I mean who in their fucks mind decided to build a school in the middle of a mountain area!!

After travelling for hours I saw a faint image of a huge building at a distance through the foggy window and rolled the window down to get a proper look, the driver turned to me looking visibly annoyed for drenching his cherished seat of the car but I ignored him and craned out of the window.

In front of me stood a huge gate and a wide area with an enormous mansion situated in the mountain. It looked ancient and old, like some fairytale academy of.....devils.

Its color seemed faded, with grey cement walls and cone-shaped towers all around, there was a huge green garden surrounding it from all directions and a wall barrier circled it from all sides protecting it from the woods.

'I'm supposed to be here for two years?? It would be a miracle if I survive one week.'

"Please close the window," the driver muttered through gritted teeth and I backed off closing the window but kept looking in that direction.

'They even banned all the electronic devices in the school so I don't even have my phone with me....not that it would have worked in such a place anyways.'

I slumped in the seat and threw my head back closing my eyes, I was done for, I would never be able to adjust to the surrounding.

The car halted and I opened my eyes to find massive walls around, there was a big gate in front with two people on guard.

They knocked on the window and the driver rolled the window down looking relieved.

"Identification," the guard demanded and the driver looked back at me, I couldn't see the guard's face but his voice definitely sounded horrendous. I rummaged through the backpack and took out a paper passing it to the driver. The guard read the paper and then gave it back, the other guard opened the gate with a loud creek and the car drove inside.

Either it was time for classes or maybe because it was raining I could not see a soul around.

The driver parked the car in the shed and got out of the car opening the door for me. My yellow sunflower dress fluttered as I got out of the car and stood there clasping my hand together while the driver unloaded my luggage from the trunk.

"I'll go place the luggage in the room," he said and I nodded. He left upstairs in a building while I opened my umbrella and walked to the main building, I had already memorized the whole map of the building, and though I was not expecting the infrastructure to be this ancient the directions remained the same.

After reaching the main building I climbed to the third floor and stood in front of an office. Knocking on the door twice I waited for the response, when I got one I walked inside.

The office like the whole building was ancient, there was a big shelf at the back filled with books, and in front of that was a wide wooden desk and chairs. On the side were sofas facing each other just ahead of a fireplace and a woman sat in the office.

She was wearing a plain white shirt with buttons at the top open and had a straight blunt Bob cut side parted. Her make-up was bold and dark, the smile on her lips was spine-tingling and her voice sounded sweet like it was dipped in venom.

"Welcome, you must be Violet Hudson," she spoke gaining all my attention and I nodded with a smile.

"Yes."

"I'm Priscilla Burke, the headmistress of Etnomia School."

"Nice to meet you," I replied nicely just like I was taught at home, this meeting was no different than meeting my father's potential investors at the party.

"It must have been a long journey to get here, I won't waste much of your time," She pulled out a bunch of things from the drawer and slid it towards me. There was a uniform, a badge, a small card and a spare key to my room along with other things.

"Thank you," I said getting a bewildered expression from her that remained for a split second before disappearing. I took my things and dismissed myself walking back to the dorm room.

'First impressions....I don't like her.'

Thankfully I got to stay alone in a single dorm room or else I would have needed to go through all the hassle of enduring a roommate.

Till I reached my room my luggage had already been placed by the bed. The room was small with two closets at the side, a desk and chair, a queen-sized bed in the middle a bathroom joined to the room and a small balcony to get fresh air.

Feeling too lazy to unpack the luggage I flopped onto the bed and pulled out the rule book that the headmistress handed me earlier. The rules were quite common, don't go out at night, wear the uniform every day, attend class regularly...bla bla bla. Breakfast was served at 8 in the morning and lunch at 1 in afternoon. There were no evening snacks and the dinner was straight at 9.

"Urgh!!!" I threw the book aside how is anyone supposed to go on without evening snacks!!

I looked to the side at the clock and it was already 8, if I wanted to catch dinner I needed to hurry up. I removed one set of uniform and hung the other in the closet. I rummaged through my bags and pulled out my brush and makeup kit placing it systematically on the small dressing table.

I washed my face and brushed through my long honey blond curly hair and pinned one side back leaving the other side loose. I applied eyeliner that enhanced my ocean-blue eyes and powdered my face leaving my freckles exposed.

I went and wore my uniform, a white plain shirt with waist length blazer and a black plated skirt. I was also given a white plain badge with no name on it,  nevertheless I decided to wear it since it was written in the rule book that wearing uniforms and respective badges during school hours that is from morning 8 to night 10 was compulsory.

I took my bag along with me packing a few other things and keys to the dorm. I wore my shoes and left the dorm room. The dining hall was far away from the dorm room, near the classes.

When I walked out of the building the classes were already done and everyone was out in groups, I looked around to find people looking at me with smirks and sneers and whispering among themselves.

'This....feels.... weird.'

Receiving gazes as a new face around was inevitable but having such gazes was a sign of a bad future. They were not just curious they were overly excited like they had just seen their prey.

*****