Jennifer spent the rest of the summer getting used to her new sisters. Gardina’s crying and babyish habits were one tging but Lisa was a whole different animal. Lisa had a very domineering personality. They played what SHE wanted to play, they watched what SHE wanted to watch, and they talked about what SHE wanted to talk about. Jennifer went from selecting her own movies, picking her own games, and drawing her own things to having these things chosen for her. It meant that her only escape was through Kim who was just as bad about dominating her life. All these changes actually made Jennifer excited for school as there she might be able to make friends with some boys and not be ordered around by the girls in her life. This however was blasted right out the door when her parents actually packed up most of her things minus the clothes. She and Lisa were then loaded into the car and driven north. The ride extended past two hours, then past four, then six, they kept driving until they passed into Scotland and the northern part of Great Britain. It was here, near the north coast that they were brought to the gates of a literal castle with battlements, gardens, and everything. They drove in to the main door of the castle and Lisa immediately burst into tears and cried about how she didn’t want to go again, creating a sense of familiarity with this place. Jennifer was just baffled by the castle itself. They got out of the car and we’re greeted by a tall woman with lips so thin they were practically nonexistent. They were ushered into an office, signed in, and had to say goodbye to their parents. Lisa cried her eyes out but Jennifer remained calm and just looked around the halls that had speakers in them, fire alarms, and lights that flickered and blinked overhead. Their parents left and the two of them were shown to the second year dorm of St. Elsa’s academy for girls. The name immediately made Jennifer feel miserable but her mood improved when they were shown to their room. A small bedroom with bunk beds and two desks alongside two small wardrobe which had uniforms for everything in them. Day uniforms, outdoor uniforms, swimsuit uniforms, pajama uniforms, and even underwear that had the school crest stamped onto it. Lisa hated it all and Jennifer decided that if Lisa was going to hate it she would like it just because of her sister’s domineering personality.
St. Elsa’s was a rigid private school with employees dressed in suit tops and dresses. The uniform the girls had to wear was no different. Every student from age six to eighteen wore a white button up shirt done up to the final button, a mahogany tie, a mahogany suit jacket, and either black pants or black skirts that ended with socks and black shoes that varied in terms of heel. At age six Jennifer was being told how to tie a tie and dress like a businesswoman.
Meals were eaten in the great hall, a giant room with pillars where everyone was free to sit where they wanted in their grade. Despite being a private school the grade one students were still messy and rather stupid with no inhibitions whatsoever. However the head of their grade, a woman so old she looked like a walking corpse Miss Simone, would look at the misbehaving girl and take her away only to return with the girl in tears rubbing her backside. By the time Jennifer and Lisa had turned seven Jennifer was the only one who hadn’t recieved the vague and painful punishment.
Time was spent in classes and though older grades actually did schooling the teachers in their year spent a lot of time teaching lessons disguised as games. A lot of grade one was teaching these girls how to read. It seemed to be the main goal and with the absence of parents to do home reading they were all scheduled for private sections after classtime. It was reading that went like this:
“Pat the cat sat on the mat.”
Or
“The cat named Pat sat on the mat.”
It was all so simple and easy and the girls around her struggled with the words that never exceeded five numbers. Jennifer wanted it over with quickly so she read the words quickly and flawlessly. The other girls very quickly labelled her as a nerd as if succeeding in school was a bad thing. There was a gaggle or girls who dominated the class. A bunch of friends who labelled anyone smarter than them a try hard and anyone dumber stupid. Jennifer immediately hated them and unfortunately for her Lisa was a part of them. The group would tease everyone not in it and complain and gossip about everything. The problem was that the other girls wanted to be a part of it so Jennifer spent a lot of her time alone. Outide was her favourite place as Lisa grew a disdain of sorts towards it. The teachers quickly got Jennifer into the habit of carrying an umbrella outdoors when it rained as, “A proper lady doesn’t get her hair wet or her clothes damp.”
It was safe to say school was a lot different here than the year before. Older girls would study in the courtyards, all beautiful with trim figures and proper hair by the time October ended. It seemed the school put an emphasis on appearance later that was absent in Jennifer’s classroom. Halloween wasn’t celebrated for the first time in Jennifer’s life, neither was thanksgiving. Weeks just passed and just when Jennifer felt she had the rhythm of the place down her parents showed up and the door and they rode back home in the back of the car while snow fell.
Christmas was weird, firstly Jennifer didn’t have to wear a uniform, didn’t have to bathe in the mornings, and had dinner at a different time every night. Secondly without her gaggle of friends Lisa was suddenly tamer and back to playing with Jennifer, and thirdly Gardina was huge now, the baby had grown immensely and while Lisa complained about her bawling Jennifer couldn’t help but find the babbling baby sweet. Christmas was the highlight of the break. Due to the fact they were learning to read a bunch of new books were unwrapped that Christmas. Normally these books would have bored Jennifer but whomever had written them had an unparalleled imagination and a great artist by their side because the books were fascinating. They were simple stories with simple words but the descriptions made even Jennifer’s adult male mind laugh and the illustrations could be looked over for hours at a time with endless sight gags, small details, and funny designs.
Lisa hated the books and called them Nerd Stories before ordering Jennifer to play dolls with her. Strangely Christmas also brought family back, the entire family on both sides had somehow migrated to England and taken on the local accent. Christmas with Tucker’s family was pretty much identical. Grandpa and Grandma staying indoors with the uncles and aunts and leaving Jennifer and Lisa outside until their noses were runny and their fingers were clammy. Tristin’s parents were half drunk for the night and annoying cousins had just multiplied. Three new grandchildren had been born. Lisa and Gardina counted in Jennifer’s mind but Cousin Richard who was Gardina’s age was the worst child ever. His mom laid him down for a nap in the living room and when Lisa charged past and woke him up and denied it, backed up by Gregory, Jennifer had her Grandfather yell at her before yelling at Tristin and Tucker and proceeding to paddle her backside with his belt yelling that her parents didn’t punish her enough. Jennifer couldn’t sit well after that and got no sympathy from anyone but her parents.
Winter break was longer than it had been in previous schools and they had a full month off instead of two weeks. The time was filled with going to the swimming pool, being forced to hang out with Kim, and watching movies and Tv shows she hadn’t seen for months. She could watch high quality animated films and also found some shows aimed at her own tastes she enjoyed. An adventure based globetrotting series about a bunch of grandkids and their grandpa caught her eye the most. But of course it ended and the second they were back at school Lisa buggered off and Jennifer was alone again left with her imagination and the cold of the snowy outdoors. Breakfasts were consistent with porridge and berries, lunches consisted of meals so balanced they could probably be weighed, and dinner was spent eating whatever the meal of the week was. Even if it was something like Pizza it got weird with pesto instead of tomato sauce, random cheeses that Jennifer had never heard of, and vegetables that other girls complained about. The ladies running the place didn’t buckle and give the kids cheese pizza with no crust, instead they strictly kept everyone at the tables until they ate what was put in front of them. Things like green beans, sweet potato fries, Grapefruit, and meatballs with giant onions in them became so common that eventually people stopped complaining and ate them without question. Anyone caught hiding food in their clothes was taken off and likely briefly beaten or forced to do chores until they were released. They came back and didn’t try it again.
Sometimes a sports game would occur and some of the taller and stronger looking girls would be decked out in Mahogany and white uniforms for Basketball, badminton, football, or any other sport under the sun and would play it. Gym sports dominated the winter but when the snow melted the swim team would go swimming in the lake and have competitions in the indoor pool, the football team would go kick a football around the distant football stadium, and track and field competitors would emerge. Rival schools would appear from all over the British isles and compete with their own team labelled “The Boars” derogatory nicknames were thrown around by the other teams. The most common one was to call their team, “Pigs” and ask if the students wanted corn cobs or to roll in the mud. The girls from Lakewood Prep giggled at Jennifer when she was out after rain one day and her rubber boots were covered in mud. One girl pointed at her like an excited monkey and shouted, “They do like mud! They do like mud!”
Fortunately The Boars kicked the other teams asses nine time out of ten and the teenagers would often come back to school wearing gold or silver medals from some sports tournament. However sports ended the second exam period started. Suddenly every girl who had passed grade five had her nose in a book and silence engulfed the entire school. Being in grade one the final exam for their class was showing up to a room with Miss Simone in it, being handed a book, and reading it out loud. This was followed by listing off the alphabet, counting to a hundred, and doing a short quiz that briefly touched every subject. This was capped off with a mild fitnes steady in the gym that the teacher randomly marked. They had to runaround the gym three times before they were to resume their games.
That’s all school was for the last few weeks, games. Dumb little games meant to fill the time. They then handed in their uniforms, all right days worth and accompanying seasonal wear, dresses in the clothes they arrived in, and one by one they were picked up by parents. The only girls to stay were the grade twelves who still had graduation but what would a seven year old want to do with that?
Lisa cried when she had to leave and it was pretty clear she would cry when they had to leave their parents again at the end of summer. Jennifer just went along with the change, because in all honesty she’d been through worse.