Merula 2:2

Chapter 2:2 -School

Mandy was right. The school was one big grey square, hovering like an ominous raincloud. Dull and ugly. And it was bigger than my little private school. Mandy thought there were about 3000 students going to her school, compared to mine with a total of 300 pupils. But the size didn’t scare me, on the contrary, it suited me perfectly. Here I could easily hide, be one of the thousands and I wouldn’t stick out. I could be left alone.
On the other side, I could also easily get lost among the many corridors. Or rather, I would get lost, the question was when. My sense of direction had never been that great. Grandma used to say I was lost like a needle in a haystack. She was right of course. I would get lost in my own neighbourhood. But I always thought that was because it didn’t feel like home. Like it wasn’t my home, my place in the world, that I didn’t fit in. The one place I could find without a map in my hand was grandma’s house. Of course when she passed away mum and dad sold the house and all the furniture. I only got to keep two things from her, her wedding ring and her wedding picture. And now I only had the ring left as mum and dad sold our house with all the stuff in it. I don’t know why I wasn’t more shocked. Maybe I hadn’t got it yet. I guess I had to wait and see.
When I finally found my way back from my deep thoughts I had already lost Mandy who had been touring me around school. It was as we were meant to lose each other. Where was I? Trapped in a long, blue never-ending corridor. The best thing I could do was to keep walking straight ahead. Maybe Mandy was just around the next corner. But no matter how many corners I rounded she wasn’t there. What did it matter, I got to do my own sightseeing of this grey school. As I’d suspected there were too many corridors but luckily they were all coloured differently. First floor was blue and was home for social studies; language, civics, economics and history. The second floor was green, it was the science floor. Third floor was yellow and housed the library and school cafeteria. Last floor, the fourth, was red and was home for the passionate aesthetics. I walked passed a room with wide windows. On one side of the room the wall was covered with huge mirrors and a bar. In the middle of the room stood a black beautiful piano. I hadn’t played since grandma’s piano was all of a sudden sold, along with the rest of her belongings. It had felt like the house and her things were sold the same day she died. As to bury her memory along with her body.
I could feel my fingers itch to sit down and stroke its keys, feel the cold ebony and let a melody flow through my fingers and fill the whole school with music. Unfortunately the door was locked.
-You’re new, aren’t you? A woman’s voice said right behind me as I was drooling over the piano with my nose pressed to the window.
-Yes, I answered and pulled my bangs to the side as I always do when I’m nervous.
The woman was long, curvy and had equally long and curly blonde hair. A teacher, I suppose, yearned by all male students.
-Do you play the piano? She smiled comfortably.
-I do.
-If you want to you can take classes here, on your free time of course. I’ll teach you.
-Alright, ok thanks.
Do I need to say that I felt really stupid? What was it with me and making a bad first impression?
-You’re welcome. Now, what time suit you best, before or after school?
Oh, this was going very quickly.
-Before, I answered, not really thinking it through.
At least I would get up in the mornings.
The teacher put her hands to the side, tilted her head and watched me closely.
-Now, you’re the kind of student I like. Do you know how many students I teach before school starts?
-Eh…
She held up a finger and tipped my nose.
-One, and that’s you. Since you’re the only one and I like you I’ll give you two lessons a week á thirty minutes. What do you say?
-Wonderful, I suppose, I said weakly.
-But you haven’t signed in yet, I take it?
I nodded.
-I’ll walk you there, it’s a bit hard to find.

It sure was hard to find the expedition, hid away in a deep corridor on the second floor, and as if it wasn’t enough knowing I probably had walked past it a couple of times, I was expected as well.
-Miss Edith Sword, the old woman behind the desk called me with a reprimand voice. –I thought it was you. You walked past a few times, but you didn’t see me even though I waved at you. You’re a straight forward girl aren’t you?
-Oh Mildred, don’t you dare read her horoscope, the blond woman complained.
-Miss Helen, I was simply asking the young miss a question, Mildred said innocent.
The school bell rung.
-Ehm, where is my classroom?
-Oh, yes. That is of course the most important thing here, Mildred said and swiftly looked through her many papers on the desk. –You really are straight forward.
-Her class, Mildred, the bell just rung.
-Fine, fine. Class 4C, maths first so it’s this floor, room 217. The 2 tells you which floor it is and…
-I’m already familiar with the number system. We had it at my old school too, I interrupted and took my schedule.
I thanked them both and walked away to find my class. Surprisingly enough it took me less than two minutes. I seated myself in the back of the classroom and stared out of the window until the teacher arrived.
-So, math test today. Hope you’ve studied, was the teacher’s first words.
For a second I panicked then the papers were handed to me and the test begun. I was done in half the set time. Which was when the teacher realised I was new. He stared puzzled at me before he scoured his papers.
-Miss Sword, am I right? He asked and walked to my desk. The students’ eyes tore away from the test to fix on me instead.
-I’m sorry, I should have read my papers more carefully.
I didn’t blame him, there was a huge pile of papers on his desk.
-As you haven’t studied for this test I’ll give you something else to do instead. If you give me…
I handed him my test and he run through it lazily.
-I see you’ve already answered some of the questions, he stated with a bored voice.
-I’ve answered them all, sir.
He looked up from the test to meet my eyes. Apparently he decided to believe me as he scrolled through the test once more, this time reading it carefully.
-Jeez, girl, you’re sure good at math, he said after correcting my test. –Which school did you attend before?
-St Avery’s, sir.
-A private school, I see. So those teachers does teach you something after all, not only eating up my salary, I see.