I at least have the satisfaction of knowing that she was wrong. It was a week and a half. I couldn’t stand it. I mean, they all have their little groups and I have no one. Nothing. I mean I don’t have much back home but I have Kate and the boys. Kate doesn’t reply sometimes and other than her I don’t have anyone to talk to. It’s maddening.

So at lunch the next Tuesday I walked over to Emily at her table.

“Hey, can I talk to you, over here or something.” I said, trying to be casual.

She looked up at me and smiled sweetly. We walked to the corner of the quadrangle and she gave me an arrogant little smile.

“Yes?”

This was so hard. I mean really hard. This was harder than the time I had to explain to my mother why there was a bra clogging up the dishwasher. “Look, I may have been, a little harsh last week.”

“Oh really, do you think so?” She was being so god damn smug and it really wasn’t helping.

“Look, can you stop with the snide crap so I can get this out?” I said.

“I apologise, go on.”

“It’s driving me crazy to be on my own so I was just wondering if I could you know, come with you and your little friends- sorry, you and your friends when you go to where ever it is that you go after school?” I swear I was so unhappy with myself.

She smiled, “yes, you can, you’ll just have to apologise to them for being so nasty.”

What? She said yes straight away? No arguments? She’s so nice, god I want to hate her.

“Who exactly to I have to apologise to?”

“Kelsey, Amber, Ellie, and of course me.”

“Fine, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“I’m sorry I was rude to you, I was just angry that my mother sent me to a city school.” I shrugged.

“Apology accepted, we meet by the Swan House after the final bell, meet us at the door then and you can apologise to them, though I assume Kelsey will make you complete some stupid task as initiation. You can relax though; it’ll probably be something stupid like confessing a secret in the common room later tonight.” She smiled as she walked back over to the girls and the bell rang for class.

Great, I have maths.

It was after my last class when I headed over to the entrance of Swan house, already feeling stupid for doing this. I saw them walking over and wished I could just crawl under a rock. Emily waved and beamed at me, she was too damn nice for her own good.

“Are you ready to go?”

Her friends looked a little unsure about me so I sighed. “I’m sorry I was rude guys, it’s been a bit rough adjusting.”

They looked at one another and Emily nudged one of them. “Come on, we don’t hold grudges around here.”

“It’s fine, where are we going today Em?” Kelsey asked.

Kelsey had short straight brown hair with hazel brown eyes; basically she was pretty bland, especially seeing as they weren’t allowed to wear make-up.

“Just for some juice.” I think that one was Amber. She had long blonde hair, it was so amazing I just wanted to cut it, or dip the end of it in an inkwell. She had big blue eyes and would probably be every guy’s dream girl. She just looked like a real virgin though, big no go zone.

“Let’s just go then.” That one was Ellie, she always, and I mean always, wore her auburn hair up in a ponytail. She had pale blue eyes behind dark square shades, total librarian porn fantasy.

All you needed was for her to pull out her hair and take off those glasses and she would be a smash hit. I can tell that she’s got a hot body too, she keeps it hidden under her blazer but there is definite shape there.

We headed off in Emily’s car to the city, we stopped for a juice at this juice bar café thing. They talked about school mainly, I didn’t have much to say, I mostly stayed quiet but it was nice just to be around people again.

That night I came out of my room to get something to drink and before I even got to the common room Kelsey jumped out of her room and stared at me with this massive overly bubbly smile on her face.

“Why is it staring at me?” I asked as I saw Emily follow her out of the room in a more human fashion.

“You have to pass the test.”

“Oh god, what?” I eyed them suspiciously.

“You have to prove that you’re loyal to us Swan girls.” She fluttered her eyelids and I just looked from one to the other.

“Okay, can we get this over with then?” I looked over at Emily and she gave a small roll of her eyes and a smile.

They took me into the common room where a group of the other girls were waiting, most of them from our year, maybe one or two from the year below. They stopped and made me stand in the middle of the room and smiled at one another.

“You have to be prepared to close your eyes and do exactly what we tell you.” She was still beaming at me when I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“This better be good.”

“Okay, we are initiating you into Swan house, welcome to our sisterhood Kimberly!”

“Just call me Kim, I’ll open my eyes and ask to join another sisterhood if you call me Kimberly again.” I heard a few girls laugh and felt instantly better about myself.

“Okay Kim, do you promise to be a loyal Swan until your graduation?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you promise to be kind and supportive to your sisters?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you promise to tell us secrets and share with us your experiences while we’re all here together in Swan house?”

“Yeah, anything else?”

“Do you promise to trust us?”

“Uh huh.”

“No matter what?”

“Yeah no matter what, can I open my eyes now?” This was slightly weird.

“Yes.” When I opened my eyes they were circled around me and all holding cups of what I assumed was water.

It took about one second to realise that yes, it was water; it was lovely crisp, ice cold water. I screamed as I was showered in the stuff and I looked up angrily.

“What the hell was that about!”

“Relax, the heater’s over there.” Emily was laughing as she handed me a towel.

“Good thing there isn’t more of you!” I hissed.

“Now, now, you promised to be kind and supportive.” She never did stop smiling that one.

“Oh yeah, nice little oath you got there.”

“It changes from person to person.”

“Oh so I’m the lucky one who gets the ice water?”

“Well you were so icy to us for the first week so we thought that we would return the favour.” Emily sat down by the heater with me and the other girls wiped up the water and went about their business as normal.

I was about to protest but she was pretty much right.

“So what do you guys do for fun around here? You know, other than throwing water at newbies?” I asked.

“Well, we go out and get juice, or out for dinner on the weekend. Sometimes there are carnivals held by the school. Or some of us go home, the ones who live close enough to travel for the weekend.” I just looked at her with almost disbelief.

“So… no parties, no boys, and no actual fun?” she laughed.

“Didn’t you hear about the no fraternising rule? When would we even have the chance? Besides, we’re not very boy savvy, most of us have been to all girls’ schools since we were little. And we can't have parties in the dorms, music has to go off by nine remember?”

“Not even on the weekend?”

“No, they’re pretty strict rules.”

“Well please tell me you get to have some fun at these social nights.”

“Okay when you say fun, something tells me that you don’t mean dancing and music until past nine.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Duh, any hot guys at this North Lake Academy?” A couple of the other girls were listening to us now.

“Well yeah, they have an elite lacrosse and soccer squad.” One of the girls I hadn’t met piped up.

“Nice, any of you had a little bit of fun there?” If I was going to get in here I should at least get some of the gossip.

They looked at one another questioningly, “what do you mean?”

“You know, anyone hooked up with any of them?” More looks. “Oh come on, someone has to have at least gotten to second base.”

“We don’t really see them all that much, I mean, we would totally hook them if we had the chance.” One of them spoke up without much confidence.

“Hook up with, you mean you could hook up with them… Am I the only one here who isn’t a virgin?” This time I had the attention of most of the girls in the room.

“You’re not a virgin, you mean; you’ve actually had… sex… with a guy?” Kelsey whispered ‘sex’ like it was taboo, or that they might have bugged the place.

“Of course!”

“What was it like?” Emily looked at me curiously and the girls seemed to gather around us to hear what I had to say.

“It’s not bad, I mean, they have a saying that’s like ‘when it’s good it’s really good and when it’s bad it’s still pretty good’ but that mainly applies to guys. All you have to do is touch them and they’re happy.”

“So do you have a boyfriend then?” Ellie asked.

“God no, they’re too much trouble, I just hook up, have fun. Trust me; it’s not that hard to get guys when you act right.”

“Can you teach us?” I turned to look at Emily who was now eyeing me hopefully.

“Gee, I don’t know…”

“We could have like a group thing here in the common room!” One of the girls suggested.

“I guess I could tell you stuff.”

“It’s the social night tomorrow.”

“Great! Maybe I can show you how to attract a guy.” I wasn’t really interested in helping, just finding a hot guy and having a bit of fun.

If they want to take notes they can go ahead because I’m talking to those guys no matter what they say.

They started going on and on about what it would be like if guys were interested in them, I think they just need to loosen up and quit being so uptight. Maybe I could have some fun at this school somehow. Bring on the social.