"Alright Florence I guess that's all the questions we have right now. And can we take a photo of that ranking?" She nodded at her sisters question. "Of course." As soon as they took their picture Florence gathered her things to leave. "Hey Flo?" She turned to the dark-haired woman. Her sister, who always had protected her. "Yeah?" She asked, while she watched Emily looking for the right words. "Stay safe okay?" She nodded a little, before leaving the room for her class. It was a little after lunch so she only had two more classes today and than soccer practice and orchestra.
She hurried down the grey hallway, passing some windows all of them locked. The school rules didn't allow the girls to leave the school without a teacher or staff member with them, meaning all doors were locked. Nobody without a key could leave the school or come inside and all Windows were screwed shut. As Headmistress put it to prevent them from sinning, but deep down they all know it's only cause Becky Sinclaire jumped from one of the tower windows last year.
She hadn't been seen afterwards. Lola thought that maybe she was send to one of those schools in Utah. They all heard about them. 'If you don't work hard and make it out of coal your parents will send you to a boarding school in Utah and they are not as nice as we are.' The Headmistress would say those things all the time. None of them knew if it was true, but they sure as hell weren't gonna find out.
As she reached her geometry classrom she repositioned her scarf. Just to make sure it was still perfect. Nothing short of perfection was allowed in this place.
She knocked three times, just like she had been thaught and then waited. When her teacher opened the door he looked mad. His blue eyes were scanning her face as if to see why she was interputing him.
"Hallpass?" His hand moved forward and grabbed the pass she had gotten from the secretary. He read through it. "Sit down and straighten your blouse. It's crinkly." She hurried to her chair. Third in the front row, before she sat down she straightened her blouse like he had asked her.
"Don't get to comfortable Miss Prentiss. Come up here and solve this." She got up, straightened her skirt and took the chalk from him. "Thank you sir." She couldn't forgot to be polite. Being polite was a crucial part of being perfect.
Her eyes scanned the form on the chalkboard before she started with her calculations. Lucky for her she had finished her homework yesterday and possessed a natural talent for science and math.
"Sir." She stepped back and waited for him to check her work. "Good. Sit down." She nodded and moved back to her seat.
The Old grey man continued his class in the same monotone voice as always. She took the time to really look at him. Maybe he had killed her friends. It must've been a man, since there had been signs of a rape. At least that's what was rumored around the school.
Her teacher looked the same as always. Icy blue eyes staring at them from behind his glasses. His grey hair was properly styled back and he was wearing a dark suit. He looked straight out of one of these old movies she used to watch with Emmy when she was young.
She almost shook her head at thought. But reminded herself not to. Useless movement wasn't perfect. She had to be perfect. Emily being here only made that harder. The older girl bringing out feelings and thoughts that she had long forgotten about.
The bell rang and with as little movements as possible she packed her bag and quietly moved out in the hallway.
In theory it was break time so they'd be allowed to get a snack, run around or play. But she knew that they were monitoring just how much each girl ate and who played on the playground. When she first got her, before she fully grasped the concept of perfection, she had played around to. Just like the girls on the courtyard just now. But now she knew better and she wouldn't risk it. Nothing was worth not being perfect again.
So she moved to her next classroom and knocked on the door. A woman with red curls opened the door. "Oh Miss Prentiss you're way to early, but I guess that's alright. Come on in. I assume you want time and quiet to revise your studies?" She nodded. "Yes ma'am."
Just like before she sat down on her chair third one from the door, front row.
"Oh I think you can move on to the left Miss Prentiss." She looked up. "The ranking updated after the deaths of Miss Mains and Miss Jones. You're still not the highest ranking in the class but higher than before." "Thank you." She quickly answered and moved over.
It was weird sitting in Lolas chair. Lola had been close to perfect. Blond hair and blue eyes. Captain of the volleyball team, straight a student and first chair piccolo in the school orchestra. The Headmistress always named her as one of the best students.
And here she was. Dark hair, dark eyes. Clearly not what this place thought of as beautiful. She remembered the times the Headmistress bleached a girl's hair to make her 'prettier'. She was smart nobody could deny her that. Straight As and she was a good soccer player. Co-Captain with one of the senior girls. And she played violin. She was first chair but so were two other girls as well. She definitely wasn't as perfect as Lola and still here she was sitting in her seat.
The bell rang again. Only once, indicating to students that they had three minutes till class started. Twenty eight girls entered the classroom and set down in their seats. The seat next to her stayed empty.
She looked over that was Mary's seat. Mary had been in second spot forever. Lola was short behind her with being in fourth spot. Anna Mae had been fifth, but she didn't share any classes with them. She was a senior and about to finish her studies. Her parents had already picked her future for her and she had been supposed to leave soon.
Flo herself had always been spot eight but now that two of the top ten were dead she had moved to spot six. And if Mary were to die eben to spot five.
The teacher started talking and with all energy in her body she focused on listening. It was German class. A subject that she didn't really need considering she was fluent in the language.
It was an hour and a half before she finally left that classroom. As always it had been boring but she wasn't focused on that instead she focused on getting to her dorm as fast as possible.
Her dorm was tiny. Opening the door, meant not being able to get to the closet, which was on the left side of the door. Right behind the closet there was her bed. It was just a normal wooden bed with white sheets. Across with barely enough space to stand was a small workspace. But than again at least she had her own space. She remembered the time it tool for her to get here and how she used to live beforehand.
Coals were sharing rooms with up to ten people and all of them were sharing fivee community bathrooms in their halls. The houses were coals and diamonds lived were slightly off campus. A good ten minute hike down to the lake. They were housed there as part of their curriculum had them running laps on the beach every morning, before coming up to the castle for breakfast. The houses were called charcoal, for the bottom fifty students. Quary for spot 51 to 100 and Mine for sport 101 to 150. All the students in those houses were wearing black scarfs, but the higher up on the ranking a student was, the lighter the scarf was. Before moving onto Rough diamond and Carat Diamond. The two houses for the diamond students. Both were wearing different shade of blue scarfs indicating their rank. Those two ranks were filled with 250 of the 300 students the school housed.
Rubies were living in the basement of the castle the twenty five of them had one group bathroom, but were bunking in groups of instead of ten. The twenty five rubies were all wearing bright red scarfs and red needles in their hair.
Saphires were on the same floor as she was but they still had roommates. All saphires and most emeralds were sharing a bathroom. Only the number three spots had their own suits with their own bathroom.
They were also called the pearls. Those three girls were technically emeralds but holding those spots meant that Headmistress adored you and most girls she liked would get pearls in return.
Florence had changed into her soccer gear and readied her violin and school uniform so she'd be quick to change after soccer. She hurried down the hall, making sure she wasn't running yet. When she reached the gate leading to the soccer fields one of the security guards stopped her. Like always he checked her Student ID noted that she was leaving and quickly checked her for any items that were suspicious.
Getting to the soccer field was easy it wasn't very far from the school.
The coach was already there as well as some of her teammates. The coach, middle aged woman, with blonde hair statyed them off with running drills for a thirty minutes, before they practiced their skills and ended the session with some scrimmage. All the girls on the team practiced as hard as they could knowing that not doing so would result in a punishment. Like missing dinner or making you run until you can't anymore. When coach rang a bell  indicating it was 6pm Flo was exhausted, but she didn't have time to be tired.
She had thirty minutes to get back, take a shower and change before orchestra started. She along with a few other girls walked as fast as they could towards the castle. After being checked in again and rushing to her dorm she let out a breath of air had held in the entire way up.
She grabbed everything she needed and walked as fast as she elegantly could to the showers. Like always they were empty.
It was dinner time between six and seven but with how most of the extracurriculars were offered she missed dinner most of the time. Not that she thought that was bad. She could lose a few pounds.
She stepped under the water and turned it scalding hot. Lola had always made fun of her for showering as hot as she did. Carefully she dripped some shampoo onto her hand, before massaging it in. Just like all the girls she had only one bottle shampoo and one of body wash per month. That wouldn't be a problem if they didn't have to shower every single day.
A small creaking noise from the handle of shower could be heard as she turned it off a few minutes later. As fast as she could she changed into her school uniform and started blowdrying her still wet hair.
7 minutes left she thought glancing at the clock. So two more minutes for hairdrying and than I have to go. She started to pull her hair back into a slick bun and made sure some Bobby pins kept it in place, before she rushed back to her dorm and picked up her violin.
The walk to the orchestra room was short from her dorm still she barely made it.
6.30 on the dot all the girls started tuning their instruments before the conductor walked in. He pulled out a sheet and said. "Piece 89." Florence set the bow down and started to look through her music sheets.
The girls had received a book with all music sheets and their numbers at the beginning of their orchestra career. So in Flos case about six years ago. She opened piece 89. A short piece by Bach. The small brunette tightened her bow and lifted her violin as she looked up at the conductor.
At 8:30 a bell rang indicating the end of orchestra rehearsal. The conductor nodded and started to gather his papers before he left the room.
Only when he left the girls started to put their instruments away and leave the room. She put her violin down and untightened the bow before gathering her music sheets.
When she finally reached her room she sat down on her bed. Since tomorrow was a Saturday she wouldn't have to do homework today and instead could sleep. But that would mean she couldn't go on the trip to the town tomorrow.
Still sleeping sounded great to the young Prentiss and she changed into her PJ before going to brush her teeth and hair.
Back in her room she lifted her blanket and curled up underneath.
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Okay I kinda wanted to show you guys the school and how that whole ranking system works. Hope you guys understand what I mean.
Love Sirsell ❤️