Читать книгу Fractured Lives - Toni Strasburg - Страница 14

CHAPTER 7

THE REST of the day passes in a slight blur.

I’m vaguely aware of girls arriving, of Matron welcoming us all at lunch, of some kind of orientation meeting in the afternoon. We get told so many house rules that there’s no way I can possibly remember them all. But that’s fine because Matron gives us a little handbook to put next to our beds in case we forget anything.

Lael keeps shooting worried glances at me because I’m not being the life and soul of the party. A really nice group of girls has joined us in the dormitory. Only one bed in the far corner is still empty. No one seems to know if it’s going to stay that way or if a new roommate will still arrive. I can’t say I care very much.

There’s only one thing on my mind at the moment, and that’s the boy whose name I don’t even know yet. The wonderful, floppy-haired, blue-eyed (I’m pretty sure his eyes are blue - or maybe green), fit-bodied boy who’s living practically next door to Sisulu House. I keep replaying that scene of him coming out of the Annexe in my mind. I know I must look like an idiot staring off into space with a silly smile on my face, but I don’t care.

I can’t think of anything except when I’ll get to see him again. And how I can get to meet him for real. Just to give you a clue how desperate I am, I’m actually wondering if I could pretend to trip and faint into his arms. How pathetic is that?

The sad truth is, I’m just a random Grade 10 and he’s one of the kings of the school. If Brentwood really paid a fortune to poach him from Hilton, this guy is so far removed from me he might as well be Justin Bieber.

It’s only toward evening that I come out of my trance and start paying attention to what’s going on around me.

I can’t help comparing tonight to last night. Twenty-four hours ago I couldn’t imagine the dormitory full of girls, and now I can hardly imagine it empty. We’ve got some free time after supper and everyone is chilling out and changing into their PJs. It looks like queueing for the bathrooms won’t be an issue, thank goodness. There are enough baths and showers for us to take as long as we need.

There are two prefects and a Junior Matron on our floor, but they leave us pretty much alone unless we start making too much noise.

At ten o’clock the lights go out as someone flicks a master switch somewhere. I give a little scream, thinking it’s a power failure, but it turns out that’s how it works every night. No warning, no negotiation, just poof, lights out.

Within two minutes everyone has scrambled into their own beds, and one minute after that, a prefect comes around to make sure we’re not using our Blackberries as torches under the covers.

Then all is quiet. I snuggle down into my bed, trying to fall asleep surrounded by the unfamiliar noises of other girls coughing, sighing and shuffling in their beds.