Chapter One
I arrived for my first term at Chesterfield School on the 10th September, checked in with a teacher who introduced herself as Mrs Bate, and found room 303 pretty quickly, considering how confusing the school building seemed to be. I opened the door to my new bedroom, and saw a small bed, small wardrobe and small desk, made of some sort of wood, oak, I thought. In the corner of the room was an armchair, but not a very comfortable looking one. It was made of a purple fabric which looked scratchy and worn. Overall the room wasn't much, but it would do for the year I had left. Upon opening the wardrobe, I saw that I had limited storage space, and noted that someone had already taken up the majority of the coat hangers with a big jean jacket and a worn leather jacket, which was a bit strange seeing as there was only one bed in the room. I began to unpack, and put up all my pictures from home. I hung one of me and Randy, my best friend from back home on my wardrobe door. I had just finished unpacking when the door opened, and a guy wearing a tight blue t-shirt and patched jeans stood in front of me.
"Oh hi, I'm Kit" he smiled, a huge boyish grin spread over his oh-too-attractive face, forming crinkles around his dark eyes.
"Hi, I'm Hayley Brooks" I said, returning his smile.
"Nice to meet you Brooks. I think I left my clothes in here, I had this room last year you see."
"Oh uh, ok. Do you want to come in and get them?" Immediately after I said it I felt stupid. Of course he wanted to get them, why else would he be here?
"Yeah, if you don't mind"
I shook my head, and he tried to come inside the room but I was in the way, and we ended up in an awkward 'which way are they going to move' situation. Once inside, he grabbed his clothes from the wardrobe and saw the picture of Randy and I stuck on the door.
"I'd take that down if I were you. We're only allowed stuff stuck on the pinboard, it marks the paint or something."
"Oh, uh.." I looked around at my walls, which were covered with pictures and some of my drawings.
"Want some help?" he asked, and chuckled
"Aw no, I'm sure you're really busy"
"Nah, I'm fine. Where'd you want me to start?"
It took around half an hour to clear my walls, which was 5 times as long as it took to put them up. Kit and I chatted about the school and it turned out we had quite a lot of lessons together.
After we were done, a guy called Jackson in a team hoodie looked in the door
"Oh you're in here, I've been looking everywhere" he said
I was somewhat confused, having never met Jackson, before I realised he was talking to Kit.
"Jackson! This is Brooks, she's got my old room this year" he said
"Brooks?" he questioned
"Hayley, my surname is Brooks" I explained, and for the first time I wondered why Kit didn't call me by my first name
"Nice to meet you Hayley, Kit a bunch of us are going down to the boat shack, you in?"
"Yeah sure why not, see you at dinner Brooks" he smiled at me, and left.
I lay down on the bed, and began scrolling through my Instagram feed. Some girls I knew from my old school were skiing in Austria, Randy had gotten a haircut, and some annoying girl had posted a screenshot regram, with some spam message as the caption. I began unfollowing all of my old classmates, most of which I didn't like anyway. After a while I shut my phone off and went to sleep.
The bell rang for dinner at around 7pm and I woke up, I hadn't realised how long I'd been asleep for. I walked down the corridor to the metal staircase, which was crowded with other students and still more people were still flooding out their rooms, chatting and laughing. I'd never been one of the popular girls, so my expectations for my first meal were pretty low. It wasn't hard to find the food hall, I just followed the crowds heading down the staircase and over the lawn to the big log building called 'The Food Cabin' that I had noticed earlier.
"More like a summer camp than a school, wouldn't you agree Brooks?" says a voice behind me. I hadn't noticed Kit earlier, but I sure as hell noticed him now. I saw that he had put on one of the denim jackets that had been hung up in my wardrobe a few hours ago.
"Nice jacket" I said
"C'mon Kit, we're gonna be at the end of the queue" said a small brunette.
"Relax Rosie, they're all newbies, we'll just skip. You coming Brooks?" he said, looking at me.
"Uh, sure"
I followed him down the path to the big door that everyone was filing through. Kit was right about everyone being newbies, no-one seemed to know what was going on, so when Kit and his friends walked straight past them no-one stopped or questioned us as we walked to the front of the queue to where the food was being served.
"So, newbie. How d'you know Kit" said a guy called Harris, and everyone turned to look at me.
"Uh, he came to my room earlier" I said
"Yeah, that's where he was when I couldn't find him" said Jackson
"I was just getting some stuff, Brooks has got room 303 this year" Kit said laughing, he glanced over to Rose, who seemed to be deliberately not catching his eye.
"So how come you moved, Hayley?" said a dark haired girl called India
"I needed to get away from my parents, they're getting clingy." I said, truthfully
"Yeah I know what you mean" said India
Kit threw a chip down onto his plate. "I'm going back to Parker, I'll see you guys tomorrow" Kit got up, leaving his tray, and as he walked past a table of younger guys he called out "Put my tray back one of you"
"What was that about India?"
"Kit has a lot of uh, family issues" said India.
One of the boys Kit had shouted at came over, and grabbed Kit's tray before scurrying away again. I saw Rose give India a warning look.
"Stop Di, I don't think Kit would want that kind of thing spread around" said Rose. "Come on Hayley, we'll show you around" Rose got up, and I followed "Oh and call her Di, she hates India" Rose added in a quiet voice.
"And this is Parker Hall, where all the Parker students' rooms are." said Rose, as we reached the dorm building. "This year the boys are on the 2nd and 4th floor, and girls are on the 1st and 3rd. It alternates every year, no idea why though. Generally younger kids are put on the bottom floors, cause it's easier for teachers to get to their rooms. Oh yeah, Teachers sleep at Gretton, it's a building just next to here, and there's a corridor linking us. The higher in the building you are, the less likely you are to get caught sneaking out. If you're leaving your room late at night use the fire escape, not the main stairs. You can see the staircase from Gretton and if a teacher sees the light go on, you'll get caught. No question." said Rose.
"Should we let Hayley go to bed now Rose? Wouldn't want to get caught out on your first day now Hayley" she winked at me.
"Yeah I'm kind of tired, but thanks so much Rose, this was really nice of you" I said
"It's cool, any friend of Kit's is a friend of ours. Oh and don't worry about Kit storming out, it's nothing personal don't worry."
"You would know" said Di, teasingly.
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Really Di? You had to say that? Anyway uh, we kind of dated last year" said Rose, sounding hesitant
"Well that's an understatement" said Di, turning to me. "They were THE couple last year, everyone thought they were going to last forever, including me"
"So what happened? Am I allowed to ask?" I said, wondering if I was taking this too far.
"Of course you can, we're friends now." said Rose. We had reached my room, I unlocked the door, listening as Rose continued. "Well, he cheated on me, while I was away with Di in Cornwall, I didn't find out till I got back and I sort of went into meltdown. I wouldn't eat or.. anything really."
"But you're still friends?" I asked, not completely understanding what happened that would have made her forgive him
"Yeah, I forgave him over the summer, stuff.. happened. Look it's late, I don't want to get caught out either, so we should go to bed too" she turned to Di
"Bye Hayley, we'll see you at breakfast tomorrow." Di said, and they walked away down the corridor. I went into my room and got changed, I had planned to have a shower but like Di said, I didn't want to break the rules, not just yet anyway. I got into bed and turned the lights out, falling asleep almost instantly.
The morning alarm went off at 8 the next morning, and I managed to get to breakfast early, I didn't want to queue for ages, and I wasn't as confident as Kit had been that I could skip, I was a newbie too after all. Kit waved me over to his table, where he was sat alone.
"Sorry about last night Brooks, I didn't mean to storm out like that I just.. my family it's um.. complicated" he said
"It's fine Kit, don't worry about it." I said briefly not really knowing what else to say.
"I'll try not to" he grinned, and I knew he had returned to his playful self.
"A bunch of us are going to KFC for lunch later, wanna come?" he asked me
"Uh, are we allowed to just leave school like that?" I asked, feeling I already knew the answer
"No" he chuckled. "You coming?" he asked. It was a simple question, but I felt like it was a sort of test, like he was asking me if I was going to put the rules before having fun with my friends.
"Sure, where shall I meet you?" I asked.
He grinned his boyish smile again, and I felt myself smiling back instinctively.
"Meet us at the lake at 1, and don't tell anyone where you're going." he said, and turned to smile at Jackson and Harris, who had just walked in and past the queue again.
I sat down next to Di in History, where we were learning about the Weimar Republic.
"Did Kit ask you about lunch?" she asked me
"Yeah, I'm supposed to meet you guys at the lake at 1" I said.
She smiled at me "Yay! I can't wait to show you."
"It's ok to break the rules on my second day huh?" I whispered, as Mr Jones continued on about Stresemann.
"Oh yeah totally, KFC is a tradition, most people don't even bother eating at the Cabin except for breakfast, there are loads of cheap restaurants around here that the older students go to, the kids are just too scared" she laughed, and I realised that must be why Kit had been so sure that everyone at the Cabin would be newbies yesterday. I smiled to her, and returned to my work.
My lessons passed uneventfully until I got to maths, which was before lunch. I walked into the classroom and smiled as I saw Kit sitting at one of the desks near the back of the room. Both seats on either side of him were taken though, so I went and sat by myself at one of the desks by the wall.
"Old habits die hard" I muttered to myself. I was getting my books out when someone slid into the seat next to me, and I turned to see Kit.
"Hello again Brooks, still coming to lunch today?" he said, chuckling again
"Yes." I said defiantly. Clearly he thought I was going to wimp out, but I knew that that was never going to happen.
"Ok, ok"
Clearly my thoughts were showing on my face because he added
"I know you're not going to pussy out really Brooks"
"Why do you call me Brooks?" I asked him.
"It's your name, would you prefer I call you something else"
"No thanks." I said.
"Is it hot in here? I'm really hot."
Dammit, it was probably just my face burning up because I was so embarrassed
"I think you're hot too, but I wouldn't go around saying that to people, they might think you're getting a bit pig-headed"
"Not what I meant"
I rolled my eyes, and he laughed again. I felt guilty. This was Rose's ex-boyfriend, he cheated on her. Deep inside I knew that Kit was no good for me and I should stay away if I wanted to keep my friends.
We didn't speak much until the bell rang again, except to ask each other for equipment which neither of us seemed to have. The bell rang.
"Still coming Brooks?" he asked
"How much will it take for you to believe I'm not trying to get out of going!?" I said
"Woah OK, c'mon then. Everyone will be waiting on the lawn"