The Swim series - Book One

Chapter 3

My dormitory sounded like this in the afternoons.

"Nick..."

"Nick..."

"Nick...:

"Bock..."

"Bock..."

"Bock..."

"Nicker-bocker! Nicker-bocker! Size-eighteen! Machine washable, cotton blend!"

Gemma said all of this while pacing around the room, clutching at a pair of her own underpants. She'd stare down at the size-tag and obsess over the details, lost in a world of her own.

"Nick..."

"Nick..."

"Nick..."

"Bock..."

"Bock..."

"Bock"

"Bocker...."

"Bocker..."

"Bocker..."

"Size-eighteen! Size-eighteen! Size-eighteen!!!"

"We get it!" Shell screamed down at her. "You have a fat ass!"

On my first day in our dormitory, Gemma's strange habits confused me. Now after so many days of it I'd learnt to tune it out. The only strange habit that I couldn't get used to happened when we were all sent to bed. Gemma would get out of bed at random times throughout the night, to stand in the doorway, switching the lights on and off.

"One.... Two.... Three..."

If that got boring she'd open up our shared cupboard space, so that she could count out all our coat hangers and make a huge mess. She'd throw every uniform down onto the floor, and stomp on them as she continued her rampage.

"It's impossible" Shell told Lacie and Mickayla, who'd stopped by our dorm to console her. "I put up with her nonsense for six years at Scotts Primary. And now the school expect me to live with her?"

"I thought she was going to a special school this year?" Lacie watched Gemma pass by the bottom of Shell's bunk bed.

"She was supposed to" Mickayla said. "My Aunt works in admissions. She told me Scotts didn't think Gemma was capable of handling high school. They suggested she try St Lucy's"

"Well I guess her dad donated a new library or something" Shell complained. "Because she's still here! And she's still retarded! I can feel my brain cells dying every time I'm around her"

I was up on my bunk bed, hidden behind a book. I tried my best to mind my own bussiness but my stomach tightened at Shell's use of the 'r' word.

Say something, my braver side said, because just like anyone with a moral compass I knew it wasn't okay to insult Gemma. But me and what army? And me and what words? I was so terrified of Shell and all her want to be clones, that I left our dormitory an hour early each morning, just to avoid her i'm-not-a-morning person mood swings.

She was quick-witted but cruel, and beautiful but vicious. It was clear what Landon saw in her, and even clearer what she saw in him.

"Nick... nick... nick... you need a lobotomy, you need a lobotomy, you need a lobotomy!" Shell leant up off her pillows, and crawled to the end of her bed. "Come on. Let's go back to your room before I actually attempt to kill her"

"Nick..."

"Nick..."

"Nick..."

"Bock..."