Riverview School For Girls [GxG]

two

The girls' first lesson of the day was History. The class was taught by a moody man in his early thirties called Dr Lloyd, who had studied at the university of Oxford before becoming a teacher. He was generous with homework and stingy with grades, but he was good at what he did. He cared about the subject and that was clear from the way he taught it. Willow had always enjoyed his lessons.

They slipped in a little later than the rest of the class, Willow immediately guiding Jordan towards her group of friends who were sat in the corner, all hunched over examining Sydney's new acrylic nails, painted a shade of crimson red. When they approached, Sydney glanced up first, eyes flicking between the pair, "Who's this?" She asked.

"This is Jordan; she's new." Willow replied, taking a seat beside her best friend, while Jordan slouched into the chair on Willow's other side. She gestured to the three girls, "This is Sydney, Dahlia, and Val."

Willow had been friends with them since the very first day of school, six years ago. The four of them were put in a dorm together and that was that. They were inseparable. They all slept in the same room, they all ate at the same table, they all sat in a row in every lesson they shared. Sometimes Willow marvelled at how similar they all were, and sometimes she marvelled at how different they all were.

Willow was the model student. The prefect. The bookworm. The teacher's pet. She kept them in line; she didn't let them get too drunk, or too arrogant, or too rude. She was the glue. The support. The background character who faded into the blurry crowd that buzzed around the rest of her friends. Because her friends were the ones who mattered. Not Willow. She was too nerdy and too average. Blue eyes, curly blonde hair, big round glasses. She looked plain and boring and nondescript. That was all she would ever be and all she would ever want to be.

Sydney was the Queen. That was apparent since the first time Willow had ever laid her eyes on her. The way she held herself, the way she walked and talked and swept her hair out of her face. It was entrancing, mesmerising, captivating. Sydney knew it, too. She used it. She loved it. Sydney wasn't modest about her beauty - she was proud, and she had good reason to be. Tall and slim with big almond eyes and dark brown skin. The boys in the village were obsessed with her, and Willow could see why. She used to wonder what that was like, having people look at you like that. Eventually she stopped wondering. Stopped caring.

Then there was Dahlia with her pretty green eyes and sandy blonde hair. She wasn't as smart as Willow or as confident as Sydney but she didn't need to be. She was kind. She cared. She had a heart and everyone could hear it beating. It would serve her well in life, so long as she kept it guarded, and didn't let people take advantage of it. But Willow wasn't sure whether Dahlia would ever be capable of protecting her own heart - she was too used to giving every part of herself to everyone else.

Val was the last piece of the puzzle, slotting in to build up the perfect picture of friendship. She had creamy white skin, brown eyes, and long chestnut hair that fell to her waist. She fell in love with every boy she saw, though her infatuation never lasted long. She looked at them like they were made of sunlight and gold, and the next moment, they were dull and bland. The only people who had captured her enduring admiration were her friends, because unlike the countless boys she temporarily fixated on, her friends would never grow boring to her.

The four of them should never have been compatible, but somehow, they had clung to each other. Willow wasn't sure that she would ever be able to let go. She wasn't sure that she would ever want to.

"Jordan." Sydney smiled, leaning over Willow to examine the new girl, "How you liking Riverview so far?"

Jordan shrugged, "It's okay." She said disinterestedly, "There's a lot of rules."