Never Let Me Go

Belvedere Academy stood quiet as Shivani stepped in through the wooden double doors with Blair, Chelsea, and Laurie. Blair's cherry-red convertible sat in the parking lot. The high school was blocks away from their old middle school, though part of the same academy. This one had brick-walled, low-slung buildings stretching horizontally across a well-kept campus, rendering pre-war architecture during the late-19th century.

Its chequered marble floors gleamed as each click of their heels echoed in the corridor. It was the first day of junior high. They had risen early, in the wee hours of the morning to pick their choice of lockers. It wasn't ethical to have preference, especially when they didn't have special needs in the most literal sense. But they had their way of slipping through the grey lines of school rules. They weren't allowed to wear heels, let alone Louboutins, as high as they were wearing, but they had their way out of everything.

"God, I forgot how good it feels to be back before the chaos," Blair beamed, flipping her hair over her shoulder as they walked toward the lockers of their choice. "Now this is a worthy real estate. Wars have been fought over my babies."

"I love how we are bending the rules without actually breaking them," Laurie muttered with a sleepy grin, adjusting the strap of her backpack. She had decided to dye her hair blonde this time. She had never looked more beautiful. Though Shivani would argue that she's beautiful either way. Even if she didn't have hair, Laurie would still be beautiful in her eyes.

"We're not bending, darling, we own the rules," Blair corrected breezily, staring at her locker and twirling its tiny silver key between her fingers. Probably imagining ways to decorate it.

Shivani, however, wasn't as enchanted this morning.

"I'm still not over that date, Blair," she said flatly. She halted in front of her locker, the one right beside Blair's, naturally, and turned to her best friend with arms crossed. "You sent me on a blind date with Carter. Carter. Who ended up following me home like some obsessive maniac."

"Oh, come on," Blair sighed, inserting her key with a roll of her eyes. "He wasn't that bad. And technically, he followed you because he probably found out you weren't me. I had to double-book. There was no other way."

"Yeah, and I had to run through my own neighborhood like I was in a horror film. He followed me in a freaking Porsche, Blair."

Chelsea giggled.

Shivani glared at her, wanting to retaliate but she realized soon that Chelsea was miles away from reality. Her eyes were glassy and slow-blinking, barely registering the tension.

"I think he's hot," Chelsea mumbled, leaning against the lockers. "Like, in a hot psycho kind of way."

"Chelsea, are you high? Again?" Shivani was at a loss for words. "It's six fucking thirty in the morning."

Laurie raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to Shivani. "I mean... she's not wrong about the psycho part. But I get why you're freaked. That's so not okay."

"Thank you," Shivani muttered, shooting Blair a look. "At least someone gets it."

Blair, ever the unbothered queen, shrugged with a grin and opened her locker to insert a perfectly organized shrine of stationery (which she barely used), emergency lip gloss, and a tiny foldable perfume tray.

"Okay, okay. I may have underestimated his post-date clinginess. But you're here, safe, and... clearly fabulous." Her eyes twinkled with wonder. "Besides, I have bigger news. Like, British accent, knee-weakening kind of news."

Laurie gasped. "What?" Hearing British accent must've made her panties figuratively drop.

"Rumor has it, we have a new student transfer," Blair said, her eyes gleaming like gossip was a currency she could spend for days. "From England. Apparently, he's some aristocratic boarding school dropout or something. His family probably owns land like Downton Abbey and titles, but hotter."