The Boarding School

-22-

The rest of my day was horrible, all my teachers were mad that I was away, and gave me a whole lot of homework. I tried my hardest to finish my work, I stayed up really late to finish it all, since I stayed up, one of the teachers yelled at me to go to bed. What do you want?! You want me to finish all my work, and the only way to do that is to stay up to finish it! The teachers are way too strict and stern around here. I go to bed late, and I have a real hard time waking up. They make us get up at 6 am every morning unless its the weekend, where we have alternative classes (phys ed, art, drama, music etc). Today at lunch, Ms. Perison comes up to me and tells me that Dad is still in his coma, but she will let me know right away when she hears he wakes up. I agree, I just hope he gets up soon, so I can see him, so I know he's alright, and so he can take me home so I don't have to be here anymore. I finish lunch and head off to my next class. I walk into class and sit down. I ask sort of a stupid question, all the other girls laugh.
"Are you sure she's smart enough to be at this school?" One girl jokes. I roll my eyes. That class was so boring. I pay attention, and then we start doing seatwork. The teacher walks up to me.
"Maddie?" She says.
"Yes miss?" I say.
"Where's the ribbon for your shirt collar?" She asks. I look down and feel the spot where  it should be.
"I don't know, I probably lost it" I say.
"Get out of here. Your uniform isn't complete. Get out of my class and go look for the ribbon!" She yells.
I sigh, "are you serious" I say sarcastically.
"Get out!" She yells. I stand up and hurry out of the room. I go back to the bedrooms looking for it, but it's nowhere to be seen. I sigh and go to the headmistress's office.
"Ms Perison, I lost my neck ribbon somewhere and I can't find it" I say. She sighs and stands up, taking me to the laundry rooms and pulls off a ribbon from one of the extra uniforms.
"Here, don't lose this one" she says sternly. I put it on and return to class. I tensely sit in my seat. But the bell rings almost right after I sit.
"You missed a lot of class, extra homework for you" The teacher says and hands me a bunch of papers. I sigh and leave the room. I walk through the halls, and a couple girls bump right into me, making me drop my things. I sigh and pick up my stuff and head to last class. Last class wasn't too bad, but it was boring.
  Then there was an announcement on the P.A telling us to go to the assembly hall. Arianna and I head into the hall and sit on a bench. Ms. Perison stands behind the podium.
"Ladies, there has been a missing student report for Brinn Treston, she has been missing for about 20 hours, if anyone see's her, please inform school staff. Thank you and dismissed" she said.
  After, I head to the rec room and start doing my extra work. Arianna comes and sits with me. We talk and work, minding our own business. A girl comes in, making me mad, I punch them, and earning another trip to the headmistress's office. I slump down in a seat.
"Maddie, what happened this time?" She asks.
"How does everyone know about us getting into a crash" I growl.
"I don't know" She says.
"Everyone is bugging me about it and saying my father is stupid... And people are making fun of my jaw brace" I growl.
"There's nothing I can do" she says.
"I can't help getting mad when people are taunting me like this, constantly!" I say.
"I can't do anything, you're excused" she says. I growl and leave her office and return to Arianna.
"What happened?" Arianna asks.
"Ms. Perison won't help me with the bullying or anything" I say quietly.
"Sorry" she says, patting my back. We go outside, and walk into the forest. We go in quite deep, I sit down on a stump.
"Maybe we can just run away?" I say.
"There isn't any towns around here for miles, and it's not like we can just live in the woods" Arianna says.
"I'm ready to take the chance at this point" I say quietly, covering my face in my hands.
"Maddie" She says kneeling down on the ground in front of me. "Maddie, you will be okay, your father will be okay, alright? Let's just go back to the school" I sniffle then nod. We start walking out of the woods. I was staring straight ahead, and as I was walking, I kicked something weird. I look down, it was a dead body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH! Who is that?!" I scream, backing away. Arianna looks down and screams.
"Oh my god!" She screams. I back away in fright.
"Who is that Arianna?" I ask quietly, staring at the corpse.
"It's..... It's... Brinn Treston" She says quietly. I look closer at the corpse. I don't see anything that could've been the cause of death. Odd. We exit the woods and hurry into the school. I bump into Ms. Perison in the halls.
"Oh sorry..... Wait, Ms. Persion! We..... We found Brinn.... Dead, in the woods" I say quietly with my head down. Arianna hangs her head down too. Ms. Perison sighs.
"Please show me" she says quietly. We lead her into the woods. Brinn wasn't there. Her body disappeared!
"Ms. Perison.... She literally was right there" I say, pointing at the ground.
"Well, where is she?" She asks. I shrug.
"Are you sure you weren't imagining or something?" She asks.
"But I saw it too!" Arianna says.
"Alright. I don't know whats going on, but we should probably just get back to the school now. I don't think it's safe out here" Ms. Perison says and starts walking away. We follow her out. We go back into the rec room and I start my homework. Arianna just watches me and help out once in a while.
  We go to dinner. I sigh and take my food, mac and cheese and vegetables. I sigh and sit down. The cook comes around and fills us glasses of water. I ignore it and continue eating.
"So what are you going to do tomorrow?" Asks Arianna.
"I don't know. Some studying, maybe some soccer or volleyball. I don't know yet" I say.
"May I join you?" She asks.
"Of course" I smile, then take a sip of water. Arianna didn't even touch her glass. I start to feel light headed for some reason. Arianna looks at me in concern.
"Are you alright? You seem pale" she says. I slowly nod. She stands, "Let's go do some drawing together?" She suggests.
"Sure" I say and stand up. I start following her to the rec room, but I start feeling dizzy.
"Maddie?" She says and runs over to me, grabbing my shoulders to keep me steady.
"Maybe you should see the nurse" she says.
"No, I'm okay" I say and start walking. I get even dizzier and fall on the floor, passing out.
"MADDIE!" Arianna screams, kneeling down, patting my cheek. "Nurse!" She calls out.
  Later I wake in a bed in the nurse's office. I look around, I have a bad headache. I'm wearing a white nightgown. I have no idea what happened. The nurse walks in.
"How are you doing?" She asks, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"A little dizzy... What time is it?" I ask.
"It's 10 am darling" she says.
"What happened?" I ask, rubbing my forehead.
I think you drank something bad. I gave you medicine, so I think you will be fine soon"
"Why and how would that happen?" I whine.
"Don't know" she says. I sigh and stand up. She hands me my uniform and I go back to the bedroom to change. One of Alison's friends walk up to me.
"What do you want?" I growl, slipping on my sweater.
"I heard rumors going around. I heard you killed Brinn" She says, crossing her arms.
"Why the hell would you think that?! Get away from me!" I yell. She grabs my arm and pulls me towards her. I reach into my pocket, feeling a pen. I just put my hand in my pocket, but shes still holding onto my other arm.
"Who else would it be? Everyone knows you're the craziest girl around! Who else would it be to do it?" she threatens.
"I don't know, but it wasn't me!" I yell. Then Alison walks into the room.
"Whats going on here?" She asks.
"Don't you think Maddie killed Brinn?" The girl said. I stand there snarling.
"Most likely. Get out of here, Sammy. I want to talk to Maddie alone" She sneers. The girl leaves the room, Alison steps up to me. I put my hands in my pockets, wrapping my fingers around the pen.
"Admit you killed Brinn" Alison says, walking even closer to me.
"Get away from me!" I shout and try to run, but she grabs my arm.
"Admit it" She snarls, her face close to mine. She pushes me back against the wall, holding my throat. I choke.
"SAY IT!" She yells. I grab my pen and whip it out of my pocket, into the side of her neck. She chokes, blood spilling out of her mouth, dropping to the floor. I gasp and breathe deeply, stepping away in shock. I look down, Alison is dead. Tons of blood on the floor, still spilling out of her neck. I start to hyper-ventilate. I crouch down, grabbing the pen and running through the halls to the exit. No one sees me. I run outside into the woods and burying the pen. I run away from the buried pen and run deeper into the woods and start crying.