Across the Water

This is a story that came to mind while I was daydreaming at school. The main characters are 17 as the story begins, but will be 18 before anything sexual begins. In a way it's kind of a coming of age type of story. There will be same sex attraction, experimentation, love, lust, and an interesting love triangle that will cause all kinds of angst and conflict. I'm just beginning to learn the writing craft, so I would be grateful for any feedback. Please let me know your thoughts. This will be a longer story, a bit of a slow burn while I build the characters, but I will do everything I can to make sure it's worth your time. Sex is so much better when there's a connection. Cheers,

*

The sign above the entrance of the school read, The Bristol Academy, founded in 1614, Nichole noted as she hesitated at the front door. The building didn't look like any school she had ever seen before, certainly nothing like the public school she had left behind in San Diego. She paused a moment to look down at her new uniform, another giant change from her traditional wear-whatever-you-want-to school days. The blouse's material was slightly stiff and the necktie felt like it was choking her all the time. She nervously tugged at the blazer and then again at her skirt.

"Nichole," admonished a taller, older woman. Her shortly cut hair was blonde but with now carried graying streaks. "Stop fidgeting."

The shorter, young lady frowned but ceased tugging at her new uniform. The mother and daughter walked through the main entrance and to the front desk. A plump woman with black hair and thick rimmed glasses looked up, "May I help you?" she asked, her English accent reminding Nichole again that they were not in the States anymore.

"Yes please. My name is Samantha Fox and this is my daughter, Nichole. We here to check in, she's starting school here today."

"Ah, I see," said the receptionist, only half paying attention. She clicked the mouse under her fingers several times, typed in a few lines and then made a phone call. After a few minutes, she looked up, "Headmistress Greene will be with you shortly."

The hallway was filled with incoming students being dropped off for another year of school. Parents saying quick goodbyes, a few tears shed here and there, but as this was sixth form, most of the students were now 17-18 years old and had been attending boarding schools for most of their lives, so this was just another day to the beginning of just another year. Nichole watched carefully as fellow students passed her by, wondering if any of them might become her friends. She was starting over here, leaving all of her old friends behind. Instead of being a senior at her old school, she was now something called a sixth former. It was supposedly the same thing, but the UK school system was completely foreign to her.

A moment later, a thin woman approached. She wore a conservative, full length dress. Her hair was tied up into a tight bun and her stern face wore no makeup, not even an eyeliner. "Mrs. and Miss Fox?" she asked but didn't really wait for an answer, "I am Headmistress Greene, follow my please."

The mother and daughter followed at a short distance into a sparsely finished office. Taking their seats, the headmistress opened a file atop her desk and scanned its contents. After a long, silent few minutes, she spoke, "Nichole, I'm pleased to see here from your transcripts that you've achieved high marks in your previous school. That is going to help you tremendously, but I would still anticipate that this will be an adjustment for you."

"Yes, Ma'am," responded Nichole, trying to use her best manners.

The Headmistress nodded, "I see you will be boarding with us during the week but returning home on the weekends."

Samantha chimed in, "That's correct, I'll be picking her up on Fridays after class. Nichole's never been away from home for extended periods, so we're concerned that it might be a difficult transition."

The Headmistress gave a look of practiced sympathy, "I'm sure Nichole will do fine, Mrs. Fox. I'm assigning her to Abbey House. It's one of the smaller houses but the students there are very close. I think she'll do well there." Headmistress Greene directed her attention to the young student, "Nichole, as a sixth former in Abbey House, you'll have one roommate. I've asked her to come meet you here so she can guide you through your first day."

Samantha looked at her daughter, "That won't be so bad, only one roommate," she then looked over at the Headmistress, "she was worried about having to live dormitory style."

A short knock sounded from the slightly open door, and a short, petite girl with long dark brown hair and big brown eyes peered inside. The Headmistress waved her inside. "Nichole Fox, here is your roommate, Harley Sykes." The two young women gave each other a brief smile. "Now Miss Sykes, Miss Fox will be your new roommate. Please escort her to her classes today and make sure she feels at home in Abbey House."

Nichole moved to pick up her suitcase, but was interrupted, "We will make sure your things arrive at your house before the end of day. Please go with Miss Sykes so as not to be late for class."

Nichole stood, embraced her mother, picked up her small bookbag and headed out the door. Nichole noticed that her guide was several inches shorter than she was, she guessed that the girl must be about five-feet tall. But the dark-haired girl was stunningly attractive, she had to be very popular with to guys at the school, or blokes as she'd heard them called on a few occasions since arriving in country.

Harley turned around and gave her a warm smile, "So what brings you to England?" she asked, trying to start conversation. Her accent was heavy but she was still understandable, unlike a few people she had met recently that hardly sounded like they were speaking English at all.

Nichole turned to look at the brick building to their left, it was covered in a heavy green plant that was so think you could hardly see the brick, and even the brick you could see was covered in a heavy layer of moss. "My dad works for the State Department—US Government, and he's been stationed at the Embassy in London."

Harley nodded as she listened, but then asked, "Why not go to a school in London then? There are loads of schools there."

"True, but I guess he'll be traveling a lot. They're renting a house outside of town a ways and are planning on being there on the weekends. I don't think they want to live in London all the time."

"I can understand that. I went off to London last summer for a bit. I didn't see much, but it's a big city," Harley gestured toward a line of girls, "We'll want to get in the queue here."

"Queue?" asked Nichole, her brow furrowed in the center.

"Yeah, you know. The line you wait in, the queue," explained Harley.

Nichole's brow rose in understanding as she slowly nodded, "There are a lot of words like that I'm going to need to learn."

Harley laughed lightly, "Stick with me then, I'll make sure you don't go spare your first day."

Nichole looked around at the dozens of other students around her. It was hard to believe that only a few days ago, she was enjoying the warm weather of southern California and now she was thousands of miles away, about to start her first day of classes with people she had never seen before. She felt a stinging in her eyes and blinked them furiously so that tears wouldn't form. She wasn't going to cry on her first day of school, she was almost 18 after all, almost an adult.

"This is morning assembly," Nichole began to explain, "Also called morning prayers. We'll be here for about twenty-minutes and then it's off to the first morning lesson. It looks like we have a lot of the same classes, so that'll make it easy. We have world history today with Mr. Jamison. He's not a complete git—most like his lessons."

Nichole followed the students into the building and listened to her only friend explain the daily schedule. They sat together in a pew about halfway to the back. The inside of the building was filled with ornate woodwork. It had an extended upper balcony above and some of the most amazing chandeliers she had ever seen. She looked at Harley, "Do we all say a prayer, or are we supposed to repeat the Lord's prayer—I don't have that memorized," said Nichole in a panic.

Harley rolled her eyes, "You worry too much. Just do what I do and hold your hands together and be quiet for a few minutes while the priest does his thing. Trust me, it's much easier to just go along than try to make jokes of it all. They really lose to plot when you do that," Nichole's brow furrowed in confusion again, "Just follow me. I don't know anything about this stuff, but I've learned how to get through it.

Nichole clasped her hands together and slightly bowed her head like the students around her. The priest in the front began to utter something, but he was too quiet and she was too far away to hear him well, so it just sounded like the mumbling from the Charlie Brown television shows she had seen. She glanced over at Harley and almost laughed when she saw that the petite girl's head was resting on the pew in front of them and she appeared to be asleep.

A young man sitting next to her nudged her and said under his breath, "I wouldn't suggest you do that," he said, glancing at the sleeping Harley. "I think the professors have given up on trying to get her to pay attention so they leave her alone, but it's taken years of detentions to achieve that level of professor ambivalence."

Nichole couldn't help but laugh, "Thanks, I wasn't planning on it. At least not on my first day," she said.

"Ah, American. Welcome to England. I'm Chance," he said as he introduced himself. Nichole took a quick glance at him and found that he was well built, dark skinned, and kept his hair very short. He was an attractive 'bloke' she thought. Maybe this school wouldn't be so bad."

"Thanks, I'm Nichole, and I think I'm happy to be here," she admitted genuinely.

Chance laughed lightly, "I can understand that. I'm sure we'll see each other around. I'm around if you need a friend," he said and gave her a warm smile. But before she could speak he said, "Just a quick warning. Harley's great, but she rarely thinks ahead more than a minute or two. Don't let her talk you into doing anything that will get you into trouble. You don't need that, alright?"

Nichole nodded and thanked him. She had only known him for less than a few minutes but he felt like someone that could become a close friend here. She also felt like he was telling the truth about her new roommate. Harley seemed like the kind of girl that lived for the moment and didn't worry about the future.

After nearly twenty minutes, Nichole heard a barely audible 'amen'. Harley popped up immediately and stretched, "Oops, I must have fallen asleep... well, there's a first for everything," she said in a slightly sarcastic tone. "Come on, let's get going before the blokes start trying to chat you up," she looked at Chance who was rolling his eyes as he started walking in the opposite direction.

"He seemed nice," said Nichole once the young man was out of earshot.

"They're all just trying to get some see some mumphy," said Harley, and then before Nichole had a chance to ask, added, "I'll explain later. Come on, we don't want to be late."

Nichole followed Harley out of the building across a large lawn to an even larger building, down several corridors and into a classroom that contained a large, circular table. Most of the seats were already taken but two were open near the door. The girls took their seats. The teacher was not present and so the atmosphere of the class was light.

A blonde girl sitting on the other side of the table, asked, "So who's your new friend, Harlot?" her tone was cruel and several of the girls beside her began to giggle.

Nichole looked over at Harley expecting some kind of reaction, but the shorter girl barely seemed to notice. Eventually she feigned a large yawn and said, "Nichole, meet Brinley. She's a fucking bitch and has been since she was eight. Don't get too close to her though, she tends to have a bloody bad case of chlamydia."

"Oh, the chav, orphan girl is trying to make friends," Brinley continued to mock.

Nichole could see that her new roommate seemed to flinch slightly at the girl's last remark. She wasn't sure what chav meant, so it could have been that, but being called an orphan seemed have hit a nerve. Harley seemed to deflate slightly and did her best to ignore the other girl and her friends until the professor entered the room.

"Good morning, class," announced a middle-aged man as he entered the room. He was average height, bald but with a neatly trimmed beard, and a slightly pudgy middle section.

The class replied, "Good morning Mr. Jamison," as he set a few of his books and personal effects on the center table.

The aging professor scanned the room, looking carefully at his new batch of students, "Jason, Eric, Jessica," he said softly as he recognized students he evidently had in previous years. Some he didn't know well but a quick glance at the sheet of paper in his hands gave him the names he was looking for. He eventually made his way around the table and said, "Harley, and I see we have a new student... Miss Nichole Fox, from San Diego California," he gave a warm smile to Nichole, "so how's the surfing in San Diego this time of year."

"I don't know about today obviously, but when I went on Sunday it was chest high breaks with an occasional over-the-head set in the AM," Nichole answered, knowing that the professor probably didn't anticipate her to really know. But one thing Nichole knew, and that was surfing.

Indeed, the professor seemed tripped up momentarily, but then recovered swiftly enough, "That should make you quite popular with the male population of the school I would suspect, but," he said as twitter of laughter passed through the room, "we are here to learn about world history... "

Nichole retrieved her notes from her bag and began to write. She listened for close to ten minutes before she heard her name, "Miss Fox," addressed Mr. Jamison. Nichole looked up, "I would hope that you don't mind giving us your opinion on occasion. I think we would very much enjoy hearing an American point of view in regards to world history."

Nichole nodded, "I wouldn't mind," she answered truthfully, hoping she could recall the thousands of lessons her father had inculcated into her over the years. He was a staunch conservative when it came to politics, the Founding Fathers and anything constitutional.

"Excellent!" he declared, "I hope to have some very spirited discussions in this class then.

Nichole felt her heart pounding against her chest, knowing that all eyes were on her and that she would occasionally be in the spot light. She simply nodded but didn't reply and soon enough the professor returned to his lecture. She ventured a look around the room as one by one, students turned their attention back to the professor. Except Brinley, she kept a studious gaze on the new girl, he lips slightly puckered as if she'd just tasted something sour.

The day drug on until four-thirty in the afternoon when Harley declared that lessons were over for the day. Nichole couldn't have been happier. She hadn't slept all that well the night before because she wasn't able to turn her brain off, and she had to concentrate just a little harder in order to understand the professors. It would get easier, she was certain, but this was going to be a hell week.

Nichole turned to her as they left the last lesson, "Come on, it's time for tea," then looking slightly pensive asked, "You do drink tea in America, don't you?"

"I've drank tea on a few occasions."

"A few occasions?" Harley repeated, "You've drank it on a few occasions?"

"Yes, a few occasions. What's the big deal?"

"You can't live here and not drink loads of tea. It's mandatory or we kick you out of the country," she deadpanned.

Nichole laughed, "Okay, okay, I'll have a glass."

Harley sighed, "I've really go my work cut out for me, don't I?" she said heavily. "You don't drink tea from a glass -- it's not iced tea. You drink it hot, from a cup. Now come on, let's get to it, yeah?"

Nichole followed her roommate again as they went inside the dining hall, retrieved two small plates and mugs and made their way to a heavily laden table. Nichole simply imitated what Harley did, choosing the same kind of tea, putting in two sugars and taking a small biscuit from a large, silver plate.

The girls took seats next to the window and sipped carefully for several minutes in silence. Finally, Nichole said, "Brinley doesn't seem to like you very much."

Harley shrugged, "The feelings mutual," she simply said as she took another sip from her cup. After a few more minutes, she added, "We used to be best friends, in primary school. We used to go to Brunel academy for girls when we were younger. I think the prat is pissed off that I got into this school because she comes from a posh family and they don't like girls like me ruining their school's reputation."

Nichole hesitantly asked, "Posh?"

"Rich, meaning she comes from a rich family."

"Ah, then chav must mean the opposite."

Harley shrugged again, "More or less. Chav is like common, kind of trashy I guess."

"So, she thinks that your family isn't posh enough then?"

Harley set down her cup and stared out the window. Heavy clouds were beginning to form on the horizon, threatening rain later on. "She was correct when she called me an orphan. I never knew my parents," she took a deep breath and continued, "I've lived with a couple of different foster parents, but apparently, I'm 'difficult'," she said sarcastically, holding up her index fingers like they were quotation marks. Nichole wasn't sure what to say and so simply listened. "Somehow, I manage to get good marks, so the school gives me a scholarship. That's how I'm here."

Nichole digested the new information and then asked, "Where do you go on weekends, or for like Christmas or summer breaks."

"I board here on the weekends. That's not so uncommon, you'll find a lot of girls do that. But during the holiday's I'm usually sent back to a girl's home in Cheltenham until the school opens again."

Nichole felt her heart constrict for her new friend. That would be a horrible way to grow up. She didn't know her new roommate well yet, but she did feel like they were going to be good friends. An idea occurred to her and before she could really give it some thought, she suggested, "Maybe you could come with me on the weekends and holidays. I don't think mom and dad would mind."

"That's nice of you to offer, thank you. But let's get though the first week before we start thinking about the weekend," Harley said, sounding like she wouldn't want to take the offer. "Come on, let's go to the house and get you sorted before supper."

Nichole drank her tea, but with far less enthusiasm than her new friend did. To her it was just tea, but to Harley it seemed to be the nectar of the gods. If nothing else, though, it was nice to be inside where it was warm. It was still early September but it already felt bitter cold to Nichole. She was used to a much warmer climate. She felt a pang of homesickness for California and for the warm sun.

The girls finished their tea and headed for their house. It was a simple place, Nichole saw as she entered the main room. Nothing like the Harry Potter novels she used to love to read. She knew an English boarding school would be nothing like the books, but she was surprised at how many similarities there were. There were houses and common rooms, demerits and house points, headmistresses and professors, it was interesting to pick out all of the things she had read in the books.