Lisa Kwo sat on her bed in Cheshire House contemplating the bags that lay strewn around the two girl bedroom. Absentmindedly, she twisted her long thick black hair into plaits, finger-combing it out, before starting again.
Despite being the same age as the eighteen year old Helene Ashe who'd been summarily deposited into her room, she only knew the blonde girl by reputation. And what a reputation! Up until a few months ago, Helene had been quiet and studious, keeping herself to herself - and then the stories of her exploits with her friend, Miranda Thomas, had started to circulate.
Lisa felt somewhat giddy at the prospect of sharing her room with such a girl - supposed to have slept with many of the school staff, and not just the male members either - as well as most of the girls that had been sharing her dormitory...
Whatever had had happened last night had obviously been too much for the school to ignore. Everyone knew that Miranda had just walked out the school gates before breakfast that day, her schoolgirl uniform left behind on her bed, and now here was Helene...
Lisa and Helene had barely exchanged a word before the slim blonde had taken herself off to the showers. She'd been an awfully long time, Lisa thought.
Her mind drifted away, and back onto the dreadful prospect that faced her tomorrow. A third viva with Ms Baker - and she absolutely had to pass this exam if St Cats was to enter her for the Oxbridge examination. Lisa didn't understand it, her family had moved from Japan three years ago, and by any measure, her command of English was perfect - but when it came to thinking quickly, marshalling her thoughts in the oral examination, her tongue turned to lead and her thoughts deserted her.
The door opened, and Helene came in, blonde hair tousled and wet, wrapped in a white towel. She nodded at the Japanese girl, who looked deep in thought.
"I'm Helene."
They shook hands awkwardly.
"I'm Lisa. I'm sorry about..."
Helene smiled nervously.
"Me too. What's everyone been saying?"
Lisa looked around the room, anywhere except at the English girl's bright blue eyes. She'd heard the rumours, despite everyone concerned being sworn to silence, but she couldn't bring herself to say the shameful words.
Helene made a face.
"If it's as bad as that, they're probably right. "
She swallowed hard.
"OK. The truth. You need to know. I was in bed with Miranda, and Forsdyke came in and pulled the blankets off us and everyone saw what we were doing."
Helene looked terribly upset.
"Miranda would have been expelled, only she left before Forsdyke did it, I would have been too, only Byrne spoke up for me, said I had excellent prospects and just needed to get out from under Miranda's influence. He said I'd gone off the rails, the bastard."
Lisa looked at her steadily from under her thick black fringe.
"So they relented. With Miranda gone, they said I could stay, as long as I moved in with ..."
She broke off.
"With the other high-flyers. And worked hard."
She looked at the oriental girl on the opposite bed.
"I'm sorry, are you OK? I didn't stop to think. Is it terribly horrible, having to share your room with me?"
Lisa tried to laugh.
"It's not that. It's my viva retake tomorrow. I keep failing, I get so nervous."
Miranda looked surprised.
"Can't believe you haven't passed that already, everyone knows you're the brightest girl in the school."
Lisa shrugged, feeling the shameful tears pricking at her eyes.
Helene rushed across the room, the towel slipping from her shoulder, exposing her delicate pale skin. She wrapped her naked arm around the girl.
Lisa felt dismayed, having this half-naked girl, with such a bad reputation on her bed felt very wrong. Helene's hand was stroking her hair.
"There's no reason you shouldn't pass easily," the girl was saying, "do you take a friend in with you?"
Lisa shook her head. There was no stopping the tears now.
"I lied," she was saying, "I told my parents I had passed, I couldn't bring myself to tell them I had failed, how could I, after all this time... my family..."
She dried her tears, trying to be brave.
"No, I don't take a friend. I don't really have a friend to take."
Helene squeezed her.
"Look, I know we've only just met, but we both need a friend now. Take me, maybe it'll help. Who's taking the viva anyway, is it Kelly by any chance?"
Lisa shook her head.
"No, he took my first. It's Baker this time. I don't really know her."
"Let me come with you. It sounds like you need a friend."
The next morning, the girls got dressed in their school uniforms. White blouses, dark blue pinafore dresses that came down to their knees. Thick black stockings, pulled up over their knees. Helene looked ruefully at her unworn sensible flat shoes.
"I thought I'd seen the end of having to dress like a little girl," she said, plaiting her long blonde hair into a tidy French plait. She looked over at Lisa, her hands shaking as she tried organizing her hair into a pair of pigtails.
"Let me do that."
Helene sat on Lisa's bed, her legs either side of the girl's boyish body, pulling her hair straight, deftly twisting the Japanese girl's hair into thick black strands. For the first time in ages, Lisa felt herself relax, comforted by the shared intimacy of the other girl's body. She tried not to think of the images she had in her mind: of Helene and Miranda, sweaty, aroused, entwined around each other's naked bodies, their faces in each others... she forced herself to not think about it, Lisa tried not to acknowledge the shameful excitement of the forbidden that was swelling in her body.
The two girls stood outside Ms Baker's office, waiting for the clip-clop of high heels that would announce the teacher's presence. Helene thought she'd never seen such a completely groomed teacher before: always immaculate in a severe jacket and skirt, towering high heels, black stockings with that perfectly straight black seam rising up the back of her calves. Not a hair out of place, make-up artfully applied, the very thought of her made Helene feel shabby and ungroomed. Almost unconsciously, she bent down, pulling up her stocking tops beneath her dress.
"Come."
"The voice of doom!" Helene said under her breath, relieved to see a brief smile flash across Lisa's usually emotionless face.
Ms Catherine Baker was sitting behind the large wooden desk, empty of everything except a notepad and a pen.
"Miss Kwo," she said, glancing up, "and with Miss Ashe today, as well. Nice to see you've bonded so quickly."
She glanced down at her notepad.
"Well, no point in waiting, we might as well dive in. Helene, if you could sit to Lisa's right so I can be sure you're not helping her, we'll start. English Literature, first, Lisa, please summarize the story of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, we'll start there and move into history."
Helene looked at her room-mate, expecting her to jump smoothly into an answer, but instead Lisa had frozen. Her mind had obviously gone completely blank.
The teacher sat silently, her red lips pressed firmly together.
"Perhaps you could start with the main characters? You do know this play, don't you, we went to see it at Stratford in the autumn."
Lisa started to talk: her mouth was dry, and the thoughts unorganized. After a few minutes, Ms Baker raised her hand.
"Perhaps you need to, " she searched for the right word, "unwind, relax a little?"
"That's what I said she needed to do," said Helene.
A glimmer of a smile crossed the teacher's immaculate face.
"I'm sure your idea of unwinding is very different from Ms Kwo's. Not every girl here in St Cats uses sex as a panacea for all ills."
Helene felt her cheeks flushing: "that's not fair, miss," she started.
Catherine Baker turned to her.
"Don't come the little Miss Innocent with me, Ashe. There's not a teacher or student here who doesn't know pretty much everything and everyone you've done. I'm probably one of the few people here who hasn't had you one way or another."
A flash of anger rose in Helene's head.
"I haven't left yet."
Ms Baker regarded her thoughtfully.
"Is that a threat or a promise? There are teachers here who'd have you over that desk and be spanking that pert little bottom of yours for less."
The teacher glanced at her watch.
"Well. I think I'm going to get a cup of tea and leave you two to talk it over."
She swept out of the room, leaving the two girls alone.
"It's a pity she's not Kelly," said Helene.
Lisa looked confused.
"But he's so horrible!"
Helene smiled.
