Arizona: Black Sheep

Imagine you are a sheep. You live in a heard. Your family is your heard and you are one of the lambs. Where your heard goes, you must follow. That's just the way it is. You have no choice. No choice but to follow, even if you don't want to go. Your heard is made up of five. Your mother, father, younger sister and older brother. And you, of course. Your mother's a beauty queen who is the new editor of a fashion magazine based in Sydney. Your older brother is studying to be a marine biologist in Sydney. Your younger sister is a brain box who gets better grades than you already. And your father is the new owner of a school somewhere in Australia.
Then there is you. You and your popular life. You were Head Girl, Miss It, Miss Thing. Little Miss Barbie Doll! With your dark hair and slim figure. Your eyes are blue and your smile is the line between the in crowd and the geeks.
My name is Arizona Hartcease and I am fifteen and I have just moved from UK, where the weather is gloomy but okay, to Australia, where the heat already bothers you and you feel like your perfect hair is gonna frizz at any second and give you that perfect afro instead of that perfectly straightened head of hair.
I had said goodbye to my friends, Tiffany, Addison and Bianca in our usual fashion with no tears and air kisses. I left promises that I'd return in the summer to see them. I left my boyfriend, telling him I'd see him in half term. He told me that he would come to visit me. Joshua Marks. Head Boy. We'd gotten together at the year ten prom last year. It was a seriously fabulous night. The theme had been a night at the movies. One of the geeks had decided to make a slight mockery of the whole thing by coming dressed as a woman. I mean, ew! I had to admit, though, he had the legs for it. But as soon as the boys had thrown him into the pool and made him go get changed into his serious outfit for the prom, everything went smoothly. Just to die for.
There seemed to be no argument against the fact that dad was going to buy the school. I mean, I thought, great! I'd be able to get rid of dad and easily get around Mum for that sixteenth birthday party I wanted. I was planning a theme of red white and silver. I was serious. I wanted elegance and I wanted proper dancing. You know, normal dancing. To things like dub step. An odd thing to want. Elegance mixed with normality. But then, it would be a great party... Dad had said no when I asked if I could have it at some hot shot golf club. He had looked at the prices, promising me he'd think about it. Which meant, he'd look, sneer and say no. But the thing about me is that I'm Daddy's Lil Princess and I ALWAYS get what I want. Well, his first Lil Princess. What with my younger sister Lana.
Lana is a young genius when it came to mathematics and sciences. She wanted to be an astro-physicist one day. She's being packed off to some freaky genius school in Melbourne. A mixed school. Lana didn't have to go to school for another two weeks, though. Phoenix had said that the schooling system here is basically the same as back home. Phoenix is my older brother. Don't laugh. My parents didn't notice about the fact that I'm called Arizona, like the state in America, and that he's called Phoenix, like that place in the state Arizona, until Lana was born. Which was when I was six and Phoenix was nine. Anyway, Phoenix told me that they started school at around three or four in this thing called kindergarten and went through elementary school until they were eleven or something like that. I wasn't listening very carefully because I was painting my toenails when he had phoned. I think they went to high school after that until they were eighteen. This sucks! I am so ditching school after this year. I mean, I'm used to the idea of leaving school at sixteen and going to college and then possibly university. The only problem was I didn't know what I wanted to do. Phoenix is studying in Sydney for marine biology and Lana wants to go into astro-physics. Mum was a model at my age and now she's the editor of a magazine and Dad is an educator who was born rich to begin with.
A family of smart people and you’re the plastic Barbie doll.
This morning, I didn't want to get out of bed. I woke up at six am and I watched the light pour into my new room. My wind up clock was ticking steadily and the boxes of my stuff stayed perfectly still. Why is Australia so hot?! I was boiling. I missed the rainy mornings in UK with the grey skies and the moody faces of the people walking beneath it. I mean, cold is so not nice but it was home. It was just what I was used to. It was now half past seven.
Lana knocked on my door and stared in. She was dressed and eating a bowl of porridge. Ew. "Getting up, Princess Beauty?" she asked in her mocking tone. How did a ten year old manage that? Manage to sound more sarcastic than me, I mean. I had six years more in experience than she did.
I propped myself up onto my elbows and threw my pillow at her. "Get out, Freak!"
Lana dodged easily. "Sure."
She smirked and went away from my door. Then I noticed she was wearing my purple riding shirt. I didn't ride horses but I liked the shirt. That little witch! Ugh! If I could kill her, I would have.
I fumbled around my new bedside table and found my glasses. They were thick rimmed and had big, square lenses. I put them on and trudged to the bathroom, ready to go about my routine. I showered, changed, did my hair and put in my contact lenses. I looked at myself in the mirror. This place had a dress code. Navy blues and whites. In my case, white blouse, navy skirt and a nice, good fitting blazer. Dad had allowed me a little freedom on the blazer, allowing me to shorten the sleeve length because of the heat. But I had to wear either black stockings- not tights- or white knee length socks with black school shoes. Bearing in mind I love fashion, my idea of school shoes is a nice pair of high heels. Dad said no. So I'm wore flats to school.
I marched down to breakfast, my brand new leather satchel on my shoulder with my pink fuzzy pencil case inside. I marched like I was in a funeral procession. 'Come on, come all, to this tragic affair.' Sorry. I don't usually listen to music like My Chemical Romance. I mean, psht! What kind of loser liked that dribble? Ha!
I plastered my unamused face on and looked for my spot at the breakfast table. Then I remembered that we had a breakfast station in the kitchen. So I dragged myself in there to find they'd made my favourite. Belgian waffles and maple syrup. I knew what they were trying to do. Butter me up so I'd put on a happy face for the day. Well, it barely worked for a five seconds because then I remembered what that day was about once again.
"Morning, Sweetheart," Mum said as I walked in. She was doing work. Already. A amock-up of this month’s magazine was spread out in front of her. Dad sat beside her and handed me my new time table. Seven lessons a day? Madness! In UK, you have five lessons a day! It was Wednesday. The middle of the week. Back home, I would have had three lessons of music and then two lessons of art. Break would have been after second period and lunch after fourth. Six hours of schooling.
I ate in silence whilst glaring at my plate. They'd even put squirty cream on my plate.
Lana had already finished her breakfast and was doing her daily ritual of a MENSA Sudoku before a crossword. She's ten!
I finished my waffles quickly before standing up and grabbing my bag. "I'm going to find my form room," I grumbled and went out the house. We lived on campus. Campus. That word was stupid. Why couldn't the world just call it school grounds like the UK does? We lived on site, anyway. I went around the corner of the school and was immediately met by bunches of early rising boys, laughing in groups and wearing their uniforms in many different ways. I hid around a corner for a moment. It was the middle of the term. November... November third. I knew it would be tough as a new girl. Heck, girl at all!
Risenview School for Boys was not used to girls attending classes with them.
Let me explain. Dad had always wanted to live in Australia. When Phoenix moved out here, he decided he'd look out for jobs in educating. When he couldn't get a placement that meant he could bring his family, Dad actually went out and bought a school. Where he could teach to his heart's content and annoy the heck out of his eldest daughter.
I took a deep breath and put on my best superior look. Which failed and I ended up looking like a sad little emo person. Like that Bella Swan from Twilight. I gave up and just went for determined and tough. I stepped into view of the boys and walked. As I went by groups, I noticed one thing: every boy turned and looked at me. This made me feel like a freak and like I was back home and still popular.
I walked into the main building and found a locker that had been assigned to me when we arrived. It took five minutes to find. Locker number two-oh-three. 203. Once I'd found it, some guy came and tapped my shoulder. When I turned, I found a cute guy with a button nose and brown eyes.
"Hey, new kid," he said. He stopped for a moment and looked at me in full. "Wow. You actually are a girl."
I gritted my teeth. "Thanks. Are you actually a boy?"
"I'm sorry. I'm Daniel Barrett," he said and held out a hand.
"Arizona," I replied, shaking his hand. "Arizona Hartcease."
"Ah, new principal's daughter," Daniel said, nodding. "Well, I can be your eyes, ears and shoulder to cry on."
I stared at him and scoffed. "Just how happy are you?"
"As happy as they come," he replied smartly.
I wrinkled my nose. "Well... I can see I can't insult you away."
"Not at all," Daniel laughed. "You'll need someone around, Arizona. Being the only girl, you're vulnerable."
"Venerable? I can take care of myself," I growled. Wrong choice of words, bucko.
"Whatever. What do you have first period?" he asked, assuming a comfortable position like talking to me was completely normal.
"Science. Biology," I said.
"Same!" he said in a stereotypical happy way.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, Eyes-And-Ears, where is O’Neal’s room?"
"I've got him, too. I'll take you," he announced and grabbed my hand.