REVERENCE Episode 11 – RUTHIE LEE
Juliette paused and looked at the girl’s familiar face, she glanced at Anna and then back at the girl.
“What’s your name?” Juliette curiously asked without thinking.
“Huh? You’re not going to report me are you?” The girl squealed.
“I’m not” Juliette scoffed.
“Okay… It’s Victoria” The girl replied.
“Victoria huh?” Juliette scoffed.
“Okay then… I’ll go now” Victoria awkwardly said and glanced at both girls before walking away.
“No doubt, she’s the Victoria we both saw” Juliette said to Anna.
“No doubt about that” Anna added as she shut the door and stepped out of the room.
Both girls walked to class that morning Glad that they both had the same class.
The girls enjoyed the first class together and so did they enjoy the three more classes that morning before the bell was rung which indicated that it was time for lunch.
The entire school girls all walked to the cathedral for lunch with Anna and julliette in front of the line linking arm.
Just as both girls walked inside the cathedral someone bumped into julliette making her almost stumbling ahead, but linking arms with Anna helped her stay in place.
She Turned furious to the person who bumped into her.
“You again?” Julliette scoffed.
“I’m so sorry, my idiot friend pushed me I didn’t know… I’m so sorry” Victoria apologized.
“ugh” julliette rolled her eyes and pulled Anna and they both walked to the huge table at the centre of the room sitting down as other people did too.
The classy and Rich food were served and everyone starts to eat, julliette noticed Victoria sitting opposite her and when they both made eye contact Victoria gave an apologetic look for bumping into her earlier.
“What do you think she wants with us? You know seeing her in our dream and all that” Anna said In julliette’s ear in a whisper.
“I don’t know maybe she just wants to b–
“Please silence and no talking while eating, sister Juliette you’ve gotten two table manner demerits with just a few Days being here!” Jane’s loud voice took over the cathedral.
“Sorry” Juliette stated lowly turning away.
Jane scoffed “Sorry… Sorry isn’t going to fix that you have to fix your manners first, as the president of the student council, its my duty to make sure every student here exhibit the ladylike manners and that is no talking while eating.” Jane spat.
“I understand, I’ll correct my mistakes” Juliette sighed.
All the student eyes were fixated on Jane and Juliette and everyone could see how mad Jane looked, the situation didn’t look too serious and no one understood why Jane was mad.
“Do not just understand, plant that in Your head like a seed okay!” Jane stated.
Juliette was suddenly offended, she sighed. “Shut up Jane.”
Everyone let’s out a loud gasp.
“she just told the president to shut up”
“She told Jane to shut up.”
“Oh my God did you hear that?”
Murmurs scattered around the whole room and some girls dropped their spoon, cause no one has ever talked back at Jane, let alone tell her to shut up.
“Excuse me.?” Jane was angry.
“I’m so fed up with your nonsense, I apologized for talking while eating, but you still made it sound like I did something offensive, I get that you hate me so much, but you have to know when to stop, I’m sure I’m not the only one here who would have like to tell you to shut up, you rant so much and act like a queen when you’re just a member of the student council, I mean anyone can be a member of the student council and also be the president, so just hold your ugly horses” Juliette spat and everyone lets out another round of gasp.
Suddenly the microphones in the wall shook with cracking sounds and the principal’s voice escaped through the microphones. “Sister Juliette please report to the principal’s office”
“she’s in deep trouble with the principal now’
“that’s what she get for talking back at Jane”
Juliette glared at the two girls murmuring and turned back to Jane. “Thanks for ruining lunch for me Jane” Juliette said bitterly before making her way to the principal’s office.
Jane balled her fist and glared at Juliette walk away, she looked at Anna and Anna looked away.
Everyone starts to eat again leaving Anna worried on what consequences awaits her friend.
.
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“Now it hasn’t even been a week since you arrived here and you’re already causing troubles miss Juliette” The principal stated standing up from her tall chair.
Juliette took her time to look around the principal’s office when she walked in, it was dark, gloomy and has tall shelves occupying three walls with old and dusty books occupying the shelf. Old pictures hung on the wall and pile of books laid on the principal’s desk and a small alter laid at the corner of the room.
“Miss Juliette are you listening to what I’m saying?” Mrs. Mullens the principal barked.
“Yes I am” Juliette suddenly replied.
“What do you say about your behaviour earlier, they’re cameras in the cathedral in case you don’t know” Mrs. Mullens stated.
“I did wrong and I’ll take any punishment for it” julliette stated.
“No…” Mrs. Mullens laughed “You’re just saying that to get out of here immediately, you really have to feel sorry for yourself and bare on mind what you did was wrong, Jane is the school representative so after me and the nuns here, she’s next, she needs all the respect, even if you’re all in the same grade she deserve all the respects and telling her to shut up is like telling me to shut up” Mrs Mullens blurted.
Julliette looked lackadaisical as the principal spoke she only listened halfway and her eyes wandered around the principal’s office.
She suddenly paused when her eyes locked on a certain picture on the wall.
The picture contained a smiling lady and a little boy, they both looked happy and so very familiar.
“The lady and her son.” julliette found herself muttering..
“Excuse me? Are you even listening to what I’m saying julliette?” Mrs Mullens barked.
“Uh… Yes and I’m so sorry Mrs Mullens, I promise not to do something like that again” Julliette said giving a small bow.
Mrs. Mullens sighed. “Fine, I’ll just let this slide but make sure while you’re stepping out of here you’re going to apologize to sister Jane, alright?”
“Yes I understand” julliette stated.
“Now leave” the principal said and julliette nodded and starts to walk out of the office, but stopped when she got to the door.
She paused and turned back to the principal.
“Yes? Do you want anything else?” She asked.
Julliette stepped forward. “So principal mullens, I’m sorry if I’m crossing a line here, but I’m just curious, since I’m new to the school and all, I really want to take time to know everyone nd everything about the school, so please can I ask who the lady and that little boy in that picture is?” Julliette said pointing to the picture on the wall.
The principal glanced at the picture and turned back to julliette.
“Don’t point at it, and that picture the lady there is Mrs. Jenkintown she is the founder of the school and that boy is her child” The principal replied.
“Wow” julliette stated. “And what year was the school founded?” julliette asked.
“I have work to do leave my office, this is something you should know before entering the school too, and our school has its own history book you can get at the library so leave my office” The principal snapped getting pissed at julliette’s questions.
“Of course” Juliette stated, she glanced at the picture one time before walking out of the office.
As Juliette walked out of the office she saw Anna standing by the door.
“Anna” she called happily. “What are you doing here?”
“Everyone’s done with lunch and I came here to wait for you, cause I was lowkey scared of what the principal might do, cause she looks scary and I was also the one who kind of caused the ruckus, I shouldn’t have started any conversation first” Anna said.
“Oh it’s okay, it’s not your fault and don’t worry, the principal shrugged it off and said I should only apologize to Jane, so nothing really happened you don’t have to worry.” Juliette shrugged.
“Oh Thank God.” Anna breathed out.
“But you wouldn’t believe what I saw.” Juliette said taking Anna’s hand and pulling her away from the office.
“What did you see?” Anna asked.
In a whisper Juliette started. “So there was this picture hanging on the wall in the Principal’s office, and in this picture there was a lady and a boy”
“And?… Anna shrugged not getting the story from Juliette.
“And remember the lady and the boy I’ve been seeing recently? I think it’s them in the picture, though in the picture they look more clean and happy and pretty.” Juliette stated.
“So the ghost lady and boy you’ve been seeing has like a Role in this school? If they’re hanging in a photo in the principal’s office it means they have a role in this school?” Anna asked.
“Well apparently they’re the founder of the school” Juliette replied.
“Founder? Wait? Now I have so many questions, if they’re the founder and long gone and dead then why are you seeing them and as ghosts and you said they’re infecting the school with their darkness, why is that? I’m so confused and have no many questions and yet I don’t know how to ask these questions. ” Anna said.
“And I’m not in any place to answer your questions too, I have questions too, why are they infecting the school they created, and how did they become ghosts with extreme darkness running in their ghostly veins, I’m confused, the principal said the school has it’s own history book in the library , we’ll go there during recess, there’s more than we need to know, this school isn’t all gold and glittery as it was in the magazine.” Juliette breathed out.
“Talk about the purple and yellow uniform we first saw” Anna rolled her eyes causing Juliette to laugh.
–
“Sad, it’s still break time but you didn’t get to finish your food” Anna said as she and Juliette walked down the hall…
“Well it’s okay, I’m full anyway and I still have a lot of chocolates in my bag, now keep that a secret” julliette giggled.
“You’re going to get fat eating those chocolates” Anna chuckled.
“I won’t” julliette breathed out a relief sigh. “You know what I like about this school Anna, it has break time and it has recess time, I mean in what world do you see high school students getting a fourty minutes recess”.
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The girls stepped out of the school building and glanced at their surroundings, girls grouping their selves and having a conversation on every corner of the school.
“This is the first time I’ll be stepping out of the school’s building during a break, I wish I can step out of the gate too and dash home” Anna Joked.
“No kidding” julliette stated.
“Hey Anna, remember the garden Victoria took us in my vision and in your dream?” julliette started.
“Yeah I remember it, what about it?” Anna asked.
“Should we check it out?” Julliette threw back the question.
“No” Anna replied.
“What? Why–
“Hey juilette” someone called behind the girls and they both turned to see Victoria holding a brown paper bag.
“So… You didn’t get to finish your lunch cause you got into trouble with Jane, so I had to pay the cook to help you wrap another one up, this is also my apology for clumsily bumping into you twice today” Victoria said with a slight grin, her red hair silky and shiny under the sun.
“Well thank you” julliette said glancing at Anna before taking the lunch from her.
“So I could accept your apology but first” Julliette said and took a step closer to Victoria.
“But first what?” Victoria asked.
“So a little birdie told me this school has a garden and I’m a newbie here and I’ve been quite curious for a while, so if you’d be kind and show me where the school garden is.” Julliette grinned.
“What? No… The garden is off limits for students, no student is allowed in there only Nuns” Victoria said, keeping her voice down.
“What? The teachers are allowed but the students aren’t. That’s shallow” julliette glanced at Anna.
“Well it’s not like we want to go in there, we just want to see what it looks like from the outside” Anna chimed in.
“Well if that’s what you want then” Victoria shrugged.
Victoria led both of the girls to back of the school, and the girls were surprised how large this school was with its enormous and spacious backyard, wide enough to store in two aeroplanes.
The three girls walked in front of a grassy part of the school and came across an old looking bars gate gate that was closed and a signboard that hung at the gate saying, ‘no students allowed’.
“See now that’s the garden, if you go in there you get suspended or expelled from school, the principal is really cautious about it” Victoria explained.
“Really? What’s so special about the garden anyways, it just looks old and bushy from out here, it doesn’t look very nice and garden like, I won’t even like to ever go in” Anna scoffed.
Julliette suddenly gave a heavy breathing and clasp her hand with Anna’s hand, startling Anna.
“What? What’s wrong?” Anna asked turning to julliette.
“The garden.” Julliette breathed heavily staring at the garden.
Victoria looked at julliette weirdly surprised by her act.
“Can we just get out of here” Julliette said placing her hand on her chest, Anna watched as she looked like it was hard for her to breathe before nodding and walking away from the garden with Victoria trailing behind them and wondering what was happening to julliette.
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