Laney
‘Good luck, baby. I’ll be thinking about you all day. I’m so proud of you.’
My mom’s words echoed in my mind as I steered my old Honda down the main street of Royal Falls, New Hampshire’s wealthiest town. I looked and felt painfully out of place, because it was the sort of town that only truly accepted people if they had a ton of money or a well-known last name that people associated with class and prestige.
A broke teenager from the wrong side of the tracks—aka me—didn’t exactly belong here amongst all the snobs and wealth-flaunting investment bankers, but unfortunately for the citizens of Royal Falls, they were stuck with me for the next year. After achieving stellar grades at my local high school in the nearby town of Silvercreek, Royal Falls Academy had reached out to offer me an all-expenses paid scholarship for my senior year.
It was the opportunity of a lifetime.
Royal Falls Academy was known throughout the country for its academic and sporting achievements. A spot there, even for just one year, basically guaranteed a student’s acceptance into the college of their choosing upon graduation. Not just in America. In the whole world.
Usually a family had to pay thirty-five thousand a year to send just one kid there. Not only was my tuition free, I had a place to stay in the dorms as a boarding student, which would normally cost a family an extra thirty grand per year on top of the tuition fees. The school had also given me $10,000 to spend at my discretion. I’d used it to help Mom with some bills and also bought myself a new laptop for the upcoming term. The rest went straight in the bank.
Butterflies flitted around my stomach as I headed out of town and onto the tree-lined road that led out to RFA.
I was out-of-my-mind happy and excited about obtaining the amazing scholarship, but I was also nervous and jittery as hell. I’d done a lot of Googling since I found out I was going to the prep school, and according to all of the forums and message boards I’d come across, RFA had a reputation for unbelievable snobbery and terrible bullying.
I didn’t know whether to believe it or not. Royal Falls had a snobby reputation, sure, but people tended to exaggerate stories online. I knew that all too well. I used to chat with quite a few internet buddies—people I met on games and forums—and some of them were horrified when I mentioned that I was from Silvercreek. They seemed to think the town was one step above a war-zone, filled with drugs and serial killers, all because they’d heard exaggerated stories.
Yes, Silvercreek was mostly poor and run-down, and yes, it had a high crime rate, but it wasn’t that bad. So for all I knew, RFA was totally fine as well, and the stories online were pure fiction.
I was only a few minutes away now. I could tell by the mountain scenery coming up on the left. As I steered my car around a bend in the road, I silently went over the rules about my new uniform. Skirts no more than two inches above the knee. Tasteful makeup allowed, but nothing beyond that. Hair has to be neat and not dyed any unnatural colors. No jewelry aside from sleeper hoop earrings, watches, or rings associated with school clubs.
I swallowed hard and touched my necklace before tucking it under my blouse. It had an L-shaped pendant on it, but if I tucked it under my white uniform blouse, no one would notice it. With the navy blue, gold-trimmed blazer over the top of the blouse, the thin silver chain was barely visible either.
I normally wouldn’t flout school rules so much on the first day—or ever—but the necklace was very important to me.
Usually birthday gifts in my household were small and cheap, because we couldn’t afford much else, but last year, my mom had done something different when I turned seventeen. She found the L necklace at a pawn shop in Silvercreek and spent a whole week’s pay on it.
The pendant was made of real diamonds and emeralds, and it would’ve cost a lot more if Mom bought it in a regular jewelry store. Even with it discounted in the pawn shop, it was way out of our budget, but she made it clear that she thought I deserved something nice. She said I helped her out a lot by working at the local diner on weekends and contributing as much as I could to the bills, and she wanted to do something to make me feel appreciated. When she saw the necklace in the store window, she couldn’t walk past it.
I’d worn it every day since.
As long as it was on me, I could feel the warmth of my mom’s affection for me, even if we were miles apart. She’d sacrificed so much for me, and I loved her endlessly.
I went around another curve in the road and crested a hill. Then the school was suddenly right in front of me, even more amazing in reality than it appeared in the catalog and online photos.
“Oh, wow,” I said breathlessly, marveling at the towering gray sandstone buildings decorated with arches, spires and gargoyles. The whole campus was like something out of a fairytale.
Flanking the road ahead were five-foot-high stone walls that stretched into the woods on either side. An ornate archway of wrought iron curved over the road and the gates directly below it.
I drove through the imposing entrance and onto the lush green campus. It was early—barely seven in the morning—but already I could see that the place was bustling with activity.
Suddenly every fragment of my confidence was gone and my stomach was sinking. This was real now. I was actually here amongst all this wealth and privilege, and I was a total nobody. I would probably never fit in.
I pulled my car over to the edge of the road and clutched my beloved necklace as I drew in a series of deep breaths, willing the panicky feeling to go away. When it didn’t, I grabbed my phone and tried to call my mom. She would make me feel better.
She didn’t answer. She was probably already flat-out busy at work.
I groaned and opened a web browser on my phone. Then I clicked into my favorite forum, hoping some of my regular chat buddies would be online. Unfortunately, everyone was offline. Probably still in bed.
I scrolled through my chat bubbles anyway, hoping that just seeing my friends’ names would make me feel better. It actually helped for a minute, until I got down to the very bottom of the page and saw my old conversation with a user named xxLNZxx.
About two years ago, we’d become sort of ‘online besties’, chatting nearly every day. She said she lived somewhere near Royal Falls, and she didn’t seem to care one iota that I was from the impoverished town of Silvercreek. She was nice to me all the time, and even though we never met in person or even exchanged our real full names, it felt like we’d known each other forever. We could talk about practically anything.
She asked me to meet up with her about a year ago, seeing as we’d talked about it so often but never actually done it, but when I tried to call her to discuss it, she didn’t answer, and her profile went offline. After that, I never heard from her again.
It seemed so silly to be sad about losing a friend I never actually met in person, but it stung all the same to see her name sitting there at the bottom of my inbox, forever greyed-out like the other offline users. I could really use her advice right now, or even just a friendly ‘Hey, don’t worry, you’ll be fine’. But that obviously wasn’t going to happen. Not with her.