Published: March 25th 2025, 12:00:05 pm
That wasn’t quite good enough.
Summer pushed Amelia to repeat the demeaning phrase a few more times, insisting that a proper Westridge girl would speak clearly when addressing her superiors. Finally getting it right on her fourth attempt, Amelia made herself meet Summer’s gaze and stated with no hesitation, “I’m your bitch, Ms. Summer.”
“Good girl. If you absolutely have to, you may call me ‘Summer’ when it’s not just us around,” Summer gestured to the other girls who were included in that, “Do you understand?”
She did. Basically, no drawing attention to herself or to the popular girl by using the title when others were within earshot. “Yes, Ms. Summer. I understand.” Even when responding to the young blonde like that, the learned habit of echoing phrases kicked in.
“I hope so,” Summer said, “If you want to be one of us, this is your last chance. Now, take this.” She reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a single key on a Westridge lanyard. “This is to my room. When we get there, you open it and let us in. Whenever I need something, you drop everything and go retrieve it for me. Got it?”
More or less. ‘Bitch’ was just a catty word for ‘servant’ in this context. Although it was a little surprising that Summer was so trusting with a girl she just met. That, or there was nothing in her dorm room that could be used against her. Not anything that could be easily found, anyway. Room inspections were part of being a student at a boarding school, and Summer had probably already figured out how to make sure no prefect was going to find anything inappropriate unless they really tore the room apart.
Tentatively taking the key, Amelia said, “Yes, Ms. Summer.” Internally, she was thinking that this could actually work. If Summer was going to be sending her on errands, there’s a good chance she’d want the ability to communicate with Amelia whenever they weren’t together. It wasn’t a matter of putting in the time at the bottom of the hierarchy until she was accepted into their group; all Amelia really had to do was suck it up and play along until she got what she needed.
Like Summer had just implied, the dorm building was their destination. Without knowing the room number, all Amelia could do was follow behind the rest of the group. She did get a small smile from Lily at some point, the girl who had reassured her last Saturday that being around Summer like this was better than it might feel like. Not that Amelia cared about being one of the popular girls, when she was too old for that kind of drama. This was just a way of hedging her bets. Her only real concern, aside from being treated so poorly by a bratty teenager, was that being on call in such a way would impact her ability to stay on top of her schoolwork.
As they turned the corner to the hallway on Summer’s floor, she glanced over her shoulder and snapped, “Millie! Door.”
Unhelpful as the command was, one of the other girls murmured, “312.” Either because she was feeling nice, or knew that making their leader wait longer than she had to wouldn’t necessarily just result in Amelia getting punished. Or it was the opposite, and someone was purposely giving her the wrong number. Amelia didn’t have the time or energy to overthink something that simple, so she merely sped up and counted how many doors that would be from the one she had just passed.
Ridiculous as it was to open the door for a girl who was more than capable of doing so for herself, Amelia made sure to put the key into the lock without fumbling with it while everyone was watching, then pushed it inward and stepped aside for Summer and the others to enter first. This was all still new to her, and she wasn’t sure what the younger girl preferred in terms of open/closed/unlocked/locked. For the time being, she decided to close the door as the last one in the room, and otherwise waited for more specific instructions. Whether they came from Summer or one of the girls who knew what their ringleader would want, Amelia would rather rely on someone telling her what to do than making any incorrect assumptions.
Summer did end up thinking about that, most likely because she enjoyed having a new girl to boss around. “Close the door. Don’t speak. Stay right there, until you’re told what to do.”
Biting her lip, Amelia stopped herself from saying the proper/submissive phrase that would normally be expected of her. No speaking, right? It was difficult to keep up with Summer’s expectations, when all of this was so new to her. Maybe she could find a moment to talk with Lily or one of the other girls, and figure out what it was like for any of them who had gone through this before her.
Apparently Summer had a dorm room all to herself as well. It wasn’t a common arrangement; most girls at the boarding school had a roommate. Of course, Ashley had arranged something for Amelia, considering her circumstances. As for Summer, it could be as simple as her family having the money for it, or perhaps her older sister pulling some strings as a prefect. Regardless, it made sense for Summer to host her friends. Here, they didn’t have to worry about sharing the space with unwanted company.
A couple girls plopped down on Summer’s twin bed, clearly familiar enough with both her and the hangout space to make themselves comfortable. Lily leaned against the desk nearby, while Julia roamed over to the window to check out the campus below. Meanwhile, Summer wandered over to her closet and started looking through her non-uniform options. “So, what are we doing tonight?” she asked those present.
“Hmm, there’s really nothing fun happening this weekend,” one of the girls whose name Amelia hadn’t caught last weekend, said, “We could just chill here tonight. Do some dares, maybe? Haze the new girl?”
“Not a bad idea,” Summer said, “What do you think, Millie?”