Published: April 24th 2025, 1:00:16 pm
## Part One
Monday morning.
The alarm on Amelia’s digital clock was unexpectedly harsh. Since her phone was still hidden away somewhere, either in the administrative building or in Ashley’s dorm room, she had to rely on a more old fashioned way to wake up on time. The clock had been a gift from the very girl who started all of this; Ashley stopped by her room on Sunday evening and gave her the simple device. Ever the thoughtful ‘cousin,’ she wanted to make sure Amelia didn’t miss breakfast or her first class of the day.
This was going to be Amelia’s first full school day at Westridge Academy. She had arrived on Friday for what she had been told was going to be a day of auditing classes. In retrospect, what was actually happening was so obvious. Changing into a student uniform, taking an aptitude test, meeting with an advisor, and eventually being sent off to class.
Amelia had always looked younger than she actually was. Aside from feeling a bit self conscious about her size and youthful features, the only real problem she had before all this was having her ID scrutinized by pretty much every bartender. Never in a million years did she expect to be mistaken for a thirteen year old girl, which is exactly what happened when she was registered as a student and dressed for the part.
Putting aside the personal humiliation of students and teachers alike perceiving her as ten years younger than she actually was, there was also the frustration of having no way to prove her actual identity. Amelia had no phone, no wallet, and her file said that she was a transfer student who had a number of troublesome qualities. Without concrete proof of who she really was, no one would believe her. She was still oblivious to the fact that ‘compulsive liar’ was on that list.
Her first day had ended with Ashley and Claire laying out that she was to be a student until she proved that she was mature enough to return to her adult life. Her second day had involved a couple of attempts to access technology for the sake of finding herself online, which she would then be able to show someone in authority to put an end to this mess. By Saturday evening, all she had succeeded in was getting herself written up more times than she could count, which made her look exactly like the difficult teenager she was originally described as.
Sunday further demonstrated how a boarding school like Westridge was dramatically different from the public school experience Amelia had growing up. Rather than getting to sleep in at home, much like she would do on Saturday, students were required to attend worship in the chapel. As her advisor Ms. Song had said, religion was something that the academy put an emphasis on. While it wasn’t as weighted as the core subjects, it was apparently important enough to put on the aptitude test, not to mention the fact that most other schools wouldn’t go near religion due to separation of church and state and all that. However, a more traditional private school could play by its own rules in that regard.
At 7:00 AM on Sunday morning, Claire gave a few loud knocks to Amelia’s door, then simply let herself in with the master dorm room key that prefects were given. Usually for emergencies, but Amelia was a special case. After informing her that chapel was at 8:30 AM sharp, Claire stuck around long enough to put Amelia’s blonde locks in the simple braid that was quickly becoming her student look. As usual, taking away her last physically mature feature. With no make-up, no heels, and nothing but a camisole for her chest, Amelia looked painfully young compared to how she normally presented herself.
Not only was the service almost an hour and a half long, but Amelia had to sit in a pew with her ‘classmates,’ knowing full well that she looked just like everyone else around her while in uniform. While she was tempted to sit with Summer, as being part of her clique could still potentially lead to having access to a phone, Amelia had been humiliated enough the previous day. That had been bad enough in front of a small group of girls; the last thing she needed was for Summer to do something that would lead to the whole chapel seeing her naked, for example.
Piper would have been a nice girl to sit next to, but Amelia hadn’t spotted her before the service started. She just took a random seat, and followed along to the best of her ability, mirroring the sitting, standing, praying, etc. of the girls to her left and right.
Afterwards, there was Bible Study for an hour. Amelia might have been a straight A student throughout her life, but this was a new subject for her; while she went to church intermittently growing up, her family hadn’t committed to going every Sunday. While she knew Westridge was a religious institution, Amelia hadn’t anticipated that being part of her experience as a teaching assistant, as she had only planned on being there between Monday and Friday each week.
Similar to her afternoon classes on Friday, the instructor gave Amelia material that she would be expected to learn on top of the other catch-up she was on the hook for, some of which would be on her retake of the aptitude test.
Amelia’s Sunday afternoon was entirely dedicated to studying. Between the rigorous nature of Westridge courses and the fact that what she had recently learned in college was a far cry from what she was taught throughout her adolescent years, Amelia had to re-teach herself a lot of Science and History. It was one thing to memorize names, dates, facts, terms, etc. at a normal pace; she found it a lot more difficult to cram all that information back into her head over the course of a single weekend, even if she had known most of it at some point in her life. She also had to complete the assignments for the classes she took on Friday, and re-read sections of the student handbook to make sure she wouldn’t get any infractions moving forward. Religion would have to wait.
The only time Amelia left her room was to grab a quick bite at the dining hall. She did plan on seeing where things were at with Summer after all the hazing; unfortunately, the clique of girls wasn’t around at dinner, so Amelia just sat alone for as long as it took to finish her meal, then retreated back to her room. Making friends was probably a good strategy in terms of borrowing technology from someone, but she just didn’t have the energy for it after such a long weekend.
While Claire visited her in the morning, Ashley swung by in the evening. Aside from giving her the digital clock, Ashley also wanted to remind Amelia what she was on the hook for–a whole week of classes, rounded out by the aptitude test that she needed to pass. Otherwise, it would be another week until the next one.
Amelia had showered last night, as she wanted to give herself plenty of time in the morning to get dressed and have breakfast before her first class at 8:30 AM. At this point, she had somewhat resigned herself to her fate; putting her mind towards her classes was a safer way to prove her intellectual maturity to Ashley. There also wasn’t a lot of time to dedicate towards brainstorming escape concepts when she had so much schoolwork and studying to do.
Five more days. Surely she could pass the aptitude test the second time around, when she was actually prepared for it.
## Part Two
Aside from Westridge being a new school, and the fact that Amelia was too old to be attending a boarding school, it was surprisingly easy for her to settle into the daily schedule once Monday hit. Since she was barely an adult at this point, most of her life had revolved around classes and studying. Sure, she had a social life and did a handful of extracurriculars over the years, but a lot of her time and energy had always been dedicated to her grades. So, while it was still awkward and mortifying to be dressed up like a schoolgirl and consistently perceived as a tween, there was a subtle familiarity to the process of going to class and spending her evenings on those materials.
The classes weren’t particularly easy, either. While the mathematics and reading portions of the aptitude test had been her strongest, that didn’t mean either of those subjects came easily once she was actually in the thick of it. There were so many formulas and nuances she had forgotten from her middle school years, and the majority of the problems on the assignments she worked on were more complicated than they looked. She and her classmates were also required to show their work on every problem as well, meaning she couldn’t just breeze through the parts that came more naturally to her. Similarly, she struggled more than she expected with English. Amelia was a fast reader and a decent writer, though none of that helped her when there were dozens of grammar terms she needed to brush up on.
She was starting to see why the academy had a ‘Teaching Assistant’ position with a salary that was higher than what the average teacher made. Even with an education degree, Amelia would have struggled to stay on top of the curriculum at a school that was more rigorous. Shadowing one of their experienced teachers would have given her time to get used to the intensity of the classes that she could barely keep up with as a student.
Of course, just because going to class was familiar didn’t mean she particularly enjoyed reliving her childhood, or at least a version of childhood if she had been shipped off to a place like this rather than having the public school experience. Amelia had a real life, one where she had an apartment and a car and a job hunt to get back to. If anything, she was slightly worried about how normal being a Westridge student was starting to feel. After putting on the uniform every morning and sleeping in a dorm room every night, the routine of it all was helping her settle into the temporary reality. It was kind of like a vacation, only more surreal and embarrassing and completely unplanned; her actual life existed, and was still in her thoughts often enough, but for now she was gradually getting used to the day to day of being somewhere else.
And being someone else. Millie. That name was quickly getting normalized as well, since literally everyone called her that. Honestly, it kind of helped. Amelia was the young adult who had been tricked into this situation and was preparing for the test that would get her out of it. Millie was the schoolgirl, the troublesome transfer student with the braided hair.
She still received a couple infractions every day. That was the problem with her file making it sound like she was a girl who was the exact opposite of her actual self, as well as the series of events that happened throughout her first couple days on campus. Reputations were hard to shake, and the prefects obviously found more problems with the girls they were keeping a closer eye on. Amelia’s tie being slightly askew, a meal not being quite as balanced as it should be, etc. Little things that so many other girls could have been written up for just as easily, except they faded into the background more easily than Amelia and a couple of other students in her classes that she learned had been sent to Westridge more to be reformed than for the higher quality education.
As for proving who she really was, that was starting to be less of a focus thanks to how she simply didn’t have the time to focus on it. Most of her ‘peers’ had a free block during the day, and time for a club and/or team in the afternoon. Amelia could have used that time to make another attempt at accessing a computer, or finally getting that burner phone Summer had promised her, or whatever. Except Amelia’s schedule was completely full, between the tutoring sessions with Mrs. Fletcher and the check-in she did with Evelyn about the catch-up process as well as how Amelia was adjusting to the intensity of her classes.
Then, at night, Amelia barely had enough time to do all of her homework, tutoring assignments, and whatever studying she could tackle for the impending aptitude test. On top of all that, she also made a point to reread a few sections of the student handbook before bed, to avoid receiving more infractions along the way. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t really a student; after a lifetime of being a bit of a teacher’s pet and a rather Type A girl who always had her shit together, it was humiliating getting in trouble so often. It especially stung coming from teenagers, some of whom were power tripping in their prefect roles, when she was supposed to have more authority than them.
Ashley and Claire weren’t around nearly as often once they saw that Amelia was actually going along with their not so little prank. Ashley would still make a show of greeting her in the halls whenever they crossed paths, asking how she’s settling in, and so on. Or, in other words, playing the part of her older cousin. Claire stopped by on Monday morning to do Amelia’s hair, only to see that it was already up. While the petite blonde much preferred to wear her hair down with a soft curl, as it was generally a mature look when paired with her usual outfits, she still knew how to braid her own hair from when she was younger. Just the basic kind, though that was what Claire had been doing this whole time.
Even ‘thirteen’ was too old to need someone else’s help getting ready. Thankfully, Claire approved the simple braid, and said she trusted Amelia with her morning routine moving forward. As long as it was braids every day because, according to her, it was a cute look. Of course, ‘cute’ was hardly a compliment for a girl like her.
Finally, after a full week of begrudgingly playing the part of a schoolgirl, it was time for Amelia’s aptitude test. It would take place first thing in the morning, before classes started, though the length of the test meant she would still probably end up missing most of her first class.
The day of, Ashley broke the pattern of leaving her ‘little cousin’ alone. At 7 AM sharp, she rapped on Amelia’s door. “Millie! You awake?”
## Part Three
Amelia was barely awake.
Like a lot of other Westridge girls, she set her alarm for 7 AM. It gave her a reasonable amount of time to shower, put on her uniform, and grab a quick bite in the dining hall before her first class of the day. Amelia had gotten as far as turning off her alarm and tossing off her covers when Ashley knocked.
“Ugh . . . ” Amelia groaned to herself. She had never really been a morning person. While she always got up right when her alarm went off, rather than snoozing it like some people did, that didn’t mean she liked getting up early. That was why she preferred showering to start the day, as she usually felt more awake and refreshed by the end of it.
The private dorm room she had been given made the whole schoolgirl experience more tolerable, as it would have been both a little sketchy and incredibly awkward to share a room with a teenager. Most of the students had roommates; Ashley clearly used her front office access to set Amelia up with a space that was normally reserved for girls that had a unique circumstance where having their own room was better.
Of course, it wasn’t really private when both Ashley and Claire had a key. She couldn’t really complain about Claire, as pretty much all the prefects had a master key for emergencies and to help out girls who accidentally locked themselves out, though Claire was the only prefect who knocked once and proceeded to let herself in until Amelia proved she could do her own morning routine. However, it really didn’t make sense for Ashley to have such access; being ‘cousins’ wasn’t a good enough reason.
This was obviously not a normal boarding school situation, so Ashley had been able to keep a key for herself as easily as she had been able to register Amelia as a transfer student. “Coming in!” she announced. Without any more warning than that, she unlocked the door and slipped inside.
“Wait!” Amelia exclaimed. Her sleepwear consisted of underwear and a loose tank top, as that’s all she really had. Outside of her uniform and the plain panties/cami she wore underneath, she had only been given a small collection of tank tops for the evenings. Since sleeping in a dress shirt would be uncomfortable, and sleeping topless wasn’t appropriate for a girl ‘her age,’ this was what Ashley had settled on. Amelia suspected the real reason was that trying to leave campus would be a lot more difficult if she didn’t have any regular clothes.
Ashley giggled as she took in the sight of Amelia sitting on the edge of the bed. Legs completely bare save for the simple white panties, chest practically nonexistent underneath the not so flattering tank top, and a serious case of bedhead that would normally be fixed with a shower upon waking up. “Millie, we’re cousins,” she said, “You realize I’ve seen you in less than this, right?”
True. At the end of her first day at the academy, they had a whole conversation while Amelia was wearing nothing but a towel after the shower she had been convinced to take after being informed that she was stuck on campus due to it being after curfew. Though that didn’t necessarily make it easier this time around, especially when it was quite literally a rude awakening.
Knowing better than to argue, as she didn’t want to rock the boat when she was so close to the test she had been waiting for, Amelia just mumbled, “Whatever.”
She got up, heading to her closet to grab a clean skirt. Hopefully she’d still have time to shower; for now, she just wanted to cover up in a way that didn’t blatantly look like she was embarrassed to be seen like this. Doing her best to be efficient without looking desperate or rushed, Amelia pulled the plaid garment on as she waited for Ashley to get into why she was there in the first place.
“I thought you might want a big girl drink on such a big day,” Ashley said. She held up a disposable cup from the school’s coffee cart, complete with a to-go lid on it.
Amelia had assumed the drink had been Ashley’s, until now. She was simultaneously tempted and suspicious. Only the high school girls were allowed to purchase coffee. Something about not wanting to get the younger students unnecessarily hooked too early. It was probably more about keeping the well paying parents happy than anything else, as tuition brought in more money than coffee sales. Unlike the dining hall, which was ‘free,’ girls that wanted coffee had to buy it.
While Amelia very much missed her daily caffeine, however, she assumed there would be strings with anything Ashley offered her. That, or she was paranoid, since Ashley was low key intimidating while also clever enough to trick her into being a boarding school student.
Sensing her hesitation, Ashley shrugged. “I can throw it out if you don’t want it. Or if you don’t like vanilla cold brew.”
Amelia loved vanilla cold brew. Which only made her so skeptical, since there was no way Ashley made such a lucky guess. “Just- give me a minute.” Rather than accepting or declining right away, Amelia stalled by pulling out one of her clean dress shirts and pulling it on over the cami. She had been halfway through getting dressed anyway, and felt particularly self conscious when contrasted with Ashley, who was standing there in full uniform and better curves than Amelia would ever have.
“Millie, what are you doing?” Ashley asked. Strutting over, she took the petite blonde’s hand and walked her towards the bathroom. “Deodorant first. And wash your face before putting your uniform on, or your clothes might get wet. Have you even brushed your teeth?”
“I was going to!” Amelia replied. It wasn’t her fault Ashley had knocked the second her alarm went off. Everything her ‘cousin’ just listed was part of Amelia’s routine that ideally included a shower. That was looking less likely with every passing second, since it didn’t make a lot of sense to get dressed only to strip back down.
“Mm hmm. Show me that you know how to get ready for the day, or Claire’s going to have to start supervising you again.”
Resisting the urge to sigh, Amelia did as she was told. Keeping the dress shirt unbuttoned for the time being, she quickly yet thoroughly washed her face and grabbed the girly pink stick of deodorant for a few passes over her armpits. As she proceeded to brush her teeth, and braced herself for braiding her messy blonde locks, it never once crossed Amelia’s mind that she was doing this for the sake of proving that she could do all of it herself.
Though this morning was supposed to be about passing every subject in the impending aptitude test, Amelia’s extended stay at Westridge was starting to make her think more like a student trying to earn her continued independence rather than a young adult trying to earn her freedom.
## Part Four
Once Amelia was done with her morning routine, a supervised experience that was rounded out by putting on the flats that did nothing to boost her height, Ashley told her to leave everything but her room key behind. At this point, Amelia had gotten accustomed to holding an armful of books on her way to just about everywhere during the day. Just another part of the schoolgirl image, since the academy had a rule against backpacks for some reason.
For the aptitude test, however, no resources were permitted; that included writing utensils, as she would be provided a couple of pencils that were ideal for the scanning of her answers.
Ashley escorted her to the administration building, no doubt having similar permissions to what she had when Amelia first arrived to audit classes. Or so she had been tricked into believing.
The same middle aged woman, Mrs. Lewis, was there to proctor the test. Ashley politely greeted her, effortlessly putting on the act Amelia assumed was how she always came across when doing student work in the front office.
“Good luck, Millie!” Ashley smiled, going so far as to give her ‘little cousin’ a kiss on the forehead, “I’m sure you’ll do great.” Then, turning to Mrs. Lewis, Ashley asked, “I don’t need to pick her up afterwards, do I?”
Amelia couldn’t help but blush. She was used to going through the motions as a boarding school student at this point, but only had so many interactions with Ashley since last weekend. The whole cousin thing wasn’t nearly as natural; the lack of repetition, and the fact that Amelia barely knew the girl who she was supposed to be related to, meant she was thrown off whenever the dark haired girl leaned into their false relationship.
“Not at all,” Mrs. Lewis said, “She’ll meet with Ms. Song to go over the results, and someone will write her a pass once her adjusted schedule is established.”
Ashley nodded. “Makes sense. Alright, I’m off to class!”
When it was just the two of them, Mrs. Lewis let Amelia choose any seat in the modest lecture hall. Amelia still wasn’t sure why there was such a room in a building like this, unless it had once been an academic building that was eventually turned into something that fit the administration’s shifting needs. Amelia didn’t dwell on that for too long, as Mrs. Lewis placed the test packet down in front of her as soon as she was settled in her seat.
The same sticker with MILLIE ROBERTS was in the corner, and the list of subjects on the cover was identical as well. Mathematics, Reading, Science, History, and Religion. She wasn’t sure if she was stressed or relieved that the subjects that were more intuitive to her were up first. While it was theoretically a good way to ease herself into the testing atmosphere, it would have been nice to tackle the more daunting sections while she was still fresh.
When the clock started and she flipped to the first page of Mathematics, it became clear that Westridge didn’t simply recycle exam questions. Amelia didn’t have a strong memory of last Friday’s aptitude test or anything like that, though she would have at least recognized some repetition had it been there. At the same time, the difficulty paralleled what she went through the first time around. Similar mathematical concepts, same number of problems, etc. All she had to do was focus and combine what she knew before the academy with what she had brushed up on over the last week.
Taking a breath, Amelia did her best to get into a good headspace. She was way more prepared than last time, but there was still a lot riding on the next hour or two. This was how she was going to show Ms. Song and everyone else that she didn’t need tutors and remedial lessons; she was perfectly capable of holding her own in the intermediate classes. That, and prove her intellect to Ashley, who had rudely suggested she needed to develop in that department. Not that Amelia could argue the point very easily, when she had done so poorly on half her test last time.
The petite blonde worked her way through the first two sections, making sure she had the right answers on the tricky math problems and being efficient as possible with the Reading section now that she knew that being too slow/thorough would lead to hasty guesswork near the end. Then, it was time to tackle the three sections that would increase in difficulty for her, personally. Science was at least somewhat intuitive, but History was more or less a memory challenge. Finally, Religion, which Amelia had never studied before her time at Westridge Academy. She didn’t feel great about the last section, though it definitely would be an improvement to her previous attempt.
The process following the exam was the same as her first day as well. Mrs. Lewis took her to a nearby room to sit and wait, while Amelia’s answers were put through the machine and submitted to Ms. Song for the impending meeting. Though no one was watching her, Amelia still felt the need to avoid fidgeting after the young Asian woman had harped on it the last time Amelia had been in her office.
“Millie? This way, please,” Mrs. Lewis said, holding open the door and leading her down the somewhat familiar hallway.
Amelia nervously swallowed as she stepped into the counselor’s office. She hadn’t even done anything wrong, or been told how she did on the aptitude test, yet still felt on edge due to the false things Ashley had included on the transfer student form. That, and Ms. Song would have received all of the infractions that piled up throughout Amelia’s first few days when she was struggling to accept her temporary reality as a student.
By now, she had stopped cringing at the nickname. Both teachers and classmates called her that, and it was pointless trying to push for ‘Amelia.’ That, and trying to claim she wasn’t actually a transfer student wouldn’t get her anywhere with a no nonsense woman like Ms. Song. So, when Ms. Song gestured to the seat across from her desk and told Millie to sit, the girl simply stayed quiet and followed instructions.
To Amelia’s great relief, Ms. Song started with, “You should be pleased to know that you passed your aptitude test.”
“I did?” Amelia asked. She had been doubting herself near the end, when she should have known it was fine. After all, she had always been a good student, and had dedicated practically all her free time to this.
“Technically,” Ms Song continued, “As in, you answered more than 70% of the questions on each section correctly. However, your History and Religion scores were rather low. In situations like this, girls like you are to demonstrate proper study habits without extra assistance from the academy. For the coming week, I suggest you continue focusing on those two subjects; next Friday, I want you to retake that part of the aptitude test. Understood?”
“But . . . ” Amelia hesitated. Sure, she understood Ms. Song’s insistence that there was a difference between passing and doing well. The real question was, what did this mean for her deal with Ashley? Amelia had never considered the possibility that there might be a follow up iteration of the aptitude test even though she had passed.
Catching herself, knowing better than to argue with the stern counselor, Amelia hesitantly nodded and replied like a proper Westridge girl. “Yes, Ms. Song. I understand.”
## Part Five
After the brief advisor meeting with Ms. Song, Amelia was sent back to class.
Focused as she had been on studying and looking ahead to the aptitude test at the end of the week, the one thing she hadn’t thought about was what the timeline would look like once she was done. Even if Amelia had aced every section, which she hadn’t, she couldn’t just snap her fingers and be an adult again. Ashley was presumably in class as well, and Amelia needed her to undo all of this in a way that wouldn’t screw her over in the process.
Well, it wasn’t as if another hour or two would kill her after she had been a mostly well behaved transfer student for a full week. Amelia would have to get through the morning, where she would hopefully be able to track down Ashley at lunch. Also, she was starving; the test had taken place over breakfast, and she hadn’t thought to grab a granola bar and/or a piece of fruit from the dining hall the night before. The only thing Amelia had consumed all day was the coffee that Ashley had treated her to, which probably did more harm than good during the test; while it helped to wake her up after a night of tossing and turning, she ended up feeling a little jittery by the time she reached the last few sections.
Amelia was particularly wired by the time she was sitting at her desk ten or fifteen minutes later. Since she hadn’t been allowed to bring anything with her when she left her room earlier, she needed to swing by the dorms and collect her usual armful of books and notes. Between the coffee and the conversation with Ashley she was looking ahead to, paying attention to the lesson was quite difficult; it took a considerable amount of effort to concentrate. A number of Westridge teachers made a habit of calling on girls who looked like they were spacing out or otherwise distracted, as a not so subtle technique to intimidate students into staying mentally engaged.
She was still Summer’s bitch. As Amelia had learned, making waves was a surefire way to get herself in trouble. Avoiding infractions was something else required to prove her maturity to Ashley, and pushing back when it came to Summer meant that the popular girl and her clique would twist the facts to make her look like the bad girl to any prefect or teacher that inquired.
During the week, however, the young blonde could only get away with so much. Summer made Amelia carry her books between classes and usually had her clean up for their table after dinner, but that was about it. All of Amelia’s free time was spent at tutoring sessions and then studying in her room at night. The previous weekend had been the real problem, when Summer got to flex her control at times when she and the others had nowhere to be.
The downside of not getting more time with Summer was that Amelia never got that burner phone that the girl had mentioned. Depending on Ashley’s reaction to how well her ‘little cousin’ did on the aptitude test, Amelia was still storing that possibility in the back of her mind. She just wanted to avoid Summer unless absolutely necessary, since the last time she had tried to work her way into the clique, she ended up streaking outside and totally humiliating herself in front of a large group of students and campus security.
After making it through the rest of the morning, Amelia had to resist telling Summer off and racing to the dining hall. Instead, she sucked it up and carried the popular girl’s things to lunch like usual. Just a little bit longer. As she and Summer’s group waited in line, Amelia scanned the crowded room for any signs of Ashley. Or Claire, maybe, though it would be more difficult to talk to her when the prefect and the mean girl were sisters.
This was the problem with matching uniforms. All Amelia could do was look for dark hair and hope for the best. But also, not be too obvious about her search, since she was stuck facing the way the rest of the line was.
As single-minded as Amelia currently was, she resigned herself to grabbing herself a tray of food and doing a more thorough sweep of the room on the way to whatever table Summer picked out for them. Just as she was about to sit down, Amelia finally spotted the girl who started this whole mess. Ashley was in line with Claire and a couple other girls that were vaguely familiar, all of whom were amused by something that one of them had said.
Being patient for just a little bit longer, as there wasn’t a good way to talk to Ashley about this in front of so many others, Amelia waited until the devious eighteen year old had filled up her tray before getting up and hurrying over to intercept her. Summer asked where she was going, but Amelia ignored her. “Ashley! Hey. Can we talk for a sec?”
“Can it wait, Millie? I was about to have lunch with my friends,” Ashley replied.
No. It couldn’t wait. Amelia had attended the boarding school as a student for a week. It was also Friday again, which meant she needed this sorted out by the end of the afternoon. She knew better than to do anything that would give Claire an opening to write her up, so she took a breath and said, “Please? It’s important.”
Ashley mirrored her with a sigh of her own. “Fine. Only because I’m the best cousin, ever.” She turned to her friends with a smile and a small eye roll. “Be back in a minute.”
She placed her tray down to reserve her seat at the table the girls had settled on, then took Amelia’s hand. Giving it a light squeeze, Ashley began walking her out of the dining hall and towards the courtyard so they could have a little privacy for the coming conversation.
## Part Six
Ashley walked Amelia outside, then led her to a bench that was a ways off from the dining hall. Once they were both seated, Ashley let go of her hand and gave her a smile, “So, what’s up, Millie? Enjoying your new school?”
Just like that, Amelia felt hesitant about her game plan for this conversation. What she wanted to say was that enough was enough, that she passed the aptitude test, and that she had already stayed here way longer than she should have. However, one little question from Ashley was a reminder that she was supposed to be playing along with the concept that she was a transfer student. If she didn’t, then Ashley might launch into another whole thing about Amelia’s maturity, or lack thereof.
On the other hand, acting like a student and not standing up for herself in the slightest came with its own set of problems.
For the time being, Amelia tried to split the difference. Starting with the news that should prove her intelligence, insulting as it was to be on the hook for that from a pair of girls who were actually younger than her. “I passed my aptitude test,” Amelia said, “Every section.”
“Great job, Millie!” Ashley exclaimed. She leaned in and kissed the blonde’s cheek, pulling back and looking just like a proud older cousin would, “I knew you could do it.” Only then did she clarify, “Fully passed, right?”
Not exactly. Amelia had been worried about Ashley asking, considering that Ashley worked in the main office and/or probably had a friend or a friend’s younger sister who had to spend a little extra time on a section or two in the same way Amelia was told to do this week.
Apparently the look on Amelia’s face was enough, as Ashley’s excitement instantly faded. “Millie. Which sections?”
“History and Religion . . . ” she mumbled. There was no avoiding the question when Ashley clearly knew what Ms. Song had tasked her with. “But, I passed!” she pushed forward, “You said I had to pass my aptitude test.”
That was one of many things Ashley had said. Now that a full week had passed, that one-sided negotiation with Ashley and Claire was a little bit blurry. Amelia had mostly been focused on studying and not getting in trouble.
“I said you needed to develop intellectually,” Ashley said, “Wouldn’t an intelligent little girl do well on her tests? Passing is the bare minimum.”
“I’m not a little girl!!” Amelia protested, raising her voice for the first time in a while. Being treated like an untrustworthy schoolgirl for a whole week had really done a number on her. Thanks to what her file said, every teacher and prefect viewed her way differently than what Amelia was used to when it came to authority figures, not to mention the constant humiliation of being perceived as a young teenager.
But also, a week of reading and rereading the student handbook and doing her best to abide by the academy’s rules had made it so being a ‘proper Westridge girl’ and avoiding write-ups was becoming more and more of a habit. In this case, Amelia blushed and quickly glanced around to see if a prefect was nearby. She knew full well that yelling was bad, not to mention the memory of Summer and company getting her in trouble for snapping at the end of class.
Ashley wasn’t a prefect, though she was more than capable of chastising a younger girl. “Millie!” she hissed, “That is not how proper young ladies behave. Apologize. Now.”
“I’m sorry- I’m sorry for shouting, Ashley.” Amelia’s blush darkened, both from how Ashley was talking to her and how naturally the apology slipped from her lips. At this point, Amelia had also been conditioned to respond fully about whatever she was being reprimanded for. Just another Westridge method of getting girls to internalize a lesson and to not act out in that way again.
With a judgmental sigh, Ashley said, “Look, I know it’s a big adjustment from your old school. But you’re doing so well, Millie. Give it another week, and I bet you’ll ace those two sections. Maybe I can even come over one of these nights and give you some pointers. How does that sound?”
It sounded . . . confusing. Even though it was just the two of them, Ashley was committing to their relationship as ‘cousins,’ and referencing the transfer student thing as if it were reality. While Amelia hadn’t been at Westridge long enough to actually believe the lies that Ashley was spinning, every blow felt softer than it had the previous Friday.
Another week. Such a suggestion should have made her freak out. The time she had already spent as a student was mortifying, awkward, inappropriate, and so much more. And yet, pushing back this time around felt so much more daunting. She had made so much progress, and Ashley had definitely pushed the right buttons in terms of mentioning the ‘bare minimum.’ That’s not the kind of girl Amelia was.
Then there were all the subconscious layers that Amelia could only identify so well amidst the rigorous private school schedule that she had. Treat someone like a student long enough, and she’s bound to start acting like one eventually. Even Ashley and Claire were pretending that she belonged most of the time, which meant that Amelia only got to be herself when she was alone and not busy with homework/studying.
Sensing her weakness and pouncing on her silence, Ashley said, “By the way, you’re not going to be the new girl for much longer. Your grade has another transfer student coming early next week. Isn’t that exciting?”
It would be nice to have the negative attention focused towards a classmate. Whether the new arrival was a good student or not, chances were she’d suffer the impossible task of trying to keep up with all the rules and nuances that Westridge had. And maybe Summer’s focus would be drawn towards that girl as well.
Amelia snapped out of it, realizing that she was thinking more like a student than a young professional. “Umm, yeah,” she muttered, if only to say something.
Speaking of Summer, was now the time to seek her out? Amelia had been avoiding the mean girl until now. However, desperate times called for desperate measures. While part of her was instinctively trying to be a good student, the part attached to reality knew that another full week of getting tangled in Ashley’s game would only complicate things further.
“Anyway, my food is getting cold,” Ashley said, “Like I said, I can swing by your room one of these nights when I have more time. Okay?”
“ . . . Okay,” Amelia quietly said.
Biting her tongue about so many things, and knowing better than to raise her voice again in public, Amelia simply sat there and let Ashley walk away after another patronizing kiss on the cheek.
Just like that, she was going to be a student for another week. And, through her silence, Amelia had indirectly agreed to that.
## Part Seven
After the brief conversation with Ashley, where the dark haired girl asserted that her ‘little cousin’ needed to do keep retaking the aptitude test until Ms. Song was satisfied with the results, Amelia was surprised at how quickly she fell back into the rhythm of the school day.
Instead of freaking out, or brainstorming new escape ideas, or even being overly frustrated about the girl who had started all of this, her thoughts mostly revolved around how she needed to be a better student. She was still struggling in every class; playing catch-up in so many subjects at once was already a lot, and she was also expected to do well on every assignment and quiz for the current material.
Amelia was a good student. Or she had been, before graduating. Years of forming good habits made it natural to fall back on them now that she was back in school. On top of that, she was gradually being conditioned by authority figures at Westridge to behave like a proper young lady. So, after lunch, she just didn’t have the mental bandwidth to dwell on Ashley or the fact that she wasn’t actually supposed to be there. Amelia had to get to class, brush up on her notes one last time before the upcoming quiz, and prepare herself for a long afternoon. Like many of her current classmates, focusing on a Friday was always a little difficult after a long week.
At the end of the day, Amelia wasn’t sure what to do. As she had learned over the last week, the boarding school offered more to its students than challenging classes designed to prepare them for higher education in a way that other schools fell short on. There were a couple events scheduled for the weekend, though Amelia was still aware that she wasn’t actually a student, despite how the role came more naturally to her with every passing day. It would feel a little weird attending something that wasn’t required of her, plus she was getting a little obsessed with studying from both the disappointing test results as well as Ashley’s thing about how she needed to ‘develop intellectually.’
When dinner was over, she decided to brave another interaction with Summer. After last Saturday, the young blonde probably assumed that she had scared Amelia off. Since then, Amelia had kept her distance, ate meals with Piper and one or two other more quiet/friendly girls she had met, and generally kept her head down. Not just because of the advice she had been given after the mortifying experience of being caught streaking just off campus; it also made sense to her as the ‘new girl’ who was only there to prove that she could handle the academic intensity the students were expected to.
Now that it was the weekend, Amelia could finally start thinking about her real life again. The school day routine was the biggest factor in making her temporarily settle into her existence as a student. Classes were over for the week, and Amelia could at least give herself a small breather before getting back to her studies. Determined as she was to prove that she was capable of keeping up with girls who were years younger than her, her own teenage years hadn’t been just about homework and studying.
Summer and her little clique of girls were already on their way out of the dining hall. With a brief goodbye to her table, Amelia hastily brought her tray to the conveyor belt then fast-walked towards the courtyard outside. There was a good chance the group of popular girls was just heading back towards the same dorm building where she was staying, though she had also already experienced how they liked to do other activities on the weekends.
The daunting part about approaching the girls, aside from the memory of the previous weekend, was that Amelia was outnumbered. And she had been a ‘transfer student’ long enough to feel self conscious about walking up to a whole group of popular girls and drawing attention to herself, especially when Amelia had already tried and thoroughly failed at standing up to Summer on her first day.
Taking a big breath for courage as she caught up to the group, Amelia called out, “Hey, Summer!”
The blonde ringleader broke her stride and turned around, taking a moment to see who had just said her name. Pursing her lips in amusement, she said, “Took you long enough.” Glancing around to make sure there wasn’t a prefect in the vicinity, Summer went on, “What happened, Millie? You were all excited to be my bitch, and then you disappeared on me.”
For whatever reason, Amelia had been hoping the whole bitch thing would be isolated to the previous weekend. As for the rest, she and Summer had a number of the same classes. If anything, it was more like Summer was ignoring her and waiting to see if she’d try to come back like she was doing now. Either way, she had accomplished teaching ‘Millie’ to be nervous around her.
“Umm, sorry,” Amelia mumbled. ‘Can I be part of your group and get one of those burner phones you were talking about?’ She couldn’t just outright say what she wanted, and she was already on the back foot from how Summer was talking to her, as well as how all the other girls were staring at her and watching the exchange. “Can I hang out with you tonight?” It was so awkward. But was there a good way for a girl to invite herself along to whatever another group was going to be doing?
While one or two of the more bold girls flanking Summer scoffed, their leader just crossed her arms and decided to grant the request. With terms. “Hmm, okay. But first, tell me what you are. And address me properly.”
Right. Amelia remembered the other part of how Summer treated her before. With slightly flushed cheeks, Amelia lowered her voice and said, “I’m your bitch, Ms. Summer . . . ”
## Part Eight
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?”
## Part Nine
Amelia knew better than to protest against the idea. It sounded like the girl who suggested it was teasing, anyway. The only surefire way to turn it into a reality was to react in a way that encouraged them to have more fun at her expense. Besides, Amelia had already been hazed; the previous weekend with Summer and company had been thoroughly humiliating, though there was always the chance that avoiding them all this time pressed a ‘reset’ button of sorts where her status as Summer’s bitch was concerned.
The safest option felt like deferring to the leader. “Whatever you want, Ms. Summer.” If she were actually given the choice at this point, Amelia would have voted for one of those events. While she hadn’t been interested in them before, they were currently a less daunting option than doing dares in a dorm room with a group of teenagers. As tangled up as she was in this ‘transfer student’ life, she was still aware that it was inappropriate to hang out with the very girls she was supposed to be teaching.
As Summer thought about it for a moment, Amelia settled on the potential option of bailing if things ever got to a point where she wasn’t comfortable. While it would undo the recent progress towards the only real strategy she had, she also wanted to avoid any awkwardness or future trouble.
“Hmm, dares do sound kind of fun,” Summer said, “But the new girl also needs to prove that she can be useful to us. Millie. What’s your best subject?”
Amelia hesitated, both because she hadn’t expected a question like that and from how basically every section of the aptitude test retake had still been challenging after a week of brushing up on the material. “Umm, Math, I guess?” She wouldn’t necessarily call the class a strength of hers, though the algebra and geometry formulas had been coming back to her a lot more quickly than the rest.
“Okay, then you can do everyone’s math homework,” Summer said, “You all have yours, right?”
Wait, but- That was cheating! Westridge had a super strict policy on that, for both parties where the dishonest act was concerned. As Amelia processed the casual demand for something that wasn’t casual in the slightest, more than half the girls noted that they didn’t have anything like that on them. A lot of students opted to swing by the dorms after the last class of the day to drop off their stuff before extracurriculars, dinner, and so on.
Summer just shrugged. “Then go get it. Your rooms aren’t that far, right?”
As soon as they realized the idea for Amelia involved their required participation as well, the girls scrambled to get up and make the short trip. Content to keep bossing the new girl around with a smaller audience, Summer retrieved her all-subject binder from where she kept it stashed in her shoulder bag. “You can start with mine,” she said, “Not that it matters.”
The whole point of the system they had in place with the aptitude test, including tutors and remedial content, was so students in the same grade wouldn’t be divided by classes of varying difficulty. Regardless of how much overlap the present girls had where their schedules were concerned, they would all be given the same assignments and have the same tests on the horizon. Normally, that meant a girl could study with anyone else in her grade. Or, in this case, everyone could outsource their homework to a single student.
Of course, Summer and company were really only hurting themselves by making Amelia do their work. By not working through problems with the formulas they were taught most recently, they were going to have to study that much harder later on. For the time being, Summer didn’t seem to care about that; she was only worried about not getting caught. “Don’t make it obvious, Millie. Match my handwriting, and shoot for an A- like I usually get. Same with everyone else. Look through their old assignments, figure out what grade they would get, and mess up on purpose to make it happen.”
Was she assuming I could get a perfect grade if I tried? The academy teachers were so picky, to the point where missing a step or diverging from the exact way it was taught would be points off. In order to do what Summer wanted, I would have to do each problem all the way through at least twice to make sure I knew precisely what I was doing, and then figure out how to create different imperfections in every girl’s assignment to avoid getting caught.
Knowing better than to hesitate or argue when this evening in general was my ‘last chance’ according to Summer, I simply moved towards her desk where I assumed I’d be working. For all I knew, this could just be a test. Once I was done, the girls could always do the assignment themselves if they didn’t like my answers and/or if my forging of their handwriting wasn’t good enough.
However, being excluded from the coming activity wasn’t all Summer had in mind for me. “Wait.” The simple demand had to be for me, when the remaining girls were busy finding the referenced math assignment. Crossing her arms in the familiar pose, Summer said, “Don’t get too comfortable. I don’t think it’s fair that everyone else is going to be taking dares. I’d hate for you to feel left out.”
I was fine being left out. Sitting on the sidelines and not participating in a game with girls like this was the best I could have hoped for compared to what I went through the last time I tagged along, even if the tradeoff was academic dishonesty by my hand.
Summer didn’t feel the same way. “How about this, Millie?” she said, pausing for suspense and possibly to figure out the specifics of what she was going to have me do if she hadn’t planned ahead for this, “I dare you to take off your bra and underwear. You can have them back when you’re done.”
## Part Ten
Amelia’s lips parted in surprise.
She wasn’t sure what she would have expected. After all, any dare from Summer was bound to be difficult, especially when aimed at a girl who was trying to prove herself to the popular girls. Still. Going commando? It had flavors of her trials from the previous weekend, though it was definitely better to be wearing clothes and no underwear compared to the reverse.
Summer huffed in annoyance. “Millie. You do realize what being my bitch means, right? When I tell you to do something, you do it, dare or not. Now, let’s try this again, and make sure you respond properly . . . Millie, take off your bra and underwear.”
“Yes, Ms. Summer,” Amelia said, hoping she didn’t sound too hesitant. There were only so many warnings she was going to get, and keeping up with the demands of the degrading role was the only way to get what she wanted out of all of this. The dare also wasn’t over the line in terms of what would make her abandon her only plan and retreat from Summer’s room. Even when seated, the plaid skirt was conservative enough that she wasn’t going to risk exposure, and the dress shirt was a solid enough white that nothing would be seen through it.
The real issue was going to be the actual removal of the undergarments. While Amelia could simply reach underneath her skirt to take off the plain panties, not that she loved the idea of doing that in front of the small group, the training bra she was wearing was similar to sports bras in that it didn’t have a clasp. Taking it off while clothed was going to be awkward, and she obviously wasn’t comfortable stripping like she would in the privacy of her own dorm room.
Stalling would only get her on Summer’s bad side, plus now was the ideal time to get the dare over with. Most of the girls were retrieving their algebra assignment, leaving Amelia a small window to get it done with a smaller audience and, by extension, slightly less embarrassment.
Deciding to deal with the more difficult part first, she shrugged her blazer off and hung it on the back of the desk chair. Losing the outer layer really didn’t help that much. The dress shirt was a little too tight to pull her arms in like she would have done if wearing a t-shirt for this dare, and the tie was definitely going to have to go in order to avoid getting completely tangled up in her clothes while taking off the bra.
Hoping that Summer was fine with her not making a whole spectacle of removing her undergarments from underneath her clothes, Amelia turned away after taking the tie off and proceeded to undo the top few buttons of her shirt. Enough that she could pull her arms out of the sleeves without risking anything getting ripped from the movements that would be much easier if the top was fully unbuttoned.
At least the bra had more give than the rest of what she was wearing. Amelia slipped out of the undergarment, staying vigilant as her breasts were bared to the corner she was facing. The second she had taken off the bra, she hastily adjusted the dress shirt to protect her modesty, and buttoned a spot higher up on the shirt so it would stay in place while she worked on the rest.
It was a good thing she had hastily covered herself up, as Summer strutted over to snatch the bra out of her hand as soon as she saw that Amelia was no longer wearing it. “Aww, you still wear training bras? Cute.” As if at least a couple of the girls in Summer’s clique didn’t do the same. At thirteen, growth spurts could be hit or miss, though it made sense that Summer had already been blessed with some height and curves; Claire had been able to pass as a professional young woman for the fake interview, so of course her younger sister would develop in a similar manner.
Amelia had already been blushing a little bit from the act of partially stripping herself in front of the girls; her cheeks darkened at the comment about her size, considering that was one of the reasons she passed so easily as a student when in uniform. Instead of responding, not that she had a safe reply in mind, she continued buttoning her top and then reached for the tie she had draped over the nearby blazer.
“Oh, I can hold onto those for you,” Summer said, as if she was doing Amelia a favor. She took both the outer layer and the accessory from the desk chair, all while letting the training bra dangle from her other hand. “You don’t need to be fully in uniform, do you?”
No one present needed to be. Students could dress down in their rooms, including when they were studying or hanging out in someone else’s. However, Amelia was less worried about the rules and more about how it was difficult to ignore the feeling of her bare breasts against the fabric of the dress shirt. She’d be a lot more comfortable with the blazer on, even if no one could actually see her chest as it was.
Though Summer was young, she also had experience when it came to maintaining control over her circle of friends, as well as others in their year. She knew better than to push Amelia too hard right away, when it was so much more effective to string her along with a combination of big and small tasks. Like how if she was willing to take off her bra, she wasn’t going to complain about her blazer and tie being taken away.
With decent timing, two girls returned with their schoolwork, not knowing that they were also returning for the show that Summer had started without them. Happy to fill them in, not to mention how getting Millie back on task would distract her from the collection of clothes in her hands, Summer said, “Forgetting something, Millie? You need to take your underwear off, too.”