“Well this place looks like a fun time.”

Lizzie’s mother glared at her through the rear-view mirror. “Consider this leniency, Elizabeth. With all the trouble you’ve caused me I had half a mind to send you out on the street, which is exactly where you’re going to be if you don’t take this seriously.”

Lizzie’s eye twitched at the sound of her proper name, but she feigned a yawn.

“Either way,” her mother continued. “You’re not our problem anymore. If you don’t shape up while you’re here then you can forget about any support from me or your father.”

“Like I need your help,” Lizzie muttered.

Her mother scoffed as she pulled up to the front gates. “Well, I suppose you have a chance to prove it, don’t you? Now get out, and stay out of trouble!”

Sighing, Lizzie took a hold of her suitcase and climbed out of the car, making sure to scuff the back of the driver’s seat with her shoe. The second she closed the passenger door, her mother was speeding off without a backward glance. Lizzie gave her the finger as the car receded into the distance, muttering, “Dumb bitch.”

When the car was out of sight, she turned toward the place that would be her home for the next year; Bullworth Academy.

She’d heard it was one of the toughest schools in America, and it looked it too. With the stone buildings that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Dracula movie and the high walls with metal bars, anyone could have mistaken it for a prison. Above the large front gates was an arch with the school’s name, crest, and motto: canis canem edit.

Lizzie couldn’t have given less fucks what that meant.

She strode through the front gates, her suitcase and its contents the only property she had apart from the clothes on her back (a white T-shirt, faded blue jeans, and the blue and white Bullworth varsity jacket her mother had insisted she wear). The school’s main building loomed past the central courtyard ahead, which branched off to the dormitories.

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As Lizzie made for the girl’s dormitory, a voice called out, “Ah! Where do you think you’re going, young lady?”

Lizzie sighed; the courtyard was too deserted and the voice was too close for it to have been directed at anyone else. She turned and saw a thin, shrill-looking woman with curled greying hair and wearing a shit-colored blouse and skirt stalking toward her.

“I’m going to the dormitory,” Lizzie said through gritted teeth. “Y’know, to unpack.”

The woman scowled. “Take that hostility out of your tone, young lady. Now, what is your name.”

“Lizzie,” she said, forcing her tone to stay neutral. “Lizzie Taylor.”

“You mean Elizabeth Taylor?” the woman said.

Lizzie’s eye twitched again. “Yes, that’s me.”

“‘Yes, that is me, ma’am’, or ‘Mrs Danvers’ if you plan on being respectful. Now go over to the main building and get your timetable, then change into the proper attire. Off you go!”

LIzzie sighed and stalked past Mrs Danvers. Just great, I’ve traded one haughty bitch for another.

The main building was the loudest, most crowded part of the school, much to Lizzie’s irritation. She hauled her suitcase across the entrance hall and up the staircase toward the main office, pushing past any students that wandered in her way. At the top of the staircase she caught a glimpse of the east hallway, where the floors were dirty and the lockers were scratched and dented.

I guess I’m in hell now.

The clerk at the main office looked up her timetable and handed it over to her without saying anything, excerpt to chastise her for being out of uniform. She walked away rolling her eyes.

She made her way to the girls dorm as quickly as she could manage with her heavy suitcase, anxious to get away from the every acne-covered kid she wanted nothing to do with and retreat to her own room. She prayed that they hadn’t given her a bunkmate.

Inside the girls dormitory, which was at least cleaner than the rest of the school looked, she found her room number and sighed in relief as she saw it was a room for one. She pushed the door shut, kicked off her shoes, put her suitcase down on her bed and then flopped down next to it.

“Finally, some fuckin’ quiet,” she whispered, putting her hands behind her head, lying down, and closing her eyes.

This year was not going to be fun. That was one thing she did know. But that could wait, she told herself. It could wait until classes started tomorrow and she had to actually be around these losers.

Until then, she was going to enjoy some peace and quiet.