Year 7 At Tibcot Comp - A Mel, Tab, Mewla & Cathy story

Chapter One


  "Mel! Come on!" Mum yelled upstairs.
  I sat in front of the mirror and looked at myself. I was really nervous. First day at our new secondary school. I had been quite looking forward to it all summer, but now the time was here, and I was sat at my dressing table in the new black uniform, I felt like all I wanted to do was get undressed again and leap into bed and hide under the duvet. I had tried to eat some cereal but hadn't managed much of it.
  My bedroom door opened and Mewla came in, still brushing her crimped brown hair. I had told her not to try anything fancy with her hair on our first day but she had insisted, getting up extra early to crimp her shiny shoulder length bob.
  "Mum's yelling." she said. "I think Tab's here too."
  "Ok." I got up and picked up my bag from by the door. Mewla went back to her room and I went downstairs. I could hear Tab's voice from the kitchen, and her new black shoes were in the hall next to mine. I went through to the kitchen.
  "Hi!" Tab grinned. She was sat at the table, talking to Mum, who was clearing up the breakfast things. "Ready?"
  She looked pretty smart in the uniform, with her long auburn hair hanging down her back. We could choose either a black sweatshirt or black v-neck woolly jumper, and Tab and I had both gone for the v-neck jumpers. Mewla had gone for the sweatshirt.
  "I guess I am." I said. "I don't really want to go."
  "Oh Mel, you'll be fine." Mum said. "You all will. It'll be fun, meeting everyone else."
  I wrinkled my nose at Tab and we both laughed.
  "Go on." Mum said. "I'll see you tonight." she went to the kitchen door and poked her head out into the hall. "Mewla! Come on! Time you went!"
  There was the thudding of feet, and Mewla came down the stairs.
  "Cool hair!" grinned Tab. "At least one of us has made an effort."
  "Bye Mum!" we yelled as we left.
  Tab's brother Tom was just leaving their house across the cul-de-sac as we walked along. He slammed the front door and ran to catch us up.
  We chatted as we walked along the road. Tom was wondering if there would be any other 'cool' boys that he could make friends with, and we were all hoping there wouldn't be any bitchy girls. Tom already had a best friend, a lad called Francis Fur who lived along the road from our cul-de-sac, but I think they were both hoping that there would be a group of other lads they could play football with.
  It only took us about ten minutes or so to get to Tibcot Comprehensive. It was a big, fairly modern-looking main building, set far back from the road behind large gates and a fence that circled the whole premises. The area in front of the school was all tarmacked and was a large loop shape with an oval grassed area in the middle, we assumed this was where all the school buses pulled in and turned, and where parents could drop off their children. There were several groups of kittens standing around chatting. They all looked older than us.
  All around the main building were smaller buildings, and some wooden huts, which, we assumed, were for RE lessons, judging by the displays of posters about Christianity and Buddhism that were up in the windows and on the walls inside.
  "Where do we go?" Tab wondered, as we headed past the RE huts and over towards the main building.
  "Head for reception maybe, and tell them who we are?" Mewla said, looking around as we walked. "Where's reception?"
  "That way." Tom pointed to a sign in the flower bed. "Come on."
  When we got to reception there were two girls there, about our age, standing together, looking rather nervous. The middle aged she-cat at reception smiled at us.
  "New today?" she said.
  "Yes." I said, after a few seconds. Mewla, Tab, and Tom were just standing there as if suddenly struck dumb.
  "Ok, if you just wait over there, someone should be along to fetch you." the she-cat said, pointing to where the other two girls were stood. I smiled and said thanks, and we wandered over. The two girls looked at us.
  They looked very alike, and were obviously twins, but there were subtle differences about them that distinguished them. One was slightly taller and more well-built, she looked as if she might enjoy sports. She had long, straight mouse brown hair. Her sister was shorter and slimmer, with long hair that was quite a bit darker. They were both wearing sweatshirts and knee length skirts.
  The taller girl smiled shyly.
  "Are you new today?" she asked.
  "Yes." I said. I grinned. "What gave it away?"
  The girls both laughed.
  "I'm Tibbick Johnson." the taller girl said. "And this is my sister Mewbellan."
  "Hi." Mewballen grinned.
  "I'm Melanie Winters." I said. "This is my sister Mewla."
  "And I'm Tabitha Reynolds, and this is my brother Tom." Tab put in.
  We all smiled and acknowledged each other.
  "I wonder if we'll all be in the same class." Tab wondered.
  "I hope so." Mewbellan said. "I wonder how many of us there are, we've been here ten minutes and we haven't seen anyone else."
  "Would be funny if it was just us." Mewla grinned.
  Just then, a young she-cat came along the corridor. She looked to be in her mid twenties, and was wearing a long flowing skirt and a tight woolly jumper. She was pretty and looked pleasant.
  "Hi." she came up to us. "I'm Miss Mewola, your class tutor."
  "Hi Miss." we all chorused.
  "Are we all in the same class then Miss?" Tom asked.
  "You certainly are." Miss Mewola said. "Come with me - I'll take you to your tutor room."
  We followed her down the corridors. She led us outside and across the school to a block which lay down a small flight of steps. Inside we realised that this block must be the Humantities block, as all the classrooms we passed were Geography or History classrooms. At intervals there were small open areas tiled with carpet tiles where, Miss Mewola quickly explained to us, the Year 7s and 8s could sit and eat their lunches if they wanted. Tab was looking around everywhere, I think she was doing the same as me and trying to memorise the route. Finally we arrived at a small classroom which was one of four surrounding one of the open lunch areas We could hear low chatter coming from the classroom. Miss Mewola opened the door and we went in. There were quite a few kittens in there already, some sat together talking, some sat by themselves. They all looked up.
  "Everyone, I want you to meet some more of your classmates." Miss Mewola said. "This is Melanie, Mewla, Tabitha and Thomas, and Tibbick and Mewbellan. A lot of siblings! Come on guys, I'll introduce you to everyone."
  We thought how nice it was of Miss Mewola to introduce us all personally and not just leave us to fend for ourselves. She seemed really nice. She took us round.
  "Right then, this is Tibbicca, and this is Purla." she stopped by two very pretty girls who were sat together. Tibbicca had long, glossy golden hair that tumbled in loose waves down her back, and her face was beautiful. She looked at us and smiled. Her friend Purla was also stunning, but in a different way; she had shoulder length straight brown hair and a mischievous-looking face, but she was very attractive.
  "Hiya." Purla said.
  "This is Tibleau." Miss Mewola said, stopping next at a very studious looking kitten, who smiled shyly at us all. She had long, straight brown hair tied in a ponytail down her back, and very large glasses, which made her look even more studious. We smiled back.
  "And this is Cathy." Miss Mewola moved along to another kitten, sat on the desk, who had her back to us, but who turned around at once.
  She had very pale blonde hair, which looked as if she'd just got out of bed, but it somehow added to her character. She had an even more mischievous looking face than Purla, and the brightest blue, sparkly eyes that I had ever seen. Her skin was very tanned, either she had been on holiday or she was one of these people that are permanently brown all year round, and her lips were a very pretty pink colour, either a very nice lipgloss or she was just lucky. She grinned at us all.
  "Hi guys." she said.
  "Cathy, get off the desk please." Miss Mewola said. "Grab a chair while you can."
  Cathy grinned apologetically and got down. I liked the look of her, she looked like fun.
  Miss Mewola took us over to where some boys had sat. It was funny how they all sat away from the girls.
  "This is Mewlip and Mewliam." she said, stopping at the first two boys. They were both pleasant looking lads, with brown hair and nice smiles.
  "And here we have Mewbile." we moved on to the last boy, sitting a little way away from the other two. "Not too many boys this year, although there are a couple more to come. Mewbile, why don't you go and sit with the others?"
  "Yeah, come on mate." Mewlip said, pulling a chair over for Mewbile. He smiled and went over to them.
  "Right, you lot, if you just find some seats, we'll wait for the others to arrive, then we'll get started." Miss Mewola said. "We're waiting for a few more new additions."
  Tab and I went over to two spare chairs and sat down together. Tom wandered over to the boys and sat down. They all started grinning and chatting. Tab seemed pleased that her brother had made friends. Tibbick and Mewbellan sat together, a little way away from us, then started talking to Tibleau. Mewla had headed over to Cathy. They started chatting and giggling straight away, and soon seemed to be getting on like a house on fire. Cathy had a make-up bag out on the table and they were poring over the contents together, laughing animatedly.
  "Looks like Mewla's made a friend already." Tab grinned.
  "She seems nice." I said. "Well, everyone does really."
  "Can't be that simple." Tab grinned.


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