Read Online Out of My Depth by Emily Barr - Free Book Online Page A

could be at Stanwell. Atlantic College, even better.’
    ‘God. Shall we wear black every day for the next two years? To mourn lost opportunities?’
    Izzy shook her head. ‘Let’s leave that to them.’ She indicated the Goths with her head. These were two extremely polite and rather shy girls, called Beth and Bobs. They were celebrating their first day of freedom from a dress code by wearing floor-length black skirts, long black cotton tops with wide sleeves, black Doc Marten’s, and striking white face paint with black eye make-up. Their lips were purple, matching their fingernails. Izzy had a sudden urge to find a red pen and draw some blood dripping down their faces. She was sure they would have appreciated it.
    ‘Hey, Beth!’ Tamsin called across the room. Beth looked at her with a friendly smile. ‘Do you reckon you’ll get away with it?’
    They both giggled. ‘Only one way to find out,’ said Bobs, in her quiet voice.
    ‘No chance!’ Suzii informed them. ‘It says on the sixth-form rules that “a little subtle make-up” is permitted. There’s no way in the world they’ll let you walk round school like that.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Good luck, though,’ she added.
    ‘Thanks,’ they chorused, sweetly.
    Izzy sat on a table and tried to blank out most people. She saw a few new girls looking lost, and she felt sorry for them. She wondered why they were there. Not one of the new girls was wearing jeans. They were dressed safely, in sensible skirts, blouses and cardigans, with their hair neatly tied back. She imagined mothers insisting, ‘I know there’s no uniform but you have to look smart.’ She wondered how long it would take them to change into jeans. A day, probably. She could not bring herself to get up and walk over to them and say friendly things. She would make a point of being friendly to any who were in her classes, and that was all. There were plenty of busybodies around who were going to be only too happy to take them under their wings.
    Izzy ignored most of her schoolmates. She didn’t feel she had anything to say to the likes of Alissa McCall, who was nearby, chatting excitedly to her friends about the half marathon they had done, for God only knew what reason, during the holidays. Instead, she looked around for her music friends. She had no idea why the girls who studied music were nerds, but there was no doubt about it, they were. She saw them arriving: Mary-Jane — MJ — who had the social graces of a lonely baboon. Jennifer, small and blonde and so shy that, when she did manage to force a word out, it came in a whisper. Felicity, who was so caught up in practising her cello that she barely noticed anything that happened around her, and who was roundly ignored by everybody. Izzy smiled at them all, the outcasts of the school year. These girls only came into their own in the music block. Most sixth formers would be hard pushed to put a name to any of them.
    Mary-Jane saw Izzy looking, and ambled over. ‘All right, then?’ she said. She was tall and broad and carried herself awkwardly. ‘Had good hols, have you? Have you practised lots? We’ve got an orchestral recital coming up before half-term.’
    Izzy couldn’t help laughing a little. ‘It’s hardly a recital. We’re playing in assembly!’
    ‘And we hardly want to be a laughing stock!’
    ‘Mary, no one in this school could give a flying fuck if the orchestra’s crap.’
    MJ looked around. ‘I don’t care what these ignoramuses think. It’s about perfectionism, Isabelle, you should know that. I’m concerned about starting A level, too. We’ve got to do harmony, you know. It’s going to be quite a jump from GCSE standard, because let’s face it, a trained monkey could do GCSE music! How did your results go, by the way?’
    ‘Fine, thanks.’
    ‘Me too. I assume you had an A for music?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Me too.’
    ‘What other subjects did you go for in the end?’
    ‘History and geography.