Lily and Iris: A Very English Murder
After School Stories
By Kate, Brittas Bay Mixed National School
Chapter 1
Welcome, readers, to my own world. I hope you will enjoy this story and the key to that is to immerse yourself in it. This tale is about two girls who are from different places and take their differences to solve a mystery to save the school. Long story short, this story is about self belief and that we are all different, but in a good way. But I don’t want to give away too much, so sit back, get comfortable, and enjoy…
***
Lily O’Toole had just started at her new school. She was an Irish girl that had moved to England for her father’s work opportunities. She had red hair, green eyes and freckles. She was rather smart and that meant she got to attend the most prestigious academy in the country, Colin Serabob’s School For Girls. She hadn’t made any friends yet, though, as she was mostly in her room studying or confabulating to the teachers.
But now Lily had her mind set on exploring. To discover the many cliffs, lakes and forests of her new surroundings.
Lily has always had her mind set on going here. It was the most prestigious school in England after all. It was set on a cliff with forests and lakes in its landscape, on the west of England in a small town called Primwood. Many of the girls there became brain surgeons because they did so well (some became other less important things). Lily didn’t want to become a brain surgeon or anything like that, she wanted to become an author. To express her feelings through words and illustrations, to show young people that they can do whatever they set their minds to and to get aspiring authors thinking big. She only wanted to go to this school because of the top class English skills they have to offer. Everyone knows that English in secondary school is really hard, but here, the girls get As and Bs. So if she wanted to fulfil her dream of inspiring people, this was the school for her.
Lily walked around the majestic forests, peered down into the depths of the stunning lakes and stared into the breathtaking views of the cliffs on the horizon. She really enjoyed the activity.
After Lily was done exploring, she walked to her new dorm room, room twenty - seven. It wasn’t a very nice room (for a prestigious school anyway). It had two lumpy beds, a dirty old carpet with a lump in the middle (which gave Lily the creeps because she thought someone died and was buried beneath) and a tattered wardrobe.
Then Lily heard the door open. She turned around and saw a girl in the doorway. She had dark brown hair, a perfectly ironed uniform, and a huge suitcase. She took one fleeting look at Lily’s battered old suitcase and scowled.
“Ugh,” she grumped, “scholarship girl, are you?”
“ Yeah. So what?” Lily replied.
“So what? So WHAT!” the girl shouted, heatedly, “You mustn’t be from around here. I’ve been around the whole school and not once have I seen a scholarship girl”
“I’m sure there are tons,” Lily argued, “Oh, and who elected YOU queen of the school?”
“Pah!” she spat, “I don’t care what you say. I am Sophie Samsung, the daughter of the millionaire who invented those phones!”
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
“Oh, that’s just my phone that my daddy made especially for me📱! Hello, Daddy, I’m kind of in the middle of an argument right now, so call me back, okay. Love you. Bye! Anyway, that means that I am your queen and you are my slave, alright?”
“Yes” she muttered, “Ms Bossy Boots.”
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Sophie said in a mock voice of concern.
“YES!” Lily shouted and threw her shoe at Sophie. Sophie dodged the shoe and it hit a mirror (which she had only noticed then).
“That’s something to tell the teachers,” Sophie whispered threateningly, “You. Just. Wait.”
Lily hopped into bed and cried her heart out.
“Cry baby,” she heard Sophie taunt, “Cry baby, cry baby. Ha! Ha!”
Chapter 2
Let’s skip on a year. Lily is now a year older and latterly, the school has opened for boys. Sophie is treating her like trash and Lily felt she wanted to rebel and prove that she isn’t a weakling. The school is now called “The Primwood Institute For Highly Intellectual Boys and Girls”.
We rejoin Lily as she’s strolling to an English class with a new teacher (not that she was walking with the new teacher, a new teacher was teaching the class). She stepped inside the classroom but saw no teacher there. After a few minutes of constant chatter, the new teacher walked in. He had scruffy black hair and dirty clothes. He looked vaguely at the class and sat down. While he looked distracted, he did seem to be pretty amiable.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said quietly, “I’m Mr McRoi and I will be your teacher.” He seemed very shy and it looked like he would recoil at anything even a little bit scary. Lily hoped he would be able for such a rowdy class.
As class went on, Lily felt herself try to stifle a laugh. It was one of the many funny jokes the teacher had made. She liked Mr McRoi a lot. He was a really good teacher.
The class filed out of the classroom, excitedly chatting about the new English teacher.
- “He’s the best teacher we’ve ever had! Ever!”
- “He makes difficult things super easy!”
- “He’s so much better than Ms Carson!”
- “He makes learning fun!”
We are in Lily’s room (and please don’t think Lily will die, she won’t!) and Sophie Samsung was studying. She isn’t the smartest girl so she was trying to catch up. Lily was talking with her friends in the library right then so Sophie was all alone. As she was studying for her upcoming test in quantum physics, a hooded man burst into the room.
“Hello, Sophie Samsung,” he said in a deep voice. Sophie had no idea who this man was, how he knew her name or what he was doing.
“What do you want?” Sophie asked shakily.
“I heard you know what I’m doing at this school and I can’t have that. Any final words?” the creepy man asked
“Yes,” Sophie answered a little more confidently than before, “You’re a murdering beast and everyone here and beyond these walls hate you.”
Sophie had made it her business to let everyone know what he had done. He was behind the missing stuff she was being blamed for. Unfortunately, she was bluffing, she hadn’t told anyone about him yet and sadly, Sophie had not foreseen that she would live for another day!
As the afternoon sun filtered through the window, Sophie was dead in her bed. Her school bed had become her deathbed so fast. The mysterious man wrapped her limp body in a blanket and carried her to a hidden place. He went back to clean the scene as he had seen too many forensic detective shows to know that they will always find evidence in blood stains and other things. He was a pretty clever criminal because he then left a note pretending it was from Sophie stating that she missed her family too much and had left the school and not to come looking for her cause she was not coming back…
