Chapter Text
“Can you please put your pens down and stop writing.” The moderators voice rang through the large hall, her voice echoing against the corrugated steel walls. “There is to be no talking, eye contact or any other form of communication to occur between candidates as we collect your test papers in. Any form of communication will result in failure in this exam.” Some moderators are nice, but this one was a patronizing control freak. The rumor is that she once disqualified someone for sneezing during a test, and my entire class had been dreading our slot with her.
At her signal, we stood as one and exited the room, our excited voices rising quickly. I glanced around quickly, but I couldn’t spot Bethany. I decided to exit with the crowd and find her outside.
I couldn’t stop the grin spreading across my face as I left the building. The months of stress were finally off my shoulders. I’d done it. I’d survived university. I walked around in the fresh air, slowly easing the tension from my muscles after being hunched over an exam paper for the last 4 hours, letting my hair loose as I stretched gently.
I combed my fingers through my hair, before catching a movement in the corner of my eye. I spun quickly as someone barreled into me. A pair of skinny arms wrapped around my waist as I squeezed their owner hard. “We’ve done it Ginge. We’ve survived it!”
“I know, my lovely BFG!” Bethany, aka Ginge, has been my best friend since high school. She grinned back at me, ecstatic. She’d been struggling with our workload since almost day one, so now the exams were done, she could finally relax. I ruffled her hair playfully, a gorgeous, rich cinnamon orange that had earn her her nickname, laughing at her mock scowl at me.
We waved toward a small group of people approaching before jogging towards them. Instantly, we were absorbed into a tangle of limbs, everyone wrapping their arms around each other. Predictably, I ended up in the middle, head and shoulders above the rest of my bezzies. They hadn’t been nicknamed my munchkins for no reason.
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I lay on the grass, stretched out between Ellie and Mimi. My fingers were tangled in Ellie’s as we basked in the rare english sunshine. Ellie had been the first person I’d met when I’d moved primary schools, and aside from the occasional spat we’d been inseparable. Mimi and I had been roommates in our first year at uni, and we’d quickly become friends. Our hair mingled in the grass, three distinct tones of brown swirling into each other.
We chatted easily to each other, our eight voices rising and swirling around each other, intersped with giggles and snatched of songs. We were all music mad, and none of us were particularly bad singers. Eventually, Col burst into song. She jumped to her feet, pulling me up with her, her long blonde hair swinging everywhere. “I hopped off the plane at L.A.X. With a dream and my cardigan” I recognised the song, and quickly began to improvise a harmony. “Welcome to the land of fame excess, am I gonna fit in?” We pulled Alice to her feet, closely followed by Sarah. They joined in, slowly building up layers of notes until everyone was on their feet in a circle, hands clapping to the beat, lyrics interwoven until we had made a glorious mash up of music. As the last notes dropped off, Sarah made one of her usual one liners.
“Well, I guess that’s what watching Pitch Perfect does to you.”
As we settled back down onto the grass again, giggling, Squish pulled me down in front of her. She gently began to fiddle with my hair, sweeping it up onto the crown of my head and separating it into small sections, twisting it into small plaits and coiling strands round her fingers. We’d met in the rowing team and the sense of comradeship and team teamwork had caused a firm friendship to form. I longed to mess with her hair in return, but when Squish is halfway through a style, you don’t want to move incase you mess it up.
Squish is incredibly talented with hair. She’d done us all for a midwinter dance and we’d all looked wonderful. She had the most incredible hair, glossy, thick, black and smooth and it never seems to tangle, probably because most of the time she wears it in a simple braid straight down her back. It should be a crime that she doesn’t wear it down often.
I beckoned for Alice to come and sit next to me. I’d met her in the library and we’d quickly made it a regular thing. Alice is freakily intelligent, almost like a walking encyclopedia and her hair is simply fabulous. It’s relatively short, around shoulder length and really curley. Her hair tends to form an adorable mini afro and its fun to just lightly tug a curl and watch it spring back into shape.
Alice is also an incredible singer. She’s the main soloist in choir and she can hit any note in a soprano stave, and can hold it for as long as is needed, a skill I greatly admire. Whenever I hit high notes, I can only last for a few bars before needing a breath, but Alice had been known to go for over 11 bars without a break.
Once Squish had finished doing my hair into a half-up-half-down style with fishtail braids, I swapped places with Sarah. She and I had similar hair. Long, thick and slightly wavy, but while her curls resembled ringlets, mine had more of a beach babe kink to them. I loved her hair, and she loved mine. It was a running joke between us that we should trade.
I was laughing with her, before squealing sharply. I squeak was joined by seven other screams. Where as 5 seconds ago we’d been warm and clean, we were now all cold and covered in bright yellow paint. I glared at Andoni, who was holding a bucket, before extending my hand to him. He pulled me to my feet as his friends pulled the rest of the girls up. I’d completely forgotten about the tradition of our uni. On the last day, it was traditional to have a paint war. I grinned as Andoni tossed me a few balloons filled with some paint.
Let the games begin.