1: an unexpected turn of events

261 12 10
                                        




Prologue

"You know that you are all very much gifted with strange, almost supernatural abilities"

"You must know the dangers, if you are to take up this quest."

"But if you insist, you may start at dawn."

-------

I stared out of our dormitory's balcony. You might now think that i'm about to describe an awseome sunset with a sparkling sky. Well. Sorry folks. Not much out there. Its just the overgrown field behind our school. Still. I was standing on our balcony - if its considered a balcony, it is not very much bigger than a clothes wardrobe and can only accomodate two people maximum at a time - still, a girl needs to chill out, right?

Anyway, there I was, gazing out to the endless azure sky. I like the word azure. it seems nice and grown-up, sorta sophisticated - that's the right word. As my English teacher Ms Honey would say, words like awesome are too overated and overused. Ugh. Now i sound like the tecaher's pet, Rowena Royce.

So. Getting back to where I was, standing on the dorm's balcony and then - 'JUNE!' - someone called my name from inside. I sviwelled around and promptly banged my nose against the glass door. Did I mention I was a total klutz? Well. Now you know.

Then. Ouch. Then, rubbing my nose irritatedly, I turned around to find Ethel, my room mate, - one of my room mates - motioning that dinner is ready. I carefully opened the glass door; I mean, one nose accident is enough, right? and walked in.

By the way, if you're wondering, we aren't in high school or college, which would, as Ms Honey would say, make up for our most childish behaviour. I suppose we are a little childish, but childishness is in the eye of the beholder, right?

So, continuing from just now. I walked into the kitchen to find well, dinner. Matilda, the youngest of us, was perched on a stool, her long brown well-conditioned hair brushing silkily past her waist.

I smiled. Matilda looked like her namesake in the book Matilda, by Roald Dahl. She - our Matilda - was thin, nearly to the point of being scrawny, wrists and elbows stcking out. She had delicate features, a slight nose, rosebud lips and pear-seed shaped eyes; however, her ears offset the "delicate" look by sticking out quite a bit (understatment!).

She was rather sensitive about this, so we tried not to talk about it too much. Consequences, if she was not in a good mood it would be bad. She might be the smallest and thinnest of us but she had a temper.

Another perhaps noticeable feature of Matilda was her long, sharp nails. They were curved and hard. So woe betide you if you got her mad!

I heard slow, cautious footsteps and looked up. I saw Kelly carefully carrying a rather large pot of what looked - and smelled - like mushroom soup. As she manoeuvred her way to the table, I helped her set it down.

Kelly is a rather slim tall girl with long legs and dark aubrun-reddish hair. Yep, she's a redhead. Black-rimmed glasses and a few black heads perched on her nose; though the difference not only in sight but also remained the fact that one could be taken off easily but not the other.

Behind her glasses were two large expressive dark-chocolate brown eyes with lovely naturally long eyelashes. Her thick crimson eyebrows hid into her fringe when she raised them, and she often did when one of us was being especially childish; she is probably the most mature one of us all.

After her came Clarrissa into the room, her lovely dark lavender eyes glancing at her smartphone -which she always had with her, in a small pouch, 24/7 - with her pale golden hair falling from her shoulders, glittering like a halo.

Although she was not the tallest, she had a gorgeous figure, and was the beauty of the five of us, often flirting effortlessly with the boys, and we teased her ceaslessly about her constant string of boyfriends. She would get irritated about this and would scold us about it, but she almost never stayed in a huff for long.

Following her closely was Ethel. She had a rather "curvy" build - and she was as sensitive as Matilda was with her ears about it - amongst us the second shortest.

Often, Ethel would deny the few inches seperating her and Clarrissa (who is the next tallest). As often in friendship groups, the shortest is the shunned. She was carefully tying up her dark hair with a black hair-band, anxiously peering in the mirror with her murky blue eyes. She had a good complexion with light brown skin, though her goosebumps - if and when she had them - were quite huge.

Then I crossed the room and stood next to Ethel in front of the mirror. Looking back at me was a young girl, taller than Ethel by a few inches, with charcoal-black hair framing her oval-shaped head. My two teal eyes stared back at me valiantly, their light-sea colour glinting in the yellow lamp light. My best features were probably my eyes and hair. I didn't have a "drop-dead gorgeous" figure as Clarrissa did, I had a straight up-and-down figure like a ironing board, my stomach sometimes sticking out a little. My left foot twirled around in circles. I'd carefully painted my toenails the lucious teal my eyes were.

Perhaps I was lying when I said my best features were only my hair and eyes. I also had long legs. I'm currently the same height as my mom, but my legs are about two inches longer than hers. (yay!) Of course, i try not to boast (which isn't always hard, as i am hardly too beautiful. Many times i feel inadaquate about my looks).

We all sat down and began to eat. It was cream-of-mushroom soup with tosat that night, that Kelly had cooked, with Matilda helping to make the mushroom soup. Matilda's soups were always from the can, and she made it a point to make it thick and creamy, and also very filling.

We talked about random stuff. Anything under the sun, anything ranging from Ms Honey, the latest flavour of M&Ms, our Debating club, and the list could stretch through the whole book so I'm not going to elaborate on that, okay?

Then, all of a sudden, there is a knock on thr door. We froze. The spoonful of mushroom soup trickled down my throat awkwardly. It was as though time had stopped, as though Kronos had held us in his fist of time.

At this point, I wish to say that it had been me who had made the first move. Unfortunately, I seemed to have been glued to the spot, playing music statues. Kelly slowly stood up, as though every move hurt. Then she padded over to the door.

She looked into the peephole, then reluctantly opened the door, the handle squeaking noisily in the silence.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Hey there! I've been trying hard with my first story - please don't judge! The exciting part hasn't even started yet - read on! Hope you enjoyed it and please vote :)

s

Same Lunch TableWhere stories live. Discover now