Whitewood Academy (Year One)

Chapter 3: WHAT?!

CHAPTER 3: WHAT?!

“WHAT THE HELL, MOM!!!” I screeched as I waved the boarding school papers in her face like a lunatic. “A BOARDING SCHOOL FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T FIT IN?! I fit in just fine, Mom!!”

“I’m well aware darling, but…you just got expelled and you’re coming of age soon.” Mum sighed though her nose and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

“What age? What do you mean, Mum?” I asked, worried about her reply. “I know I’m turning 14 soon if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Exactly. Darling, there is something I need to tell you, and you might not believe it.” She anxiously said.

“Then tell me.”

Mum sat down and motioned me to sit beside her on my bed. She took my hands and folded them in her lap. I could feel her hands shaking. “Ciara, dear, I’m a Siren, a type of mermaid-like creature who can sing so beautifully that they can lure any sailor or man into their arms and drown them.”

I stared at her, wondering if she was on crack. “What?”

She sighed in frustration. “Ciara, you have to understand that I am being serious. My mother was a siren and my father was a merman. They didn’t tell me until I came of age, 14. When I was 14, I discovered I could sing wonderfully and that I had the tail of a fish! And now, when you’re 14, you’ll find out what it’s like, too.”

I wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. Her face looked worried and anxious at the same time and there was a vulnerability to her that I had never seen before.

Some things you have to go on fact and logic, but every once in a while, you have to take a leap of faith and believe in the extraordinary.

I took a deep breath before replying. “I believe you, Mum.”

Tears started to swell in my mum’s eyes as she hugged me tight. I wrapped my arms around her, smiling and breathing in her lavender scent.

“So, do you remember your Aunt Myra?” She leaned back and closed her eyes with a smile on her face as if she was recalling some good memories.

Aunt Myra. Aunt Myra. Nope. Doesn’t a-ring any bells.

“Who?” I asked, still a little out of it from what Mum had just told me.

“My younger sister, the one who got married to your Uncle Bill?”

I smiled fondly. “I didn’t know he had a wife.” I wondered curiously. Uncle Bill was probably in his late 20’s or early 30’s and lived alone – at least, that’s what I knew when Mum dropped me off for babysitting when I was, like, 5.

Mum rolled her brown eyes and managed a small amused smile on her face. “Well, maybe that’s because you were too young and weren’t listening when he told you stories and were too busy playing with peanut butter and play dough, pretending it was shampoo and trying to put them in your hair.”

My eyes went wide. I did that when I was a child? Psh, not me. I’m one of the smartest girls in Sovolsky High. Well, at least I used to be….

“So what does…Aunt Myra…do? Like, why was she away all the time whenever I came over?” I inquired.

“She runs a well-known boarding school. It’s Whitewood Academy.”

“The place you’re forcing me to go to?”

“…Yes.”

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “When do I leave and should start packing?”