As the rest of the students entered I let out a snarl as I realized Ruby was yet again another of them! It was like that girl was over me like a rash, where-ever I was she was there! It was unsettling. I zoned out while she introduced the other students but I'd pick up their names later! I began to dream.
"Jessica! Jessica, please stay still!" I heard a motherly voice, my mother? I felt a tissue wipe across my chin and I giggled and pulled away.How old was I!? I must of been little as I couldn't reach my mothers face with my tiny hands. I couldn't see what she was feeding me.
Suddenly a clicking hand appeared in my blurred vision. I followed the arm that the hand was clicking from and found the professor with one eyebrow raised looking right at me. I smiled sheepishly and she continued. "As I was saying! You'll be given a house to govern over. You're older years now and you need to set examples. There'll be a girl and a boy for each house. there have had to be some alterations to the running order though. I'll need Alex, Dionne,Joe, Vicki, Angelina, Callum, Ryan and Jessica." I heard a whimper from Ruby as the professor spoke the last words. "Ruby" she continued, "Is there a problem!?" Ruby stuttered, went to say something and thought better of it. She closed her mouth and pouted whilst laying daggers into the back of my head, I could feel them as if they were real.
"Good! Now where was I?" De'Lianndro caught her thoughts, " Oh yes! Now, the heads of each house will be sharing rooms and I'll show you to each one, unfortunately you cannot decorate these beds, they're in your house colours. It's irregular throughout the school that girls and boys are allowed to sleep together but in this instance we are expecting you to be calm and responsible! Now all like to follow me to your rooms and when we're ready to start the House Sorting I'll call you into the hall. Ruby I'm sure you're aware that you are relieved from your position and would you please return to your chambers prior to your Head room. Now follow me!"
We were all herded down the endless corridors again until we came to another massive door. It was gilded with gold and had all the house colours on it. Those who had seen it before weren't that impressed but to me it was all new! I took in every smell, shade of colour and refection of light on the whole thing although I found as we entered the common room itself it was impossible to take in everything. There was too much around me! Chandeliers, bookcases, armchairs and sofas, mirrors and pictures! Some completely covering a quarter of one of the extensive walls! It was like I was in Louisiana Palace! As Professor flung open the double doors towards the back of the room another magnificent room much like the previous was revealed. In this room the pictures, sofas and armchairs were replaced with a circle of beds. Two for each house, the headboards were ornately carved with embedded jewels according to the house colours; Sapphires for Califray; Topaz for Leedadee; Emeralds for Demoreen and Amethyst for Westerlate. I looked around in complete awe and excitement. Before I knew what was happening De'Lianndro was out of the room, the TV was out the boys on the sofa and the girls sitting on their beds checking it all out. I felt Angelina's hands clasp mine and as I turned around she jumped on me and screeched,
"OMFG!!" Everyone turned to look at her as she got down sheepishly and apologized, I started laughing hysterically, by the time I'd finished I think they'd associated us as the weird ones. I really didn't care though! This was probably one of the best moments of my life! This place was incredible and I had a feeling I was going to love it here!!
The House Sorting
We made our way down to the staircase, we had to wait to be called in as House Heads. We were given uniforms with our house colours. As we sat down on a separate table we watched the people go up to be sorted. Only a few people swapped though, a younger year with ginger hair and a face so full with freckles and spots it was impossible to tell where his eyes were and then a middle school girl with bushy eye-brows and a short, stout frame. Last of all before us was Lianna, she was switched to Westerlate. Then it was our turn.
"Dionne Abra"
She looked up and took her place by the Goblet, there was a sharp intake of breath as she was made the head of Demoreen. Next was Alex Beet who was made Head Boy of Leedadee along with Vikki Draws who was the Head Girl. Head Boy of Demoreen was Joseph Cast. Head Boy and Girl of Caifray were Callum Denver and Angelina De'Metri. This left me and Ryan. It was obvious where were going and Ryan sailed through and was made Head Boy of Westerlate. It was now my turn. I stepped up to the octagonal table and held out my wrist for the blade. As the cool, hard surface connected with my skin I felt a sting and then a flood of release and a trickle of blood drip down my wrist. I took a peep around the edge of the goblet and at the piece of paper that was transforming in front of my eyes. The blood ran around the paper as though it was looking for something, it changed direction again and again, deciding where to go, what to do. Suddenly, the blood disappeared, soaked into the paper, and bled back through again with one word. One word that was going to be etched in my memory forever, creating feelings that were half-way between excitement and confusion. One word that I don't think has ever meant more yet so little to me.
Her
I don't think I was left alone for one second, or had myself not talked about for a minute since the ceremony. I was eyed with suspicion to those who didn't understand and treated like some sort of God by the younger years. By the end of the week I was sick of it! I was walking to History, arm in arm with Angelina and Leanna, I can tell you I was not looking forward to our first lesson. I would seem dumb compared to half the others, I've always really been smart but I felt like in this school I would be less than mediocre.We walked in and lined up against the back wall: waiting for our seats. I pressed my hands against the cold stone wall. I ran my fingers lightly over it, It felt strange, almost like it was pulsating under my fingers. Before I had a chance to turn around a teacher stalked into the room. He was tall and blonde, his eyes sparkled electric blue and as he brushed past us he sent the pulsating feeling back up my arms. He sat us in our seats, I ended up next to a ginger boy who smelt like strawberries. He seemed nice and his name was Daniel but he had this annoying habit of tapping his pen. I tried to block out the noise and listen to the teacher. I could feel this lesson involving a lot of buckling down! The teacher picked up the chalk and dragged it across the board making the most horrible squeaking sound you could ever imagine, I buried my head in my hands along with the rest of the class. Then he began to write his name, Mr. Taylor. I smiled when I saw his last name, I pictured me and him as twins and I had to bite down hard on my cheeks to stop myself from laughing. This earned me an odd look from Daniel and a kick from Angelina behind me.
"Now class" he started, "My name is Mr. Taylor, I'm your new History teacher, due to... unfortunate circumstances...Mr. Addams is not available. So carrying on with what you've been learning, the Original families. As you know the three original families are the Taylors, Faradays and Mitchells. The Taylors are part of my own personal family and I believe there is a Faraday in this class?" Almost as soon as he'd finished Ruby flung her hand in the air and replied,
"Yes, sir indeed I am!" I could feel the sick smugness flying off her and making me gag! I turned back to the front and saw Mr. Taylor's face. It actually made me laugh out loud. I couldn't tell if he looked horrified, scared or amused. Ruby dropped her hand slowly and ducked her head, as she did Mr Taylor carried on.
"Right...well, where was I!? Oh yes! Original families, there are many variations of the family, distant relatives. Families with the same names. The Taylor family is normally considered to be the most powerful family: they descend from the great Druids rather than the other the less powerful Salem Witches but in truth the only descendant that is more powerful from the rest is that born from the Taylors and one of the other original families. These children are extremely rare and only come along every several hundred years if not many more! Now, if you'd like to turn to page 34 in your text books you'll find our newest sub-topic, "Druids and Witches: The difference?" "
Everyone got out their text books and started to flip through them to get the right page, the horrible sounds of pages rubbing together filled my ears and sent a shiver down my spine, so far the lesson was interesting but I was tingling all over as though I was wary of everything. I got the page and looked back up to Mr. Taylor and he began to talk again, it seemed as though all this man did was talk!
"Now, many people become confused when we use the term Druid and not witch. Druids are children of the Earth whereas witches are children of the Rift. The Rift was a whole between the mythical world and the real world that was split by an original Druid called Henry Taylor who lived in Salem. Once in the mythical world he soaked up all the excess power that floated around and in the end brought down Zeus himself. In return for his life Zeus gave the families of Salem magic and everlasting power if they chose to pass it down. In many cases people could not handle the magic given but the strongest families (the Faradays and Mitchells) passed down an incredible amount of power causing the Salem Witch to evolve. The Taylor gene however need to move away from Salem. The Druids already had their powers given to them at the dawn of time by Gaia- or Mother Earth- the power from the Rift only heightened it. Henry Taylor made a deal with the goddess Artemis saying that she would take the unborn son from his wife's' womb and put it in the Queen of England, Elizabeth of York, and the gene was planted. Henry VII grew up to gain amazing powers but it wasn't until he met Anne Boleyn that things really changed. When he had Elizabeth with her they created a force unlike any seen since. She was considered wild, unruly and dangerous as she grew up but that was just the powers running rampant in her system. When she was 18 her body transitioned causing her to be able to control all her powers. She grew up to be one of the most brilliant people known to History! Now I suppose many of you are wondering whether all of this will help you one day!? Well the answer, for most of you yes! It will help you immensely when conjuring spells and detecting a rift but for some of you, no it most definitely won't. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you have knowledge on your side, sometimes it just ends up being about who is more powerful. Oh well! Read chapters 3 and 4 for homework we'll have a quiz next lesson so study hard! Out! OUT!" He cried as we all packed our things away and were herded like sheep out of the pulsating classroom. I decided to linger back, I wanted to ask Mr. Taylor a question. I waited for every person to leave before I slipped back in, Mr. Taylor was standing in front of the board muttering to himself, the only word I caught was Elizabeth. I coughed sharply and he spun around, startled, the shock was obvious on his face when he saw who it was.
"Can I help you Miss..." he asked trailing off
" Taylor" I finished for him, his face turned ashen as soon as the word left my mouth.
"Taylor?" he said raising his eyebrow
"Yes...Sir, I have an important question, may this wait!?"
"Oh yes of course, carry on..!?" He sat down and indicated to me to sit on one of the tables. I sat delicately on the edge of a desk and proceeded with my question, my tongue stepping carefully.
"You said that the Druid's were given their powers by Gaia, well would that mean they had a sort of connection? Like they could contact or warn each other, or maybe even help them in a time of need!?"
Mr Taylor pondered over the thought for about a minute until he replied, "Yes, I suppose you're right, although I've never felt it before it's said that the Druids have a sense of their surroundings that is uncannily incredible, why may I ask!?" I thought over his answer, I remembered the how the walls were pulsating and how I got the same feeling when Mr. Taylor walked in the room, it didn't take long to put two and two together. Mr. Taylor was bad news.
"So, any Druid could feel this power or only the very powerful ones?"
"In theory any Druid but I doubt that's possible for most of us, again I must stress why do you ask?" I could hear the strain i his voice now, I wanted to get out but curiosity was winning.
"What about evil, can Druids sense evil?" Mr. Taylor cocked his eyebrow
"What are you suggesting Miss T...Taylor" My face was stony as I back out of the classroom,
"Absolutely nothing Sir, it was just a question..." I trailed off as his eyes turned from his electric blue to a dangerous harsh red. I fled the classroom before he say anymore. My face was hot and I could feel perspiration on the back of my neck run down my back. I was shiver all over: Mr Taylor had really scared me! I had to get the troubles and the staring off my chest. So I went to the Headmistress. She doesn't seem like the type of person you'd talk to from a distance but once you get to know her she's surprisingly kind. I walked towards her office ignoring the stares and knocked sharply on the door three times. Madam Swinkared opened the door on my second knock and I nearly hit her smack in the face. I realized that Swinkared seemed tall on my first day because of her extremely high heels, but for some reason as the week went on her heels got shorter until she was literally a dwarf. I smothered back laughter as the thought popped into my head and took her stern look of disapproval for an 'enter please'. I walked past Swinkared and through the next door into Miss Havisham's office. I realized I forgot to knock again and as I got another look of disdain from Miss Havisham this time I smiled sheepishly and shut the door as carefully as I could
"You never do knock do you Jessica?" Miss Havisham said, her voice thick with sarcasm.
I grinned at her hoping that she wouldn't get too mad at me. Thankfully she smiled her sweet smile and gestured to the chair on the other side of her desk. I sunk back into the high backed red leather chair and for the first time I'd come here I felt at home. I closed my eyes and sunk back further, I just wanted the chair to swallow me whole so I wouldn't have to deal with this stupid mess right now!
"You know, the pain gets easier" I heard Miss Havisham say, " I of all people should know my love"
I opened my eyes and looked at Miss Havisham quizzically.
"Believe me, it's a long story!" She replied chucking a little bit.
I shrugged, "I have time! No lessons until 2?"
She pursed her lips but continued to speak, "Well when I was younger and in this school, there was a boy. At first I absolutely hated him! We had so many confrontations it was unbelievable but even when I thought I hated him I couldn't string a sentence together when I was in the same room as him! It got to the spring dance and I was going with his best friend and he was going with mine, we were only doing it to annoy each-other but it worked too much I think. The next day even he wouldn't get involved the slightest hint of a conversation with me. And then I found out he was going out with my best friend. He married her in the last year of school, and we never talked again until the wedding. He took me aside and asked me a question, he said,
"Dianne, I need you, if anything ever happens to us you're going to look after our child if there is one." Of course I agreed because he was the love of my life but there was no way I could ever imagine the incident of him dying come to light. But then it happened. It was as if he knew he was going to die. I received the child a few days after the incident and I looked after the child as much as I could because that little baby was the only thing I had left of my best friend and the love of my life. I couldn't look after the child for long though, my work didn't permit it so I gave the baby to her aunt. It was the last time I ever saw her."
After Miss Havisham had finished speaking I realized I'd been getting closer and closer to the edge of my seat. I was feeling so many emotions for this woman, sadness and a deep sense of wanting to hug her. She looked so lost and sad, you could see the regret in her eyes.
"Miss, could I see a picture of your best friend? I mean if you have one!?" I rushed wanting to break the awkward silence.
"Erm, of course" She replied snapping out of her trance.
As she bustled around her drawers for a picture I looked at the back of Miss Havisham's wrist and saw a tattoo, it was the shape of a moon and there was the word 'Vanessie' underneath it. I frowned, why did I remember that name...
I snapped out of my thinking mood and smiled as she passed me two pictures, one of three girls and another of two girls. As she passed me the first one I looked at all three girls trying to pick out Miss Havisham.
Miss Havisham must of seen my confusion as she lugged and pointed to the girl on the left and said, "That's me, and the one on the right is Marie Faraday and the girl in the middle is the best friend who married the love of my life."
I looked up at Miss Havisham and asked, "Why do you not say her name?"
"Who's name?" Miss Havisham replied, but she had that sound in her voice that made me think she knew what I was talking about.
"The best friend who got married to the love of your life?"
"I don;t like to think of her, plus you will find out in time who she is."
I raised my eyebrows at Miss Havisham, and she gave me a defeated look.
"The girl in the middle, is 'Her' " Miss Havisham replied.
I stared at her. This woman knew something about the name that appeared in the ceremony. I had to know more!
"Do you have anymore pictures of her?" I asked, I could feel I was pushing it a bit but she slid me the last picture.
"The girl on the left is 'her' and the girl on the right is myself" Miss Havisham said pointing at the two girls.
I seemed weird to think that Miss Havisham was a young girl once, especially a young girl with a best friend who is now the most powerful vampire presence known to man, but then it struck me, wasn't the best friend dead!?
"But Miss, isn't your best friend dead?" I asked
"No, but she is to me. She abandoned her child and never talked to me ever again. She is not a woman I want to know." she fired back bluntly and almost instantly.
"Oh..." I trailed off, "Well are you sure that people don't deserve a second chance?"
"She wouldn't talk to me anyway!" Miss Havisham replied She grabbed the photos in my hand and shoved them in a draw to the right of her. "I'm sorry but please leave!"
I was about to protest but I saw tears welling up in her eyes so I thought better. As I walked out of the office into the hall I pressed my back against the back wall and let the vague memories flood back.