"These are the most important rules," Edit says in her usual, sombre voice and then places a paper in front of me with bullet points listing the rules. I pick it up and start reading.
• Clean your room
• Respect the teacher
• Feed your bat(s)
The moment I read that I laughed so hard. "What bats?" I ask after recovering from my laughing fit. I continue eating my scrambled eggs as Edith explains. "Well, when the school first started they had a mango farm to import, to support the costs of the academy."
She started but Anna interrupted her by saying, "She's madly obsessed with the history of this place." Edith rolls her eyes at this and says, "I am not madly obsessed, it's just interesting." she says, giving special attention to the word madly.
"Why are you even here in the first place? Aren't just the people with special talents accepted in this place?" I ask Anna, not in a rude way, more just in a curious way. I get Edith's really smart, her genius is probably why she's here.
She shrugs and says, "I'm an activist, started such a big riot in my town that the second in command came down to our little town and fixed the problem." She said with a proud smirk.
"What was the problem?" I ask her, almost hesitant to find out. She simply shrugs and says, "Didn't like the flowers." I chuckle and ask, "What do you mean you 'didn't like the flowers'?" Before she could reply Edith started talking again.
"Anyways, fruit bats really like the mangos and wouldn't leave. So, they kept them and for some odd reason, each bat clings to a different person." They then promised to take me to the bats once our classes were all done.
I nodded excitedly and continued reading.
• Do your homework
• Don't bother the King
That one creeps me out. I mean is common sense not to bother the person with the highest authority in all of the land, but the thing is, over the last few weeks I haven't seen or heard the King at all.
And the curiosity is scratching at me to try and find him. See what he looks like, smells like, talks like. Like something is pulling me to him, nagging me to find him. When I ask the girls about them they just say, "Nobody has ever seen him. He has his younger brother to be his spokesperson but all we know is that one time, somebody got a glimpse of him and was expelled immediately."
This is fascinating for me. Where does he live? What does he do? Why does he hide away? When did he decide to hide away? How does he manage without talking to anybody? How has nobody seen him? So many questions swirling around in my mind like a whirlwind shaking my head, making it spin with curiosity.
Anna quickly changed the subject to the rest of the rules, not wanting to get philosophical this early in the morning, and luckily for her, the bell rang. Signifying that breakfast is over, Edith and I go get our bags and head to our first class.
I have an off period and decided to go back to my room to do some homework. I am sitting down at my desk when there's a knock on my door. When I open the door it the same old lady as this morning.
She smiles at me and asks, "Miss Fisherman?" She smiles at me. I nod at her, rolling my eyes as she already knows who I am. She hands me a bracelet. "You have to wear this at all times, except, of course when you're in the water. When working with water you have to press this button" she says, showing me the button. " If you do break the rules, it will alert a teacher. Got it?"
"Why do we have to wear this? Isn't that a bit close to say, a prison system?" I question, not willing to accept this so easily. She seems to shift her feet. "It's for dissipline mostly." Her explanation seems acceptable. "How did they make it?" I ask, wondered by the detailed engineering. "I'm not sure. They don't tell me any of this. You should ask these types of questions to the principle." She commands, still her voice is unsure.
I say my thanks and close the door. I then put it on, I wonder how they made this thing? It's obviously before it's time. I wouldn't be surprised if it was made with magic. I chuckle at how ridiculous that is and continue with my work.
Later when our classes were over Edith and Anna came by to help me get a bat. They took me to these, huge, glass doors. It is inside this greenhouse dome, I can see several bats swarm the plantation. The dome is huge, there are small rooms everywhere that have one mango tree and water buckets.
"Now all you have to do is stand there and wait for a bat to come to you," Anna said padding me on my shoulder. With that, they leave, standing outside the doors, as not to compromise the right bat choosing me.
The moment my two new friends exited the room all the bats flew away from me. Not a single bat even came close to me. The fluttering of their wings, gone. The dome fell completely silent, I stood there for so long and nothing.
With a happy sigh, I left. I really didn't want to deal with a bat, the thing is nasty anyway. My friends were really stunned by that but I ignored them and went on with my day.
The rest of my day went on as normal, well as normal as it could have been. That night I didn't struggle to sleep at all.
Every day that passed after that was excruciating. The curiosity of these strange rules biting me. Bothering me, to the point where I can't even focus in class. I am getting in trouble several times for not paying attention. For example, while in English class I was doing what I always seem to be doing nowadays. I was daydreaming of the king. A whole array of questions were storming and brewing in my head when the teacher called on me. I confessed and luckily she let me off with a warning. Though, her warning didn't help because thoughts of the king are like a looming figure in my head. Always on my mind. In music class, we practised, well at least for my fellow classmates, all the songs. For me, however, I was struggling to learn all the songs while they just continued playing. Th
...I should turn back but when the door rattles I know, there's no turning back now. The door rattles, like locks being opened. There's a pause at the door, like whoever is at the door is contemplating whether or not to open. Like the universe was giving the person at that door an extra push. Just as irrational as my decision was, the door opens. The squeaking of the door is what brings me to look up at the handsome male who opened the door, who I assumed to be the king. To say he was handsome would be an understatement. He is beyond drop-dead gorgeous, like a god that fell from the sky. With a jawline that could cut glass, he looks amused with my shocked expression. I expected him to be some old, 60-something man. His eyes are piercing blue, like a dark storm cloud, the strike of lightning, or the clear waters of the ocean that my mother would describe to me and just as enchanting. Like they hold years of wisdom in them.
When I opened the old creaky door all I see are mops, brooms, cloths, soap, and other cleaning supplies. I'm in a fake maid's closet, made for these secret tunnels the King has. Very peculiar, opening the door in front of me and I'm greeted by stares from young girls in their nightclothes.From another point of view, I'm a girl who just walked out of a maid's closet, I can just hear the rumors spreading already. To add to my list of problems Mr. Anderson storms up to me and grabs me by the wrist. He angrily fumes me into his office, for such a short man he walks swiftly.He sits down in his carved spruce wood chair. "Care to explain why your I.B went off?" He raises his brow at me, playing with his pen. I didn't say anything, I didn't know what to say. "And then you somehow deactivate it?" I must be looking like a cherry tomato."If I wasn't busy so with-" He stops himself before he goes on. "With?" I ask slyly, trying to lighten the mood. His chee
The days went by excruciatingly slow, with nothing memorable happening but eventually, Thursday turned into Friday and in the blink of an eye, it was already Monday again. The weekend consisted of nothing but working and relaxing.Every now and then Anna and I would go out into the town square. Talk to some people who live in the castle and many other activities. Nothing out of the ordinary, not until Monday came again.The day Alexander told me to met him and my nerves are running up and down the walls. What if Levi told Alexander about what I did? He could expel me, where would I go to school then?The whole day my mind has been coming up with what-ifs and scenarios of what would happen. Not to mention, what am I going to tell my friends? My mind constantly being consumed by fake realities between me, Alexander, and my friends made the time fly by.I could tell them the truth, explain to them that I'll be meeting someone on the field but then they
It just past midnight, the grandfather clock chiming in the hallway. It rings once; twice; twelve times to signal midnight, which means it's Tuesday. The day that I finally get to see Levi again, my mind should be at ease but no.My brain races all over thinking of what he might be doing. If Alexander spoke to Levi, maybe he'll ban me from ever seeing him again.I'm tossing and turning, trying to find the right position to sleep in. Trying to get my body to succumb to exhaustion and just sleep.My whole body is tired, my eyelids droopy; my legs tired; my arms heavy, the only thing not tired is my mind. It moves at the speed of a racing horse, jumping from one thought to the next, making me crave the peacefulness sleep would provide even more.Hopefully, soon my mind will wear itself out, join my body in its hazy, sleepy state. Let the dark blanket of the night, hug me and comfort me into a deep sleep.That is what happened, at least I think s
1 September 1272 Tuesday:I open the door that I yearn to open each day but like last Tuesday, the room lacks a tall handsome figure. I walk forward, looking around trying to find Levi. Right as I was about to go to the far end door I found Levi the last time, the man I'm trying to find jumps in front of me and scares me. "Boo!" He yells, scaring me right out of my shoes."Levi! You scared me!" I yell, slapping his arm playfully, slightly gripping it for support as I calm down my speeding heart and catch my breath. He just continues laughing, gripping his stomach from the pain of so much snickering, I assume. Annoyed I scoff and make my way over to the coach. With a huff, I sit-down, and cross my arms, showing Levi my annoyance.He walks over to me, a troubled look on his face, and starts panicking. "I-I, I'm sorry, I didn't k-know you w-w-would get so scared." He says, his face showing
8 September 1272 TuesdayI tap nervously on my table, excited to see Levi. As soon as the bell rings and the teacher tells us goodbye, I make my way out of the room as quickly as I can. I then make my way to my room in just a few minutes.When I open my door I see the one and only King of the north, standing in a cloak holding an odd, brown, rectangular box. "M'lady," he says, bowing down to me. I giggle, closing the door behind me and saying to him in a fake powerful voice. "Sneaking into my room, I should have your head for that!" He fake gasped at my statement.We tried not to laugh as we looked at each other, seriously but we just can't help ourselves and burst out in laughter.Once we finished laughing Levi proceeds to say, "Anyway, I brought one of my f-favorite board games." He said but I stooped him by saying, "Ah ah, we gotta go through the techniques." Swaying my finger left and right.He sighs but then to my surpri
29 September 1272 TuesdayThis, the last semester is slowly coming to an end, which means if we're close to the end, it's exam time. Exam time means studying and a lot of it. It's been over two weeks, Levi has come to my room however I had to tell him to leave, unfortunately. Having to focus on studying.It broke my heart to see how excited he was and then to see him turn cold once I told him I needed some alone time. Today is different, today I have time. I open my room door, excited to see Levi but my heart sinks as he is nowhere to be found.Did he think that I don't want to spend time with him? That's not the case at all, I've just been busy. I won't let him think that I'll make sure he knows I care for him. After all, I still know about the tunnels, I know how to get to him.With firey determination, I open the tunnel door. Not even thinking about how he might scare me again but what I find in his room is almost worse, nothing. I find his usual