Chapter Seven

Chapter seven

When they had finished their worksheets they all looked at the teacher. His name was Mr. Chapman, he wasn’t quite as tall as Dean Silk, or Mr. Roblin, but he was still very tall; he was muscular, with sun-touched skin, tousled light blonde hair, and eyes so pale blue they could almost be called white. His voice was deep and rolling and had a hint of a British accent.

“Alright, now that you are done with worksheet one,” He motioned with his head for them to close their books. “I am going to assign a book that you will read. Because that is what you do with books. If you ever burn one I will personally murderer you.” The class laughed. “No, seriously.” Mr. Chapman said. He then began talking about the book, he put emphasis on each word by dropping a thick book on each of the desks. The title of the book read Eagle of the Ninth.

“Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff is about an officer who goes on a journey to find, and hopefully re-establish his deceased father’s lost legion.” He walked back down towards his desk and leaned on the edge.

“I expect you to read at least the first two chapters this week, and the bell should be saving you from my torturous voice any moment.” Mr. Chapman cocked his head a little to the side and waited, sure enough the soft bell rang.

“That is dinner, out.” He made a shooing motion at them and began to pick up the grammar books. It took at least twenty minutes for them to find their way down to the largest of the dining areas. The room was crowded, if you tried to count the number of students you would have gotten dizzy. Jerald had to stretch up to shout in Aden’s ear it was so loud.

“How many students are there at this school?” Aden shrugged quizzically. They managed to push their way through the tangle of bodies and finally ended up in one of the buffet lines. It was surprising how much food was left considering the number of people in line, and the number of people already sitting down with their food. As they piled their plates high with steaming pasta, mashed potatoes, rolls, carrots, and pieces of a meat that a boy identified as venison, they heard a familiar voice.

“How’s your first day been so far?” Declan was on the other side of the table, he was also holding a tray, but he had different, odd looking food. Jerald answered him.

“Hectic, how many students go here?” Declan threw his head back in a shoulder-shaking laugh, he recovered and answered him breathlessly.

“Who knows?” Declan turned and started walking to one of long tables, they all followed him.

“How many boarding manors are there?”

“Too many to count.” Declan shrugged, he sat down, looking up he asked “Are you going to sit or what?” The chairs slid smoothly on the floor as they pushed them back. At first no one said a word because they were too busy cramming food in their mouths to talk. When they had finally slowed down Jerald, who was next to Declan, shifted to look past Peter’s head.

“Wow, I mean I’m not surprised but, wow.” They all turned to see what he was looking at. Sitting at one of the round tables, all alone was Lye. Declan nodded.

“You’re right, it’d kind of sad really.” He paused to take a long gulp from his glass. “No one can see that she’s actually a relatively good person.” One of the boys that was walking by, heard Declan and snorted.

“What you don’t believe me Ake?” Declan asked him. Ake shook his head and said,

“Need I remind you what your ‘sister’ said to me last year?” Ake put air quotes around ‘sister’.

“No, no need.” Declan sighed and shook his head.

“Wait, Lye is your sister?” George, who had recently sat down besides Michelle and Jerald the ‘three shorties’ which was quite adorable, piped up in his squeaky voice. Declan bit his lip and hung his head from side to side as if he was weighing it.

“Not exactly, it’s,” He stammered to find the right words “It’s just too complicated to explain right now. She’s not my blood sister.” He blinked his eyes as if mentally discarding something before he resumed speaking. “So, how have your classes been so far?” They started talking about their teachers they’d had so far.

“You know” Terrence said after describing Mr. Chapman, on the demand of a few girls from the Cereze Manor. “Mrs. Light, kind of reminded me of someone. I just can’t put my finger on it.”

” “Mrs. Light reminds you of someone because she is the daughter of Dean Silk.” Everyone turned their heads to look at Declan. A unison “Oh….” came from all of them. The bell rang, its soft almost tinkling sound rang through the large dinning hall. As they stood up to dispose of their trays Hayden asked Declan.

“How do all the students fit in the dining areas if there are so many students?”

“We have different dinner periods.” Claire had walked in right at that moment with Wit and several hundred more students. Claire had answered Hayden.

“Well that makes sense.” Hayden responded

After “dinner” Michelle, George, and Declan said goodbye and parted. Chemistry was on the first floor, corridor one, room two. Then world history, which was also on floor one, corridor three, room seven. Geometry was located all the way on the third floor, corridor sixteen, room nine.

Nothing exciting happened in these classes, their teachers were nice. The boys had a different science teacher than Michelle and George had said they had, and he wasn’t the least bit creepy. He was the equivalent of a happy-bubbly child on a sugar high, plus caffeine.

The world history teacher talked like an army general, especially when it came to talking about battles and what the British “should have done” to keep her American colonies.

It turned out that the geometry teacher had had “an accident” and Assistant Dean Johnson Jones would be teaching them. He really knows his stuff, Peter thought.

Extra curricular classes didn’t start until next week, and that was a good thing, because by the time they stumbled through the doors of the manor they were exhausted.

“I can hear one of the parlor’s couches calling my name.” Hayden announced. A rumbling laugh greeted them as they walked through the stair room. Mr. Roblin was walking towards them.

“I’m guessing you had a good first day then?” Mr. Roblin asked raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

“If you mean ‘exhausting’ when you say ‘good’ then yes” Aden said while he pushed his hair out of his eyes. Mr. Roblin eyed Aden’s hair.

“Would you like a barrette? I’m sure I have one of my daughter’s in my pocket somewhere.” He began to rummage in his coat pockets.

“No, no I’m good. Thanks anyways.” Aden said raising his hands mock defense.

“If you need it you know where to find me.” After he had left everyone started to laugh. Aden rolled his eyes as their laughter continued. Claire and Lye walked in at that moment deep in conversation. They stopped talking abruptly.

“What did we miss?” Claire wondered aloud.

“Yes, that’s what I’d like to know.” Lye swept her eyes over the ever growing group of kids. Declan managed to catch his breath and explain to them what had happened. Everyone except Lye burst into another round of laughter. Lye merely rolled her eyes.

“That’s Eloy’s sense of humor for you.”Lye said, suddenly her head snapped up and she began to whisper repeatedly, her words weren’t audible.

Her eyes were wide and seemed to be glazed over, she wasn’t moving a muscle although she was swaying slightly from side to side. Her veins were dark on her pale skin, her hands were clenched into fists so tight that her knuckles were as white as polished tile. Ecrin, along with Claire and Declan, were in front of Lye in a moment. Ecrin took Lye’s shoulders and spoke to her in a soft, yet pressing voice.

“Come back Lye, come back.” Ecrin pleaded the almost zombie-like figure. Lye stopped whispering, she took a deep breath through her nose and blinked her eyes rapidly. She gave a soft smile.

She lifted her chin, and lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “Doorbell.” Sure enough the doorbell rang, a low deep tone.

“Lye, are you alright?” Declan asked, his face masking his concern everywhere except his eyes. Lye gave a slight nod.

“Of course.” She said, taking a few more deep breaths. Whatever Declan was going to say next was cut off by a grunt in the hall.

“Little help here.” The weak call was followed by a loud thud.