Chapter Two

Chapter two

The letter that had arrived 12 days before Peter’s flight left him giddy. It contained a list of all the books he would require for school, a form for his extra curricular activities, and all of his school information. His boarding house, classes etc. He couldn’t believe it. He was going to a boarding school, in England, with all of his best friends. Peter counted the days down until his flight, his mother was giddy as he.

“Toothbrush? Yes, cell phone? Yes of course, wallet? Yep, your books? Check to make sure they are all there Peter, and… oh dear did we forget your plane ticket?!” Peter sighed.

“Ma, I’ve got everything. Including my plane ticket. Will you please stop unpacking my suitcases to make sure I have everything? My flight is tomorrow and I really need to finish packing.” Peter hadn’t been able to disguise the irritation in his voice. Mrs. Gladel looked at her son with a touch of hurt in her eyes.

“Sorry,” she mumbled as she turned to leave.

“Ma,” Peter’s mother turned back around.

“Yes?” She asked him, her tone polite and cool. Peter made an embarrassed face.

“Can you at least help me pack?”

Peter couldn’t sleep that night, it seemed like he tossed and turned for days until his father had called him down to breakfast. Peter shifted his head on the pillow to look at his alarm clock, 10:17am, had he really slept seven hours? It had felt like he’d only slept five minutes. He couldn’t keep his breakfast down either, his stomach had been too knotted up. The ride to the airport also seemed to take hours, Peter barely noticed the passing scenery. He was too busy reading his class list.

Geometry

English

Chemistry

World history

Hiking

Photography….

Peter had just started reading the list again when he heard his mother’s voice, from what seemed like miles away.

“We’re here,” Mrs. Gladel eyes were glistening with tears as she hugged her youngest son goodbye and sent him away. Mr. Gladel also had some tears as he gripped his son into what he considered a bear hug. Peter looked back at his dark headed teary-eyed parents, before he followed Hayden, Phillip, Jerald, Terrence and Aden onto the plane. They were off to England.

Peter fidgeted in his seat, since he was one of the tallest of the boys he tended to be on the outside during car rides. So there he was, in a blue air plane seat next to the window. Which wasn’t the best idea since he wasn’t fond of heights. He wished that Jerald, though he was the smallest, was in his seat since Jerald was fearless. A pretty flight attendant, with hip length pale brown hair which was very long since she was at least six feet tall, walked past the boys and noticed Peter’s fidgeting. She spoke in a soft baby doll voice.

“Would you like me to cover the window?” She asked. Peter nodded, and fast. She reached her pale, thin hand towards the window and pressed a unseen button. A blind like-thing rolled down to cover the window.

“Thank you.” He panted. She laughed a high ringing laugh.

“No problem. Would you believe I don’t like heights?” She shook her head slightly. “And I’m a flight attendant.” She laughed again, aimed a wink at black haired, blue eyed Terrence who was sitting in the aisle seat next to Jerald; and sauntered off as graceful as a ballerina. All the boys, including Hayden, Phillip, and Aden, who were on the other side of the aisle, leaned over to stare at Terrence.

“What? So I’m a chick magnet.” Some of the other passengers heard him and laughed along with the boys. Jerald was the next one who spoke.

“Really? Is that why she winked at you? I thought is was because you have an orange peel in your hair from breakfast.”

“Aw man,” Terrence whined, patting at his hair until the peel came out. This time, every passenger within a four feet range heard, and laughed.

As the boys got off the plane, and grabbed their bags they saw a medium height, wiry, elderly man whom was going bald, he was holding up a sign with their names on it.

“Welcome to England boys,” The man’s Scottish accent rang in the boys ears.

“I’m Jemery I’ll be driving you to your school. Eh, do tell me which school it was again, and also the name of the manor where you all will be staying,” he said as they all piled into the cab. Hayden got at his letter before the other boys.

“Dark Side Manor Academy, and we’re supposed to be staying in Dark Side Manor boarding house.”

“Ah, you’ll be staying in the original Dark Side Manor will ye? The old manor’s got a bit of a history it does.” The cab jerked a bit as they pulled into traffic.

“What sort of history?” Aden asked, his Scottish accent combined sort and of together so it sounded more like sorto.

“Eh, a fellow Scott are ye? Well there are stories, old wives’ tales if you ask me, that say the Dark Side Manor was built by the famous vampire Dracula. Also that he lived there before his time passed. Legend also says that the Dark Side Manor was were he was originally cursed to be an immortal vampire. Then, when the school was built, they named it after the manor and used it as one of the boarding houses. So when ye tell people that ye are staying in the Original Manor they’ll always know what ye’r talking bout. Now can we not talk? My throat hurts a fair bit, thank ye.”

The rest of the drive was completed in silence as the boys gazed out at the Northern England sights. When they saw a sign that said, Welcome to Askren village! They knew that they were almost there. The academy was located at Askren village in Blackpool England, and sure enough as they drove past a cluster of trees they saw it. Surrounded by trees and tall shrubs the school stood.

The school was three stories tall and very large. It was one of those places that you can tell that no matter how big on the outside it looks, you know the inside is going to be even bigger. The massive building was made of a dark brown and purple brick, the roof was a pattern of black and gray sliding, the windows were stained glass and very clean. They looked like they belonged in a castle. In that matter, the entire school looked like one of those old, creepy, castles with an essence about it that made you think you were being watched. Which, in fact they were. In front of the large, darkly patterned carved oaken doors, a short and slightly chubby man with brown hair stood, barely visible next to the tall flowering shrubs.

“Out ye go boys. I’ll be dropping yer luggage off at yer manor.” As they all piled out Aden turned around and looked at the cab driver, his brown eyes hardly visible under his curtain of long blonde hair.

“Wait, how will we get to our, err, manor?”

“Ah, right. I always forget ter tell the new ones this, after the meetin’ and tour you’ll be ridin a bus to yer boarding manor along with the others that will be staying in your manor. Now hurry up, Mr. Jones won’t wait forever.”

The boys turned around to see that the man was by now completely surround by other kids, some their age, some younger, some older. For the first time they noticed that there were other cabs parked at the curb too. The man looked up as they approached and joined a contingent. They saw that his eyes were gray almost black, and penetrating. After a while, when more cabs had shown up and more kids had joined them he spoke. His voice was surprisingly not the gruff harsh voice they were expecting, instead he spoke in a clear, high, clipped British accent.

“Welcome to Dark Side Manor Academy! I am the assistant dean Johnson Jones. Your actual classes will start in 3 days, use the time to get settled in your boarding manors and explore the grounds. However there are a few rules we need to make clear.” He paused to clear his throat before continuing.

“The Drenac building on the west side of the school near the Gianni Manor is off-limits to everyone. No exceptions. There will be no loitering in the school after 7:30 pm. I will not get into boarding rules right now, your manor heads will make those clear to you later on. Now, I will discuss more of the rules with you as we take a tour of the school, so follow me.”

With that he turned and walked towards the now open great doors. The entrance of the school was a long corridor, the floor a gray and red pattern that matched the rich red walls and the snowy white columns that outlined each of the three ivory double doors. There were portraits on the walls, Jacqueline Dipleine, Roman Jenson, Jonathan Kenkal, and many more, all the previous deans of the academy. As the group reached the doors at the very end of the corridor the saw to their left, a portrait of Dean Adeline Silk. They entered the doors in front of them and found they were in a large room with black walls, black floor, black furniture, everything was black except for the glowing yellow light emitting from the many lamps. The light showed that the room had several desks, computers, couches and chairs.

“This is one of what we like to call study rooms, or media rooms. This is where the students like to do their research and read the books they get from the library. Our library is in a separate branch of the school but there are only books in there.” The Assistant Dean turned around and swept his eyes over the crowd of kids.

“We do not allow students to sit and read in our library. Because here, we consider our library and its books sacred. We also find it insulting to sit, or speak for that matter, in our library.” All of the kids shared confused looks with one another.

“Come along,” Mr. Jones led them around a corner and through one of the two cream doors which seemed very bright in the black room. They found themselves, once again, in a long corridor. This one had several wooden doors, with windows, on each side.

“This is one of the class room corridors,” he explained, “We have about twenty-two of them in the entire school.”

Everyone silently groaned at the thought of all the navigating they would have to do. The group went through two more of these identical corridors. Two of the class rooms, which were very large and looked nothing like your signature class rooms. They also were shown the library, which was so large it easily could have taken up the entire school. The floors were a rich red and brown wood, the walls were a light cream paneling. Although this was hard to tell since all the walls were practically covered by massive rosewood bookcases that were piled high with books. As Mr. Jones had explained there was no furniture in the room; except for a large, oddly bright white desk in the middle of the room where a elderly squat woman sat behind, in a chair that was larger than her. Mr. Jones ushered the kids past her while whispering

“My wife” the woman looked up and glared at them, or more at Mr. Jones with similar gray-black eyes. Before they knew it, Mr. Jones said “Did you realize that you’ve already been through half the school?” They then went through two more media rooms, and the larger of the four dining areas.

The room was indeed very large, deep red and blue linoleum flooring and black wallpaper dotted with stars that really seemed to glow. There were at least twenty or more long tables in five rows at one end of the room, the other side had nine or ten round tables and four buffet tables.

“The largest dining area is where the newer students usually tend eat, but all them are available,” the more they traveled, the more confused the new kids became. The group went through three more corridors, two of them were the class room areas. The third was different from all the others The floor was a muddled green carpet with gray walls and one set of mirrored double doors at the very end of the short corridor. Here, Mr. Jones turned and gazed over the kids in front of him.

“Well young ladies and gents, I’d best be getting on. I assume that I will see you all later, and welcome again to the academy!” The hall was filled with confused commotion as he walked back down the hall leaving them, alone. Everyone looked around nervously, then they heard it. A soft moan, then a creak that seemed to echo through out the hall This was followed by a thud very close to the doors.

“Did y’all hear that?” A petite blond twanged. No one had to answer because they heard it again. The door creaked and shuddered, then pushed open. A tall figure stepped out and reached its hand out. All the girls screamed and grabbed at the person closest to them, the figure reached its hand up and…