Chapter 1
Wanda didn’t know where her mother was taking her, but she thought that maybe Mary was taking her to the woods to shoot her like she had done with their old family dog when it got old, or like her father. Wanda looked to her right and out the window she saw a few gophers running around near the side of the road. It was far too early for any living creature to be out and about, but it made more sense for gophers to be up than humans.
“Stop daydreaming” Mary snapped out of nowhere and her words cut through the thick silence of the car like a knife.
“I’m not daydreaming” Wanda said, still staring out the window. She was surprised her mother had said anything as she always insisted on driving in complete silence. No talking. No radio. Wanda thought to push her luck, “Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“I’m taking you to school,” Mary said.
“But school doesn’t start until next week and-” Wanda began.
“You are not going back to your old school with all thosedelinquents, I am taking you to a proper school where you will learn how to behave yourself. You will stay there in the dormitories until the end of the school year.” Mary said. Wanda snapped her head around to look at her mother. She was horrified by what she had just heard.
“You’re taking me to a boarding school?” She exclaimed.
“Yes, now stop talking and be quiet,” Mary said. “And for heaven’s sake, Wanda, fix your collar, it’s tucked into your sweater.” Wanda just rolled her eyes. “I do not need any of that snark from you today, young lady.” Mary snapped.
“How can you even see me, you’re driving!” Wanda asked. Mary slammed the brakes in the middle of the road and glared at her. Wanda lurched forward and almost hit her nose on the dashboard. Her heart racing, she looked at her mother and fixed her collar. They drove in the usual heavy silence for the rest of the car ride.
About six hours ago, Wanda had been sleeping peacefully in her bed when she was woken up by Mary packing her stuff into a big trunk and two suitcases. Now the two of them were driving through the metal gates of where Wanda was going to be trapped until June. It was only the end of August, that’s almost eleven whole months. Mary parked the car and they got out. The school was surrounded by a sea of trees with a tall metal fence enclosing the area, and there was a large aging building with smaller buildings littered around. Wanda saw a small lake with a dock and a few canoes to her right, and to her left she saw an obviously newly constructed outdoor ice skating rink.
“Wanda, come on, you’re going to make us late.” Mary said, as she gestured for her to follow up the stairs of the biggest building. Each thud of her boot coming up the concrete stairs made her want to shrivel up and die more than the last. Anything had to be better than this. Boarding school just meant pounds of homework, strict teachers and stuck up kids. No fun, no relaxation and no happiness allowed. When she finally reached the top step, she felt like she might explode into a million little pieces. She watched in what seemed like slow motion as Mary reached for the knocker and pounded on the door. A smiling younger woman greeted them.
“Well, you must be Miss Wanda Myrtle and her mother! It’s a pleasure to meet you both. I’m Miss Accalia, but the students just call me Miss A. You can follow me into my office, and we’ll get you all settled.” Wanda figured she was putting on a show for her mother, although Mary would probably prefer if she was outwardly cold and cruel. Miss A’s office was right by the front doors, so it wasn’t much of a trip.
Her office itself was quite large with a desk in the middle of the room and two chairs facing it. Behind the desk was a large window with intricately patterned drapes framing it, the rest of the walls were surrounded by bookshelves and filing cabinets. Wanda and Mary sat in the two chairs facing the desk and Miss A sat behind the desk. “So Wanda, welcome to MapleWood Boarding School, I hope you grow to love it here as much as I do! I’m the principal here, or I suppose that technically speaking I’m the headmistress.” She reached under her desk and pulled out a bag. And handed it to Wanda “Your uniforms are in here, please keep in mind that your skirt can be no higher than the size of three fingers above your knees and I would recommend wearing tights. Your P.E. kit is also in the bag as well, we have a separate gymnasium with changing rooms attached. Friday is a uniform optional day, you can wear what you wish as long as it follows the dress code in the student handbook which is in the bag with your uniforms. Do you have any questions before I continue?” she asked.
“Do you have trousers that I can wear instead of skirts?” Wanda asked, she could feel her mother glaring at her. She just wasn’t a fan of skirts, no matter how hard she tried to like them, she just couldn’t. Her own legs reminded her of achicken, so she wasn’t a fan of displaying them. She expected that Miss A would say no and that she would have to wear a skirt, but to her relief Miss A smiled and said,
“I do have trousers!” She reached under her desk and handed her two pairs. “You can keep the skirts so you have options, your belt must be the same color as the pants.” she looked at Mary expectantly, “I almost forgot, do you have the check for the first semester?”
“I have it in banknotes” Mary reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope.
“Oh wow, this lady isrich" Wanda heard the voice behind her, but she didn’t dare look because she knew no one else could hear it. She also didn’t want the owner of the voice to know that she could hear him or see him, once a ghost knew she could communicate with them they got really annoying. Wanda had never told anyone about her strange ability to commune with the dead, especially not her mother.
Maryhatedanyone born with magic, she thought it wasn’t fair. She hated it so much that she found a way to take the magic away, and give it to someone else, for a price of course. That was how she got rich. There were many problems with this, but the main one was that to take the magic away you had to kill the person with the magic. Wanda didn’t doubt for a moment that her mother would kill her to sell her power. Especially a power so rare that it would sell in auction for at least a hundred thousand dollars, if not more. It wasn’t Wanda’s fault that she could talk to ghosts, she couldn’t help the way that she was born. She didn’t deserve to be punished for it.
“Now Mary, you described in your letter to me that Wanda was a bit of a problem child, can you go into a little more detail about that? What does she do that deems her such a problem?” Miss A asked.
“I’d love to” Mary began “You see, Wanda is always sleeping, she sleeps in until noon some days. And the attitude of that girl! I just can not believe my ears some days, the things she says. She rolls her eyes at me every chance she gets. All she ever wants to do is listen to her records as loud as her player will go, she never comes back home at an appropriate time. Her friends are vandals, and nothing I do to punish her has any effect.”
“These are literally just normal teenager behaviors” said another voice behind Wanda.
“I know right? This woman reminds me of my mother.”
“Bless your heart, I could not stand that.” She realized there were four ghosts in the room with them.
“I do see, well she’ll be out of your hair until June. She will have to return home for the breaks in December, January and April of course. But you can leave now, I’m sure it’ll be a long drive back home. I have some senior students in the hallway who you can give her luggage, and they’ll bring it to her dorm. It was nice to meet you!” Miss A said as she stood up and reached to shake Mary’s hand.
“Well Wanda now that it’s just us, how much about our lovely school did your mother tell you about?” Miss A asked.
“She didn’t tell me anything, I didn’t even know I was going here until we were in the car about five and a half hours ago,” Wanda told her.
“Oh goodness gracious, so it was a surprise how lovely!” exclaimed Miss A.
“How many times is this woman going to say lovely in one day?” Asked a voice.
“I’ve counted twenty-three times since the first freshman this morning,” countered a different voice.
“Oh my god,” sighed another voice.
“MapleWood houses and educates four different grade levels,” Miss A held up four fingers to illustrate what she was saying. “Starting at your grade, grade nine. We have ten ninth graders this year, four girls and six boys. We have four boarding houses in total. One for ninth and tenth grade girls, one for the eleventh and twelfth grade girls and the same for the boys. You will share a room with another girl in your same grade level, your roommate. Her name is Maria, and she will arrive shortly after you. You and her will have about an hour to start unpacking and to start getting to know each other of course! Then you and her will be collected for a proper tour of the grounds and then everyone will meet in the gym for the beginning of the year debrief and safety talk!” She smiled, and it was at this point that Wanda realized that the cheerfulness was not an act after all. This was just her personality. “Make sure you put your uniform on before the tour!”
