Academy for the Strange

Chapter 5: Apologies

            Walking into English class after math, Fiona felt a little more normal. With seeing everything yesterday, getting the rundown from Meredith, and then trying sleep with it all rattling around in her brain, she kept feeling like she was living on the set of some kind of crazy movie or something. Not that she’d seen anything nuts at breakfast or during their first class. Well, no more than what was ‘normal’ here she guessed. The Phasms as she was forcing herself to get used to calling everyone, certainly explained some of the unusual hair colours, tails, and all the other things she’d just explained away as fashion choices.

            Settled in the same seats they’d had yesterday, Fiona and Meredith both dug out their notebooks and pens. That was the only thing Fiona missed about her old school. There were no lockers here so she was forced to carry everything in her backpack.

            Mr. Hastings walked in as the bell sounded. Meredith had pointed out the tower during their tour and Fiona had shaken her head about a school that used an actual clock tower bell to sound classes. Everything about this school made her feel like the country cousin come to town.

            She eyed their teacher, looking for any sign of horns. When Meredith had told her he was a jackalope, she’d had to ask what it was, and even now she had a hard time believing the man standing in front of their class was really some kind of rabbit creature. His nose didn’t even twitch as he smiled at them. “Rather than dig into Shakespeare this early in the semester, I thought I’d do something a bit different. I want each of your to write me a story. It has to be at least a page, single-spaced, and legible. The subject can be anything you want it to be. I’ll give out bonus points if you guys can bring some kind of emotion into it. You have a half hour. Have at it!”

            Most of the class just sat there, still staring at their teacher. Meredith looked at Fiona, who shrugged. “At least we get to write about whatever we want. You could do something dystopian.”

            Meredith smiled slightly at that before she turned her attention to her paper. Fiona followed suit, tapping her pen against her lips as she thought. What to write about. She didn’t think she could do anything fantasy, not when she was basically living that. She wasn’t going to do anything about nature since that could expose her. And if Mr. Hastings wanted emotion…

            She glanced down at her hand and the ring she’d already started spinning. She briefly kissed the dark gem, closing her eyes as memories of her mom rose. Nothing sad. She couldn’t handle writing anything sad right now. And Mr. Hastings seemed like a pretty happy guy, so maybe she should do something funny?

            A sudden thought made Fiona grin. She knew exactly the real-life story she had to incorporate. One her mom had told her only a few years ago. She titled the story “Feeding Time” and began writing.

Georgia Brown’s shift at the retirement home began like an other. She clocked in, got her hair net on, and used the disinfectant. The first wave of early lunchers were already shuffling into the dining room and she hurried to start bringing out their meals to them.

It wasn’t until it was very nearly noon that she heard the unusual sounds of children’s voices. On her break, she gave in to her curiosity and followed the sound. Being shepherded by two teachers, an entire class of kindergartners were heading into the big meeting room. She smiled and waited until they were settled before she spoke to one of the teachers.

“Oh, they’re here for a performance.” the one woman she asked said. “Everyone loved it. They’re going to eat their lunches and then we’re going to walk them back.”

Standing there chatting, Georgia didn’t notice the elderly gentleman until he was right beside them. she and the teacher both turned to look as his hand moved towards the room. Shining gold flew out, falling down like stars among the children.