"Where is that rat? I thought she was dead already!'' The local baker of Gavaldon screamed through the streets, looking for the girl who stole the bread he had laid out ready to sell. In the meantime, the thief had already run to her hideout, an abandoned old wooden toilet in the back of an alley.
It was simple and small—a wooden house with a bench and a hole. The girl had covered up the hole with an old, mouldy plank she had found and made a residence out of. She didn't have a choice, and to her dismay; all the town's people wanted her gone and hated her. The small wooden room in the back of the alley in between the houses was just hidden enough so that the people wouldn't notice her, and the warmth of the neighbouring houses was just enough to make her survive the freezing winters.
Y/N Chestnut had never wished for the life she had gotten. To be precise, on her tenth birthday she had wished for a happy ever after, but her wish obviously didn't come true; it killed her parents instead.
Little Y/N knew what death was, so once she found her parent's lifeless bodies, she decided to leave her home and find a new one. Her parents were hermits; therefore, no one knew her or wanted to take her in. In fact, it took two weeks for anyone to find them rotting in their house.
She quickly learned that the people in Gavaldon spoke only lies, claiming to be kind, loving, and generous, yet they let anyone rot who doesn't fit their standards; Y/N was one of them.
She learned how to steal and recognise mould and poisonous food to survive. She didn't try to steal much; she knew that if she drew too much attention, it wouldn't take long for people to start a search party in order to throw her out of the little town she resided in; she stole food whenever there wasn't any in the trash, and she stole clothes whenever she grew out of the older ones.
She was thankfully great at hiding and surviving; she had kept it up for eight years already.
Y/N Chestnut's life was a sad one; she tried to forget how unhappy she was by reading old books that the local bookstore threw away every few months. Sadly, the wish she gave on her sixteenth birthday had ruined this love too; instead of gaining more books and knowledge, the bookstore had gone into flames, leaving nothing but ash.
She desperately wanted to search through the ashes of her beloved store to find any artefact that survived, yet she couldn't because of the commotion. She had to wait until a week had passed to take a look while going unnoticed, something she obviously waited for.
She looked under planks, under ashes, and under stones to find absolutely nothing; she assumed the town's people had taken anything that could be saved already—until she found a piece of paper that had stayed intact: the first page of Cinderella. She made an attempt to find the other pages of the book, but to no avail. She simply sighed while caressing the bruised paper.
It didn't take long for her to notice the peculiar embossing at the bottom of the page; two beautiful swans looking at one another, one black and one gold. Even though it didn't look like much the girl couldn't keep her eyes off of it, as if she was bewitched by it, as if it called to her.
"Are you all right, dear? I haven't seen you here before?'' An older lady had asked. Y/N recognised her from her monthly hunt for books: Mrs Deauville, the woman who ran the beloved store. "Please accept my apologies; my parents are sadly hermits who live in the back of the village where no one ever comes. Because of this, I never come outside, except when I heard that the bookstore had burned down, I couldn't bear it and stay put—my parents had given me books from this store years ago.'' The girl politely answered, even though her answer was filled with lies.
"Well, dear, do tell your parents that they need to care for you more; your skin is painted by dust, and your hair is matted and full of dirt as well; I could never let my child get so malnourished." Y/N nodded, further ignoring the woman while admiring the page she had saved from the ashes.
"You seem rather fond of that page you got there; does it hold any value to you?" Mrs Deauville continued, watching the girl closely. "I noticed this embossing; it's beautiful; do you know what it stands for?" "It doesn't stand for whom; it stands for what. This emblem is a sign of the School for Good and Evil. Haven't you heard from the legend, dear?'' The girl shook her head quickly, wishing the woman would continue as quickly as she possibly could. "The School for Good and Evil. No one knows where it is—possibly another time or another world—but legend has it that all fairy tales start there. The School for Good trains the heroes. The School for Evil? The Villains''.
The girl was fascinated with the new information she had gotten from the woman, yet she didn't know how to thank her for this new insight. Her life was terrible, and the woman spoke as if the school was real. Y/N believed that if this school was indeed real, it was her only way to escape the terrible life she was brought up in.
The woman had thankfully noticed that the girl didn't have any more questions and silently left to let her think on her own.
If this school was real, she'd finally have a home, she wouldn't need to worry about if she'd survive the day because of people who wanted to murder her, poisonous food she'd accidentally eat, starve to death or freeze to death. This school was her only hope for a better life, for a good life, and this opportunity she was definitely taking.
Y/N ran back to her wooden house as fast as she could, turning the page she had brought with her around and laying it on top of her seat. She quickly looked around, trying to find a piece of charcoal to write a letter to the school she so desperately wanted to enter. It didn't take long for her to find a piece she could write with, since the alley she lived in was behind the new charcoal factory that had been built in the village.
Dear School for Good and Evil,
My name is Y/N Chestnut, I currently reside in Gavaldon, am sixteen years old and would like to apply to your institution. As a tenacious and passionate person, I believe I'd be a perfect candidate. I am intelligent, kind and a quick learner, some things I believe are necessary to succeed in further education. I hope my request will be looked over and I'd love to hear from you soon.
Kind Regards,
Y/N Chestnut of Galvaldon
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𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙍𝙖𝙩 || 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑳𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐 × 𝑭!𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓
FanfictionY/N Chestnut didn't live the best life of them all. Living in the abandoned alleys of Gavaldon she had to live off of the trash from the town's people since her parents had sadly left her from a young age, leaving her to care for herself. One day, t...
