Shadow

Chapter 5 - School

Charlie woke to Hope opening the door. The day happened finally arrived. Charlie was going to start school. The time as 6 o'clock in the morning. Hope had to be at school early, as she was a teacher. Charlie got up, got changed into her uniform. Hope had told her that she only needed her formal uniform today. She got her school bag and laptop and brought those out with her. Hope had made some bacon and egg rolls for breakfast last night. All they needed to do was reheat the filling and put it in some bread. Hope made those while Charlie gathered all her stuff. Charlie had all her things. Lunch, laptop, pencil case, books. Charlie put all her books in her school bag, resulting in her bag becoming heavy. Charlie would receive her texts books in class today. Hope had printed out Charlie's timetable for her classes. Soon Hope was ready and they left. The drive towards school felt suspenseful, Hope's music didn't really help but Charlie didn't want to say anything.
After the drive they arrived at school. The walk from the staff parking lot quick. Charlie had about 40 minutes to burn off before the bell went. Charlie had to meet someone at SA before school started. They would show Charlie around the school and would be in all her classes. Charlie walked towards the library. The library opened at 7:30, about 20 minutes ago. Charlie would read until she had to go. Charlie placed her bag in the bag racks and walked inside. There was a monitor that showed photos of past events at the door, however it was not on. The tables for studding followed. Charlie walked into one of the corridors. Shelves that were organised by theme and within those themes organised alphabetically after that. Charlie walked towards the action books. Charlie had read one in the past and quite enjoyed it. The suspenseful cliffhangers and high action fight scenes appealed to her. "I highly recommend that book, well if you're squeamish I'd look for another one. There are some bloody scenes" A voice spoke from behind Charlie. It continued, "I'm Song, by the way" Charlie acknowledged her and walked on towards the fantasy section of the books, still holding the book Song spoke about. "Not much of a talker aren't cha" Song muttered. Charlie shrugged. Song froze for a second, processing that Charlie heard her. Song then followed her. "Ohhh fantasy lover aren't cha, they're cool. They seem really old though" Song said.
Charlie replied, "They are, most of them. Fantasy books are often set in a timeframe called the medieval, where they rode horsed and were ruled by kings, queens and dukes. The royal family often speak all across the kingdom, with son often ruling higher power cities, and cousins often ruling lower end cities. Some of these books were written along time ago". Charlie pulled out a book called 'Talon of the Silver Hawk' then continued. "This one was written in the 1980's."
"I find most of them boring, low action and weird themes." Song responded.
"Some fantasy books are high action. Some are classed as action books themselves, they're also filled with magic and the unholiest of creatures the protagonist has to fight. If you want a high action fantasy book the Riftwar saga is a good one. The first book Magician is a little slow in some part but the second book Silverthorn's a good one. The final confrontation between the antagonist and protagonist is really well written in A Darkness at Sethanon too." As Charlie finished she turned towards Song. Song was a lynx Hybrid, Charlie could tell that she was a mid level hybrid. Song had the ears and tail of Lynx and nothing else. Song was tall but Charlie was taller. Charlie could sense Song staring at her and looked away. Charlie looked at the time, collected her book and sat down to read, Song followed. "I don't think I got your name?" Song asked.
"Charlie" Charlie replied. Song walked away while Charlie turned around and started reading. Soon Song came and sat down next to her holding a book. Charlie didn't pay attention to what book she was reading, Charlie also didn't care.
They sat there reading for another half an hour. Charlie checked the time and got up. Charlie didn't pay any attention to Song as she walked away. Charlie placed the book back to where she had got it from and walked out of the Library. This time there were students all out side of the library. Many younger boys swinging of trees, and hitting each other. Charlie had hoped that the boys in her class weren't like that. They probably were. Charlie grabbed her bag and walked over towards SA. While Charlie was here with Hope on the holidays she had gotten to know where most of the buildings were. The school also looked very different without any people in it. When Charlie arrived at SA there was one person there. As Charlie walked towards him, he spoke "Hello, who must you be? I am Mr King, the head of year 9 and 10" Mr King Spoke. They waited for a few moments, then some more students came. Charlie noticed that Song one of them. Charlie crossed her arms and looked away. "Ohh, look who's here, what you think you get rid of me? Well I can tell you, ya can't sorry grumpy pants" said Song. Charlie moved her head more away from Song and groaned slightly. Mr King spoke "Miss Shepherd you are guiding Miss Shadow to her classes, you may leave now" Charlie was shocked, the teachers tone became a whole lot more formal. No one has called Charlie Miss Shadow before. Song smirked, then said "Really? Shadow, that's your last name?" Charlie groaned again. Then spoke "Well at least my name doesn't have alliteration in it!" Charlie was annoyed, the tone got to Song, she then dropped the topic. Charlie followed Song to their Pc room.While they weren't late, there were people inside. They were situated in a room called Sc 4, located in the middle of the 3 main buildings of good shepherd. Within the senior school there are a total of 9 buildings. The art block, library, HPE, Sb, Sc, Sd, Se, Sf and Sg. The S in the building names mean senior, in the junior school the S is replaced with a P. The second letter differs the buildings. Sb, Sc and Sd are the main 3. They all have 6 classrooms in each, 3 regular classrooms on the top level and 3 special classrooms on the bottom floor. Sb, and Sc have Science labs while Sd has a Home cooking room, commercial kitchen and textiles room. There were about 13 other people in the room, some of which turned and greeted Song as she walked in. One of them spoke "I thought you were late today Song?"
"Me, late? Never!" Song replied, she continued. "I want you to meet Charlie, she's new today"
Charlie gave a little wave, not looking at them. Charlie's hair had covered most of the right side of her face, Song hadn't noticed. Charlie didn't want the others to notice too. They turned away muttering things under their breath. Charlie was shocked. For the first time, Charlie heard people muttering, but she couldn't understand them. Charlie worried about what they said. Is this what having rumours spread feels like? What did they say? Was it about me? Charlie mind was racing. This was the first time Charlie had heard people muttering but couldn't hear what they said. Was this what school was like? Her mind stoped thinking about these things when the teacher walked into the room. Charlie's Pc teacher was tall and human. It was common for hybrids to be shorter than most people, with higher level hybrids being the shortest. It has something to do with how the animals are shorter than us so its a side affect and stuff. But there are some exceptions, genetic mutations can cause height change in both human and hybrids, but they're rare. The class looked towards the teacher as he spoke. "Welcome class, I am Mr Aider, your new Pc teacher. I welcome of you" He pointed towards all the students across the classroom, then continued. "Old and new. I believe we have a new student in our class today. I'm not going to call them out but I welcome you." Everyone knew it was Charlie, but said nothing. Song nudged Charlie with her elbow, they both smiled. The class followed as. All the students were given their textbooks, and timetables. The students walked down to where their lockers were. All the lockers for that class were downstairs of the Sc block. Charlie's locker was about 4 lockers away from Song's. Charlie got a top locker, near the end of the row. Song was the only one that got a bottom locker. After that they walked about 5 meters to Sc 3, one of the science rooms. They waited outside for the rest of the students to come. Charlie had brought one of her notebooks, and her science textbook. Along with her laptop and pencil case. Apparently this teacher was always late to their classes. Charlie secretly wanted the teacher to be a hybrid, and into biology. As their teacher walked towards the door, Charlie was happy. She was a hybrid. It was Hope. Charlie was now only half happy that their teacher was a hybrid. Hope let all the children into the science room. Hope had let them chose their seats for today, then make a seating plan based of where everyone sat today. Charlie sat along the back of the class, then Song followed. Charlie saw Hope smile a little as Song sat down. Charlie wished that Hope would not say anything about the fact that Charlie was her daughter. Thinking about it, Hope probably asked to be Charlie's science teacher. "Hey, loosen up a bit, you're fine" Song said. Charlie took a breath out. Song continued "But next time we are going to have to sit closer to the whiteboard I have poor eyesight." Charlie rolled her eyes. Charlie had perfect vision, almost better than most people. There have been cases when hybrids have had astonishing vision, better than anyone had seen. Charlie snapped her attention back towards Hope and the whiteboard. "Hello class, I am Mrs GreenClaw. Some of you might know me from last year some of you might not have known me at all. That's ok, we are going to learn wonderful things together." Song started to talk. "I had her last year she's really good" Charlie moved her attention back to Hope "Out topic this term will Biology, we will cover lots of things, mostly animal related. We will also cover a little about the AHP." Everyone in the class sighed. Hope continued. "Today we will be learning about new world animals. Can anyone name any?" One person put up their hand, they said Drakes. Another person said the Roldary eagle family. Finally after about a minute wait someone said Dragons. "Dragons aren't real, there is no prof." Someone yelled out. Charlie tensed. Song saw that too. Song said "what's wrong?"
"Nothing I'm fine" Charlie replied.
"There has been prof of the existence of Dragons, there have been tooth marks and claw marks found in the mountains and deepest Forrest." Hope said to the class.
"It could have been drakes that did that." Said the first kid.
"Drakes have blunter claws and teeth, they would have just snapped. People have also found scorch marks next to drake blood." Replied Hope.
The kid sat down. Hope made the students write the definition of a new world animal in their books. They then wrote about some of the eagles in the Roldary eagle family. Charlie drew the eagle of the board in her book along the notes she wrote down.
The bell rang and all the students started to pack up. Hope had wished them a good day. Song had saw Charlie's bird in her book. Charlie was silently applauded. They then walked the 5 meters towards her locker before they walked over to the HPE Center for assembly. Charlie followed Song inside. They sat in their Pc groups. Charlie and Song was part of M4, there were cones lined up with letters and numbers showing all the Pc groups. The assembly was boring. It was finished quickly. The way that the students left was complicated, but as Charlie and Song left it was only 2 minutes after the lunch bell had rung. They walked to their lockers and took out their lunch and hats. "Hey Charlie, do you want to sit with me at lunch? I have a few other friends that you could meet." Song said. Charlie nodded and followed Song. They walked towards the senior oval area. They passed the Sd block and walked around that back of Sd. They were facing the courts now. Along the wall there was 4 other people sitting down on a picnic blanket. One of them was a hybrid. As they walked closer Song introduced Charlie to the rest of the group, they all said hi back. Song Introduced them all to Charlie. The Hybrid's name was Thorn. Charlie didn't know what type of hybrid he was. His hair was a pale reddish brown colour and looked feathery. He had blue eyes. One of the humans name was Rose, she had brown almost black hair and hazel eyes. The last person was Riley, she had light brown hair, almost dark blonde and pale green eyes. They weren't as green as Charlie's eyes. Song sat down, then Charlie sat next to her. Charlie didn't dive into any conversation at first, she mainly answered small questions that Charlie felt comfortable answering. Soon they ate their lunch. "Hey Charlie, you kinda zoned out a little, we are going to the oval wanna come? We are going to have a race down there?" Song asked.
"Song you always win, you're super fast!" Rose complained.
"So what? Are you admitting that you're slow!" Song replied. She had moved her hands on her hips and leaned towards Charlie while saying that. Charlie got up and stood next to Song. The others looked at her an awe. Charlie was at least a half head taller than rose, about a head taller than Song. All of Songs friends looked away once they caught Charlie's glare. AS they walked towards everyone's lockers Charlie felt something. Charlie looked up, they were passing the Sd block and a weird feeling was coming from someone walking down the stairs, she was looking at Charlie when Charlie looked away and ran towards her friends. They walked towards Song's and Charlie's lockers. The others were talking to Song and Song was complaining about having a bottom locker for the 4th year in a row. Song also said how unfair that Charlie had gotten a top locker even though she is new this year. Charlie tensed, but no one noticed. They walked towards the oval then as they approached the hill that lead towards the oval Song sprang out and ran. The others followed. "Come on Charlie, are you to slow?" Said Thorn as he ran past. Riley kicked him as she approached. Charlie started a slow jog towards the rest of the group. "RACE YOU THE OTHER SIDE!!!!" Song yelled. The others started laughing and sprinting towards the other side of the oval. Charlie started to sprint. Soon she caught up to Rose, who was last other than Charlie. Charlie soon passed Riley, then Thorn. Charlie had just beat Song to the other side, as Charlie turned around the face that Song was making was unbeatable. "Holy...Jesus... Christ, you're fast" Rose said between breaths. Charlie now realised that she was the only one not panting. Charlie shrugged her shoulders, "Meh lucky I guess" replied Charlie.
"We have 5 minutes until the bell rings, we should get ready" said Riley.
"Charlie we have Math" Song said, her eyes started to sparkle slightly.
"Song, you are the ONLY person in the entire world who likes math" told Thorn
"I kinda like Math" both Rose and Charlie spoke, they both looked at each other.
"Well I'm leaving to get my stuff. Charlie you coming!" Song yelled.
Charlie nodded and followed.
As they walked up the stairs on the Sd block to their maths class, Charlie felt that weird felling again. Their teacher walked past and opened the door, the feeling was stronger now. Charlie understood what was happening. Charlie contemplated what was happening as there teacher opened the door and all the students walked into the room. Charlie and Song sat in the middle of the room against the right side door.
Charlie's math teacher had magic.