Harriet Jinjur vs. the Academy

Chapter 6: Tragedy in the Moat

The first couple of days in the Academy were uneventful for the reluctant student despite all her moanings and criticisms. Harriet came to the conclusion rather quickly to study real hard and apply for extra credit whenever the opportunity strikes.

If she keeps failing to escape by the end of the year, hopefully she can learn enough to get off this island by next June.

Harriet kept her distance from the students, often eating alone at lunch and ignoring the likes of Betsy and Aloysius to avoid giving her more humiliation for better or worse.

The only people she could stand is Bert, who she constantly ran into even in the comfort of her room, and Gloucester, who kept pestering her late at night from the moat with his constant deals.

Neither of them made for good company, especially bothering her without warning.

Harriet had to find some peace in class and given her sudden determination, she learned all she could from Charms, Astrology, and to some lesser extent, Theoretical History.

Herbology and Defending Yourself with the Fantastical Mystics gave her extra incentive to pay attention since she'll be running into the Forest of Outskirts whenever the time came to make a break for it.

The most difficulty she had was Potions since that class's teacher was fired in a span of a few days thanks to his certain unease and subliminal fearmongering which forced one of his students to become a vigilante in the night.

Ginger Snap was greatly amused of having a partner in crime.

And then there was Miss Hazelnut's class, which ranged from a variety of subjects. One day, it was turning yourself into other things, and the next day, it was all about man-on-beast relationships and how their offspring are secluded to this island.

That class didn't concern itself with the Fantastical Mystics very much, but it still made Harriet very nervous what to expect from Ol' Nutcase about the true history of these Unknown Parts.

Harriet was interested in learning more about her mom and dad. She got the impression from eavesdropping that her mother was part of the fiasco that shut the school down in the first time. It made her a little giddy, giving her thoughts that she might make her proud by doing it all over again.

But Miss Hazelnut happened to live past this so-called event that she must be taking great lengths in order not to let history repeat itself and it's not like Harriet can crawl back to Betsy and her creepy friend on how they were going to do.

Harriet just wanted to get away from here, but she is tempted on shutting the whole place and that won't be accomplished with the help of some stranger who's interested in taking over.

Aside from these thoughts, Harriet kept her cool, but by the first Wednesday of July, things began to get eventual for Harriet Jinjur personally once more...

It was another usual morning that began to feel normal for Harriet at this point.

The sun was glistening out, the alarm clock rang on cue, and Harriet immediately got herself out of bed and stretched her limbs out to get all the drowsiness out of her for another round of classes.

She instinctively walked over to the always-open alcove and rubbed her eyes to get a close look at the meadow.

Smacking her lips, Harriet also took in a brief stench from the moat. Probably one of that sea serpent's potions shattered in the w...

Harriet didn't even finish that thought. Once she glanced down at the water, her bloodshot eyes shot up at the source of that smell.

Then, she screamed from the top of her lungs.