Perfectly Broken

Chapter 4

Seemingly as soon as her parents left, Elena noticed a change with the head mistress, there was a new gleam to her eye and a small evil smile appeared at the corners of her lips. "Now, that we are alone, we can get down to what I expect out of you." The Mother Superior rose from her throne at her desk and went to a nearby bookshelf, pulling out a thick book from the mixture of leather bounded novels. She walked over to the desk and slammed the book down onto the hard oak, "I expect you to read the manual of what to do and what not to do here. These are the rules, and if you dismiss my rules, you will be punished accordingly."

The Mother Superior stared down at Elena with a hard glare; she appeared to be expeditiously waiting for a response. "Umm," Elena stuttered out, before she knew what happened the Mother Superior slapped her with enough force to cause Elena to fall onto the ground. "I will not allow an idiot in my presence, you will speak with confidence and without unneeded syllables, and do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Elena whimpered from the ground as the sting of the slap was still present. "Good. You may now exit and prepare for dinner. Eunice will be waiting for you at the door." Elena hastily picked herself up from the ground and quickly rushed to the door. How did she know that Eunice would be at the door? "Wait." Elena wondered what the woman wanted now. Didn't she know that her presence intimidated her enough? Elena timidly turned and demonstrated a clearly submissive stance with her head and eyes down, a stance that she wished she didn't have to take.

"Elena, I pick one person to tutor a year that I feel will benefit from my special attention. This year, I have chosen you. Come to my office every evening after dinner here after. That is all." She dismissed Elena with a wave while seated at her throne of a desk, already focusing on the sheets of paper in front of her.

Elena knew better than to dawdle further, she turned quickly and opened the door in a rush. Eunice was in fact waiting at the door as promised, as always Eunice looked to be in a hurry. "Oh, let's go. I must hurry along to drop you off at your room, you will see Mary and she will be your roommate until further notice. Now, let's not waste any more time." Elena looked at Eunice incredulously, for it was in approximately two seconds that Eunice rushed this sentence out, waste any time?

Rather than argue with her, Elena walked behind Eunice up the staircase. Eunice was muttering about time and schedules the entire walk towards her room. The convent looked like an old hotel, for the second level there were halls to the left and right of the staircase, each room was marked with a number. Elena must have walked at least 400 feet down a hall to the left of the staircase before Eunice unexpectedly stopped, what surprised Elena the most is that the halls were deadly quiet and there was not a soul in sight. She knew that the rooms were filled with students because of her mother saying how hard it was to get her into the school on short notice. Why then were the halls quiet? Was the convent that strict about noise? Of course Elena had the answers in the huge book that she dragged along with her from the Mother superior's office. Elena wondered if this book is what the she was going to "tutor" her about? Like always, Elena was lost in her thoughts before she realized that Eunice and her were standing in front of the room, marked to the outside of the door on a plaque was "Mary Wingter." Eunice rapped on the door, the door opened slowly with the person behind looking like a small child with a huge belly, the girl smiled widely and flung the door open.

The child jumped up and down then wrapped her hands around Elena's waist hugging her tightly. Eunice looked a bit uncomfortable with the scene, she cleared her throat, "well, now that you met each other, I will be on my way, I must keep to my schedule" with that she left in a quick brisk walk down the hallway.

Elena moments passed with her still entrapped in a hug, awkwardly she didn't know whether to hug her back or limply stand until the child was done. Finally, the child stepped back with her hands still on Elena's waist peering at Elena's face, inspecting her face of some emotion that surely was not displayed.