Feathers

Chains And Freedom

Chains and freedom

∞∞∞∞∞∞

“What time will the students be arriving?” Valence asked his father from the door of his office.

“Don’t talk about the students like you aren’t one. As soon as the front doors open in the main hall, you are one of them just as the rest,” Headmaster Clarke mumbled to his son. “Do not expect any special treatment from me or the teachers. Make sure Stella knows that as well. She always tries to con people into being unusually nice to her. There will be no funny business this year. All of the same rules will still apply to both of you.”

“Yes, father,” he rolled his clear blue eyes. Just because he pretended to respect his father didn’t mean he actually did. “I’ll see you at the opening assembly. From the audience…” he quickly left the room. He anticipated the coming year with both excitement and uneasiness. A child prodigy, he’d already gained a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and a Master’s in Sociology at Columbia University by the ripe age of 18. He’d gone to a private school for his first year of kindergarten, and then skipped four grades. After that, the school claimed that a six-year-old could not participate in any classes with people who were twice or three times his size, and after that, he’d led life under the teaching of a private tutor until he made a perfect score on the SAT at the age of ten. He wanted to go back to Columbia to get a B.A in biophysics, but his father insisted he come back home and join Harold’s.

“You’d better not be expecting to get away with things this year,” he huffed to his sister as she met him in the hallway. Her dark eyes gazed at him in confusion. She ran her fingers down her silky black hair. Standing next to each other, they didn’t seem related at all. His sandy hair and pale eyes sharply contrasted her pale skin and dark eyes and hair. Her beauty was sleek and elegant, strong but seemingly fragile. His was of a different kind. His confidence gained him the looks of others. He knew what he was doing and never had any doubts.

“But what do you mean?” she asked. “I always get away with things.”

“No one’s giving you the special treatment anymore. Father requests we call him Headmaster Clarke. We don’t speak to him any more than absolutely needed,” Valence explained. Suddenly, she’d become a small, innocent looking blonde with golden eyes and an eye-catching smile.

“Good thing I don’t have to be me then,” she grinned. “You’re stuck turning into animals. No wonder you act like one sometimes.”

“I am your older brother do not talk to me like-“

“You’re just like our father,” she said, shifting back into her own self.

“I am not,” Valence replied.

“You are too,” she replied.  Stubborn and persistent. She’d never been one to take no for an answer. Stella might not have had the same level of academic of achievement as her older brother, but this didn’t mean she wasn’t as clever as him. She’d attended a local private school and knew how to mask herself. Normally, she was very quiet, elegant, and poised; the way a ‘proper’ woman should be, according to her father. But as soon as he turned his back, she could be witty and mischievous. “I’m off to see what fun I can have before everyone gets here.”

“Stella…” he half-heartedly called after her, but she didn’t respond.

∞∞∞∞∞∞

“Claudia, please, sweetie, does the fact that I love you not matter at all?” Kory begged, his eyes filled with heartbreak as he listened to her voice on an old cell phone that could barely carry a signal, “We can make a long distance relationship work. No, we aren’t allowed to make phone calls, no, no visitors either. What? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you… No, it’s this stupid phone.”