Palace of Wolves

Chapter 1 -- Libraries and rain

I counted time with the ticks of my watch. Every sixty ticks meant one less minute until the bell rang; one less minute until summer. Unfortunately, despite being an English teacher Miss Rhode did not know the definition of "Last Day of School" so I was shut in her after lunch double period with an unfathomably hard close reading exercise.

Sixty more ticks. Only five minutes left.

"Sandra, d'you want to head to the library after school?" whispered my best friend, Josie, from the desk in front.

"Why? We've spent the last two hours reading this passage."

"This isn't interesting though. We-"

"Miss Baxter, will you kindly stop talking to Miss Forester. Or has it escaped your notice that you are in a classroom?"

Ten ticks till summer. Nine, Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one---

"WOOHOO! It's summer."

"Need I tell you two again?"

"Sorry Miss but you can't tell me anything for the next six weeks" I yelled

"I can't believe you said that" exclaimed Josie, exiting the classroom

"Neither can I!"

On the way through the building, I checked my reflection in a darkened window. I had finally dyed my hair a satisfactory shade of bleach blonde with some sky blue touches at the bottom -which matched the frames of my glasses.

"Will you stop admiring yourself?"

"Okay, okay. Library."

The library wasn't far from the school, in fact, nothing was far from anything in the town. There was one long, wide main street, with clusters of little bunting fronted stores selling knick-knacks for the tourists, and narrow lanes spilling out into the streets of older housing. And at either end where the bands of modern housing estates, invading inwards to the dwindling tranquillity of the town and outwards into the ever shrinking farms and woodland.

The rain was slapping heavily against the pavement when they exited the school, typical British weather, why couldn't I live a bit closer to the equator? I was going to get soaked in about five seconds; the water would easily penetrate the thin white shirt of my despised uniform. Plus I had no jacket, not even my maroon school cardigan. At least in August I'd be losing the maroon as would be wearing the black of the senior school. I never liked black, I would rather be clad in pale blues and purples, but anything's better than maroon -the colour that seemed to be solely used for school uniforms. Running up the main street raindrops coated my glasses, limiting my sight so I never saw the woman that I run straight into.

"Sorry!" I yelled to the woman who I relished was Mrs Jardine, my closest neighbour who worked as a nurse in the nearest city despite the fact that she was about eighty years old.

"Sandra Forester! I'm going to tell your mother about your horrendous manners."

Mum wouldn't care what the old crackpot rattled on about anyway. People said she was crazy, and I had always wondered why she was the one working in the hospital instead of being locked up in there.

Josie and I ran into the library and shook of raindrops at the doorway, I didn't get her obsession with books. Sure some of them where pretty good when your reading them but I never thought about them twice. Josie on the other hand, she was still fixated over a book months after she turned the last page.

"Why do you need to go to the library just now anyway?"

"I was bored, wanted a browse. Plus I need to get you into some good books."