BAILE (Where We Come Home)

Chapter 1 Everyday

"We'll be late you keep this up." April called over her shoulder as I stopped to take a photo of a tree with my phone. 

"Nature is a beautiful thing." I started walking again. 

"Yes beauty blah, blah, blah, I'm sure the trees enjoy the attention you're giving them."

"Only a heartless creature wouldn't think this forest is beautiful." I caught up to her.

She looked over at me. "And it took you this long to find out?"

I shook my head with a smile.

Our school came into view and we sped up our walking pace a little, beating the bell by five minutes. 

"I swear you guys are getting later and later with each day." Charlotte declared on her way out of our dorm.

"You can thank Isla for that." April gave me a sidelong look.

April and I began changing into our school uniform which consisted of a white shirt, green and navy striped tie, navy sweater, green and blue plaid skirt, stockings and black shoes. I tied my mid length raven hair back into a ponytail before the mirror. April appeared beside me, roughing up her uniform a bit and running her fingers through her Goddess equivalent, waist length red hair. 

I moved away to slip on my shoes as April applied foundation over her freckles. I swung my bag over my shoulder, waiting so April and I could leave side by side. The more empty hallways and stairwells we encountered, the faster we speed walked; walking faster and faster until we burst through the door of our biology class. 

"You two must be Isla Dunn and Aibreann Byrne." A new substitute teacher gave April and I a disapproving look over his vintage glasses. 

"Call me April." Everyone preferred to call April by her English translation. 

"Now, I may be new here, but I'm pretty sure being late to class is detention worthy." 

April and I exchanged a look as we took our seats at a bench at the front of the room.

"For the stragglers, my name is Mr. O'Sullivan." He gestured to his name written on the blackboard behind him. "I will be teaching our class for the next couple of months."

A hand was raised. "Where's Mr. Ross?"

"He's very ill, and is currently in a hospital in Dublin and he has kindly asked me to take up where he left off. Artair taught me when i used to go to school here. Which, luckily, means I know exactly what you're all meant to be learning."

Groans rung out instantly and Mr. O'Sullivan just grinned at this expected response. 

"Okay, open up your textbooks to chapter two." He turned his back to us to write on the board and April leaned over.

"Biology is now my favourite class." She whispered.

Looking behind us I could see that Mr. O'Sullivan was affecting about half of our classmates, and not all of them were of the female variety.

"He's alright." I admitted.

April chuckled. "That's an understatement."

"Genes."

I looked up to see that he had drawn a spectacular diagram of the structure of human DNA on the board.

"Can anyone tell me the difference between dominant and recessive genes?" He asked.

April raised her hand.

"April." 

"A dominant allele always shows, even if the individual has only one copy of the allele, whereas a recessive allele only shows if the individual has two copies of the recessive allele." She answered confidently.