Outrunning Her Shadow

Chapter Two - A New Palace

September 1st 2028

Marlborough, England

The drive back into Marlborough was always difficult on the 1st of September. Traffic would grind to a halt in the sleepy little village as students started returning to school, their parents desperate to find an empty parking space so that moving their children's things was that much easier. The Cambridge family were no different, stuck in traffic in the middle of the high street as they waited for the roads to clear. It took them thirty minutes to travel a mile, and then another thirty sitting in a side road outside Ivy House as they waited for a parking spot to free up. Kate could still vaguely remember her own mother driving her back to school, in a time where Marlborough was less famous and the student body was still something that the small town could handle.

What days those were.

She passed the time by browsing photos on her phone, trying to pick from the hundred that she'd taken of her kids together on their first day of school. It was a good distraction from the growing restlessness inside the car, trying to find one photo where Charlotte was looking at the camera or one where Alex wasn't making her little brother laugh by pulling silly faces.

"Oh! How 'bout this one?" Kate asked hopefully, holding up her phone so that Ellie and Alex could see from the back seats of the family Range Rover.

"No! Only one of my eyes is open there!" Ellie shot her down quickly and impatiently, like she'd done for the entirety of their journey.

"You've rejected every one so far Ellie." Kate pouted at her in the rear view mirror. Getting her eldest daughter to take nice photos was always difficult, but Ellie's pickiness meant Kate could take as many photos as time would allow and then get to coo endlessly as she scrolled through every single one. Will had noticed her getting teary eyed more than a few times during the trip to Marlborough.

"Just pick one already. It's obvious she's not gonna help out." Alex threw her head back against the seat and groaned at her older sister. She would have been perfectly happy with any one of the last hundred that Kate had showed them.

"Can we get in yet?" Ellie asked, noticing a car leaving the parking lot.

"Nope, still full." Will said, glancing around the cars ahead. "I'm sure if we let them know we're here, they'd make a space for us."

"No!" Ellie denied him quickly. "It's fine. We can wait."

"Speak for yourself why don't you?" Alex rolled her eyes at her sister.

It was hard not to find Ellie a little irritating. She had been restless and overeager to be back at school ever since they'd left London. Kate had tried to get her to unwind over the journey but her daughter was having none of it, she was a bundle of energy that was itching to explode.

Kate had never seen her eldest acting this way, definitely not when it came to her education, something which for the last three years Ellie seemed only half interested in at best. This year there was a spark inside of her that had never been there before, a drive to do well and achieve great things. Kate was loving her daughter's new spirit, but she couldn't help but be a little worried.

She's planning to do everything. Every class, every club, every team, every sport. Even ones she knows she won't like. She wants to make a million friends and pass every exam with top marks. She wants to craft the perfect school life for herself, but she thinks it'll happen straight away.

Kate wanted her daughter to do well, as any mother would, but she didn't want to pressure her. The performance reports she had been getting from Ellie's teachers implied that her daughter was an average student, that she wasn't trying, and most worrying of all that she wasn't making any friends.