The Merkwood Chronicles

Chapter 1

"Mabel! Are you awake? Last day of school, you can't be late!" Michael Banks shouted from the bottom of the stairs, sounds of bacon and eggs frying in a pan from the kitchen, the daily morning news muffled on the radio filling the morning silence. The alarm clock beeped angrily from Mabel's bedside, earning a tired groan from under the mass of blankets and pillows. A hand reached out from underneath the covers, turned off the alarm and slowly began to rise from the bed. Mabel crawled out, making her way to the mirror, her eyes half-shut in a groggy morning haze. She stared at her reflection, her freckled face staring right back as she thoroughly inspected what she had to work with for the day. Feeling a wave of dread as she stared at her bright red hair, sticking up in every possible direction, questioning why she thought cutting it this short would be a good idea in the first place. She attempted to fix the mess, but to little success, and gave up.

Her hair had always been too bright and so different from other peoples, it never allowed her to just blend in, be invisible. They had tried dyeing it, but nothing had ever worked, her hair was just about as determined and stubborn as Mabel was herself. After fighting with her law-length wavy hair for what felt like forever, she got into her uniform for school, tried to smile and walked downstairs for the breakfast that her father was cooking in the kitchen.

Seeing Mabel drag herself down stairs and slump down at the table in the dining room, Michael's heart saddened. He understood that kids could be mean, he himself had been bullied through his time at school, until he moved to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, but he didn't fully understand how mean. Most days, he had to physically drag Mabel out of her bed because she didn't want to go to school. He just wished he had some power to help her get to where she belonged, where she had always belonged.

Mabel sighed heavily as she got in the car, her dad sitting in the driver's seat to take her to school, slinging her bag down by her feet. Automatically, her hand reached for a necklace that hung purposefully around her neck, a golden chain with an amber jewelled pendant. Saffron, her mother, had given it to her just days before she had passed away, telling her that whatever the kids at school were saying to her, it would get better. Telling her that hope is always much stronger than fear. Mabel took one deep inhale and exhaled as they pulled up in the car outside the school building. She could do this. One more day was all she had to go through before she had a whole summer holiday to enjoy alone, without mean kids and schoolwork. Surely that would be enough to keep her mind from wandering for the day. She got out of the car, her bag slumped over her shoulder and went on to face her personal hell.

As usual, Mabel sat alone for most of the day, during class, at lunch, during her free period. But, to her surprise, friend-turned-mean-girl Stacy Goodwin was seemingly keeping her distance so far that day, She hadn't even batted an eyelid at Mabel's unusually unruly locks. When Mabel had started at the local high school, Stacy had decided that Mabel was one of the people she was going to belittle, and Mabel had taken the bullying, she had the philosophy that it was better they try to bully her than someone else. So she had to resort to sitting alone most of the time, which she didn't exactly mind, there was a certain peace in solitude, but she would like to have a friend at least once. The teasing that came from Stacy meant that she was forced to sitting alone and being picked last for teams and never having a partner for anything in classes when they all chose their own groups. But she was used to that by now. She just sat happily with a book or some schoolwork, earphones in her ears, listening to her music so loud that it could drown out the world around her, even if just for a few moments.

"So, how was school?" Michael asked, as he did every time he picked her up. And every time she would answer the same way, with just a shrug of the shoulders. To any normal parent, this shrug of the shoulders would most likely concern them, but not Michael. He knew she was better than that school, he knew that she would never truly belong there. It was just a matter of time before he would have to explain that to her himself, that was, if the letter didn't come soon.