The Merkwood Chronicles

Chapter 3

Sitting back in her seat, Mabel watched as the world below them shrunk as the carriages flew higher, remembering not where she was leaving but where she was heading. She smiled to herself, looking down at her hands as they rested in her lap, still clutching the piece of paper that Michael had handed her with the address written on.

"Evie, How long will it be until we get there?" A little voice whined from one of the girls in the same coach as Mabel. She looked very small, as small as her voice had foretold, the girl must've been the youngest one out of everyone in that coach.

"We've only just set off! I knew you'd be excited, but it seems I must've underestimated how excited you are," replied one of the older girls, rolling her eyes. Both the older and younger girl had quite pale skin, freckles like stars and wavy blonde hair framing their faces. Mabel continued to assume that they were sisters.

"Evie, you're one to talk about excitement!" the other older girl, sat on the seat next to Mabel laughed, "Can't you remember how excited you were for your first day?" She had darker skin and incredibly curly dark brown hair that bounced joyfully with every movement she made. She was very pretty, in Mabel's opinion.

Suddenly, it seemed that the smaller girl had gotten up off her seat in the carriage and was now standing in front of where Mabel was sitting. She reached out her hand, it was then that Mabel noticed that her eyes were two different colours, her left eye was blue as the morning sky and her right eye was green as a field of grass in the summer sun.

"I'm Birdie, are you new like me?" The little girl said in a bit more of a bigger voice than she had spoken in before. Mabel looked at the older girl before taking the small hand and shaking it.

"Erm... I'm Mabel, yeah, I am new," Mabel stuttered.

"I'm Birdie, this is my older sister Evelyn," She gestured at the older girl beside her and then spoke to one side behind her hand as if for her sister to not hear her, "but she prefers to be called Evie!" Evie rolled her eyes again and laughed at her little sister's remark. Mabel again noticed the colour of the older sister's eyes too, the same as Birdie's, but just opposites; left eye green and right eye blue. "And this is Florence, my sister's friend," Birdie carried on, gesturing to the pretty girl who was sitting next to Mabel. Florence waved and smiled sweetly, quietly laughing at the young girl.

"Birdie likes to talk, trust this little monkey to be the first of the four of us to talk!" Evie said, rubbing her sisters head and giggling.

"Hey! I know you love me really," Birdie smiled, moving her now messed up blonde hair out of her face.

"Of course I do, squirt," Evie replied before kissing her sister on the forehead.

Mabel had always been the only child in her household, she had never had the chance to be a sister to anyone, she'd not even had the opportunity to be anyone's best friend because of all the moving around when she was younger. She blames her lack of staying in one place for a longer length of time for why she was always so distant from other kids, she had learnt to not get too attached just in case they had to move suddenly. Making friends was never really an option for her.

Then, she realised that now it was an option.

They were quiet for a few minutes, Mabel had been staring out of the window at the sky and the land below, and then Florence began to speak.

"So, you're new to Merkwood this year?" She remarked, Mabel turned to her and nodded. Florence asked how old she was, obviously puzzled over the fact that the 14-year-old girl had never been to Merkwood before. Mabel attempted to explain her situation, but then realised that she didn't quite understand it all either, never mind trying to explain it to someone she had only just met.

Then she realised that this was her chance, Mabel was dying to know more about the place she was going to be spending at least the next year of her life, but she didn't want to seem desperate or needy to these girls she had just met. But the need to know was too overpowering.

"What is Merkwood like? How does it work? How long has the school existed? Are there like house systems or something?" Mabel burst with questions, but thankfully Florence and Evie didn't seem to mind it, they just happily began to answer.

"Merkwood is amazing, I think that it's been there for like 300 years, give or take," Evie started, handing it over to Florence to carry on.

"There's a house system, three houses, one for each of the great individuals who founded the school; Mildred Waldgrave, Claude Davenport and Elizabeth Blackwood." Florence seemed to know more about the school's history than Evie.

"Each of the houses represents something that the founders believed to be vital to a young individuals education when it came to their powers and general life after leaving school." Evie carried on, handing the baton over to Florence once more.

"Waldgrave stands for Courage and Strength, Davenport stands for Creativity and Intelligence and then Blackwood stands for Curiosity and Kindness. I'm part of Blackwood, Evie is a member of Waldgrave." Mabel nodded, began wondering which house she would be put into. She got worried that there may be some sort of entry test that she had to take to get sorted into one of the houses, but she tried to push it to the back of her mind, she didn't want to seem weird to the girls and ask any more questions.

As they flew through the air, they talked and talked. There wasn't even really a specific topic involved at all, they were just telling stories to each other, getting to know who they all were. It was nice, Mabel had never had anything like this before. During one of the conversations Evie turned to Mabel and told her that she could already tell that the three older girls were going to be good friends, maybe even best friends.

Best friends, the phrase was like music to Mabel's ears, she liked the ring it had. Yes, they'd be best friends, the first best friends that Mabel had ever had the good fortune to have.

It was then that a loud noise came from inside the carriage, a speaker popped out of the roof, and the voice of the conductor told them that they would be passing over Merkwood Academy any second. And as if on cue, every child in every age group in each carriage came rushing to the windows to catch a glimpse of the school they will be spending the next 365 days living inside. Everything was silent until a large castle-like structure came into view and everyone cheered as they saw their destination for the first time.