The Merkwood Chronicles

Chapter 12

Eerie silences were never good, especially not in the situation that Mabel and her friends found themselves in. There was an air of uncertainty, none of them knowing exactly why they had been summoned to the headmistress's office. There was a knock at the door, breaking the silence, Headmistress Chase walked and opened up the door revealing none other than a slightly confused Arthur Davenport, the boy that Mabel had managed to bump into way too many times already. He walked in, looking just as puzzled as the girls were, and that was when Mabel knew that he wasn't just there to see the headmistress, he had also been requested.

As if they had been waiting for Arthur the whole time, the silence faded and Professor Chase started to speak.

"Mr Davenport, I apologise for this in advance, but I'm sure you will thank me in the long run," She glanced at Arthur who had by that point formed a good idea of what this meeting was going to be about. Mabel thought he looked like he was about to bolt for the door any second, his eyes focusing on either the worn hardwood floors or the heavy door he had walked through. The headmistress then began to speak to the three girls, for some reason Mabel felt that it was mostly directed at her. "Arthur hasn't been settling too well since he started here at the same time as Mabel in the summer," she began, Arthur visibly flinched, Mabel sensed that the headmistress had a clear reason for the apology.

"He and some other students aren't getting on too well, and I was hoping, since you three girls happen to be my most trusted students and the four of you are in the same year group, that you would be able to look out for him, maybe even make friends," the headmistresses eyes sparkled as they moved between every person in the room, Mabel could feel Arthur sigh out of perhaps frustration, perhaps maybe even out of relaxation, but Mabel knew she couldn't let Headmistress Chase down, no matter how weird this request was with everything that was going on otherwise.

The girls looked at each other, evaluating the situation, they turned back and Evie started to speak, "Sure, we can look out for him," she said, a smile on her face making her look much more friendly than she usually did.

Arthur then made direct eye contact with Mabel, his eyes softening at the thought of having a friend. It was then that Mabel saw that the dark coloured mark on his right cheek leading up to his eye wasn't a shadow that was being cast by the light, it was a very large and dark purple bruise. She had no idea what had happened and felt that she shouldn't ask questions in case he just didn't want to talk about it. If he wanted to talk, he'd talk, right? Mabel just smiled at him and they were then dismissed from the office.

Once they had all exited through the large door of the headmistress's office, they started down the corridor, all four of them going in the same direction. Mabel walked with Evie and Florence, Arthur seemed to trail behind, as if trying to figure out a safe distance to walk behind them. She had never seen him this quiet before, even if they had only really met a few times before, he had always seemed to be quite upbeat and even quite chatty, but he was deadly silent now, and Mabel didn't like that.

"Hey Arthur," Mabel happily walked to where Arthur was shuffling behind them. She couldn't bear to see anyone feel this way, she smiled, moving her feet towards and started up a conversation. Evie and Florence joined in and soon enough everyone was smiling, including Arthur.

As they talked, Mabel could almost sense happiness, as Arthur's face lit up like the family Christmas tree on Christmas Eve back when she was at home with Michael. From then on she swore to herself that she would look out for Arthur, she'd be there for him where it seems to her that no one else had been for a long time.

They had a long conversation as they navigated through the twisting hallways, Arthur had returned to the chatty teenaged boy that Mabel had met on that first day. Mabel already knew that Arthur was the great-great-grandson of Davenport, Claude Davenport, another one of the founders of Merkwood Academy, next to Mabel's great-great-great grandmother, but she didn't say anything in case he just didn't want people to make a scene about it. As they talked, Evie and Florence both seemed to stare at Mabel, as if suggesting something that Mabel just simply laughed off. Mabel liked that she had a friend who was kind of going through a similar heritage crisis as she was, even if he didn't know her side of the story.