Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter One - Maddox Academy

I didn't want to go to boarding school

In fact, I would have much rather been anywhere else as the car twisted down the gravel path and towards the wrought iron gates. Michael drove and Mum sat beside him, turning her back on occasion to make sure I hadn't decided to open the car door and throw myself out onto the gravel. I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind at least once since we set off from London.

The drive from London to the middle of nowhere had been an adventurous one, to say the least. All the roads and lanes twisted this way and that. A sickly-sweet smell hung in the air and filled the car through the gap in the open window. Trees lined the path and roads with fields that seemed to stretch on for miles. We had passed cows and sheep in their pens and farmers out ploughing the fields for the new crop. Everything was new, but not all of it was exciting.

London had always been so busy, so chaotic with smoke from chimneys clouding the sky. The countryside was a world away from the city I had grown up in.

Mum shifted around to face me as we drove through the gate and up another path that twisted just as much as all the others. I started to feel a little car sick.

"Don't look so nervous, Flick. You worked hard to be here, and your dad is really proud of you," Mum said. "He would be here if he could."

"I know. I just don't think boarding school is for me, especially not this one." I waved in the direction of the window.

"You'll be fine, trust me. Times are changing, and I doubt the girls here will see you as anything other than a friend regardless of how you got in."

"Somehow, I doubt it," I muttered.

"Do you reckon they'll let you stay over the holidays? I like this idea of constant silence," Michael said. I stuck my tongue out at him. Mum tapped him lightly on the back of the head.

"Enough, Michael." She turned back to me. "Maddox isn't as big or as scary as you think it is."

I turned away from her and looked out the window. The trees passed by in a blur and I wondered how Mum could be so sure about a place she had never been to. It had never been my choice to go to Maddox, Dad said that it would have been what was best for me, but I never liked the idea. I had agreed to it for him, but the further away we got from London, the more I wanted Michael to turn the car around and drive home. A new school, far away from my friend Janina and my family just didn't feel right. It was too much.

Michael whistled loudly as the car turned a corner into a massive oval-shaped driveway. At the edge of the drive stood a large stone building decorated with windows that looked out onto the surrounding fields. Several stone steps led up to an oak door that looked far too heavy to be opened and taller than any door I had seen. It looked like a castle, one that many years ago may have belonged to a Lord who ruled the surrounding farmland with an iron fist.

"So much for not being big and scary," I mumbled.

On the steps leading up to the front door stood a tall woman with dark brown hair that had been pinned up on the back of her head. She wore a dark blue pencil skirt, a white blouse and glasses that were perched on the edge of her nose and looked as though they would slide off if she moved her head too quickly. Beside her stood a shorter woman whose red hair had been pinned back in a knot. She wore a light green dress with an apron tied around the front. Neither of them looked like a welcoming committee.

The car came to a stop opposite the stone steps, and I stood staring at the building that would be my home until June. Vines had begun to creep up the side of the stones and along the side of the building. They tangled their way up to the roof where the black tiles appeared unstable and ready to fall at any moment.