Harriet Roswell and the School of Witchcraft

Chapter 17

Several alarms began that morning, and a little after half six, the curtains lifted to reveal three people, in sports gear. Diana, was sparkling, Alex, looked like he had the day before, and Harriet looked almost the same but her hair was in a bun. Diana wore black leggings with black trainers, and a black jumper of which she had pushed the sleeves up. Harriet had on some pastel purple shorts and a grey sports t-shirt. They, quietly departed the room walking past the sleeping beds, all the sleeping beds except for Toby's.

"Did Toby come in last night?" Harriet whispered and the others glanced back.

"I don't know."

"I don't think he did" Alex whispered, his black nails matching his black outfit.

Outside was misty, thick air rolled over the field and they jogged around it. Harriet didn't know what she was doing, she immediately decided that she had made a terrible mistake to embarrass herself in front of two very sporty people, and she half thought suicide wasn't off the table, as she stopped to walk.

"You were doing so good for your first time" Diana encouraged.

"Not the worst I've seen" Alex said.

"I want to go around two times, I'll wait for you when I'm done" Diana encouraged.

"Okay, thanks." Harriet said, and they jogged off together. Harriet gave herself two minutes, jogged for two minutes, and then gave herself another walking brake. The field was huge. There was a football field on the field, Harriet half thought eight football fields could have fit on it. She was walking past the creepy forest, when she heard a creature behind her, panting. She stopped jogging and slowed down, and the creature came to her side. A large girl, possibly 3 times the size of her, wearing leggings, a long sports shirt, and an obviously large sports bra.

"Morning."

"Morning."

"This your first run?" She asked.

"Was I that bad?" Harriet asked completely aghast.

"No! I just got a magic way to tell."

"It is my first run of the year... possibly my last." Harriet nodded.

"Aw! Don't say that. Before the summer I could run 15 minutes at a time with just a 7 minute brake for a good 2 hours. Ruined all my good work by not doing any exercise over the summer, and it doesn't help that the vending machines outside of school are pleasant to use."

"Oh yeah, that vending machines creepy" Harriet nodded.

"Isn't it just? I think all the african kids on it's racist, but like it's also charity ads so I don't know."

"Well I've only heard the horror stories, but I think I'm just not going to buy my own sweets this year."

"Makes them taste nicer. During summer brake the second I ate a caramel bar, I just couldn't stop. Although, now I know, I won't be making that mistake again."

"Didn't you go home for half term or xmas?" Harriet asked who was already thinking of the closest half term.

"No, I mean some kids come here from other countries, and they can't afford the plane tickets every holiday, so technically the school stays open. My folks live all the way down the country, so it's a big drive, plus my bestie was staying. We thought there was going to be a robot uprising at the time... can't remember why. Anyway, I have got to run again, not that I got my breath back because I spent way too much time talking." She jogged fast, and with good form, and halfway back to the school she stopped, she ran about four minutes at a time. Harriet did a shorter run, but did some quality speed walking to catch up with her.