"So now, class, I want you to write down twenty sentences in perfect French of what you wish to fulfil during your summer holidays. If it isn't done perfectly, or is not completed, you will be staying behind after school to finish it."
That was my French teacher, if it wasn't already noticeable. What you may not have noticed is that that was supposed to be the last day of the school year. It was only a mark of us being bottom set that she wasn't lecturing us in full French on this humid, stormy day. I was sat by the window next to my friend, Lucas Crop, staring mesmerised at the heavy storm that was taking place.
"Did you catch that, Swan, or were you too busy daydreaming?" Madame Noir snapped at me. I instantly looked away, and instead looked straight at her.
"Yes, I do have ears." I grumbled. "There wasn't any need to snap." Ah, there it is, my huge mouth. I never did know what possessed me to speak sometimes.
"Pardon?" She raised her eyebrows at me.
"Nothing." I gritted my teeth, pulled my pencil case towards me and got out a pen, and looked painfully at my hardly used French workbook.
"Isn't this a wonderful lesson?" Lucas grinned. "I love it. And the teacher is so delightful too."
"I hate her." I clicked my pen open with perhaps more force than necessary and glared down at my book. "I think she wants to kill me."
"That is probably true. So do I."
I shook my head at him, and tried to focus on writing more than the date and title, which was probably spelt wrong, and then sighed as my dyslexia won, and I had no idea how to write these sentences in English, let alone French. I growled in frustration.
"Relax, Scarley, it's only French. You'll be out of this dump soon, anyway."
He had a point. I had been asked (ordered) not to return back to the school in September. My mother got a letter home at the beginning of June. This seemed to happen every year, because of my ADHD, and so I was in Year 9, and this was my tenth school. I did try not to get expelled, but something...strange, tended to usually happen. Very slightly my fault. Mine and Sofia's.
A slow murmur swept through the class, and so Lucas and I decided it would be safe to talk louder.
"You got completely beaten today in the High Jump." Lucas smirked, amused. Sofia and I both met Lucas at the beginning of year nine at this place. We were all new so got thrown together, and we liked him instantly. Not in that way, but he seemed to us to not be a completely arse like most boys his age, much more thoughtful and deep. He had to use crutches as he had something wrong with his legs – which I could probably retort to his most recent taunt – and got picked on by pretty much everybody in the school because of it. This pretty much stopped when Sofia and I made friends with him, for people admired Sofia's beauty and feared me, for some reason, and we soon learnt that Lucas was an incredibly annoying boy who made far too many jokes and really liked to push our patience. He somehow got away with wearing a red baseball cap over his curly black hair, and had deep brown eyes with so much hidden depth, with his dark skin. He was an early developer for he already had a black wispy beard which clashed dramatically with his thin, boyish frame.
"Let's not talk about that." I felt utterly stupid of myself, as I never did well at High Jump, due to my height. "At least I took part."
"Hey, I have problems with my legs!"
"That isn't the only problem." I threw back.
"That is harsh, Scarlet. Although I –"
"Swan, Crop, shut it down the back there!" Madame Noir roared at us. All the obedient students in front of us looked behind, with superior and judgemental expressions. I looked down, absolutely fuming. Idiots, I thought, pretending to write, they are no better than me. Stupid, boring, fools…
"Just thirty five minutes and you will never have to see my beautiful face in this beautiful school again, cheer up, face ache!"
I sighed irritably. "I hate school. Only have another four more years."
"The next school might be good."
"I doubt it, Lucas. Just another place full of annoying people who annoy me. I just don't belong in school."
"Nope, you belong on the battlefield with a fully loaded gun."
I laughed begrudgingly, hitting Lucas playfully. "Oh shut it. I'm not that bad."
"Your temper is awful. Really bad."
I shrugged, and looked out of the window again. The storm was dying down somewhat, the dark grey clouds parting to reveal a white sky behind it, the ferocious rain falling more gently, the humidity in the air beginning to fade. I sighed, unhappy about this. I had always liked thunderstorms, they somewhat calmed me down. I spent the rest of the lesson doodling in my workbook, and at one point scribbling so hard I made a hole in the page. Anything to distract me from the horrible classroom, with its vomit grey walls and grey floor… the whole place was just a horrible, grey, cave of misery. I would rejoice in escaping, but I know I'll have an equally horrible school in September. The cycle forever continues.
At last, the clock struck three thirty. Madame Noir ordered us to line up and hand in our workbooks to be checked before we could leave the classroom. I was second to last in the queue; Lucas was behind me. Queuing was always a difficult time for me as I was the most impatient person in the world. I had been known to push in queues that I found unbearable, but in this instance I was kind of okay. When Madame Noir saw how little work I had done, again, I was going to be shouted at. And of course I would shout even louder back which would be quite unpleasant.
After an exceedingly long time of me thinking of what I could shout at her in advance, I reached her. Handing over my book, she turned to the right page as fast as lightning, and examined it. She brought the book closer to her face as though she might be able to see the invisible ink I used, but alas, no. She looked at me with a face of pure loathing, and I honestly believed that she was about to pull out a gun from her desk drawers and shoot me in the head. But she didn't. Instead…
"Scarlet Swan, I hope to never see you again. You have been nothing but a lazy pain since the start of the year, and it was only a matter of time before they expelled you."
Anger washed over me like a wave of ice. I felt static with electricity. I didn't shout at her, however much I wanted to. I simply put as much contempt into my voice as possible.
"Ugh, you know what, you've just been a bitch my whole time in this class, and I hope that karma bites you in back, right in that fat butt of yours."
And with that, I gave her one more glare, and I definitely saw her recoil slightly, which shocked me, but nevertheless I strode out of the classroom.
The corridor was packed with students, all wearing the grey uniform, and all in clumps. Clumps of girls, linking their arms and gossiping about the summer to come, and boys pushing each other round, filling all the empty space they could with their presence and booming voices. I tried to fight my way through these clumps, which was easy in that I had bony elbows and was surprisingly strong, but tough in the case that I was smaller than the average thirteen year old, very nearly fourteen year old. The problem was that I was going in an opposite direction to them, to meet Sofia. I could hear Lucas' crutches behind me, and soon together we were fighting past, and managed to safely find my best friend.
Sofia Moretti has been my best friend since reception. We were united by our dyslexia and our ADHD, and even more united by our trouble making and that we both had one absent parent. And we had been best friends ever since. Sofia was, somehow, in top set French because she was, somehow, fluent. Nobody actually understood why, she never bothered with it. Sofia had, without a shadow of a doubt, the looks in our friendship. She had olive coloured skin, with eyes that changed colour as often as the wind changed direction. Her hair was so dark a brown it was practically black, and she was tall and graceful, and nearly always smiling. She was my stunning best friend, and I felt like a lumpy toad in her presence.
"So we're finally out of here." I said to her.
"Well, I'm sure that that we'll miss some aspects of the place…" Sofia muttered. I should probably also tell you that Sofia is ridiculously kind. She would not say anything bad about anyone.
"Yes, me! You forget I'm still going to be attending here!" Lucas exclaimed.
"You know we'll miss you, Lucas." Sofia sighed.
"Ah, I know you will." Lucas linked arms with both of us and marched us towards the exit of the school. However, halfway there, he stopped abruptly, and turned around, still linking arms with us, and then walked in the other direction.
"Lucas, what are you doing?" I asked, looking at him suspiciously.
"We need to go and see Mr Ronich..." He responded, his jokey side gone and replaced with his deep and thoughtful side. This change was often as quick as that; you tended to get used to it.
"But why? School has finished, I want to go home and eat!" I groaned.
"Tough." Lucas simply stated.
"You go, Sofia and I will just..."
"Scarlet, please!" Lucas sounded quite desperate, so I decided to give in and go with him to see our favourite teacher.
Mr Ronich taught us Latin, and he seemed to have decided that I was his star pupil, despite the fact I haven't written a thing in his lessons. I did, to be fair, contribute a lot, as Latin was not altogether interesting, but it was far more interesting than all my other subjects. The Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and all their affairs. Like, Athena didn't like Arachne because Arachne thought she was better at weaving than her, so Athena turned her into a spider. Fair enough.
His office happened to be right at the other end of the school, and up two flights of stairs, so it took us quite a while to actually get up there. Mr Ronich was going through paperwork when we reached him. He didn't have any new technology, like a laptop, or a mobile phone, or even a Smart board in his classroom. His register was in this A4 graph book. This explained why he was still in the school, as it took him far longer to pack up than other teachers.
He had a brown beard, and brown hair, with these old, ancient eyes that seemed to have seen everything. He wore tweet suits and had a wheelchair, and when we entered his office he spun it around to face us. Before he could speak, Lucas jumped in.
"Sir, I think…"
"Yes I know." Mr Ronich and Lucas exchanged anxious looks, but Mr Ronich's soon evaporated once he looked at Sofia and me.
"Good afternoon, girls, I believe this is your last day?"
"It is." Sofia said. "It's sad, really, as I have just got settled, but it is completely my fault, however, nothing to do with Scarlet."
"Sofia, I set fire to the canteen." I said slowly.
"I persuaded our Geography teacher to run around the school in her underwear! Who does that?" Sofia looked utterly devastated, believing her prank to be the cause of our expulsion, as opposed to my outright crime. I found it quite funny.
"Anyway," Mr Ronich interrupted, "I think it was the right thing for the school to do, this place isn't the best place for you two."
"That's what I said." I looked pointedly at Lucas, but he didn't notice. Sofia looked down, slightly forlorn.
"Not for bad reasons!" Mr Ronich corrected himself. "No, you two belong in other places." I started to feel as though Mr Ronich was digging the hole deeper.
"Special schools?" I asked, challenging.
"No! Just… just be patient, that's all." Mr Ronich sighed. I took a deep breath, calming down somewhat.
"Thank you for teaching us this year, sir." Sofia smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, thanks." I agreed.
"It was a pleasure. Although I'm sure I will be teaching you again someday. Now, I do need to talk to Lucas in private for a moment, so if you two girls can kindly step outside?" Lucas seemed like he was about to cry, so I decided it was a good idea, and we exited. I leaned against the wall, while Sofia looked through the glass in the door.
"I wonder what's wrong with Lucas… Maybe we should talk to him, let him confide in us?"
"That's more your forte, Sofia. I don't -"
"Don't be silly, you're nicer than you think you are. You know you care."
"I'm more suspicious if I'm honest, what is he saying to sir that he can't say to us?"
"He might be having problems at home, that he feels he can talk to Mr Ronich about. Poor thing."
"He never talks about home." I pointed out.
"That might be why!" Sofia was adamant that Lucas was having problems, but I couldn't quite believe her. Obviously if it was true then I would try and help him, of course I would, but I had a strange feeling I couldn't shake off, that it was a bit more stranger than that.
Finally Lucas and Mr Ronich came out. Lucas did not look sad, mainly anxious, which made me feel triumphant in a way, because it almost showed that I was right. But then I wanted to know what was going on.
"Nothing!" Lucas said in a shrill voice. "Mr Ronich is just leaving too, so he's going to come out with us."
"Um, why?" I asked.
"Because he is." Lucas said shortly, and the four of us made our way out together, which I must say was one of the weirdest things I had ever done, just strolling out with my Latin teacher.
The storm had completely let up now, which was a shame. The sky was a white blanket of clouds, with the odd grey puff dotted here and there. Remnants of the earlier storm were on the ground, glistening wet with an enormous puddle near the entrance. Lucas and our teacher walked in front of us and they just suddenly stopped walking, so Sofia and I ended up bumping into them.
"What the hell is going on?" I snapped, really starting to get irritated with the secrecy of it all. And then something happened that changed my life forever. At first, I hardly even realised it had happened. Again.
A lion, yes a lion, with the head of a human woman, jumped right in front of us. It hissed, and looked evilly, right at me. Its fur was the purest of gold, and the face was that of a beautiful woman, only with black, charcoal eyes full of hate. Its teeth were bared and looked dangerously sharp.
"Oh my goodness!" Sofia shrieked, tearful.
"Get back!" Mr Ronich roared. Sofia and Lucas did so, but I ran forward.
"What is this?" I shouted at him, but while I did so, the lion pounced, and it was only by chance I was able to roll out of the way, the lion scratching me in the process, but that was just slightly more preferable than being eaten alive.
"Scarlet, for once in your life just do as you're told and get back!" My Latin teacher roared again, and this time I begrudgingly obeyed. I hurried back, but the lion kept its dark eyes on me.
"Come here and die, half-blood!" She shrieked, before going to pounce again. I stared at it, gobsmacked. I was aware that Sofia had been called it a few times, as she is half Italian, half British, but it wasn't something I had ever been called, and I didn't understand why she was calling me it.
"What did you say?" I shouted at it. It stopped. I regretted shouting this, and it really should have been the least of my concerns at that moment in time, but my naturally paranoid mind wanted to know. The lion stopping seemed to surprise Lucas, too, for he looked at it as if it had suddenly put on ballet shoes. Sofia grabbed my arm.
"Scarlet, come back, please." She hissed desperately. But I took a shaky breath and stared at the lion. I had a feeling that what she had said was important, and that her answer would be the answer to many questions of mine throughout the years.
"Well?" I demanded. Thunder shook the air, the storm raged once again, and the rain hammered hard and fast down upon us, clouding my vision and instantly drenching me. My mouth shook, but not through cold, but through fear.
The lion lady went to open her mouth and answer, and she seemed amused by my sheer ignorance, when an arrow flew through the air and hit her in the back. Her face became distorted in pain, as she disintegrated into dust, which the rain immediately dampened. Sofia let out a cry of relief, Lucas thanking the gods (yes, plural, but that wasn't my concern at the time) while with me, adrenaline pumped through my veins still, and the shock hadn't really kicked in. The area was completely empty, except for us, and the pile of monster dust. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a delayed reaction or whether I was… well… just becoming used to it.
You see, monsters like that have attacked me in the past. Sofia and I could be walking down Enfield Town High Street and have a snake in the form of a woman just turn round and try and kill us. Ugly brutes of men with singular eyes coming at us with baseball bats, for instance. This had been becoming more regular an occurrence over the years, and we genuinely believed we were going mad. We were referred to a psychiatrist, once, when we foolishly voiced what we had seen to who we thought was a trusting teacher, and the psychiatrist prescribed us with medication. After a year, when the strange things and monsters we would see still popped up, my mum and her dad decided that they didn't want us seeing the psychiatrist anymore and they made us bin the pills. That was a nice feeling, the pills always gave me a headache anyway.
That event also confused me, because believing I was just seeing things was easier than accepting that it could be real. But my mother deciding that I wasn't seeing things and that the pills were bad just confused me. Did that mean it was real, or not? She never really said either way. Although the fact that Lucas and Mr Ronich saw the monster today… even seemed to know it was coming… made me really start to think they were real. My mind was buzzing with what had just happened, and as Sofia hugged me, I started to wonder who fired the arrows. I looked round at Mr Ronich and saw him putting away a bow. I recoiled.
"Sir… that was you?"
"What are you talking about, Miss Swan?" he asked, perfectly calmly. I couldn't believe he could act this calm. I struggled my way out of Sofia's arms and marched over to him.
"I saw you! You fired an arrow at the lion lady, and it turned to dust. Don't you try and make out I'm lying."
"I really don't know what you're talking about, Miss Swan."
"I think Scarley's finally lost it." Lucas joked, back to his old self. "Lion lady?"
"I haven't lost it!" I shouted, and Lucas stepped back slightly.
"I saw it too… I think." Sofia muttered.
"Don't let these idiots make you believe differently, Sofia. We're not stupid… despite our end of year reports. Okay? Come on Sofia." I grabbed her arm and dragged her away, making sure I gave Mr Ronich and Lucas an angry look. How could they do this? And I ranted to Sofia all the time we walked home together, all about what idiots they were, and the entire strangeness of the event. It wasn't until I got home the adrenaline left me, and I stood in the kitchen, shaking as I made myself a cup of coffee, coming to terms with how close I was to death.
