oOo

"IN THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

A SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

TWO TOWERS LIKE TWIN HEADS

ONE FOR THE PURE

ONE FOR THE WICKED

TRY TO ESCAPE YOU'LL ALWAYS FAIL

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS

THROUGH A FAIRY TALE"

oOo

Chapter 1

Aria sat up with a gasp. She immediately checked the time. Her digital clock read 4:00 am. Great. She groaned and flopped back down onto her pillow. That dream again. The characters switched, and small details changed, but it always ended the same way. A scream. A flash of crimson blood. Then darkness. The details were already fading as she drifted off to sleep again.

She was awoken again at 6:30 am by her 17 year old brother Bade, as he attempted to stick her hand in a cup of warm water.

She sat up with a glare and said through gritted teeth,"You know, it's actually considered rude to invade people's privacy".

He scoffed "As if I care, you little nobody".

Aria shrieked as he tipped the up of water all over her head, then ran out of the room. He would change one day. One day he would see her as his sister, instead of the unwelcome replacement of his twin brother, who had died when she was 3. One day.

With a sigh, Aria forced herself out of her sky colored bed to get ready for the school day. She showered, dressed, and had a quick breakfast of burnt pancakes ( courtesy of her older sister Savannah, who hated her just as much as Bade did). She grabbed her school bag, and at 7:30 exactly, headed for the door. She didn't even bother to say goodby to her parents, as they were currently unconscious in bed from a drinking competition the night prior.

She shut the door to the family cottage, if it could even be called that, and walked down the cobblestone path, through her family's plastic grass lawn, rimmed with a white picket fence.

She jogged down the street, her outfit gaining her stares from the few people out at the time. She had chosen to wear cute denim shorts with a lacy red T-shirt, complimented by open red sandals and small, gold hoop earrings. Her hair was done up in a waterfall braid, and she was wearing a light dusting of makeup. In her wake, she left a faint, but distinct, smell of strawberries.

As she arrived at the bus stop, she took out her phone and started texting her best friend, Summer, who had moved to Gavaldon 4 year ago.

Aria: hey

Summer: hey

Aria: how r u?

Summer: good. u?

Aria: fine

Aria: how's school?

Summer: chill. miss u

Aria: me too

Aria: gtg bus is here

Summer: by!

With that, Aria boarded the bus. She strutted down the isle, looking for a spare seat. She glided down into the first one she saw, then noticed all the slack jawed stares she was getting from the boys. They saw her looking and quickly glanced away. She smirked. Even after all the years they had known her, they still stared every time she was near them. It wasn't too hard to see why.

She had a heart shaped face and a tall, willowy body, both with incredible proportions. Her creamy skin was without flaw, her long lashed eyes were the color of a gleaming sapphire, and her luscious lips were cherry red and sparkled with sheen. Her magnificent tresses of long, blond hair was soft, sleek, and shone with health. Her makeup was expertly dabbed to just slightly enhance her features.

The bus stopped at school, and Aria got off. She walked in, meeting up with her friends along the way, and got to her locker just as the warning bell rang. She jogged to her first class, English. Her teacher prattled on about why the correct use of commas were useful in life for half the class, until an announcement rang over the loudspeakers.

"Will Aria Moore please head down to the front office. Thank you". The teacher dismissed her, and she walked to the front office. She expected it to be her mother or father, but instead it was someone she liked far more.

"Aunt Renee! What are you doing here?".

Aunt Renee smiled and replied, "I've come to offer to take you to Gavaldon for 6 months. That is, only if you want to".

Aria squealed "Of course I'll come! But when do we leave?".

Aunt Renee smiled again and said "Right now, if you want. And don't worry about your parents. I already asked them if you were allowed to come, and they said yes."

With that, the pair signed the release form, ran out the building, and jumped into Aunt Renee's rental. They speed through the windy streets of Ratonville, rushing for Aria's house. Along the way, they chatted.

"Aunt Renee, what will I need?"

"How much clothing should I bring?"

"Where are we staying?"

'What are we-"

Aunt Renee cut her off with a laugh. "Aria, be patient. I get that you are excited, but you need to calm down. Gavaldon is not vacation. You will still have to go to school and work a job like you do here."

They then arrived at Aria's house and packed her clothes. They packed all of them, plus all her toiletries and personal items in her largest suitcase, huge, pale pink and white striped, with AT stitched onto the front pocket. Aunt Renee grabbed Aria's suitcase and lugged it to her rental. They drove of along the freeway at breakneck speed.

A little more than panicked, Aria asked Aunt Renee, " Why are we going so fast?"

Aunt Renee breathlessly replied "Because we're going to be late to the train station!" They arrived at the station, returned the car, and popped through the doors of the train all in less than 30 seconds. They sat down simultaneously with an omf. Aria fell asleep on Aunt Renee's shoulder after an hour, exhausted from all the running. Aunt Renee smiled and brushed back the hair covering her face. There was no doubt where she got her looks from. It certainly wasn't her mother or father.

The train ride was 4 hours in total. After about 3, Aunt Renee got impatient. She slipped a long, thin piece of blue and pink glass, decorated with dazzling carvings of fairytale endings, and whipped it around. Aunt Renee and Aria disappeared in a poof of pink and blue sparkles. Moments later, they reappeared in Aunt Renee's 2 story masterpiece.

The white walls spotted with great bay windows that were, more than not, rimmed with Victorian style curtains in all colors of the rainbow. Her garden's grass was perfectly trimmed, and her flowers were magnificent. They shone with life, and gleamed in a wheel of colors. There was something magical about Aunt Renee's house, which made it all the more fun to visit.

Carrying Aria down the hall, Aunt Renee mused over which room Aria would like the most. The pink one? The green one? Then she walked into a baby blue room, equipped with a huge, deep blue, 4 poster bed, a white vanity, dresser, and bedside tables, and a humongous closet. It also had deep blue carpet and 2, baby blue cushions in the bay windows, complemented by white curtains. Aunt Renee gently lay Aria in her new bed.

She tiptoed beck into the hall, pulled her wand out, and sent a small pink flair up through the ceiling, up into the midnight sky above Gavaldon. A dark shadow waiting in the woods saw the flair. The school master smiled, knowing that Renee had succeeded, and vanished into the dark, foreboding forest that ringed Gavaldon.

End of Chapter 1