No, I'm not known to be one of the prettiest, liveliest, most popular girls in high school; I didn't strive to fit into the system. I preferred to sit and read, or study instead of going to the mall or hang out at the parks. Because of this, I didn't have many friends, and that was my own fault. I had one friend, she and I had been very close for a while, until she moved across the country and we would never see each other again. Ever since Ava left I was a loner.
I sat in the hallway on a normal Wednesday during lunch break. The boy who I had secretly been crushing on since eighth grade had just passed by without as much as a glance my way. I kept my face buried behind my old worn copy of Jane Eyre. I had read it so many times that every word was embedded into my brain. I found it difficult to re-read most books, except for this one. I found it exciting and romantic every time I opened it up.
I moved my legs from the middle of the overcrowded hallway and curled them underneath me. The more I stayed out of everyone's way, the better. I was so used to being secluded and keeping to myself, and I sucked at being social, or having confrontation of any kind. It wasn't something that I was used to, and it made me feel more awkward than I already was.
The bell rang from above me, and I stood up and gathered my books for my next period class. I wove my way through the kids that were still conversing in the middle of the hall. Nobody even noticed when I would walk right through their conversation. It was as if I was never there.
Thankfully my absence to the school population didn't reflect upon my grades. By that, I mean that I was a straight A student, and passed everything with ease. With my lack of a social life, it left me with plenty of time to study and work on my French. The only time anyone spoke to me was when they needed a tutor or someone to copy off of.
I sat down in my front row seat of my small biology class, and waited for the teacher to take role. She went down the list; I only raised my hand when she called my name. We sat staring at the whiteboard as we all dutifully took notes.
"Amy," The teacher said, pulling me out of my concentration. "would you mind going to the office to make copies?" I stood up and took the papers, and walked out of the room. Looking down at my feet, I shut the door behind me, and took a step into the lonesome hallway. I looked around, and found that I was no longer in a hallway, but instead, in the English countryside. I have no idea how I recognized straight off, but I knew that this was what I had always imagined the Thornfield grounds.
The sky above me was overcast and the air was damp. The green grass was electric compared to the backdrop. There were large trees all around the estate, and I was standing on an unpaved gravel road in the middle of it all. I looked straight up ahead, and there was the magnificent Thornfield hall itself. I stared at if for a few minutes, before concluding that I must be dreaming.
"Nothing this good ever happens to me, I must be dreaming." I said to myself in a whispered voice. In times of panic, I talked to myself. I pinched my arm to try and wake myself up. Luckily enough, nothing happened. "So what am I going to do now?" I whispered again. I glanced down at my feet, and noticed that my modern day clothes had been replaced with those from the early 18th century. I'm not sure how I didn't notice before, but I was starting to freak out even more. Magic didn't exist, only in fiction books. I glanced down at the light blue dress, which was the same color of the shirt I had been wearing previous, and sighed.
"Obviously I've been put here for a reason. Might as well find out why." I took a deep breath and followed the dusty road. I had no idea what I was going to say. I'm a sixteen year old girl, with no life experience, and I'm going to show up to this estate and do what? Tell them what happened? No. I would be committed. I wasn't going to do that. I couldn't ask to be a governess; they already had Jane for all I knew. I came to the front of the estate and was met by an elderly man who was dressed all in black, and had grey tuffs of hair upon his head.
"You must be the new governess." He stated. My eyes widened in shock. No, I was not the new governess, but in this desperate time, I had to say yes. 'I'm sorry Jane, it looks like I beat you to it.' I mentally apologized to her. I nodded to the man, and he walked in front of me. I took that as a sign to follow him. We walked into Thornfield Hall, and I almost fainted right then and there. On the outside, it looked highly unwelcoming. On the inside, it was filled with beautiful mahogany furniture. If you didn't know before, you would know now that these people were clearly rich. Every room was spotless, not a bit of dust in sight.
I forced myself to continue walking, even though I could have died happily right then and there. We walked to what I assumed was the servants kitchens, because that's where some of them were gathered. We came to an abrupt halt and I almost ran into the man. He stood in the door way, I and took a step back.
He cleared his throat and waited a moment. "Miss Amy Stark." He announced my name. My eyes widened to the point where I probably looked like a bug. I didn't recall mentioning my name. What kind of world is this where they can just take you to a new time period, and breach your privacy, and not even warn you about it?
I heard an elderly woman reply. "Bring her in. Thank you Robert." She said. He stepped back and allowed me to pass. I stepped in and smiled, folding my hands in front of me. "Sit down Miss Stark. I'm Mrs. Fairfax." She was seated in front of a fireplace crocheting. I took a seat that was opposite of her and waited once again to speak. I would have said something, but I was speechless. She pushed her glasses up to her face and looked at me. She had light grey hair, and a wrinkled face, but bright and shining eyes, they seemed to be ageless. "I'm so glad you could get to us so quickly, but you must be tired from your journey from Lowood." I did my best to keep my jaw from dropping, and I simply nodded. "In your letter, it says that you would be happy to teach Adele to speak more English. I hope you'll still stay to that."
I blinked hard. I sent a letter? "Yes. I will." I managed to spit out after a moment of silence. I saw her face light up in my reply.
"Good. I will show you to your room." She looked at me and gave me a strange look. "Did you bring anything with you?" Mrs. Fairfax looked at my hands and then back to me.
My eyebrow's furrowed. "No, I didn't have anything back at Lowood. I'm sorry." I looked back to the ground, feeling somewhat ashamed.
She waved her arm. "It's not a problem. The last governess got married and left everything behind except for the clothes on her back. You can use those clothes." I noticed that, as she left, she set the letter that was from me on top of the fireplace. I grabbed it on my way out to look at it. She led me through a back part of the house, which was clearly the servant halls, and we went up a flight of stairs. There was a dark hallway, and she led me to a room in the middle of it. I saw her reach inside of her black dress, and pull out a set of keys and unlocked the wooden room.
She stepped inside and allowed me to follow. "This is your room. I hope you like it. The clothes are in the armoire; feel free to use them as I said." She started to leave. "I'll leave you to rest. We only have one rule though. Do not go onto the third floor. It's unstable up there. We wouldn't want you falling through." I nodded. "I'll see you in the morning then, Miss Stark." She closed the door and left me to myself.
Here I was 16, alone in 19th century England, getting ready to be a governess to a ten year old. I was barely older than she was! I was scared out of my socks, and I didn't know what to do. I pulled out the letter quickly and looked at it. What scared me the most wasn't what I had apparently promised to do, but it was the fact that it was indeed in my own handwriting, and the signature was mine as well. Whoever put me here obviously thought it though. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to know why or not, but I would figure it out eventually. But for now, I just wanted to sleep. I had a long day ahead of me in the morning.