Helloo!

Just had a spark come into my mind this morning and this story will be the result :D

This is a Sybil and Tom story though they won't appear at first - I'm going through the generations.

I know its been up for a few hours but when it came to uploading I had to leave for work so I couldn't introduce it! Anyhoo I hope you enjoy it.

Summary

Hannah Rowland discovers her ancestors in her school history class and decides to find out all she can about them. What she learns is truly inspiring and when trying to find out more by asking her family, her questions remain unanswered, creating a dangerous curiosity. What had her ancestors done that was so bad to silence them all?

Enjoy!

Hannah Rowland.

16 years old

Dublin, Ireland.

June 2012.

9:02am.

I ran down the street, my school bag hitting everything and everyone in sight; I couldn't care less. This was the third time this week that I was late for school and I don't think that I could bribe my way out of this one, not this time. I pulled the bobble from my wrist, wrapping it roughly through my messy brown hair. I'm not even certain that I've brushed it.

I managed to get through the school gates before they closed and locked, hissing 'yes' in a small victory. I slowed my pace, looking like one of the stragglers that hated school, delaying their entry for just a few more minutes.

"Morning, Miss Rowland." A snooty voice sneered. Obviously my lateness didn't get past her.

"Morning, Mrs Howe," I grumbled, stomping into my form classroom in defeat.

I tugged and pulled at my blazer; I hated school uniforms. I tried to look presentable but after running for about a mile, you kind of lose any hopes of looking good. I pulled up my socks, rearranged my skirt and pulled my hair down again; hopefully it will be dry now. Yes, I was that late that I didn't even have time to dry it.

It was all Mam's fault, she didn't wake me. I told her that my alarms not working and that I'll need waking up but no, she forgot! And here we are; me looking an awful mess and my form teacher Mr Donnelley, frowning at me in disgust.

"I see you just made it, Miss Rowland? It's nice to see you at 9 this morning,"

"Yeah," I grumbled, mumbling curse words at his sarcasm. After my morning, I have no tolerance for it.

I sighed, sitting down, slamming my bag on the table.

"Hey moody," one of my friends teased. Charlene. I turned to see her smiling wryly, her mobile in her hand. Oh who was she talking to now? This girl knows no end of trouble, but she brings it on herself so I don't have much sympathy.

"Hey Char, oh you don't know that half of it," I grumbled, rolling my eyes.

"Mam?"

"Yup,"

She sighed too; she knows all the troubles that I'm going through with my Mam. Mr Donnelley then appeared in my peripheral vision, making me turn and Charlene quickly hiding her phone in her pocket.

"Now, I know it takes effort for you to get here on time Hannah, but please, when I call your name at least have the courtesy to answer!" he said sternly. I nodded glumly, pulling a daft face at him when he turned away. I hated him, and the feeling was definitely mutual.

"You got your history homework?" Charlene asked.

Oh yes, did I ever. I loved history. It was so interesting seeing how people before us lived and worked and loved and dreamed….the possibilities are endless for curious people like me. For history, we had to write a family tree, going back as far as we knew so we could research the rest. However, being the history geek that I am, my teacher, Miss Truman, said that I could research as much as I wanted to find out as much as I wanted. It's fair to say, I'm top of the class.

The bell sounded and as luck would have it, today is Wednesday; history first. I smiled the whole way there, my friends thinking that I'm mad for loving it and some pondering on how they could lie on getting out of not doing their homework.

"Okay," Miss Truman announced. "Get out your homework and let's see what we've found out. Hannah, do you have your book?"

I nodded, a big smile on my face, pulling out the huge book from my bag. I'm glad I didn't forget this this morning; Miss Truman would be really interested in what I found, Dad was.

When I told him that we were studying family trees, he pulled out some very old photographs from the 1930's. There were some of my great-Gran and great-grandpa and some of Gran as a kid. It was strange to seem them all in black and white and they were all so formal. Photographs today were taken wherever and whenever people wanted.

"So Hannah," Miss Truman came up to me; time to tell her what I had found. "What you got for me?"

I pulled out the folded paper inside the book and opened it out to reveal the family tree I devised. It had me at the top with my brother Luke, my parents next, ending all the way at my great-great-grandparents in the 1900's. They were my favourite ancestors as that was where it got interesting.

"Wow, this is very impressive. You must have out a lot of work into this." She smiled fondly at my work. She traced her finger down to the bottom of the page and pointed.

"What do we have here?" she asked. I smiled widely and began a full flow of conversation; I had rehearsed this part. I wanted to get all the details right.

"Well, these are my great-great grandparents and they're much more interesting than the rest as there was a bit of a struggle trying to find them."

"How so?" She frowned at me.

"Well, the birth record of my great-great grandmother didn't exist on the websites you gave us."

"She's not on the Irish census? That's strange, though not uncommon. Where was she from?"

I gave her the birth certificate that I printed off. It had circled dates and different names highlighted making all of the things that made my search so worth while. She gasped, reading it over again and again.

"Hey, you lot!" she silenced the class and I blushed instantly. "We've found a very special ancestor here. Turns out that Hannah's great-great grandmother was none other than a lady of the English aristocracy in the 1900's"

People murmured wows and some tutted in jealously… until one boy shouted out to the class. Ugh! Jack; he would ruin the fun.

"Didn't the Irish hate the English though, in the 1900's? Maybe we should double check…" he suggested, raising an eyebrow at me. I have doubled checked, in fact I checked a million times; I even went to the library to see if they had any records there and her name isn't on the list.

"I have checked. Loads of times. I'll bring it up now if you want, or do you want to hear the rest of my findings?" I asked him and the while class. None of them answered just looked at each other, hoping that someone would answer. Jack scoffed, turning back to his work.

I smiled smugly and picked up my book, beginning to tell the rest.

A/N: What did you think? I know its not a good start but please stick with it.

I am going to do a different generation per chapter so they will be short. Anyone seen or studied the play 'My Mother Said I Never Should...'? Its going to be structured like that.

Please tell me what you think so I know whether to keep writing, or else I won't.

Cheerio!

Jess xxx