Picnic at Glass Rock
Please do not copy or re-create this Fanfiction without my permission. Snaps to Joan Lindsey and Queenie Chan for their original stories. The only things I have "borrowed" are the title and the general plotline of Aussie schoolgirls disappearing into the Australian bushland, oh and of course the idea of a rock formation!
The first blurb I wrote is here, as it wouldn't fit in the summary box!: Gwendolyn Queens arrives at the Glass Rock Private Academy in Australia, a pristine and high-class co-ed boarding school. There, along with her new friends Cadence, Echo, and Ebony, she learns of the history of Glass Rock, the strange rock formations near the school. Gwin and her friends discover the countless disappearances over the school's 160 year existence, beginning with the daughter of the 'founder' of Glass Rock. When the school takes a field trip to Glass Rock, the students begin to vanish.
Glass Rock Academy
Gwendolyn Queens peered through the car window, bubbling with excitement. Her new school, the Glass Rock Private Academy, loomed ahead. Gwin's parents were divorced, and usually she lived with her father, Jason, but he was flying to Africa for his new zoologist job, which he was unable to bring her along to. So he was now driving her down a rain-washed road in an idyllic countryside in southern New South Wales.
"Gwinny, look!" she heard her father say. "There's your new school! Looks amazin' don't it?"
"Wow," Gwin said in awe. The building was visible now. It was a giant mansion with ivy crawling up its grey, stone walls. "That certainly is a sight to be seen."
Jason parked the car in the guest parking section, and they hopped out.
"I'll get your suitcase, hon. You head on up an' tell em' we're here," he said.
Gwin skipped up to the ornate wooden double doors, and stepped inside. The room had polished wooden floorboards, and royal blue wallpaper, covered in photos and pictures, many of which were stained with age. An older woman with greying brown hair was sitting at a fancy looking desk, paperwork and various writing implements cluttering its surface.
"Uh, hi. I'm Gwendolyn. Queens. I'm a new student here," said Gwin. The woman looked up and studied her face.
"Isn't your father that nature man?" she asked after a moment.
"Zoologist, yeah," Gwin replied. The woman nodded intently, and began to rummage through piles of papers. Gwin heard a noise, and turned to see her father wheeling her suitcase through the doors.
"Geez Gwinny, what've you got in here? A gallon of mercury?" he panted, smiling.
"Alright, here's your timetable," the woman at the desk said, placing a sheet of paper in front of Gwin. "And…here we go. This is a map of the school. Now, girls aren't allowed in the boys' hall, likewise they're not allowed in the girls'. Don't get them mixed," she said, handing Gwin another piece of paper. "Right, well someone was supposed to come and show you around. Wonder where they've gone to. I'll just have a quick look. Mr Queens and Gwendolyn, just have a seat over there."
The woman ran quickly off down a hallway, and left Gwin and her father alone, standing in the entrance hall. Mr Queens checked his watch, and sighed.
"Gwinny I've got to run, or else I'll be late for the flight," he said. "You gonna be alright here?"
"Yeah, sure. You'll call right? They do have phones in Africa, don't they?" Gwin asked panicky. Her dad just laughed.
"Where I'll be, yes!" Jason hugged Gwin tightly, and wiped away a tear that had fallen down her cheek. "Don't worry; I can see you in the holidays."
Gwin nodded and they said their goodbyes. She watched as he headed outside, and drove away, back down the long driveway.
"Ah, Gwendolyn? Mr Que-oh, he's gone," the woman who had been at the desk had reappeared, a girl of about fifteen-the same as Gwin-by her side.
"He had to leave, to catch his plane," said Gwin.
"Yes well, this is Cadence Lafferty. She'll be one of your roommates," the woman said.
"One?"
"Yes, we're in a room of four," Cadence explained. "Right, well come on then. I'll show you where our room is. You won't have much time. Dinner is in half an hour."
Gwin grabbed her suitcase and began hauling it along behind Cadence. They walked down the same hall that the woman had before, and they turned off to the right and entered a giant square courtyard, grass covering the majority of it. Cadence led Gwin off to a building across to the far left. As they neared it, Gwin saw girls who looked ages from thirteen to eighteen were pushing out through the glass doors. The hallway inside was even more crowded, and Gwin found it difficult to pull her heavy suitcase along, as well as keep up with Cadence. But luckily they stopped outside room two.
"Here we go," Cadence said, turning the handle. As Gwin stepped inside she was surprised at the quality of the room. The floors were a soft, cream carpet, there were four beds, each with their own bedside table. The beds had curtains sweeping around them, and floor-length curtains flanked the tall, French windows.
"Whoa. This is our room? Oh, I could get used to this!" Gwin said happily, wheeling her suitcase over to the bed that wasn't covered in stuff.
Gwin glanced at a clock hanging on the wall. It read 6:40pm. Gwin's timetable had said dinner was at seven. Still twenty minutes.
"So where are our other roommates?" she asked.
"Ebony and Echo are probably off getting a good table," Cadence said, jumping onto her own bed. "You have to get in early unless you want to get a table near the SDs, and be pestered by them all night."
"Uh, SDs?"
"Sitting ducks. Sort of an inside joke."
"Oh. And they need to be half an hour early?"
"True. They could be in the library. Or in the common room," said Cadence. "That's where most people hang out in the afternoons and such."
"So…classes start on Monday?" Gwin sighed. "Are the teachers strict here?"
"Some of them are. Like Mr Balson is horrible. He gives you detention for little things, like breathing loudly, or sniffing if you have a cold," said Cadence. Gwin's mouth fell open. "And then Miss Griffins is a major bitch. But the French teacher Miss Irvine is really nice."
Time went by as Gwin unpacked her suitcase, setting things up on the bedside table.
"Gwendolyn, it's-"
"Just call me Gwin."
"Sure, well it's dinner time. We better head over to the dining hall," Cadence said, checking her watch. "And while we're on the subject of nicknames, mine's Caddy."
The pair set off for the dining hall, which turned out to be adjacent to the entryway. It was already packed with people, boys and girls. Caddy craned her neck to see where her friends were, and spotted them at a table against the wall near the window where people were being served.
"Hey guys, this is our new roommate, Gwin," she said to the two other girls there.
"Hi Gwin, I'm Ebony," one with wild, bronze curls and pale brown eyes said.
"And I'm Echo," the girl with dark brown hair said.
"Hi! It's great to be here!" said Gwin excitedly, sitting down, her back facing the wall, beside Echo.
"Right, well now you two are here, we're going to get food," Echo said. "We've been here for ages. I'm starving!"
After everyone had finished dinner, Gwin followed the trio back to their room.
"So Gwin, people are saying your dad works with animals," said Ebony.
"Yeah, he's a zoologist, he works in behaviour ecology and a bit of evolutionary biology."
"Oh wow!" said Echo. "So he studies how animals behave?" Gwin nodded.
"Cool. Anyway, since it's your first night here, I figure we should tell spooky stories!" Caddy said, turning to the others.
"No!" Ebony complained.
"Not those kind, about the school, Ebb," Echo said.
"I still think it's creepy," Ebony muttered.
"The school?"
"Well, of the natural landscape. Like the bushland and stuff," said Caddy.
"What happens?"
"Well this school is almost a hundred and sixty years old, and all of the bushland around the school is like, thousands of years old," Echo began. "Apparently there's this indigenous Australian legend that some fearsome creature lives in the forests. And it will kidnap you and eat you if you go in there."
"Wow. That's…creepy. What kind of creature?"
"Who knows or cares," said Caddy. "But it's just all stories. Even still, we aren't allowed in the forests unless with a teacher or something."
"So has anyone actually gone missing in there?"
At that Caddy, Echo, and Ebony glanced at each other.
"What?" Gwin asked.
"Well it's just that, while the creature is just a story, people going missing…" Echo trailed off.
"Wait, people have gone missing? How many?" Gwin demanded. She found the situation to be incredibly creepy and weird. "How many?"
"Fifty two…" whispered Ebony.
So how is it? I had to replace the story as I rewrote it a little bit. Anyways, please leave reviews! (Not that anyone ever reads 'misc book X-overs')
-Nix