Just a warning; there is a lot of parts to this story. Parts that will take some time that I don't have right now.This story is going to be one of those that takes a while to finishbut takes some wacky turns.And it's about Miss Cackle because honestly I always wonder about her life. SO enjoy, it's going to be a looong ride!
The sunlight burned brightly on the stack of papers on the staffroom table waiting to be graded. Miss Hardbroom was busy pouring herself a cup of tea; she had finished her classes' papers unlike Miss Cackle, who was staring at the very white paper in front of her.
Suddenly, as if an answer to her prayers, Miss Bat fluttered in with grass in her hair and roses in her hand. "Ahh the last flowers of the season, the frost will come along to put these little ones to sleep." "Hmm if only that worked for some people as well", Miss Hardbroom grunted. Miss Bat turned her back on Miss HArdbroom and handed the flowers to Miss Cackle. "To you headmistress," and she skipped out again.
The soft sensitive petals like a child's cheek. It reminded her of the rose garden. Padded fragrant moss like a thick carpet and gentle vines above encircling the trees and the rose bushes; connecting everything. So young, so young.
She snapped out of her momentary trance and laid the flowers on the desk. She had work to do. Lots of work.
It was very comfortable in the cool shade. The crisp breeze of fall tickled her toes as she lied on the ground reading her newest story and holding the cold hard gold medal that had been attached to it.
"Amelia, Amelia where are you?" Amelia Cackle gasped as she heard her twin sister Agatha call out her name. Even though the girls were both five years old Agatha took the liberty of bossing around Amelia as if she were five years older. She sunk back conveniently into a bush and tried not to make a sound.
"Amelia I will turn you into a frog!" "You know you're not allowed to do magic," a little voice peeped out. Agatha turned her head around quickly to the sound of the noise. "Well if I turn you into a frog you won't be able to tell. Come on Amelia, I need someone for my lab experiment. I need to practice my potions so I can be the best in my class." Amelia sighed, her sister couldn't even make real potions. She put rocks, grass, and mud into a cauldron and pretended it was an obedience potion. Whoever drank it would have to do whatever she said. Amelia pointed out that it wasn't a real potion but she refused to drink it when Agatha asked so Agatha still held the idea that her potion was superior.
"You know I won't eat mud Agatha!" "Well this time I made an even better potion. I snuck into mother's store cupboard and took some important ingredients." Oh no what if Agatha had made a real potion, and if mother noticed those ingredients were missing Amelia would somehow get blamed by Agatha; she was so tricky! Deciding that Agatha would find her eventually she got up out of the bushes and stepped out in the clearing with her arms crossed.
"There you are, come with me!" "No Agatha, you can't make me do anything I don't want to do." Those were dangerous words, Agatha could find some way to make her life miserable. "Oh okay fine, then I'll test you later when you aren't expecting it. I wanted to know exactly what kind of sickness potion I invented!" Hmm this could be a fib but Amelia wasn't sure. "Okay fine, see if I care, you know, why don't you just go test it on the cat Agatha." Agatha screwed her face together, gave a loud humpff, and walked away. Amelia was safe for now and just to make sure her sister wasn't up to something she decided to spy on her.
She knew exactly where her sister might be to. She snuck through the garden and through the doors of the greenhouse. She inhaled the sweet smells of the roses and gardenias as she ran through it to the hallway. Stopping to take off her muddy shoes she snuck through the kitchen, careful not to let cook see her, and through the dining room to the great staircase. She pulled back a second as she saw her sister descending the top of the staircase. Seeing her sister disappear into the upstairs hallway, Amelia quickly tiptoed up the stairs and snuck into the sewing room. It was dark and quiet as Amelia opened the closet doors and tossed aside some boxes. There it was; the trap door that lead to many twisting tunnels in the house. She crouched down and crept inside turning to the left, then up a slant, then right for a long way, then up another slant, and finally right again. She paused against a little door, much like the one she had entered, and listened hard. She pushed the door open a little and saw a dark shape and some smoke. Yep, this was the right room alright.
"Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble, " Agatha read. Amelia scoffed. Her sister wasn't doing real magic, she was reading from Macbeth, Amelia's copy in fact. Her sister was a lot of talk but she had little magic to back it up. Amelia felt like marching right out of the trapdoor but she decided that she would at least wait to see what her sister was up to. Agatha kept waving her hands, perhaps expecting a poof or something but of course nothing happened. Then a strange thing happened; Agatha sat on the floor and pounded both her hands down in anger. "Why can't I do it! Well at least Amelia can't do any magic either." Amelia felt strange, she had never really understood her sister's mean behavior but now she was starting to gather that maybe her sister didn't like being a twin. Sometimes they had fun and played tricks on other people by switching places but lately her sister had become more and more agitated. Perhaps she wanted to be better than Amelia; maybe she was jealous of her new prize.
Just then an older taller gentleman stepped in the room. "Miss Agatha, your grandmother is here and your mother wants me to bring you and Amelia down for tea." "Yes Smith," Agatha proclaimed, getting off the floor with a big smile on her face, "Amelia is in the garden; I'll go and fetch her." She gave a courtesy and the butler bowed and left. As her sister started cleaning up, Amelia scuttled back to the sewing room thinking about what she had just witnessed.
Miss Cackle awoke with a start. "Mmmm running," She blurted out as she fell out of her chair. She was at Cackle's Academy. She could have sworn she was hurrying through the corridors of her childhood home. Well for a short while anyways. Cackle's was her real childhood home in retrospect. She sighed and fell to grading papers. Mildred Hubble. She sighed again and picked up her pen, the shadow reflected on the paper by the flame of the lamplight.