Hi to all of you who found the summary interesting enough to read the first chapter! :)
The process of transforming the bullet points of this piece of fiction into an actual text anyone would want to read has been a rather long and exhausting one, but I can proudly say that I have been successful!
I'm not trying to make this a "child tragically lost her parents and found out she was a witch" - story and we will find out what happened to Charlotte's parents in one of the chapters to come, but for now I just wanted to talk about where she comes from and why she is who she is. I know what the first chapter is a little bit short, the next ones will be longer, I promise. Also, Andrew will not be a second Dudley Dursley! ;)
I really hope that some of you leave behind a review as I post my stories mainly for the entertainment of you guys out there. If it is generally received as a bad one, I won't be uploading it any longer (I'm not talking about grammar or spelling mistakes, only about the plot - if things don't make sense, feel free to tell me).
Enjoy!
Life wasn't kind. A reality that was all too familiar for eleven year old Charlotte Wilkins, a rather small and scrawny little girl, even for her age. It wasn't that they didn't give her enough food at the orphanage - the caretakers made sure every child received a healthy breakfast and two warm meals each day – it was simply because it was the way Charlotte was built. She had always been the smallest and skinniest child as long as she could remember, something she had often struggled with and especially so when one of the other orphans, a boy named Andrew Hawkins, had suddenly decided to make her the center piece of his bullying.
He was her age, tall with handsome features and short, blond hair that was such a light color it was almost white. Charlotte often wished him to turn into an ugly, fat boy who bullied her simply to distract from his own flaws, but her silent prayers still remained unanswered to this day. He was like a Janus, the two-faced god in ancient Roman religion and mythology, with the only difference being that Andrew's faces were those of a bully and a perfect gentleman. It angered her that everybody seemed to fall for his charming side, which apparently had the additional effect to eradicate all the bad things he did to her and some of the other children from the caretakers' minds. It was almost like he only had to look at them with that slimy smile of his and they completely forgot why they had called him to their office in the first place. It was maddening and so terribly unfair!
Charlotte made absolutely no effort to hide her opinion of him and it was no secret among the staff and children either that the feeling of hatred was a mutual one between these two. The only difference between them, apart from the physical one, was that Andrew hardly received any form of punishment for his often violent and crude behavior. Charlotte one the other hand continuously found herself in the headmistresses' office for a variety of reasons. One being that Andrew liked to pretend to be the victim of her 'oh so frequent' outbursts of anger, where he claimed to have been repeatedly insulted by her. Of course, Charlotte stood no chance against his charismatic personality and he mercilessly took advantage of it.
Another reason was that she liked to hide from the other children in those places which were off limits for everyone – the top of the orphanage's roofs, trees, the kitchen and the library if Mrs. Hudson was not present were only a few examples.
The most common punishment for those reasons were essays about why her hideouts were dangerous or off limits and why she should follow the house rules, or simply helping Mr. Robertson in the kitchen. Charlotte minded none of them and actually found the old, if a little bit grumpy, cook to be an excellent listener and story-teller. No, what she absolutely dreaded, and it was even worse than being Andrew's target, were the punishments she received for 'endangering the other children'.
Until a year ago, Charlotte's life had been as normal as the life of an orphan could be. She went to school, came home to do her homework, revise what they had learned in class for the following day and then try to avoid Andrew as much as possible. She had not gotten into any big trouble, nothing that was worth mentioning at least. It wasn't until the previous year in August that strange things began to happen around her; objects she needed for a class she didn't like were nowhere to be found, doors locked themselves if she wanted to be alone and Andrew tried to get to her or bad things happened to those who tried to harm her. It wasn't until said 'bad things' turned worse and into an even life-threatening situation for a group of boys who had wanted to lock her into a closet with a giant spider in it, that the headmistress had finally had enough. She had called Charlotte into her office in order to find out how all five boys had ended up falling down the circular staircase in the west wing of the building that led to one of the attic entrances. It didn't matter how often Charlotte repeated that she didn't know, that it had been an accident and that she hadn't even touched any of the boys when they had fallen down the stairs. Mrs. Callahan, her greying hair disheveled from repeatedly running her fingers through it, had looked at her with a serious expression.
"I can't imagine that a young girl of your… frame and age would be capable of pushing a fourteen year old teenager down the stairs, let alone five of them," Mrs. Callahan had finally said and pursed her lips. "However, and I cannot overlook that fact, you were the only person present to have done it, Charlotte."
"But-" Charlotte had exclaimed in an attempt to defend herself but the headmistress had lifted her hand to stop her right there.
"I'm finding myself in a precarious situation," Mrs. Callahan had continued, her features softening somewhat. "You have never been a troublesome child, no more than others your age. The increasing number of 'accidents' in your presence, however, and especially the last one, are not a development I can simply disregard as a silly prank or attempt to defend yourself, Charlotte. The boys have been taken to the nearest hospital, they are in no critical condition, but if this doesn't stop, I will have no choice but to place you in a different institution. Do you understand?"
The silence at that moment had been deafening. Charlotte had felt incredibly small and fragile in Mrs. Callahan's office with her short legs dangling off the edge of the chair, her feet not quite reaching the ground.
"Yes, Mrs. Callahan," she had whispered with tears in her eyes.
She'd never wanted to hurt anybody, she was not like Andrew and his gang of bullies. The headmistress, a generally gentle and loving woman in her mid-fifties with long, greying hair that must once have been a beautiful shade of brown, had come around the desk to squat down in front of her. She'd taken Charlotte's small hands into her own, a worried expression on her face.
"I know that Andrew is not making it easy for you," the headmistress had said quietly. "But I would hate to see you leave us, Charlotte. I've known you since your mother put you into our care when you were no more than a bundle of linen in my arms. Despite of what you might be thinking, I do care about you as much as I care about every child in my house. I hope you understand that I can't let you off the hook that easily for the incident, but right now I want you to go to bed and get some rest. We will talk about your punishment tomorrow."
And talk they did, as Charlotte remembered with a shudder. Her punishment had not been a lightly one, and neither had the ones that followed. They had made her care for the five boys who had tormented her even at the hospital, provoking her to slip again. Another time she'd had to clean the entire house, her punishment ending only once she was finished with the task, but the worst ones were always those when Mrs. Callahan was out of town to look after her ill mother. None of the other caretakers shared the mild view on the incidents that the headmistress had, making sure she was almost as sore as her 'victims' by the end of the day.
Charlotte did not dare mention it in front of Mrs. Callahan, fearing the caretakers' wrath if they found out she so much as breathed a word to her. And what would the headmistress be able to do anyway? Tell them off or fire them all at once, only to have to replace them immediately? No, she wouldn't go that far and everyone knew it. Besides, no rules were being broken that would alert the police – Charlotte was not physically abused, starved or neglected. They simply made her work harder.
The last eleven months had been a nightmare, but, fortunately for Charlotte, a nightmare that came to an abrupt end with the visit of a young and somewhat clumsy woman called Wanda Goldstein.