I give my sincerest apologies for the long wait. I guess I dumped this fic for a while, and I was feeling so guilty...yes, I was being a bad little girl...anyways, here's the update at last! It'll be great if anybody drops a review.
Disclaimer: I own nothing here you recognize. Roger that? Over.
Chapter Three
The Second Term started with agonizing monotony.
Mothers came on special visits to see their daughters pin new badges to their blazers, fathers rumbled approvingly, and new teachers were introduced. Sabriel was staring into space, leaning against the table as the Headmistress made her opening speeches. Sulyn elbowed her.
"Sabriel! We're going back to the dorms...Sabriel?"
"Why does Umbrade have to talk so long?" she grumbled. "Making us late for lessons..."
Sulyn grinned. "I thought you idolized her--"
"I do not! That was Primary 't believe I actually told you..."
Sabriel glanced at her schedule as the two girls hurried to pack their bags. First day was always hectic. "We have English in the morning, Science and Geography in the afternoons...and Etiquette. That's our new subject. Alongside Maths, Ancelsterrian Studies, World History...and the course we applied for."
"Yes," Sulyn answered absently, looking under the bunk bed that she and Sabriel shared. "Have you seen my notebook...oh, there it is!" She grabbed it. "How did it get under the bed? Let's go Sabriel, we haven't much time!"
"I'm only waiting for you, Suly."
"Miss Fox!"
Ellimere turned with a half-hidden scowl. "Yes?"
"Yes, Miss Prionte, if you please."
She sighed. "Yes, Miss Prionte?"
"Miss Fox, your curtsey is awful. You are wobbling and your back is not straight. Class, again!"
The whole room dipped, bobbled, or in Ellimere's case, wobbled simultaneously.
Miss Prionte shook her head. "No, no! Again!"
Every girl sighed and curtseyed again. Kaisha fell over with a crash and got up, face flooded with red. Miss Prionte ignored her.
"That is better..." --a snort of disbelief-- "Miss Fox, what is your excuse for a slouch?"
"I have no excuse, Miss Prionte," she managed to spit out, glaring while the students all nodded sympathetically. A few snickered and Ellimere shot them a death glare. "Sorry."
"It's all right," Sulyn whispered to Ellimere as the bell rang, signalling the end of class, who all stampeded out with cries from Miss Prionte--"Softly, girls, softly!"--behind them. "She just picks on you, that's all. We're all as bad as you."
"But why? I've done nothing to earn a grudge." Ellimere tossed her head. "'No, Miss Fox! Wrong, wrong! Straight back, Miss Fox...' " she mimicked. "Never mind. You guys know what's for dinner?"
"Chicken, carrots, and cabbages," Sabriel supplied. "I know, I know," she said as Ellimere opened her mouth in disgust. "You don't like cabbages. We all know. By the way, do you want to sit with...?"
"Elli! Come over here! And did you hear what Joan did today...?"
Ellimere waved goodbye ran away to another table, where her best friends all waved her over. Sabriel glanced a bit longingly at the loud group with all the popular girls. Sulyn nudged her.
"Hey, don't forget about me!"
Sabriel smiled.
It was morning. Sabriel stirred groggily and wondered why her pillow was so hard. She blinked her eyes open and realization hit her. With a small yelp she leapt up, knocking over the chair. She'd fallen asleep! On the table! Homework not done! Still in last night's clothes! Late for class! Aaahhhh...
Wait one moment...
She looked around and saw that Sulyn was still asleep. The clock read six-thirty, and she sighed. Class wouldn't start until eight.
Scattered all over the table were the sheets of her maths homework, still blank. And now she had a crick in her neck. Sabriel groaned quietly and set to racking her tired brain. It was logical reasoning; heck, how was she to know (or even care) what colour towel or shoes or hat Nordon, Kaylie, or Yves had?
Footsteps sounded on the stairs and Ellimere appeared, still in her nightgown and yawning. Sabriel didn't look up, too busy fuming over stupid Yves.
"M-morning, Sabriel," Ellimere yawned. "It's really early. W-what are you doing?"
"Math homework," she replied shortly. "I didn't get it done."
Ellimere gasped dramatically, her mouth stretching into a large O. "Sabriel didn't get her homework done? Oh my, my..."
"Be quiet," Sabriel said crossly. "I've spent the whole night and I still don't get it..."
The other girl huffed. "Move aside," she ordered. "I'll show you how it's done!"
Sabriel obediently edged over as Ellimere plopped down. "Let's see," she muttered. "Oh, it's this question. It's really quite easy. How can you not get it...?" she checked herself. "Here, look. If the girl has the yellow towel, then it's Kaylie, right? So that leaves the other options open--"
"Yes, I got that part, but--"
"Just listen. You'll have to get this because there's harder questions on the second page."
Sabriel groaned. "Fine..."
It was a crisp, cool day. Sabriel shivered as she reluctantly slipped from underneath her covers. The morning bell signalling breakfast rang just as she was trying to comb her long hair. Sulyn was already by the door.
"Come on, Sabriel!"
Settling for tying it out of her face, Sabriel picked up her school bag and they both rushed out of the dorm. It was a policy of Miss Umbrade's that you had to be right on time for breakfast or else you won't get any at all.
Maggie ran up to them afterwards. "Hey guys, I have Basic Magic this morning." She threw her hair back importantly, showing a pale mark on her forehead. "How about you?"
Sulyn checked her schedule. "We have it too. It'll be a small class, though. Not many girls have the Charter mark. Sometimes I wished..." and she sighed. Sabriel understood.
Last year, Sulyn had told her, confidentially, that her mother was from the Old Kingdom, a place people only whisper about, a place where nobody really knew. She wasn't a Charter Mage, but the mother had fallen in love with her father, a rich minister's spoiled son with an alluring faint mark on his brow. When he had finished playing with her, he'd left her to fend for herself with a babe in her arms. Sulyn hated her father, but tried to make it up in full to her mother, a frail, petite woman whom Sabriel had seen once from afar, standing just in the gates and talking quietly with her only daughter.
Sabriel had sighed at the romantic tragedy at the time, but now she only hugged Sulyn reassuringly. "Don't worry! I think Basic Magic will be a snap, and if you really don't like it you can drop it in Fourth Form if your mother--" Sabriel stopped awkwardly.
"That's a comfort," Sulyn muttered, but she brightened noticeably. "Besides, I don't care if he was a Charter Mage, I just...well, never mind."
They climbed the stairs to the very top of the north tower, where the Magistrix taught her lessons. It got colder as the spiral steps went on and Sabriel wished she'd brought her jacket.
Arriving at an oaken door at the top, panting slightly, Sabriel knocked. There was no answer, so she tried the doorknob, and found it locked. They both sighed and waited.
Sabriel began to feel uncomfortable as time passed and nobody came. Looking around, she noticed a smaller door to the side. Walking over to the door, she put an ear to it, heard a faint noise, and knocked hesitantly. The door opened almost immediately.
"Is this Basic Magic?" Sulyn asked timidly, staring up at the tall, grey-haired woman who opened the door. She smiled, a large grin transforming her stern features.
"Yes...oh! Time for my lesson," she laughed, slapping herself on the forehead, where a faint mark shone. "I am sorry I forgot. But where are all the other students?"
Sabriel shrugged. "Maybe they're coming; we did come early to class, after all...look, there's Maggie and Glesi and the twins."
Their teacher unlocked the oaken door. "Come on in, girls. I'm Magistrix Green," she added as they trooped in. "Settle down, and when the bell rings we'll begin."
The room was unlit, cluttered with books, shelves, and a row of desks jammed against a corner; there were several rugs, easy chairs, cushions, and blankets gathered somehow into a circle. Sabriel dropped her bag on a rug and sat on it, Sulyn next to her. The twins, Rina and Ronda, sat in a corner, while Maggie plonked herself in an armchair and proceeded to recite all she knew about the Charter to an adoring Glesi. Sabriel groaned quietly.
"I can't believe the way she talks on and on," Sabriel whispered to her friend, glancing at Maggie. "Her mouth is like those non-stop engines."
Sulyn chuckled quietly as the bell rang, and Ellimere finally burst in, out of breath, and almost late.
