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Chapter Forty-Seven
Esmerelda was dreading the day as she woke up on the day of the competition, she had a horrible headache, from stressing herself out so much over it. She knew the Pentangles group was arriving first thing so she dragged herself out of bed to get ready, not wanting to give Miss Hardbroom another reason to have a go at her.
She dressed and went downstairs where she found a large group of pupils already gathered around waiting for the school to arrive. Esmerelda did not see what the big deal was, they were acting like they did not know other schools existed so she shook her head but then she suddenly felt her ear drums hurt as she heard people clapping and cheering, she could not see over the crowd but she knew they had just arrived.
"Miss Pentangle is flawless, I wish I had being sent to her school" Esmerelda heard a girl say. Esmerelda managed to see the woman through a gap and didn't see anything to amazing, in fact the shade of pink she was wearing only hurt her eyes. Even Miss Cackle's cardigans were not so bright, and they were pretty blinding at times.
"What a joy it is to be here" Miss Pentangle said looking at all the pupils and smiling. The pupils smiled back eagerly.
"It is a...pleasure...to have you visiting again" Hecate replied, sounding like she had something stuck in her throat by the words she was saying.
"Yes well nothing like a little competition is there Hecate?" Pippa replied and the dark haired woman widened her eyes, not replying.
"So which pupil is going to be competing?" Miss Pentangle asked, looking around for the pupil in question.
"Only our best pupil, ESMERELDA GET HERE NOW!" Hecate shouted and Esmerelda pushed her way through the crowd, able to tell the woman was stressed at seeing Miss Pentangle and not wanting to anger her. Miss Hardbroom saw her and looked at Miss Pentangle with a smile.
"Esmerelda Hallow, the finest student this academy has ever had" Miss Hardbroom said, Esmerelda smiled slightly, looking at the blonde woman awkwardly.
"Ahh a Hallow, I knew your mother" Pippa said to Esmerelda. Esmerelda just nodded, not knowing if she should take that as a compliment, after all her mother wasn't the most friendly person.
"Yes and Esmerelda is following in her families footsteps, aren't you?" Miss Hardbroom said to the girl who nodded.
"Glad to hear it! Miss Pentangle said before she smiled and turned around.
"This is the student who will be competing for me Winnie Runestone" Miss Pentangle said introducing a girl who looked to be about Esmerelda's age, and the girl took her off guard. She had never seen a girl who looked so….stuck up before. Winnie had her nose in the air, as if she had already decided Esmerelda was beneath her. Her brown hair was plaited back into a tight bun, almost as tight as Miss Hardbroom's.
"Welcome to Cackles, and good luck" Esmerelda said to Winnie, trying to be the better person and be poilte to her competition.
"Luck?" Winnie said before she scoffed "I won't need luck, but good luck to you, you will need it" Winnie said and Esmerelda sighed, not because of the girl scaring her but because she had to deal with this stuck up girl all day.
"Why don't we go get some last minute practise in?" Pippa said, sensing the tension. The girl turned around and walked away with her nose in the air. Esmerelda barely had a chance to register it because Miss Hardbroom was talking to her.
"You must win Esmerelda, we can't let that girl win, you hear me, win!" the woman said to Esmie loudly. Esmerelda gulped but nodded, knowing the whole school was relying on her.
When the competition time came around Esmerelda was nervous, she wasn't feeling so great, she wasn't sure if it was nerves or she had overworked herself but she knew it was to late to pull out now. Winnie was up first, and she was not sure if she should think that is good or bad.
"Remember Esmerelda, winning is what is important here" Miss Hardbroom said to her again. Esmie said nothing, afraid if she opened her mouth she would throw up, she only turned around to watch Winnie perform.
The girl might of being cocky, but she had a right to be, she was almost flawless in her perfomance and Esmerelda did not know how she would top her, she flew straight and then took her hands of the broomstick, which got a lot of cheers as everyone was impressed that she was flying not holding on.
"She is good" Esmerelda said to herself wondering if she could actually top that, especially today when she wasn't feeling so good. She saw that Winnie scored two nines and a ten, the judges were teachers from as school called Amulets so they could remain impartial.
"Well done Winnie, that was amazing" Esmerelda heard Miss Pentangle say to her pupil as she landed. Winnie smiled, proud of herself.
Esmerelda felt even more sick as she saw that, especially as she knew she was up next. Miss Drill told her she could take off and she grabbed her broomstick, taking of slowly into the air.
She tried not to look down, not wanting to see anyone staring at her. She tried to remember what she had being practising and started to fly as straight as she could, trying to keep her back and shoulders straight.
"Very nicely performed* she heard one of the judges say, she looked away not wanting to look at him. She could feel the pain in her stomach get worse, she was therefore not sure it was nerves as it was not getting better even if she was performing, she closed her eyes, wanting to get those over with as quick as possible before she threw up.
"Is that all you have? I knew you were hopeless" Esmerelda heard Winnie say from below, thinking that was what Esmerelda was performing and she had already won. Hearing that made Esmerelda determined to win, no matter how sick she felt, because she wanted to rub it in Winnie's face.
With that she tried to decide what she could do to impress the judges more so than Winnie, she had not planned for her to do a trick, she thought it was a simple flying contest, so now she had to think on the spot.
With that she got an idea, it came to her out of nowhere but she knew it was a way that she would most definitely win, she knew what she was about to do was a bit dangerous, but she was confident she would be okay.
Before she had time to talk herself out of it, she slowly started to move herself so she could stand up on the broomstick, it was of course much harder because she had to keep the broomstick straight and balanced as she did so. She started to slowly stand up, knowing she could do it.
"Esmerelda no, you haven't practised that!" Miss Drill told her. It was not uncommon for witches to learn how to stand up on their broomsticks in their first few years, but the fact of the matter was it was not something the did regularly and Esmerelda had not practised it in months, it was also something they were supposed to do with supervision from an adult.
Esmerelda though was not listening, she slowly stood up, concentrating on keeping her balance, she could hear people cheering as she succeeded and she stood there for a few seconds before sitting back down, feeling worse than ever. She looked over and saw her score, 10, 10 and 10, she had won, now she could relax and go deal with her sickness. She landed quickly and saw Miss Drill rush to her, not looking happy.
"Esmerelda, that was extremely dangerous!" the woman said but Esmerelda didn't have time to respond because suddenly she was being presented with a trophy for the school, she smiled and smiled more as she saw Winnie look at her angrily.
She had done it, she knew she might get in trouble later but seeing Winnie annoyed made up for that, but Esmerelda felt even worse in that moment, she felt dizzy and tired, and she knew that she was in some way sick. She could hear muffled voices talking around her as her senses went and then all of a sudden she felt herself fall as her eyes closed. The last thing she remembered was a scream before everything went black.