Whew! SUMMER. Busiest time of the year for me....nearly always gone...indeed going to be gone next week but I might be able to bring my chip to work. Ah well. UPDATED.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the owner of Mary Poppins, just this story idea and OCs.
Part Four:
The rest of the day pasted for Mary slowly, as she was kept to her room. She listened longingly as many feet hurried past her closed door to dinner. Janet had poked her head in to get her, but once she discovered Mary could not come, she promised to bring something for her. She sighed and turned over on her bed until she was lying flat on her stomach. At least Janet was kind. She talked too much and was a bit of a bumpkin in Mary's eyes, but she was kind. So far there had only been two kind people.
She wondered if her parents were informed of her deeds yet and wondered if her parents would even respond to it. Certainly not her father. He worked long hours at the bank and wouldn't ever be home early enough to hear about anything of his daughter. Mary used to question if he even knew she existed. But when she asked her mother on the rare times they talked confidingly about it, it was denied and Mary would skip supper for her pertness.
She sighed and turned her thoughts like the pages of a book, skipping to better things. Like Bert. She liked Bert very much even though she had only seen him for a short time. She wondered where he lived and if his parents were like hers. Probably not, seeing as he was the chimney sweep. Her mother never took kindly to the chimney sweepers. Too dirty and commonly, she always said with a wrinkle on her nose that told her daughter she was disgusted. But Mary didn't care. Sometimes if one the sweepers were friendly and Mary was about, they would talk with her while as they worked.
She skipped a page in her memory and looked uneasily at the mirror she had had a scene with. Did she really just imagine her reflection winking at her? Mary could never wink, as stated before. She never learned and when she tried, her mother scolded her for not being more lady-like. Her stomach growling she got to her knees and slid off the bed. With careful steps she tiptoed around the mirror's vision, avoiding making eye contact with herself. She picked up her brush and slowly she ran it through her hair without the aid of the glass.
She had no books to read, nor any toys of any sort to play with. What was there for poor Mary to do, locked up here? She understood very clearly how this was a punishment. She just might die of boredom. Outside her window the rain had finally stopped, but the sun had sunk beyond the horizon, throwing the room into dark shadows. Mary turned on the lamp on her bedside table and scratched her head irritably. Dinner wouldn't be over for a whole hour!
She glanced slyly at her door. Was there a guard outside? Of course not, she reasoned. And if there wasn't a guard to keep her in, what was keeping her from leaving? Instantly the well-bred side of her brain clanged alarm bells, screeching that she was certainly in enough trouble and would she go off and do something foolish and get kicked out?
"I won't be," she argued, pulling on her shoes, "No one's around anyways. They all get to eat."
Well prepared and with a cleverly found watch in her pocket, Mary pushed her door open carefully, peering out in the lighted hallways. As expected, there was no one to be found in either direction. She came out slowly and carefully closed the door, grateful that the school was smart enough to oil the doors so they moved on their hinges without a sound. She took to the left as she already knew what the right held. She rather liked looking at the doors on either side of the walls, too.
Rabbits, foxes, owls, and even a bat once were carved cleverly on the wood. No animal was repeated until quite later, Mary couldn't identify some of the animals she saw. With the lamps in the corners, seeing was not a problem. Mary's shoes were also well worn down and they made no noise on the rugged stone floors. Later on she noticed that the doors stopped having animals carved on them. Now they had objects.
With curiosity she tried these doors and found that they were classrooms. The one with the carved books was a library, and the one with music notes was obviously a music room. One confused her, however. This door had an umbrella with a question mark for a handle engraved on it. She tested the door and with disappointment found that it was locked tight. She stood there in front of it, pondering on what it could be.
During these moments of pondering, she did not hear the footsteps coming from beyond until it was almost too late. Panicked, Mary threw herself behind a convenient vase, cursing herself for not checking the time. Holding a hand to her mouth to keep from breathing loudly, she peered out cautiously. Matron was making rounds.
She had to sit there squashed behind a vase and had to shrink a little smaller as Matron came closer and closer. She was locking the rooms, Mary noticed. Keys jangled in her hand and each room had a different key. The key ring must have been quite heavy. It made her thankful she didn't have such a burden for a job. However Matron was quite brisk in her rounds and very methodical. Soon she had walked down much farther down the hall.
Mary waited until she couldn't hear Matron's steps any longer before rising. This was enough exploration, she decided. She turned the way she came and headed that direction.
With the exception of the doors and Bert, Mary found the school hardly more awe inspiring than any other, save the mere size of it. She rather felt that either her parents had gotten deceived, or they really did mean to get rid of her. Either way, she felt hurt again and self pity started to move in. She would be left to herself here, with mean or silly girls.
Instantly she felt bad. Janet, who she had just dubbed as silly, was the only nice one she knew of now. She was a little odd, but at least she wasn't mean or even crude. It seemed that she tried her best here, and who was Mary to speak against that? She then changed her opinion. She and Janet were left here to fend for themselves. For a moment she wondered if the girl knew Bert. Then she hoped she didn't. Mary liked to discover things for herself that no one knew.
Suddenly a door was opened and Mary quickly ducked into a nearby doorway, thankful for the shadows. A woman was leaving a room that had a paint pallet and brush on it. If that was the art room, the lady certainly looked art like. She looked almost identical to a statue of a Greek goddess, and her dress had an apron over it that was spattered with paint blotches and bright colored oil smears. In her hand, there was the smallest of bags. It, too had undergone its own painting spree but it was done on purpose and the paint markings actually looked quite nice.
While Mary held her breath not six feet away, the lady turned towards a window to stare at the outside weather. Nightly fog had begun to arise, but it seemed to please the lady. She placed her bag on the ground and opened it. From the tiny bag, the girl watched as the woman pulled an entire umbrella out. She felt her jaw drop in shock, but she quickly closed it and kept close to the doorway. The umbrella, a plain black, was more than three times the size of the bag!
Mary wondered if it was hunger that made her see such things.
The painter woman seemed unaware of the awe she inspired, and after closing her bag she marched away towards the entrance, umbrella in hand. It was noticed that the handle had an delicate flamingo's head as a handle. Mary stared at her until she was out of eyesight before coming back out further into the hall. She pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling quite faint. First the mirror, then a chimney sweep boy, and now tiny bags that contained overlarge objects! It felt like too much and Mary was quite happy to get back to her own room. Thankfully no one had caught her as she slipped back inside, heading straight for her bed.
Not too long after as she lay there, trying not to think to hard on all the astonishing things she had discovered, footsteps of the other girls going to bed came from behind her door. A knock let her know that Janet had kept her promise of food. Eagerly she was accepted into Mary's room and with a small rant about how brave she thought Mary was for standing up to Matron, two rolls with a pat of butter were handed to her, having been lodged in the front pocket of her uniform.
"Thank you, Janet," Mary said honestly as the elder student found her way to the door. "Really, I appreciate it."
The girl beamed brightly, a glow cast to her freckled face.
"You're very welcome, Miss Poppins," she said.
"Please," Mary said with a small blush, "just call me Mary. I think I've heard enough of the 'Miss Poppins' for today."
The girl giggled but complied. In the end, Mary had asked her to stay and visit, offering a seat on her bed. They talked amiably, once Mary started paying attention to what Janet was actually saying. She was delighted to discover that Janet, although quite plain sometimes, was in fact fairly intelligent and spoke from experience of a few years beyond Mary herself. She learned that Janet was in fact two years her senior and had been in the school for a year already. Suddenly she was interesting and Mary asked a lot of questions, feeling quite younger and ill experienced but wanting to know more.
"So are all we're doing is the normal courses of any other school?" Mary asked intently. "Or is it really special, truly? I haven't seen anything different."
She purposely removed anything mentioning the strange events she had that afternoon. It would be safer just to see if everyone experienced scenes that she had seen first. Janet pulled up her knees on the bed where she placed her head thoughtfully. It was noticed she looked at Mary's mirror with a twinkle in her eye.
"Do you think this is a special school?" Janet asked innocently.
Mary's mouth twitched, threatening to tell this girl everything but… the thought of it all being a hoax stopped her. The blonde girl had taught her that not all that smiles is kind. She already knew that from her parents of course, but it took real effect to her now. So instead, her lips were pressed together in silence and she could only shrug. Janet grinned sympathetically, as if she could see what Mary was feeling.
"It has its own twist," Janet said cryptically. "I was really surprised my first year."
Mary opened her mouth, wanting to ask what she really thought, but instead all that came out was:
"How long are we in this school?"
"Until we graduate," Janet told her, slipping off the bed. "Which is always at least after three years. But what really determines it is whether all your teachers think you should graduate, or if you impress Mistress Hemmington enough."
Mary stared up at her, suddenly remorseful that her new friend might leave her very soon. The older girl gave her another warm smile but did not leave.
"I'm sure you'll like it well enough here," she said, "It always takes some getting used to. You'll like the special classes, though."
Mary put her head in her hands, skeptical.
"Maybe…" she allowed, not really believing it. "But will I be able to actually attend? I don't think I paid for extra courses…"
Janet laughed not unkindly.
"Oh no," she said with a grin, "it's mandatory."
Mary sat up straighter, taking her head from her palms. Mandatory special classes? It didn't make sense. What on earth was she supposed to learn?
"What about?" she probed but Janet shook her head.
"Can't tell," she said mysteriously. "You'll have to see for yourself tomorrow."
The older girl then opened the door as it was getting much too late for visitors. She winked at Mary then left, leaving Mary to sigh enviously and to wonder about her schedule for the next morning. This time, she would be good, she decided. Nothing would be gained being sent to Mistress Hemmington's office again, not even a visit from Bert, who would certainly not be doing that chimney for a very long time.
She also arose from the bed and began to methodically change into her night things. If the special classes were linked in any way to the strange things she had seen today…well, she wasn't sure how she would respond. She decided it best to leave it alone until the following morning, to take things as they would come. It wasn't what her mother would do or tell her, but it was good enough for Mary. She nodded to herself before climbing in between the sheets in her new bed. Comfortable, but a little too soft then what she was used to. Her head immediately sank into the pillow as well, the sides of the fluffy whiteness almost covering her face.
"Now, really," she grumbled, and with a few tosses and turns, and finally the relinquishing of the pillow onto the floor, Mary slept.
UPDATED. YES. WORKING ON MORE.
