Chapter 13
It's been a week now since we've stepped through the portal. School was starting again. On my first day, I walked to school. I had learned a lot during my week back with my family. Apparently, Mr. Crepsley was not only my uncle, but my godfather as well. As I walked, I couldn't help thinking of the past week. It has been amazing seeing my family again, but something felt different…something I couldn't put my mind to. It wasn't really noticeable, and was probably just me feeling nostalgic or something from returning home, but I still had an uneasy feeling Mr. Tiny might have been behind it, whatever it was.
As I neared the school grounds, I felt butterflies in my stomach. This would be my first year in high school. Seafield High was the name of my high school. As I walked through the gates, I saw students all around. Most of them seemed to know each other, but there were quite a few I noticed, who was just milling around quietly, or standing at the sidelines, not knowing anybody. I went to the office to get my class schedule.
The office was a large, air conditioned room with a big, wooden circular table in the centre, sort of like the service counter at a mall. I walked up to a woman sitting behind the front of the table, who was typing furiously. "Um, excuse me…" I interjected. "I'm here for my class schedule…" The woman looked up from her typing. She was in her late 20-s, with dark brown hair tied back in a high ponytail. "Yes….may I have your name please?" she asked. Her eyes were a bright blue, and they were kind and welcoming. "Err…I'm KayLi. KayLi Powell. "I said. "Oh, yes, here it is. Welcome to Seafield High!" the woman smiled at me, after searching for a while and handing me a slip.
Before classes started, we had an orientation ceremony. The headmaster welcomed us, and gave a speech about general rules, student expectations and everything. At the end of it, our principal gestured to the projector behind her and said:" Now, let's sing the school song! Just follow along!"
When that was over, I went through my classes. I did meet a few people. One of them was a girl called Nicky, who I met in Math's class. She came in late, and most of the seats were taken by the time, so she asked if she could sit on the table on my left. And that's how we met. Another girl was an auburn hair girl with chocolate brown eyes called Maxine. During History class, she borrowed a pencil from me, and we got talking. And my classes passed by in a breeze.
When school was over, Mr. Crepsley was waiting. We had decided to go to the little café not far from the school to talk before going home. When there, I ordered for both of us. Mr. Crepsley wasn't accustomed to cakes and all the sweet things. He was used to bat broth, rum…all those age old food. I ordered two cups of tea, and two slices of chocolate cheesecake.
"It has been almost a week now, and we still do not know what Mr. Tiny intended in sending us here." Mr. Crepsley mused, frowning. "Have you noticed anything different?" I asked him. While I was at school, Mr. Crepsley was planning to lookout around my house and all the areas I used to go to, for if a sign would appear, we expected these areas. "No, nothing yet." Mr. Crepsley muttered, resting his chin on his hand. For all we know, the other competitors might or might not be back at their homes too. They might be in a place not unlike the one we left when we went through that portal."
Our tea and cakes arrived, and we ate, momentarily forgetting our troubles. I loved being home, but dad was working all day and only came home late in the evening. Most of my time was spent with Mr. Crepsley. I would show him around the town. He did go back to civilization every now and then, so he wasn't completely lost, but there were still certain things he never experienced before. I finished my cake and sipped my tea, thinking. Mr. Crepsley noticed. "What is it?" This time I rested my chin on the palm of my hand, staring into space. "Its just that…I wonder how Darius is doing. My mentor. How he must be coping." At this, Mr. Crepsley looked into his mug. "Yes….." he said softly, "sometimes I wonder how Darren is doing too…"
When we reached home, however, dad was home. He was sitting on his chair in front of the fireplace reading the newspaper. "Welcome back!" he greeted us. "So how was your first day of school?" he asked, as he lay down the newspaper to hug me. So I told him how it went. Afterwards, I was about to head up to my room when dad stopped me. "Wait, KayLi, I just remembered, a parcel arrived for you just now." I took it, examining it. Then I saw something. "Thanks dad!" I kissed his cheek and ran upstairs to open it. When I got into my room, I threw my bag to the side and jumped on the bed, where I stated unwrapping the package. "Why are you in such a hurry for?" Mr. Crepsley said from the doorway, where he just came in.
"This!" I thrust the package cover to him, where the stamp was a pair of green wellington boots. There was also a small signature at the bottom of the stamp, signed "Mr. Tiny". Even though Mr. Crepsley couldn't read, he could still recognize the signature. His eyes widened. "Open the parcel!" he commanded, serious now. He joined me on the bed as I ripped open the parcel.
=D This is chapter 13! Oh yeah, I'm going to Australia for 2-3 weeks on holiday. So what do you think?