By the time that Matilda awoke in the morning, she had entirely forgotten about the conversation she had with Miss Honey the night before; all that was in her head was the excitement about the weekend. Despite how much the girl enjoyed and thrived in school, she still did enjoy a little time off to curl up in a corner and read a good book. Once she finished dressing herself for school, she found Miss Honey downstairs preparing breakfast.
"Good morning," she said as the girl walked in. She also had nearly forgotten about last night, though if she were to be reminded of the conversation, her anxieties would return. "Did you have a good night of sleep? I hope so, for I sure did not." She softly laughed, though at this point, she could hardly recall what kept her up throughout many times of the night. She assumed that it was for the better, as she did have a class of students to teach today and no time to fuss over silly ideas.
"Yes, I did." Matilda replied, deciding that it would not be a smart idea to question why Miss Honey had not slept well, for she'd rather start the day off bright and blissful. "That's wonderful, I'm grateful that at least one of us did." She responded, flipping a pancake one last time before serving the others onto two plates. After pouring some maple syrup on the two, she brought the plates to the kitchen table, Matilda responding with a cheerful 'Thank you' as she was handed her plate.
Soon enough, Miss Honey and Matilda arrived at Crunchem Hall Primary and Secondary school; many students had loved the school and learned so much once Miss Honey became the headmistress that they had practically begged her to start up a secondary school; and that was exactly what she had done. Matilda waved goodbye to her former schoolteacher as she headed off to the secondary school's campus which was not located too far away. "Have a wonderful day Matilda!" she responded back as she began to head in the opposite direction. "You too!" the girl called back. Miss Honey smiled, knowing that today was a new day and that it could be better than the last. As she signed in and dropped off her things in her office, she paused and spent a moment staring at the closet door where the "Chokey" had once been. It brought back many horrid memories, but also reminded her of how grateful she was to have those days of predicament only be thoughts of the past. Once she got ahold of herself, she realized that it was nearly 07:45 in the morning, meaning that class would start soon. Quickly stashing her things under her desk, she quickly fixed up her appearance one last time before entering the classroom in a calm demeanor.
"Good morning everyone," she said with a warm smile, slowly strolling to the front of the classroom. "This morning, we will first be starting with some math problems. If you all would take out your notebooks…"
After what felt like a short period of time, it was lunchtime already. Matilda headed toward the primary campus, where she would go and eat lunch with her friends; Miss Honey believed that despite her high academic ability, it was better for her to hang out with those of her own age rather than those ten years older. As usual, once she entered the cafeteria, she sat at a table with Lavender, Bruce, Alice, Amanda, and a few others.
"I'm so nervous for the English quiz later! I know that I know everything, but what if I forget it all?" Amanda exclaimed, receiving a few giggles from the others.
"You'll do fine, trust me. I'm sure that it won't be half as hard as you think that it will be." Matilda responded with a soft smile as she took a bite into her sandwich.
"It's easy for you to say! You're super smart!" They all laughed again before Lavender began to change the topic. "Speaking of school, what have you been learning about Matilda?" She asked with wonder, always interested to hear about everything, despite the fact that she had no idea what more than half of the things were. "I'm currently learning trigonometry, physics, and a few other subjects. Some of them are rather difficult though." Matilda continued on, all of her friends listening to her in awe, despite the fact that they had no idea about most of the things she was talking about.
After what only felt like minutes, lunchtime ended and Matilda quickly said goodbye to her friends before rushing off to class, everything that she had asked about the previous day completely out of her mind.
And as for Miss Honey, everything seemed to have cleared out of her mind until the very end of the day as she wrapped up class, cleaning up the classroom as all of her students spoke amongst each other.
"M-Miss Honey?" A little girl asked as she approached her schoolteacher. Even though the school year had hardly began, Miss Honey had done her best to remember all of her new students' names and successfully recognized the little girl, despite the fact that she hardly spoke in class.
"Yes Patricia, is there something that you need? Feel free to ask me anything." She responded with a smile, setting down the rag she had been using to dust off one of the bookshelves to turn to her.
"The older kids have been talking about someone known as… as the Trunchbull? I think that's her name. D-do you know her? They said that she's horrible…" She asked quietly, playing with her hands as she looked down at the ground.
After a moment of silence and pondering over memories of her horrid aunt, the schoolteacher finally answered. "I-I… Yes, yes I do. I should think that it's best that she's forgotten though. I'm sorry, I think it best if I don't tell you anymore." The little girl seemed almost disappointed with her answer, though chose not to ask about her again and sorrowfully walked away instead. As much as Miss Honey wanted to make the girl happy, telling her about Miss Trunchbull would surely spread her name around the campus and horror stories of the previous years would show up again; that was the last thing that she wanted for all of the students, for them to all be reminded of all of the predicament that was forced upon them.
She managed to plaster on a warm smile for the rest of class, not wanting to show any signs of being even the slightest bit unhappy. Though being reminded of the horrid woman had piled all of those anxieties back onto her as she was all that was on her mind. This was the very classroom in which the Trunchbull had run away from as she believed that the ghost of Magnus was haunting her. It really was clever of Matilda to think of such a scheme, as most five-year-olds could not even think of a plan even half as clever. The fact that her aunt was incredibly superstitious contributed to the plan positively, but what if she wasn't entirely convinced that the writing on the chalkboard was from him? 'What if she realized that the only student who wasn't gasping in awe was Matilda? And if she figured that it was only a magic trick of some sort? Get a hold of yourself, Jenny! You're being ridiculous!' she thought to herself as she dismissed the students for the day.
As she headed to her office, she could hear giggles of excitement coming from many of the students as they ran off to their parents, probably excited to head home and watch all of their favourite television shows over the weekend. Matilda, on the other hand, despised the T.V. and preferred to head to the library from when it opened early in the morning to the minute that it would close around 17:00 in the evening. She smiled, happy to know that at least some students still appreciated literature. After she slipped on her soft pink cardigan, she picked up the rest of her things and slipped out of her office, locking the door behind her. Once she made sure that there were no students still in the school, she headed out of the building and locked the doors behind her, meeting up with Matilda at the gate. Rather than driving to and from school as most would, Miss Honey preferred to walk home as she enjoyed the short walk with Matilda.
"How was school?" She asked the little girl as she took her hand and began heading onto the path that would lead to their home.
"It was wonderful. I think that I did well on both of my exams today!" She responded back with a smile, lightly shivering as a harsh breeze blew past her cheeks.
"That is wonderful! I'm sure you've done very well on both of them, you're the brightest girl that I know." Miss Honey responded back, lightly pulling the girl closer to her as another breeze brushed passed them.
Matilda blushed as she huddled closer to her. "T-Thank you." She shivered, and once again, Miss Honey noticed, deciding to do something more about it. Despite how sharp and cold the breezes were, she stopped for a moment and pulled off her soft cardigan, wrapping it around the small girl. "Here, you need it much more than I do." She smiled as they began to continue on.
"B-But you'll be cold an-"
"I'm alright, you needn't worry." Miss Honey reassured her, keeping the girl close to her as she still was cold, though she certainly felt better knowing that Matilda was warm at least.
Throughout their calming walk, Matilda spoke of her day: things that her friends had told her about, a new novel that she was reading, and what she was learning in school; some of which, she didn't know herself. Miss Honey also spoke of her day: different students that had captured her attention, what she was teaching at the moment, and other small things, though she did not mention the conversation that she had with the young girl as she didn't want Matilda to suffer from the same anxieties as she herself was suffering from.
Once the two arrived at their home, they both smiled in relief as if was beginning to grow quite chilly outside, despite the fact that it was only the beginning of autumn. Miss Honey quickly fetched the keys out of her purse and thrust the door open quickly, scrambling in after Matilda so as to keep the cold breezes outside rather than inside. "Well, I think that we both can agree that despite how lovely it is to catch up with each other on the way home, it certainly isn't as fun when it's so chilly." The two softly laughed, slowly warming up in the heated home. Miss Honey prepared some tea for the two as Matilda worked on her homework, smiling as she took a chocolate from her father's old jar for both herself and Matilda.
What they did not know was that they were both being watched at that very moment, the one watching them filled with both anger and envy of their happiness and their content feeling about their lives. Agatha Trunchbull peered in through a small window in the kitchen, ducking down whenever one of them would look in her direction. "Those two nasty maggots, believing that they can take my happiness away from me and keep it all to themselves!" She whispered angrily to herself as she walked away, realizing that it probably was not the smartest idea to peer in on them for if they were observant enough, she could be spotted and the entire plan that she cooked up could be ruined. Sighing in exasperation, she headed off back to the small cottage, kicking open the gate and slamming it closed behind her. "How could they ever believe that I am gullible enough to fall for that scheme?" She asked, throwing a box across the room. She had never learned how to cope with her anger, so she took out her frustration on objects around her, though it didn't benefit her in any way as it only left her with broken furniture. "I will make them pay for what they have done one day…"
Miss Honey kissed Matilda goodnight once more as it was already quite late at night. As she headed off to bed, her anxieties followed her, though she somehow managed to push them aside once more as her exhaustion took over. She fell asleep feeling silly for trusting in these anxieties. After all, she believed that they were only in her head and that Miss Trunchbull was far away from London…
I apologize for taking so long to update! I volunteered this summer at a children's art camp and then recently started school, though I will try my hardest to update much faster!