Title: Charlotte's Tumbling Time Travel: Lottie of Lallybroch
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on Outlander.
A/N: Hi! Thank you so much for your reviews and encouragements! I'm so grateful. Here is chapter 8 of the story. I hope you enjoy it.
CHAPTER 8
After dinner Lottie crawled up on the sofa in the common room and drew her knees up to her chest. The others were still eating but she had finished all the food she could manage and had then asked to be excused. She stared into the crackling fire and tried not to cry. She had one more day of school to endure before the weekend and tomorrow they had a spelling test. She pulled out the slate she had written down the words on and the book and quill that she had borrowed from Jamie and started to practice. She wrote the 50 words one time each and then put the quill down. She read through all the words once and then tried to write ten of them without looking at the slate. She got four of them right.
"This if freaking impossible," she snarled and threw the quill on the sofa angrily. Her heart leapt into her throat when she realized that the tip of the quill hadn't been dry and had made a small ink stain on the sofa. She started to frantically wipe at it with her finger when she heard footsteps coming her way. Jenny entered and she tried to look natural but couldn't help but glance at the stain next to her.
"Good, ye're practicing...wait," she hurried over to the sofa and bent down. "Did ye stain the sofa with ink?"
Lottie knew there was no point in trying to deny it but nodded miserably.
Jamie, Ian and Claire entered laughing at something Ian had said, all carrying glasses of red wine.
"What's going on?" Claire asked when she saw Jenny standing over Lottie seated on the sofa.
Jenny sighed and put her hands on her hips.
"The lass managed to spill ink on the sofa." Jenny met Lottie's scared gaze and relaxed her shoulders. "It's all right. T'was an accident. I'll get some soap and water."
"When I gave ye the ink and quill I meant fer ye to practice yer spelling at a desk or table, Lottie," Jamie said admonishingly.
"I guess I didn't think," Lottie said and sloped. "Doesn't matter. I stink at spelling anyway. I can't get the spelling of the words into my head."
"Then I guess ye ought to practice more, lass. I remember practicing for my tests in school. Sometimes it seemed like the knowledge would never stick in my head but then…"
"Then ye went out fer a ride and yer da had to come find ye and bring you back to yer desk after having tanned yer hide for escaping yer schoolwork...again," Ian finished and Claire broke out in a laugh.
Jenny who just returned with a cloth stared at them puzzled.
"What's so funny now?"
"Oh Ian was just telling us of Jamie's escapades as a child. Seems he wasn't very diligent with his studies all the time," Claire said.
Jenny grinned at her brother who just pursed his lips and stared at ceiling.
"That would be an understatement. I was constantly reminding him of his homework."
"That's not true," Jamie defended himself stubbornly.
"Oh, aye?" Jenny and Ian both chimed.
Jamie shrugged.
"Okay, maybe occasionally, but surely not all the time."
They left the subject of Jamie's deprived sense of responsibility during his schooldays which seemed a relief to Jamie.
"You should practice writing the words a couple of more times before bed to make sure you know them. I'll question you afterwards if you want,to make sure you know them?" said Claire.
Lottie thanked her but declined. She assured everyone she was going to head up to her room to practice right after listening to Jenny read a chapter of Robinson Crusoe.
An hour later Lottie had headed up to her room and plopped down at her desk with a candle lit, with the intention to practice her spelling until she knew it by heart before bed. She wrote three words and then started tapping her quill against the sheet of paper over and over again, daydreaming. She tried hiding the answers and tried spelling a couple of words further down the list, but found that it was impossible. She didn't get a single one correct. A yapping sound interrupted her and she
looked down at the floor at Mathanas who sat there wagging his tail. The black and white puppy looked at her adoringly and whined and yapped to get her attention.
"Aren't you tired? You're usually asleep at this hour in the evening. You want to play, is that it?"
She got up, chair scraping against the floor as she did, and got a small ball from her bed and started rolling it across the floor for him to get and fetch back to her. Mathanas loved the game and after a while she started to hide the ball and tell him to search for it, which he did until he found it.
They kept the games and fun going for at least an hour and before she knew it there was a knock on her door. Before she had time to hide the ball and get back to her seat at her desk Jamie entered.
"Oh...uhm, hi, Jamie. I was just about to go to bed. I promise," she assured him.
He nodded and didn't look upset.
"I see ye're finished with yer spelling. That's a good lass. And like ye said it's time fer bed now. The rest of us are exhausted too so we're all heading to bed."
Lottie gave hima small grin and a mock suspicious look.
"You're not just saying that so I won't be upset that I won't get to stay up as late as you?"
Jamie grinned and picked up Mathanas in his arms to pat him.
"Not this time no," he winked at her.
Lottie glanced at the open book and the quill at her desk and felt a pang of regret and guilt hit her. She knew very well that she hadn't done any practicing since she headed upstairs. Jamie must trust that she had since he wasn't even checking how much she had written on the page. That was fortunate for her, but it didn't make her conscience feel very good.
"Ye get dressed fer bed now, all right? And I will see ye in the morning fer breakfast."
He kissed the top of her head and Lottie blushed. Overtaken with happiness and a warm feeling inside she put her arms around him in a hug.
"Good night, Jamie."
Jamie took Mathanas along with him out to the stable and it didn't take long after he'd left before Lottie was asleep in her bed with the covers pulled up to her chin.
The next morning Lottie refused to get out of bed when Claire came and knocked on her door to wake her up. She moaned, annoyed at having her sleep disturbed.
"Lottie! It's the second time I've knocked now. You'd better get up and have breakfast now or you'll be late for school. "
"Yeah, yeah, I'm up," she called drowsily, trying to sound alert.
When she heard Claire continue down the hall she pulled the covers up over her head to block out the light coming from the window and went right back to sleep.
Next thing she knew it sounded like someone kicked the door in and stormed her room. She jerked and bolted right out of bed. She was standing on the floor next to her bed staring Jamie in the eye next thing she knew. She could have sworn it had only been five minutes since Claire had knocked but now she realized much more time must have passed by.
"I don't remember saying enter" she mumbled awkwardly at him.
Jamie just raised his brows and gave her a look that said he wouldn't take any more sass.
"Get dressed and ready, lass. Now."
Lottie nodded and sighed.
"What's the hurry anyway?"
"The hurry is that ye've slept an extra hour and need to be at school in forty minutes. "
Lottie felt panic hit her. She couldn't be late because then Fordyce would whip her, and that was something she didn't want to experience again. She needed to grab breakfast, saddle Seoc, feed Mathanas and ride to school all in forty minutes.
No one at Lallybroch had ever seen Lottie move so fast through the house as that morning. She didn't sit down for her breakfast but simply grabbed a bannock and an egg on her way out.
"Lottie, we dinna eat our breakfast while on the run in this house," Jenny called after her as she came sprinting through the dining room.
"I'm sorry, Jenny, but I have to feed Mathanas."
Lottie didn't hear her response but continued out the door and ran to the stable with her hands occupied holding two bannocks and a bowl with leftover food from dinner the night before. She placed the bowl in front of Mathanas and gave him a quick pat before heading to Seoc's stall to saddle him. She realized she had approximately fifteen minutes to get to school now. It was usually a twenty minute ride there but she might make it. Seoc neighed and seemed up for the task and they set off in a galopp into the woods.
Fifteen minutes later Lottie ran up the stairs to the sound of Fordyce ringing school bell and turned around to enter the building. She reached the top of the stairs panting, not from just the stairs but from the ride she and Seoc had just made to get there on time.
"Good morning," she greeted him with her breath almost caught in her throat, but got no response back.
She hurriedly took her seat in one of the middle wooden benches and reached into her satchel to retrieve her slate. Instead of the hard wooden frame she expected to wrap her fingers around she felt something softer and more flexible. Realizing what it was she felt a chill of worry go through her and then she looked down into the satchel.
"Uh oh," she whispered at the sight of the missing slate that had somehow been replaced by the book she had practiced her spelling in the night before.
"I must have grabbed the book instead of the slate. Damn it," she whispered to herself.
Coinneach Shaw turned around and glanced at her from his seat in front of her. For a second she thought she detected worry on his face, but she then figured she must be mistaken.
"What?" he mouthed to her.
"Mind your own business," she mouthed soundlessly back to him.
She couldn't believe she had fought like crazy to make it in time to school and made it only to have to realize she must have gotten her slate accidentally switched with the book Jamie had given her when in a rush that morning. She had even managed to pack the quill, but no ink.
She only listened with half an ear as Fordyce greeted the class good morning and talked about what the day would hold for them today. She heard him mention the test they would be having and the reminder created a lump in her throat.
"Alistair Ferguson, Bearnard Miller and Coinneach Shaw will come up first and write the words I assign to ye on the black board. Come on up right away, I dinna have all day. "
Having been in school for a week now Lottie knew this was the way things worked a lot of the time. Students had to come up in front of the class and do their writing on the black board on the wall. The two boys, Alistair and Bearnard, who had been called first hurried to their feet and up to Fordyce who handed them each a piece of chalk to do their writing with. He assigned them five words each and told them to get to work. The words were fairly easy since the boys were younger than Coinneach. Coinneach took his time getting to the blackboard and when he finally arrived he got five really difficult words to attempt to spell correctly. Coinneach's bottom lip trembled a little at first before he slowly turned around and started writing on the black board with occasionally jarring sounds. At first he wrote slowly as if he had to do a lot of thinking on the first word, and then all of a sudden he turned, met the schoolmaster's spiteful gaze and scribbled the words on the board correctly like there was no effort behind it at all. With a smirk he handed the piece of chalk back to Fordyce and turned around.
"Get to yer seat," Fordyce demanded crankily.
"Charlotte Fraser, ye're next. Get up here."
Lottie felt her heart sink and began moving her feet. Wishing she had practiced more the night before she made her way to the black board and took the chalk.
"Please spell feagamh, lothag, curran dearg and gasgan correctly on the black board. If it isna too easy fer someone like yerself?"
Lottie glared at him and faced the board. He had asked her to write perhaps, foal, carrot and puppy. Understanding Gaelic she had of course no problem understanding the meaning of the words, she had even become stronger in the language since starting school Gaelic it was spoken more often. Her reading and spelling needed a lot more work though. Especially since her spelling skills in English were poor to begin with. She had always had problems with spelling, even when she had put her soul into practicing occasionally she still hadn't been able to get it right.
She took a deep breath and started to write the first word down. While she was working on the remaining three Fordyce had time to replace the two little ones with new pupils. One of them was the Mcnab girl, who sneered at Lottie from her place next to her.
Finally Lottie took a step back from the board to signal she was finished. The schoolmaster looked very pleased and she wished very much for it to be because she had gotten all four words down correctly. However knowing him better than that by know Lottie suspected that wasn't the reason and she soon found out she was correct.
"Do ye honestly think that's how yer words are spelled, lass? If ye do then I shall have to give ye spelling homework several times a week from now on, " he gave a mocking laugh and Lottie felt her cheeks turn red. "But then again I shouldn't have expected more from a Sassenach of course, " he snorted. "I shall give ye a new assignment that will perhaps suite ye better. Spell the words again, but this time in yer own tongue English. That shouldna be too hard fer ye, should it?"
Lottie looked at the words she had written in Gaelic. She had spelled them feagm, lohag, coran derag and gaskn. It was quite obvious that was wrong since they could easily be compared to Annella McNab's spelling of them next to hers: feagamh, lothag, curran dearg and gasgan. She was really starting to hate that girl.
Lottie sighed again and listened as Fordyce ordered new children to come up and stand by the board. She had a feeling she already knew how this was going to end for her, since she had problems with spelling most words in English too. She wrote the words down with a slightly shaking hand: karot, foul, pupy and pirhapps, and while she worked she heard several children start to giggle. When she turned around Fordyce had both brows raised high on his forehead and was wearing a moch look of chook.
"It's good I didna have much hope in ye from the beginning either. Ye can take yer seat."
Lottie returned to her seat and tried to avoid looking at anyone while she walked. She knew she should be angry but she only felt shame. She hadn't expected Fordyce to challenge her to spell in English too. It had become so clear to everyone that she couldn't even do that. She felt tears burning behind her eyes but quickly blinked them back.
She wasn't alone in not knowing her spelling homework. The small boy Bearnard hadn't met schoolmaster Fordyce's requirements either and as soon as the whole class of 12 students had had their turn at the black board Lottie and Bearnard were called to come up to the front of the class again. Fordyce smiled and grabbed a cane from his dreaded shelf.
"Let these two be an example to all of ye of what happens when one does not practice their spelling enough. Do not be inspired by them and their lack of efforts. Who's first?" he asked menacingly slapping the cane against the palm of his hand lightly and meeting their gazes. The small chocolate brown haired boy was trembling and had his big eyes were wet with tears. One look at him and Lottie felt her sense of protection take control of her. Before she knew it she had stepped forward and was holding out her hand.
To be continued
Author's notes: So, you've just finished reading another chapter of my story. A lot of energy and time goes into writing it, even though I don't update as often as I would like, so please please take the time to send a short review. It really brightens my day when I see them in my inbox.