Aidene
I stepped over the window sill, taking in a deep chilly breath (it was getting colder). I slowly placed my left foot on the floorboards. I could hear their rhythmic snoring and the soft rustle of blankets as they turned in their sleep. I knew Anne's room number and the direction her dorm was facing but I did not know what bed she was in and I really don't think one could blame me for that. All I could see were little strands of hair sticking out from under their blankets. Too dark to identify anyone by hair color. I hope I don't freak out the wrong person. Although that would have been hilarious, that's beside the point. I came here for Anne.
I looked around the room, honestly not very useful considering how dark it was now. I definitely was not going to turn on my torch. And then something caught my eye on the desk near me. A little glimmer of something small. I decided checking it out was the only thing I could do besides go back to my dorm, and I was not going to run away after all of this. Whatever this is.
I walked up towards it, trying my best not to make the wood creak underneath me. As I got closer I could see it was a little silver brooch of a flower. I kneeled down next to it and picked it up, gently turning it between my fingers. It was shaped like a rose and had gold accents. It was the same brooch Anne was wearing on her coat when I first met her.I turned to look at who was sleeping on the bed just to make sure. I could almost see a face in the mess of hair that surrounded her face and it was her. YES.I knelt down beside her bed and smiled. Okay, let me make this clear. I did not just smile, I did my infamous pennywise smile which tended to scare or creep people to death. It looked even scarier in the moonlight. I shook her gently and the moment her eyes opened her face showed a look of pure terror. Her mouth dropped open to scream. To avoid that I dropped my smile and placed a hand over her mouth tightly.
"Shhhhhhhhhhh! It's me Aidene."Anne rubbed her eyes and looked at me again, and then she turned to a clock hung across the room from us.
"It's 12:30 Aidene. What do you have to tell me that's important enough to wake me RIGHT now? You know we both need to wake up in like 7 HOURS. And on that note, HOW on earth did you get here? We're four complete stories of the ground." She spoke in hurried and very annoyed whispers. My shoulders shook and my mouth opened to laugh but I quickly stopped myself.
"Keep it down or I'll get caught." I said while trying to stifle my laughter."AIDENE. Why are you here? And I am asking again how did you get up here? And what was wrong with your face a few moments back?"
"Oh yeah I just climbed that tree over there." I said pointing behind me at the window.
"Huh?"
"Anyway, I wanted to tell you this story. It's really interesting."
"Aidene, go back to your dorm. It's late we're going to get in soooo much trouble if we get caught"
"Darling, no need to worry I managed to climb two trees without anyone noticing and neither of your roommates have woken up. Calm down love" I added with a heavy English accent.
"Did u just call me 'darling' and 'love'? You truly scare me and what is it with that English accent!"
"Okay, so..."I began.
"NO! I will talk to you during breakfast now get out of my room and let me sleep" Her voice became louder with each word. I should get going. She was right. We needed to wake up at 7:30 and I was not a morning person. I would need all my energy to get out of my bed. I stood on the ledge and looked down, a thick grey fog had started to roll in. I should get back to my dorm fast before the fog blocked my view of the branches and before I lost the adrenaline which was starting to fade therefore depriving me of the ability to climb.
-
I fixed my tie and rolled up the white button up's sleeves up to my elbows and tucked the shirt into the black khakis. I looked at the school blazer but decided against wearing it for now. I picked up my air house pin and put it on the blue tie. Grabbing my earrings and putting them on. I looked up at the mirror next to my bed, my hair had teal ends instead of purple today."How much hair color did you bring? Doubt you have enough to last the year." Natalie said, unlike me, she was wearing the blue school blazer, reasonable considering the cold outside.
It was cold outside but not enough that I could be bothered to go get my blazer all the way from back in the dorm. My nose filled with the smell of freshly cut grass. The sun was still rising and birds were chirping harmoniously as I dragged myself miserably across the grass field to the school building. The grass felt damp. Well, I was supposed to be using the stone path everyone else was using but leaning on Natalie, who was, is good enough in my opinion. People walked around us, some people bumping into us because of our combined walking pace.
"Aidene, you really might want to stand up by now, we're almost here."
"Whuaaa- ?"I suppose that was fair enough in retrospect considering she was only about three-fourths of my height. I looked up and she was right. We were in front of the dining hall. I stretched and rubbed my eyes. I walked over to a nearby water fountain under a canopy at the entrance.
"Does anybody have any orange slices?" I asked no one in particular.
"I am pretty sure you shouldn't be eating something acidic on an empty stomach and I am also sure you will get some in the hall."
"You are not a Marvel fan are you?"
"No. Why?"
"No reason."I washed my face and looked up at the sun, which was now almost up. I looked over at Nat's watch (I never wore a watch). It was about 7:50 now and according to the pamphlets and 'allotted times' leaflets I spent the rest of the night going through, we had an hour and a few minutes to spare for breakfast before we left for class. The moment I entered the dining hall I searched for Anne, this time with Nat with me. I shoved my way through the crowd of all the people getting food and looking for seats. I found Anne standing in line chatting with someone I was not introduced to when I ran into her at dinner last night. Did she get a different best friend? Am I supposed to be jealous? I hurried towards her. My dear emo friend was wearing the school blazer with all the buttons on, and the pin on the pocket of the blazer. The girl beside her had really long hair that went down all the way to her waist she had pulled it back into a ponytail. Her blazer was falling off her shoulders and her tie was loose, the first two buttons of her shirt were undone and she wasn't wearing the pin.
"Annnnnieeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Good morrow!"
"I hate you and don't ever call me Annie." She scowled as I broke into the line, inviting a fair amount of dirty looks my way.
"Awwww! I love you too." I knew I was irritating her. I just love to irritate people.
"Your hair is blue," Anne's new intimate said."It was purple yesterday," Anne added with absolutely no emotion."First of all, it's teal not blue, and number two what's your name?"
"Penelope Knight and yours?" her emerald green eyes eying me suspiciously.
"Rayners, Aidene Rayners"
"Mind if I borrow Anne for a sec? THANK YOU BYE!"I left Penelope in the dust. I could almost hear the tumbleweed, wind, and the western cowboy music."The thing I was about to tell you last night was." I cleared my throat."Th're wast this sir, William Greylight, nay one kneweth much about that gent, besides the fact yond that gent hadst inh'rit'd the grounds..."
"WAIT NO SHAKESPEAREAN PLEASE! How do you even speak like that? I am already mad at you for scaring me last night with that smile of yours."
"Okay." I concurred with a shrug.
I leaned forward toward Anne with a hopeful glint in my eyes.
"So...what does this legend of yours have to do with us?"
"Duh!!" I threw myself back rocking the chair, slightly scaring a few people around me
"I want us to try and figure out if William Greylight was a real person or not," I said whispered, leaning forward again.
"How's that going to work?"
"We'll figure it out. Are you in?"
"Do you have nothing better to do? You know we are going to have, like a lot more work later this semester than we do now right? How would we keep this up?"
I bit my lip frying my brain thinking about how to convince Anne to join this hunt. The buzz of the students turned to a low hum in my head and I got lost in my head. My left leg started shaking (a habit of mine when I think a lot or get very excited)
"Hey? You just shut up, you never shut up." I was brought down from my thought bubble by Anne snapping her fingers in front of me. Her face held the same I-am-not-interested-I-would-rather-fall-asleep-now look she always had.
"Anne, we are in a hostel. You're given the chance to live out basically every story, comic, and movie with a school in it and you're giving it up?"
"Yeah we are in a hostel, with real homework and they are not weird spells from Harry Potter and Sabrina the Teenage Witch and we are definitely not in some crazy school like Gotham academy. We are not spiderman. We are not demigods. WE ARE NORMAL SCHOOL KIDS WHO ARE TRYING TO PASS THEIR EXAMS. So stop living in such an imaginative, unrealistic world." She chided.
"But dear Anne,' Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality' said the Cheshire cat"
"We are not in Wonderland Rayners, so stop being crazy!"
"I am not crazy, my reality is just different than yours."
"Yeah, so you're delusional? That is just another way to say crazy, for your information."
"No, Anne I just have a sense of wonder and adventure that you have lost." I said, cocking one of my eyebrows and giving her my best impression of Dwayne Johnson when he did that 'Can you smell what the rock is cooking' thing.
Anne sighed. "No just no."
"Okay" I chirped, leaning back and rocking my chair.
"What!"
"Okay" I said again, this time adding a shrug.
"Okay?" she said in a bewildered tone. I could tell that she was wondering why I gave in so easily after almost spending all of breakfast arguing over this. The next few moments were spent in silence just listening to the other students' chatter. I bit into my PB and J sandwich (Which was just one bread cut in half, sadly they did not have orange slices.) I looked over to Anne's plate who was busy stuffing a spoon of cereal into her mouth. I started humming 'Whatever it takes' by Imagine dragons and soon enough started singing it in a low tone.
"Whatever it takes! cause I love the adrenaline in my veins..."
"FINE! I am in, just don't start singing out loud."
"I do whatever it takes! Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains..." I sang a little louder just to be plain annoying. I stopped and gave her a lopsided smile and asked
"Why? Why do you want to join me when you won the argument"
"Hopefully I can get rid of you when we are done with this...quest of yours. Where do we start?"
"Hey kid!" I called over a tawny haired fifth-grader who was passing by our table. He looked around nervously and pointed to himself.
"Yeah you! Come here. What's yer name?" I asked with the most gentle smile I could muster seeing that most of my smiles yelled overexcited."It's, ehm it's Dean Rakes"
" Well then' It's, ehm, it's Dean Rakes', weird name by the way,
"Can you tell me where I can get info about well... just about anything really"
The boy, Dean, pointed a finger at a table and then ran away.
"Was I that scary? Anyways, I realized he just pointed at Penelope"
"What?" I watched as Anne looked to where the boy pointed, landing her gaze on Penelope, the girl standing in line with Anne before I seized her. I walked alongside Anne (well she was dragged) towards Penelope, who backed away slightly when she saw me her deep green eyes widening. She sat beside another girl, probably a senior, who I ignored, note rudely. She didn't seem like a nice person.
"Hi! Penelope right? I need info." I said a little bluntly. Penelope looked past me and laid her eyes on Anne who was standing inconspicuously behind me like she was trying not to be found.
"Hello" Anne waved nervously.
"As I said before me and my bff need information"
"I am not your 'bff'."
"What do you need and what do you want to trade for it?" Penelope asked in a professional tone like trading information for belongings was daily business and I was just a client.