Chapter Five

Reluctantly Summer got dressed knowing that she had to go into a school she had just started in order to leave. Elizabeth shared the daunted mood, the cloud of frustration hanging over them as they warmed up the left over takeaway for breakfast.

Waiting for Elizabeth, Summer was leaning against the door when the Grimeston High head teacher called her into the office. Summer would be required to spend the full day in school.  Summer shrugged and made her way to the first class handing her teacher the note the head had given her.

“Oh, so you are the new girl? Summer. Well apparently today is your last day. What happened? Couldn’t hack an American state school?”

Summer swallowed her initial response. Taking her seat, she took a deep breath. “Nothing like that, personally, I couldn’t care less and I think you couldn’t care less either. It was simply a miss-understanding during the move. Monday I start at a school where my uniform would make a Ribena berry wince.”

The class remained silent, the teacher a little surprised, instructed the class to read. Summer rolled her eyes and took out the prospectus guide for Darling Honor. Summer found restraint hard reading through paragraphs, her cynicism and sparkling silent sarcastic commentary running internally left the only signs of her unenthusiastic agitation written on her face.

The day dragged on. Finally, in her last class, she had found most of the teachers had insisted on her doing some work. Luckily the final teacher didn’t care less and she resumed the prospectus browsing. She reached a section she finally had some interest in, a segment of her family. The Darlings a list of their achievements relating to the school and their academic accomplishments. She began to appreciate just how inspiring the Darlings were, in that appreciation her own self-doubt ate at her.

When the bell rang Summer made her way to her locker emptying it of the little she had stored in it. Managing to turn a corner she bumped into someone and the contents of her arms slipped from her grasp. She ducked down to find that the person she had bumped into was helping her pick things up. “We haven’t scared you off already?” He smiled. Summer gently denied and reluctantly mentioned her transfer being to keep her family happy.

He didn’t stop smiling, “I’m Zach, does that mean you are leaving town?” Continue reading →

Chapter Four

Waking up in the manner felt surreal, every single morning. Summer was not only waking up in a new home it was a new town and country. Summer had woken early, aching all over, even getting ready for the day felt like a draining effort.  By the time Elizabeth woke up Summer was attacking the garden. Elizabeth held a little resentment in that moment watching Summer from the window. She was at the right age for this fresh start, she had so much more potential than her.

It took Elizabeth a moment to shake these thoughts directing her attention to the stack of letters on the dresser as she watched the sun stream through the window. Snapping from her distraction she shook off her thoughts and got herself dressed and ready to brave helping in the garden.

Elizabeth had been mindlessly chatting with Summer when Simon arrived; insistent once again to help return the gardens to the glory he remembered. Elizabeth couldn’t help but poke a reminder to Summer that she had school on Monday as she returned to removing some of the waste plants. The progress from wild jungle back garden was slow. But with a little assistance it might not take as long as Elizabeth anticipated.

With less than a week to go until Summer would slip into life at Grimeston High, she couldn’t shake her nerves no matter what she tried. The nagging feeling that they had forgotten something kept creeping up on her. Summer had always hated school. It left her panicked with a knot in her stomach that threatened to creep up her throat and choke her.

With as much done in the garden as they could stand, Elizabeth and Summer had decided Simon would be joining them for dinner. While Elizabeth finished clearing away Summer made a dash to the market while Simon went home to clean himself up and check in on the Diner. Continue reading →

Chapter Three

A low slung mist clung tight to Grimeston.

In those quiet early hours of dawn, the only sound to be heard was the quiet hum of a car engine cruising slowly through the town. It passed by the large open town square of a truly picturesque town.

In the back seat of the car sat two very exhausted Darlings. The bloodline formed of the very founders of this town.

Pulling up to the manner house the girls drowsily stepped from the car, removing their baggage. The fog began to lift and rise as the car drove off into the rising mists. Elizabeth and summer watched it leave before facing their new home.

The front garden, an overgrown jungle stretched before them. It seemed to be that every leaf and stem was tangled and intertwined over every surface from the walkway to the porch steps. Dragging their heavy bags and suitcases up the driveway to the porch steps crushing the long grasses growing wildly beneath their feet. Pulling the heaviest case free they pass up the porch steps and past the broken porch swing the girls shared a look of anxiety before they opened the creaking door.

Creeping inside the doorway they drag their bags behind them and slide them beside the door they ventured into the darkness before them.

Finding the light switch in the thick dusty darkness they saw their first glimpses of their new home. The furniture shapes before them covered in thick heavy drapes covered in dusty. Without thought Summer dove into her shoulder bag and pulled out a notebook and pen and started to jot herself a list. As they made their first adventure the dusty grand staircase.

At the top of the hallway they approached the master bedroom. The first thing either of them noticed was the dust, the thick smell of dust. The room was intensely elegant even the simple attached bathroom, but the need to sneeze drove them from the room. Taking an envelope from the dresser table bearing Elizabeth’s name. Continue reading →

Chapter Two

Some very many miles away the wind was whistling violently across a sea filled with turmoil. Somewhat reflecting the soul f one particular passenger on the ferry sat sullenly with dark expressions. A beautiful girl whose face seemed to, in its own mystery, reflect the deep grey sky that dragged the wind through the sea. Coursing waves had encouraged a sickly shade of green nausea.

The girl had sat unable to drag her eyes from the turbulent landscape. In her sweating palms she gripped a letter, once again she read the scrawl of writing, now almost known to her by memory.  Her saving distraction, an invite to visit relatives she had not long discovered, ready to embark on the new journey for the beginning of the summer.

The girl had no reason to believe in luck, she had prayed to herself that there was more than what met the eye. She had put her family through a search engine, she could barely believe she was related to this inspiring family. She had always believed she was less than ordinary, always so lacking; yet somehow she never could fit in among her peers. Her way of thinking did nothing in conforming to regular convention. Ever the oddball, after all how could she believe the world to be reflecting the turmoil within out on the sea she was sailing.

Her eyes flicked back to the envelope, “Miss E M Darling”. She didn’t feel like a Darling, not by any measure; they were great, inspiring, creative, and so it seemed sheer genius. Not once had she dared to believe herself a fraction as wonderful. Continue reading →