Chapter 2: One September Day

 'Maddie. Maddie! Madelyn!'

'What?'

It was Thursday. Thankfully Tuesday and Wednesday had completely flown by which was great because I hate Tuesdays and Wednesdays are just as bad. I had come straight back from my after school Judo class, took a quick shower then went directly up to my room to wait for dinner time. Katie and Victoria had gone to the laundry room to wash their sports kit and had returned to find me passed out and snoring on my bed. I have never been as tired in my life than what I had recently.

I sat myself upright and rubbed my eyes as Katie and Victoria stood beside my bed, with a slight look of shock on their faces.

'What's wrong? Somebody died?' I asked, noticing their strange looks.

'Well... yes.' Victoria answered. Deadpan in her delivery.

'We just heard that Mrs Clarkson has died.' Katie added.

I blinked a few times, then blinked some more as if it would help me comprehend what I had just been told.

'Like dead dead?' I asked, confused. I don't think I'd completely woken up properly but I wasn't surprised; I was absolutely knackered.

'Yeah dead dead. I don't know how deader you can get than... well dead.'

Victoria was pretty dry most of the time. She had quite the wicked sarcastic streak in her too and half of the time I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.

It kinda made me want to laugh, but seeing both of them with serious looks on their faces; I knew it wasn't a joke in poor taste.

'Oh. Shit'. I replied. 'Do they know how or why?'

'Dunno for sure.' Victoria had wandered over to her part of the room, kicking her shoes off on the way as she dumped her laundry bag at the foot of her bed. 'We saw an ambulance leaving the staff car park but we heard that Mrs Clarkson might've had a stroke.'

'It's horrible. Maddie and I have Chemistry with Mrs Clarkson she's a really good teacher. Well, was.' 

I looked over at Katie, noticing she was looking a little upset. I was feeling a bit upset too. We had Mrs Clarkson as our chemistry teacher since we started here. In fact, she'd been teaching at the school for quite some time now. Unlike a good chunk of the faculty however; Mrs Clarkson lived off campus in a small cottage on the outskirts of Hitchin, which was the closest town to the school. I liked her a lot. She was an older lady, maybe in her mid-fifties but it was difficult to tell. She was always nicely dressed and made up, but what I liked most about her was the fact that when she spoke to you; she spoke to you like an actual person. Not a child at school, but a young adult. She commanded respect that way just by treating others with respect.

'I wonder how quickly they're going to replace her?' Katie asked. Victoria just shrugged her shoulders as she flopped down on to her bed. She had a point, I had a bit of a think.

'Pretty soon I guess. We've only just started the new term I don't think they'd want to leave it too long.' I answered Katie. She nodded in agreement. I started thinking; well, daydreaming actually. I had a vivid vision in my head that my Auntie Morrigan would rock up to the school in her mad car, we'd have our girly weekend then she wouldn't leave the school and start work on Monday teaching Mrs Clarkson's class. It was pretty far-fetched but knowing Auntie M, it was something she would totally do. I had a bit of an internal giggle to myself. Yeah it would be pretty funny if it did happen.

Eventually we all trudged down to the dining hall in the main building for dinner. The entire hall was quiet and slightly sombre in mood, apparently the news had spread pretty quick. Quick enough for the schools headmaster Mr Banks to come out and address everyone before we were allowed to eat. He said the rumours were true and Mrs Clarkson had in fact suffered a serious stroke as she was leaving to go home. They would be searching for a replacement Chemistry teacher as soon as possible.

I felt a bit sad an all, but I just wanted to eat. I'd start with the cream of celeriac soup then move on to a few locally sourced lamb chops, mixed vegetables and potato dauphinoise. These were no ordinary school dinners. The chefs were amazing, they always used local organic produce whenever they could and whoever did the desserts was nothing short of a genius. A glance at the menu and I'd already decided on the apple, peach and cinnamon tarte with vanilla crème anglais, which was basically posh for fruit pie and custard.

'And there will be a book of condolence in the main reception area for those wishing to pass on their condolences to Mrs Clarkson's family.'

My stomach was being audibly loud right now and chose to sing the song of it's people when there were those few moments of silence, earning a few head turns from those trying to determine who the sound was coming from. I zipped up the hoodie I had thrown on and wrapped my arms around my belly in some kind of attempt to deafen the gargling and grumbling emanating from my impatient stomach.

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I was elated when we finally got our food. I set about my dinner like I hadn't eaten in a month. Victoria and Katie had barley finished their soup starter by the time I got halfway through my main meal. I had a feeling there was something wrong with me; I'd never felt this tired, this hungry or this stressed before and I had no real reason why I should be. I think that was what was stressing me out. People were staring at me too, well I thought they were staring at me.

'Maddie are you okay?' Katie asked me looking concerned. 'You haven't been yourself recently.'

I crammed the last morsel of lamb chop in to my mouth and quickly chewed before replying. Katie and Victoria had literally just finished their soup.

'I think I need to see a doctor or something. I've really not been feeling that great.' I sighed as I rubbed my forehead, shoving my now empty plate away from me with my other hand. I looked up again and glanced around the dining hall, doubling back when I noticed that Liam Blakeley was glaring at me. Hmm, not so much glaring but prolonged glances. He kept doing it too; shoving stuff around on his plate then glancing, picking up his water glass to take a drink then glancing, talking and nodding at his friends at their table then glancing.

I shook it off and shrugged my shoulders, rearranging my cutlery on my plate as I waited for Katie and Victoria to catch up so we could go and get dessert together. We cleared up our plates and cutlery for Melissa to take to the hatch for the kitchen staff, soon dessert would be brought out and it couldn't come quick enough.

"Come on posh pie and custard." I rumbled excitedly. 

Most nights after our evening meal; Victoria, Katie and myself would usually take a walk around the school grounds especially if we didn't have any studying to do. Tonight I was particularly thankful of the fresh air to be honest; it was getting a bit rancid and stale in the dining hall what with the smell of different kinds of food and several dozen bodies all giving off their weird odours. It was making me feel a bit sick in there.

Katie and Victoria were walking a few steps in front of me, busy with their phones; showing each other daft videos and letting each other listen to new songs they had found. I was occupying myself by taking in huge lungful's of fresh air to the point where I nearly made myself dizzy; it felt nice being outside, like just being outside was energising me in a way I'd never really felt before. It made me think about what Auntie M had said about grounding which I still hadn't tried yet. 

'Well you seem to have perked up.' Victoria looked back at me. I actually smiled back at her and stretched my arms out, revelling in the freedom of outside and the lack of sweaty foot smell. 

'It's so good to be outside!' I exclaimed. 'Can't you feel it? It's just so... UNGH! It's so... invigorating!'

Victoria and Katie were now looking at me like I had grown an extra head. I must admit this was kind of out of character for me but I really was just feeling so good right now. A complete change from how I've been feeling recently.

'And Auntie M is coming up on Friday and I get to hang out with her this weekend.' I continued.

'Hang on didn't you say she was coming on Saturday?' 'Katie stopped walking to ask me.

'Um, pretty sure I said Friday?' I replied.

'No you definitely said Saturday, you told us a few nights ago at dinner.' Victoria confirmed.

I just shrugged my shoulders. I probably got mixed up with that daydream I had of Auntie M showing up quite clearly on Friday. Thinking about it, she just said she'd be up at the weekend she didn't tell me the exact day...

Katie and Victoria just shrugged and carried on walking. I trailed behind them, stopping every so often to admire some random flowers or try and listen to the sounds of nature. I stopped after noticing that just off the path we were walking, was a massive clump of bright pink and white foxgloves.

'Wow so pretty.' I said to myself.

Then I projectile vomited across the footpath. 

A lot.

And all down my favourite hoodie as well.  

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