The Girl with Cat's Eyes

C H A P T E R 13

It was late at night, when I heard it

Your feet that flew,

More silent than bird’s wings

Your eyes that slew

Any errant thought, won't you take

Away my blues

Take off your flying shoes

Crouch by the window

And free fall

Let it all

Out

C H A P T E R 13

School. They said I should go to school. That it might help with the dreams. The dreams they still knew nothing about though I think Jesse might have guessed. I didn't know how I felt about it. I had already taken such a big step in going to the village, and now, I would have to face hundreds of curious glances, of rumors, and of Chelsea wannabes. I'd have to face the entire teen population of all the villages in a three mile radius.

But all the same, I wanted to go, kind of. I wanted to learn, to be able to build myself a future, if I could. I wanted friends, helpers, and more than anything, a life. A reasonably normal teen life: parties, friends, the Shopping Center. But not boys. No boys, means no love. Except Jesse, I couldn't stay away from him. Which was exactly my problem. He was the one I needed to stay away from most.

I went to school the first time a few weeks later, nervous as hell. I barely got any sleep the night before, I remember, there were too many dreams, too many memories, and my worrying didn't help anything. Sarah woke me at seven thirty that first day, same time as Jesse. I was lucky; the school was nearby, just a little outside of Little Wonsworth. Lots of other students must have had to wake up at five in the morning or something else crazy.

Any way, they woke me up, and I got up, and put on my new uniform, or rather old uniform: it was second hand. But I didn't mind much. I rolled up my skirt a little, but not too high, a little above the knee, because it was way too big and long, and made me look like a granny otherwise. Sarah said she'd hem it for me later but hadn't yet. It was navey, and so was my jumper, blazer and tie. The shirt was white, and missing a few buttons. A little too small too, tight fitting, and the sleeves looked three quarter length. Still, I managed to look vaguely presentable. I put on my blazer, and picked up my bag from the table. I swung it over my shoulder and looked in the mirror. I felt so stupid, but there was nothing I could do about the uniform, so I sucked it up.

My bag was the only the only thing I liked, because we could have whatever bag we wanted, so it was the only way I could show who I was. It was originally black but I had tipexed on words and lines from poetry I'd written, and even managed to draw a few things in tipex though they weren't very good.

The journey was tiring, Jesse and I had to walk, and it was quite a long way. Down the mud track from the house to the village, through the heather and gauze bushes growing in nearby fields, and on the hills we had to walk over. We walked through the village, out the other side until the houses started thinning out. Then we climbed over the style and into the forest. Anyone else would have lost track of where we were from the number of paths we took and directions we turned, but I knew exactly where we were, because I knew the forest like the back of my hand. We came out of the forest and onto a patch of grass land and I could see a building in the distance, that looked like the school. We came off the grass and onto the main road by the side just as a car went passed. It started to rain near the end of the journey, and so we ran the rest of the way umbrellas in hand.