Painted Roses

Chp. 1 (Post Cards From Italy)

She woke up in a haze. Her head was a pounding mess, like clogs clinking together with a screw loose. It chipped away and drug together, shaking and bouncing around in her head. Wren pressed her fingers against the coldness of the window. It brought her back to reality. It took some of the pain with her breath, fogging up the glass. Another sigh fell into the air and Wren's eyes looked up to meet her mother's.

"Are you nervous?" Her mother paused, her voice echoing across the small, cramped train cabin. Visions passed Wren's eyes as she looked outside. Blurs that she assumed were grass, the sky, and the ocean flew by in a mesh of spots and colors.

"Not really...They wouldnt have let me in if they knew I couldnt do it..." She responded. It was a partial lie. The two knew it, if not the whole train. If not even the whole world, they all knew Wren was a bit scared of walking into Camden's School for  Talented Girls. Anyone would honestly or at least anyone whom wasnt so narsscitic that they thought they belonged their.

They only response she had rung out of her mother was another sigh. Wren just nodded solemnly. There was no use forcing a final goodbye from her mother. It was a boarding school. She would see her as well as the rest of her family again eventually. Wren didnt even know what she had truly even wanted from her mother. To say that she would be missed? To not say a word and dismiss her without a thought? Maybe she wanted her to breakdown in tears and beg her to stay?

It was better that there was nothing. Her fingers tapped across the glass, raindrops racing each other. She mentally bet on one as it tumbled through the air and landed like a splatter of blood on a wall. A raindrop on a window.

It met with a few others and they collided, joining into a larger, stronger one. The one she had bet on meshed with the hopeful loser, the two were one. Wren just sighed, she had just won and lost. Her mother coughed and she looked up, her mother had turned the other way. She didn't even look at her.

Wren nodded, it wasn't like she could ask for her attention or support. But, to have it would be nice. Instead, as the train crawled to a stop in the station her mother gazed at her. People thought the two looked alike. Wren knew they did, but she never wanted to admit it. It was uncanny, same eyes, same hair, but the two were completely different people. 

Her mind whirled round and round, spinning itself into submission trying to figure out what was going on behind those eyes. The same eyes, her eyes. She pondered if people saw her eyes and looked for her, instead of her mother. Maybe they didnt, maybe people thought they were the same.

Wren stood as her thoughts raced, holding her down as she stood. She struggled to focus on something other than the last words she would hear but those thoughts foamed at their mouths, wanting to bite at any insecurity that passed.

Her mother began to grab her one bag that she brought with her. It was a simple green backpack with half a leather front. The only few things she had in their were her clothes, a leather wallet, and present wrapped in cardboard like paper and string. The clothes were mostly black other than her jeans, which remained dark blue and ripped.

The leather wallet was a gift from her great-grandmother when she was young enough to go around the neighborhood and do odd jobs for money. The last one was the last package given to her by her great-grandmother before she left.

Wren felt for the package and nodded before the two began to make their way outside. As soon as she took her first step outside, her mind reeled. It was home, or at least that's what it smelled like. It smelled like the ocean. The salt wafted through the air and her lungs took it all in. It was still rainy from the storm that was passing.

The sky was an earl grey. They were in a tea cup that no one had stirred for a while. Her eyes took it all in, the white school decorated by the gargoyles and statues of past headmistresses. The sea looked behind it, an amazing mass of deep dark blue. A sigh wracked her frame and she couldn't help but take another satisfying breath in.