Pemberton Academy

Chapter One: The Dream

Sabrina Wyngrove was running down an endless hallway, and something was chasing her. Loud footsteps echoed behind her at a quick staccato beat, and she ran even faster. She didn't know what was chasing her, and she didn't want to find out. But just as she began to tire, the hallway morphed into a forest, and she struggled to weave through the trees and duck under low-hanging branches as they came across her path. She could still hear the quick footsteps behind her, although they were now accompanied by the sounds of twigs snapping and leaves crunching. As Sabrina and her pursuer delved deeper into the forest, strange floating lights appeared in the air around them, and the plants became stranger and more exotic, until everything around them was unknown. But Sabrina didn't care about her surroundings; her only focus was running, getting away from whoever- or whatever- was chasing her. Yet, Sabrina was human (and not a very athletic one, at that), and she soon found herself gasping for breath as her energy gradually left her body. Her pursuer kept up the same fast pace, though, and as Sabrina collapsed on the ground, her muscles too weak to move, the footsteps stopped, and a growing darkness wrapped around her until it was all she could see...

"Sabrina! Sabrina! Earth to Sabrina!" shouted a familiar female voice. Sabrina opened her eyes and saw a barren landscape rushing by. She blinked a little, and soon replied to her mother.

"Sorry, Mom. I guess I was a little sleepy," she yawned, shifting her position and looking away from the window. The strange dream was already slipping from her mind, in that peculiar way that dreams always seem to do.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have stayed up all night reading last night!" her mother said with a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

"You knew about that?!" Sabrina exclaimed, surprised that her parents had figured her out. She had pretended to go to bed and everything.

"You must not have seen me open the door," her mother replied with an almost unnoticeable smirk.

"Well, it's not my fault! The book was really good! I had to finish it!" Sabrina exclaimed. She had a habit of getting sucked into books and completely forgetting about what was happening around her, and it had become quite the running joke in her family.

Her mother looked back at the road and Sabrina took in her surroundings. She was sitting in the back seat of her mother's car with her suitcase next to her. She was 15, but she still didn't like to sit in the passenger seat. It was too cramped up there. She looked out the window once again. All she saw beyond the lone road they drove on was rolling hills, covered in dense forests and grasslands.

"We're almost there, by the way. That's why I woke you up," her mother said, keeping her eyes on the narrow road. Sabrina didn't reply. Today was her first day of high school, and they had woken up super early in the morning in order to have enough time to drive to the faraway school. Sabrina's parents were forcing her to go to Pemberton Academy Boarding School, the boarding school that her mother and father had attended as teenagers. They had met and started dating there too, and they practically worshipped the place. Sabrina knew that she wouldn't exist if not for the school, but she still didn't want to go there. A boarding school, no matter how romantic and fantasy-inducing it sounded, would be a real bother to Sabrina. Besides the few breaks that they were allowed, Sabrina wouldn't be able to see her family or friends from home for the entire school year. Well, she really only had one real friend, Em, but still. She would have to start all over, and it would be even worse if she had bad roommates. What if they snored? What if they stank? What if they never talked to her? But she pushed all that out of her mind. It didn't matter. Her parents wanted her to go there, so that was how it had to be. She didn't really have any choice in the matter.

"I'm so excited for you," chirped her mother, glancing at Sabrina in the rearview mirror. Sabrina smiled, but immediately frowned when her mom looked away. She probably expected her daughter to make wonderful memories and meet her future husband at this school, just as she had, but Sabrina wasn't her mother. For one thing, she didn't look anything like her, with her smooth blonde hair and glittering blue eyes. Sabrina's hair was poofy, long, and curled in tight, carrot-red ringlets, and it never seemed to behave, no matter what she did to it. Her eyes, on the other hand, were two dark brown beads in the middle of a moon-pale, freckle-covered face. Not to mention that her body was stocky and she was extremely short; she had practically stopped growing after 6th grade. All of these features she had to blame on her father, who she took after almost entirely. But he was still skinnier, taller, and slightly better-looking than her.

Soon, the school appeared on the horizon, and Sabrina was captivated. She didn't want to go here, but that didn't make it any less beautiful. She had seen it in pictures, but nothing could compare to its grandeur in person. It was a massive Victorian building, and it consisted of a large central structure with two slightly smaller wings branching off of it. One of the wings looked more overgrown than the rest of the school, but there were vines trailing across the surface of the entire building.

"It's beautiful," murmured Sabrina, and her mother smiled.

"I get so emotional just seeing the place," she told her daughter, and though Sabrina couldn't see it, she started tearing up. As they got closer to the school, Sabrina's mom started sobbing.

"Mom, are you okay?" Sabrina asked. Her mom was quite emotional, so it was expected, but still.

"Yeah... It's just... my daughter is finally going to the school where I met Hugh... Oh, God, look at me, crying like a baby. You're probably so embarrassed of me right now," she sobbed. She was full-on crying now.

"Mom, it's okay. I'm not embarrassed! There's no one to see you except me, anyway," Sabrina said, attempting to comfort her mother.

"Oh, God, we're here... Just look at all those students. So the place really is still going..." her mother's voice trailed off as she pulled into the school's parking lot. Sabrina looked around at the students as well, who were now gathering in little groups, chatting casually. They were all wearing the same school uniform that Sabrina had on now, consisting of a white button-up shirt, a black tie, and a pleated red skirt for the girls (black pants for the boys). Some students also wore an optional dark grey sweater, or the black blazer that was meant for the winter. They were allowed to wear any type of footwear or socks as long as they weren't too "distracting". Sabrina had on her lucky pair of purple converse, along with worn white ankle socks with little red bands on the tops.

"Alright, Sabrina. This is it," said her mother as she parked near the entrance. "I really wish Hugh was here with me, but you know, with his work schedule..." She gave her daughter a sad smile, and Sabrina awkwardly climbed between the seats to give her mom a hug.

"Everything's going to be great, Mom," she said with a false smile. She grabbed her plain brown suitcase, hopped out of the car, and watched as her mother made a loop around the parking lot and drove back down the little road. Then Sabrina turned and began her trek across the large, freshly-mowed lawn, towards the grand entrance of Pemberton Academy Boarding School.