School for Good and Evil: The Successors Book One: Anastasia's Tale

Chapter One: Wondering

Chapter One

Wondering

Anastasia couldn't sleep. She lay awake in her sweat-drenched sheets, dreading her first day at the School for Good and Evil. Her golden-brown hair, usually straightened to perfection with a special spell made by her Mother, was fanned around her head in sticky clumps. Her school uniform was draped on the chair next to her bed, patiently awaiting the next morning. A vibrant pink trunk sat beside it, which was filled to the brim with hats, shoes, skirts, dresses, and all of the other 'essential' items her Mother had managed to cram into the stuffed case.
All Anastasia could do was stare at the immaculate uniform next to her, mind swarming with anxious thoughts that refused to go away. Once again, she grappled for the eerie calmness of a dreamless slumber, but it eluded her grasp. Groaning softly, she rolled over again to find a cool spot on her sheets.
Anastasia didn't understand why she had to go to the school for Evil like her Mother and Father. She genuinely found herself a good person. She knew it sounded like such a cliche. Of course the Daughter of 'The Witch of the Woods Beyond' thought she had a good soul.

"Like Mother, like Daughter," Anastasia sighed miserably to the darkness of her room.

Yet, she was sure she wasn't truly Evil like her Mother. At least, not that she knew of. All Anastasia knew for sure was this; she didn't want to end up limited to a life only as big as the walls of her own house.
Yes, Anastasia loved her quaint life in the woods bordering Camelot. However, she longed for a purpose more than this after her evil education. Surely, there was a destiny that stretched larger than the same mundane woods she had spent her entire life roaming. Would the borders of her fairy tale turn out as small and insignificant as her Mother's had?

Anastasia dreaded considering that might be the only happily ever after an evil soul was destined to have. Were the only options a trivial, monotonous life or a reign of eternal suffering on innocent people? Anastasia shuddered at the thought. It was like she didn't even get a choice.

Once upon a time, her Mother had strived for her own Happily Ever After, though it always seemed out of reach. Eventually, after so many years of scheming and wishing, her Mother had simply given up, tolerating the life she was destined to have. Back to the place she was at the beginning. Back to Gavaldon.
Anastasia groaned again, running a hand through her sickly mop of hair. Her Mother may have not gotten her ideal fairytale, but at least she was happy. That's what mattered the most. Right?
Anastasia didn't know anymore. But she knew for sure there was no way she would sit another moment in this room, dissecting every morsel of her Mother's fairytale and desperately wondering how her own would end.

Wishing she could look into the future, Anastasia clambered out of bed with a determined grunt, slipping on her comforting pink slippers. She clenched her jaw and left her bedroom, apprehensively creeping down the hallway to her brother's room. Cringing as the door swung open with an angry groan, she slunk inside and cautiously approached his bed.

"You up?" Anastasia whispered urgently, tugging at his blanket.

Filip, her irritating, gross brother, was only a year older than Anastasia, though he acted like there were five years between them. He lazily looked up at Anastasia, his hazel eyes appearing browner in the darkness. He scratched his long nose that resembled his Father's and messed with greasy blonde hair.

"What do you want?" Filip yawned, rolling over to glare wholeheartedly at Anastasia.

"Can we talk?" She asked softly, twiddling her fingers.

Filip sighed and pushed himself up to sit, patting the spot next to him. "Sure thing kiddo."

Anastasia scowled at him, crossing her arms as she collapsed onto the bed. She hated when he called her kiddo.