Chapter One
In
which I meet my grandma and many unhelpful locals
“Mom,
is it just me, or are we actually
going over a river and through the woods to get to Grandma’s house?”
I lifted my head and allowed my red-gold hair to fall on my face.
My silver-blue eyes tiredly scanned the water beneath the bridge we were
crossing. Shifting, so I was sitting
up straight, I straightened my black shirt that read in silver “Love to be
Bad” and my dark blue jeans.
My mom kept her eyes on the dirt road, but she still responded, “This
is where that song came from, Lue. Grandma’s
home is probably over 100 years old!”
I snorted, “Is it moldy?”
Sammy gasped, “Moldy?! Do you think
it’ll have rats! I’ve always wanted one! If
it’s white I’d name it –”
I rolled my eyes, “Just shut up.”
And of course, although driving at 70 mph, Mom had time to scold me.
“LUELLA RHIAN SKYFLAME, do NOT
tell your little brother to shut up!”
“MOM, he’s 10, he tells me,
a 13 year old, to shut up! And
anyways, Cimorene –”
“Shut up already! I was
naming rats!”
“See!?”
Mom sighed, “Please you two! Luella,
don’t bring your older sister into this. She’s
fifteen and is working hard on writing her history books.
She’s found her inner magic, so leave her be.
“A
least give your grandma a good first impression.
She’s not like your father’s mother.
Speaking of which, I need to go home and cook dinner for your
father…”
Mom kept going, but I wasn’t listening anymore.
For GG, my paternal grandma, our first impression didn’t seem to be on
us, but on GG. The first
un–grandma–like thing she did was drink Mountain Frost, a green bubbly
caffeine drink. Grandmas can drink
Coka and Pepse, but no grandparent can drink Mountain Frost.
No grandparent.
But it got stranger, and more fun. GG
jumped on the bed, played video games (and won for that), scuba dived, tubed on
snow or water, surfed, skateboarded,
snow boarded, sky dived with a snow board, and was as fit as could be!
And the best part was, we joined her every sport!
I thought for a moment, What would this
Grandma be like?
“We’re
here!” Mom had stopped at the very
beginning of a… castle’s (!) dirt path.
I hopped out of the blue Lexus and looked up.
“Mom don’t you think the owner of this castle will be mad we parked
on his um...dirt?” I kicked some
of the light brown dust up in the air.
“I think not!” Mom replied. “You will
be staying in her house for the rest of summer, like you did with GG.”
I gaped, “Your mom lives in a castle?!
” I gazed dreamily at the
red-brown brick castle that stood before me.
It looked like a typical medieval castle, except for the fact it was
HUGE! But the best part, to me, were
the two magnificent towers with large semi-oval colored windows, in addition to
the old medieval looking thing. One
window showed a gorgeous golden mare, the other a normal swallow.
I stared at the mare. It had
faded blue eyes like me and matching golden hair.
Its red–gold mane flowed as it seemed to run out of the picture.
The background behind the mare seemed to be some sort of
rainbow-kaleidoscope-thing.
“Yes, she does.” Mom had
finally answered my question.
“COOL! ” Sam and I said at
the same time, so I added, “Jinx! You
owe me a Mountain Frost!”
“– if you beat me to the C-A-S-L-E!” He cried, getting a head
start.
“Hey!” I took off, easily
taking the lead, “Don’t you mean C-A-S-T-L-E?”
“Oh, yeah.”
I beat him there, which was pretty weird because I only beat him if I
really wanted to get where he was racing me: he used to cry if he lost.
I heard Mom say something about “Wait!
I’m coming too,” but I wasn’t sure.
Once Mom had climbed the steps I pulled the big rope doorbell thing and
muttered, “I’m glad there’s no moat!”
Sammy nodded; he had been thinking the same thing.
Suddenly, the large doors swung open and there stood a woman wearing a
black cloak with a diamond waning crescent on the front.
She held a squealing black mouse in her right hand and a broom in the
other. Her head was topped off with
a black witch’s hat.
She looked confused, and sounded even more puzzled when she said, “Is
your name Tranelle?” The mouse
stopped squeaking and it turned around to look at us.
My mom smiled, “Yes, I’m Tranelle!”
I looked at my mom and whispered, “I thought your name was Elle, not Tranelle.”
She ignored me.
“Ah, yes Elle, I was just… uh… putting on a play,” The woman had
deep brown eyes and scraggly red hair and when she looked down at Samuel and I,
she said, “I’m sorry… you had to miss it!
It just ended. Now I’m the
only one dressed up! Heh heh… heh.” She
looked at Mom, “Elle, dear, nice to see you!”
Mom smiled back, “You too, Kaz.”
“Come in, come in! I’m
sure you want to see Zella?”
My mom nodded as we entered a room lined with bookshelves and couches.
There we saw an old, yet beautiful woman.
The only way to describe her is for you to imagine a perfect young
lady… now make her hair a silvery gray. That’s
exactly how our “new” Grandma looked like.
We had never seen–or remembered this grandma.
Mom claimed that she saw us when we were first born.
When I was born she stayed with me for about a year, Mom had said.
When I was three, and Samuel was born she stayed with us for another
year. But that was 10 years ago, and
I don’t remember any of that. Grandma
never visited us because she “traveled” a lot.
We never take any pictures–or at least not with any other photographer
besides Sarah Hour or our own cameras. We
don’t have any pictures of Grandma either, but that never bothered me before.
“Tranelle! Luella!
Samuel!” I stared in disbelief at my maternal grandma.
She had pronounced Sam’s name Sam-U-el, the right way, when most people
pronounce it Sam-uel, the wrong way. But
then again, she was our grandma.
Grandma hugged us all and said, “What do you call me?”
Sammy didn’t move, so I spoke, “Grandma?”
“Okey dokey then, could you possibly call me Mimmy?
I think it’s less sophisticated, yes?
Sam nodded, “Sure!”
I smiled at her, “Ditto.”
“Okay,” Mimmy continued, “Welcome to the Academy!” Mom
interrupted by whispering something to Mimmy, causing Mimmy to cry, “Well then
this is the best time!”
Mom frowned. She put our
stuff we had brought on the ground. Then,
waving to us, she took off, “’Bye guys!
Gotta go! Love you!”
“’Bye, Mom,” we started to say, but she had already rushed out the
door.
I had
thought the castle was huge, at least that’s how it looked on the outside.
But no, it was actually enormous. Mimmy
told us if you squished a million people in the castle there would be room for
one more. I’m not sure how she
knew that, but I didn’t ask.
Samuel and I questioned her about the “academy” thing, only to be
interrupted every time. Now all that
I can think of is this “academy.” Maybe
it’s the castle’s name. Yeah that must be it, I said trying to convince myself.
Mimmy warned us we could only call people with a cell phone since the
castle had no phones and that there is only one computer, and it’s in my room.
I had immediately rushed upstairs to the little room in the North tower,
my room. The Kaz “witch” lady
had already organized my stuff up there and all I wanted was to get on the chat
room on that computer.
I examined the red velvet comforter on the queen-sized bed and the goose
down pillows. There was one long
semi-circle window covered by dark red drapes that matched the dark red carpet
and the pink, faded walls in the back of the room.
I checked two doors that were opposite to the door I had come through and
found myself the closet, filled with my stuff, and a regular sized bathroom
completed with a bath and shower separated.
Chat Room “
Nightmare (Luella) has
entered the chat room
Nightmare:
hey locals!
WishWash:
‘sup?
Sassygirl:
hi!
Remberence:
why are you in our chat?
Sassygirl:
oh be nice, you!!! she’s new!
cool – that rhymed!
Remberence:
new to what – life?
WishWash:
what’s wrong with you guys?
Sassygirl:
<< ignore………………….. >>
Nightmare:
you are locals to here, right?
Remberence:
“here?” you mean the computer?
Sassygirl:
<< ignore…………………… >>
Remberence:
we hear you, sheesh!
Sassygirl:
o m g!
why can’t you be nice?
Nightmare:
hello? do you guys actually live in
Bust-a-knee?
Sassygirl:
i do.
Remberence:
i haven’t busted my knee, but yeah, i live here.
WishWash:
me 2.
M (Jennifer) has entered
the chat room
Sassygirl:
it’s about time M! LYLAS!!
LYLAS…
Love ya like a sister… When
was the last time I heard that? I
wondered, grinning.
M:
sorry i was late! LYLAS!!
Did you see last week’s Desperate Housewives?
Sassygirl: of course!
It was a wreck!!!
WishWash:
we got a new girl… Jen.
Remberence:
she’s one of them.
M:
……………… oh! them!
Nightmare:
what’s that supposed to mean “Rember-whatever??!!”
Remberence:
WishWash please don’t…
WishWash (David) has left
the chat room
Nightmare:
why’d he go?
Remberence:
don’t be nosy << yawn >>
Sassygirl:
sometimes i hate you Remberence.
Remberence:
whatever.
Nightmare:
i have officially learned nothing. ttyl
(talk to you later)… or maybe not.
