Aadhila, truth and honestly always wins. Nano Novel

Gilmore meets Aldo.
Gilmore sat at her Window like she always did when it stormed. She loved storms, their power and beauty all at once, Ever Since she had turned 5 Gilmore had been in love with any kind of Storm. She stroked her cat May, watching the rain pour down on the Windowpane, the thunder crashed about, “GILLY! DINER!” her mother’s voice was just barely able to be heard from the attic where Gilmore’s room was, Gilmore got up and went downstairs, her mother, two sisters, One Brother and Dog all sat waiting at (or under in the dog’s case) “Hun, we made Fish stew, I know you don’t exactly love Fish stew, but it’s Leviah’s Birthday and you know he loves Fish stew, if you want there is a little leftover from last night’s dinner, you can have in the fridge.”

“Mother, Leviah Dislikes Fish Stew even More Than Me!” Gilmore Closed, her eyes, the feeling of complete anger filled her, why did Leviah get to choose the one food that Gilmore Disliked the most?

“Gilmore. I said, “Your food is in the fridge.” her Mother said warningly,

“Yes Mother,” she said and walked to the kitchen, she opened the fridge and got a Sausage.

She poured loads of Ketchup on it and shoved it in the Microwave, the Microwave binged, and she pulled it out, “I'm eating up in my room.” she said plainly.

“Who messed with her?” Leah asked.

Gilmore Marched up the stairs and into her room, she sat down at the window and started to eat. ‘If Leviah wants to eat that scum, then let him.’ her mind yelled. After a while, she heard the rest of the Family sing Happy Birthday.

Then laugh when the candles blew out, the candles that Gilmore had made.

Anger surged through her whole body, an anger that made her punch the desk, “ow!”

She stood up, knocking the bench over with a thud.

“GILMORE, YOU BE QUIET!” Mother shouted.

Gilmore jumped into bed, “fine I’ll be SO VERY MUCH THAT” she muttered, May came over, purring, “go away May.” Gilmore said, rolling over and pulling up the sheets.

She fell asleep after a while.

“Gilmore! Gilmore!” a voice hissed,

Gilmore sat up, a boy, who looked Gilmore’s age, with a Sweater and glasses and soaking wet was sitting in her window!

Gilmore grabbed a Golf Club and wielded it forward. The boy Took hold of the other end easily.

“So it is true, your feisty, one,” he said, smirking,

“Well to random boys who are sitting on my Windowsill in the middle of the night? YES! I am.” she retorted “now get out now!”

“But I have a Message! And dear me it’s very wet out there!”

“And why should I trust a boy, who looks my age, with a Message in my Window at Midnight? Come back tomorrow if it’s so important.”

“I can’t! It must be Delivered to you tonight! Will you trust me more if I tell you my name?”

“No. but tell me anyway.”

“Ok! My name is Aldo Anaia.” he smiled.

“Ok, spill the beans, what's this so-called message?”

“HA! you trust me!” Aldo said Happily

“ Far from it. I am just hoping you will let me go back to bed if you do.” Gilmore said bluntly

“Well fine but here is your Message;

Meet Enoch at the Creek tomorrow when the sun is 3\4 of the way in the sky.

Bring a Stick and three smallish stumps.”

“That is what I was woken up for?” Gilmore said grouchily.

“Bye for now!” Aldo said.

(593)

Gilmore meets Enoch.
The next Day Gilmore awoke with a funny memory that a wet man had told her to bring three smallish stumps to the creek when the sun was 3\4 of the way up, to meet someone named Enoch. What a dumb name!

She decided that she would go, and see if her memory was telling the truth, when the sun was up 3\4 of the way Gilmore was at the creek, “hmf, it was all a dream!” Gilmore sat down grumpily that she had believed a dream and now wasted time on things she should have been doing.

Just as she stood up to leave, a handsome man with long Graying hair walked up, “Hello, young lady.” He said his voice was calm and sweet.

“Hello, Who are you?” Gilmore asked, she had never seen this man around here before.

“Why would I have thought you would know my name? I am Enoch.” Enoch said.

“You? Enoch? really?”

“Yes, I don’t believe I have another Name!”

“Why you're far too pretty to be named Enoch!”

“Thanks.” Enoch pulled out a sword, “what little lady is this?”

“A sword,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Correct.” Enoch went to the three stumps and placed a small square of foam, he then stepped back, three steps, then he stepped up one step, did a turn and stabbed the foam,

“Using a sword is like magic, it is all about control of your body and Mind. Follow?”

Gilmore Nodded.

“Learning about such things as using a sword properly is a key to a locked door. Once you get the key you can open that door. Never get the key, never open the door.” Enoch looked at Gilmore.

“Ms.Gilmore, Do you wish to open that locked door? Do you wish to learn Swordsmanship, axemanship and other Blade work? Do you want Glory?”

Gilmore stared at Enoch. “Glory? With a sword?”

“Gilmore, yes or no?”

“No.” Gilmore glared at him “you're a freak.” she left the creek to babble along with Enoch.

(337)

In which Gilmore Goes Back
Gilmore ate dinner Slowly that night, she cleaned up slowly that night, all she could think about was Swords and Glory.

The words rang in her head. Glory, Glory, Glory.

“Gilly! Snap out of it and clean up hunn!” Mother said kindly, “what happened today? you're all Moony!”

“She got a boyfriend!” Annabeth said, then skipped away happily.

Gilmore lost it, “I do not have a boyfriend!” she Yelled, Mother stared at her,

“Gilmore. That is no way to speak to your sister!”

Gilmore at that moment changed her mind, she did want Glory, she did want the work of a swordsman, she looked at her mother, “Mother, I must go for a bit I’ll be right back!”

“Ha! I was Right! Now Gilly is going to break up with him!” Annabeth chirped, sticking her head back in the room, Gilmore Glared at her “I’m very sure that you have a pile of homework waiting for you!”

She ran to the door pushing on her Boots, she ran to the Creek, “Enoch!Enoch!”

Enoch was gone, he had left, that would make a lot of sense, Gilmore realized sadly. She melted down to the ground, Crying softly.

“Dear Girl, Don’t cry. There there.” Enoch’s voice said as his rough hand patted her back.

She looked up “Oh Enoch! I have changed my Mind! I do want Glory!” she sobbed

“I guessed as much, you young folk have got away with that, No No No I am Fine, an hour later Please! Please! Please! Come along now, I think you’ll find what I have to teach you very interesting indeed.” he moved towards the other side of the creek, “Enoch?” Gilmore asked.

“Yes?” the man responded

“I can’t leave now, I must tell my mother.”

“Nah! Mothers must learn to let their fledglings fly at some point, besides you’ll be back before tomorrow. Come along now.”

Gilmore followed him slowly, She found it hard to move about in the darkening evening.

She fell over a few times and cut her leg a little on a tree branch, But Enoch never slowed down, they walked a long way, it was Midnight before Enoch stopped, “Ok.” he said, turning to the panting Gilmore “some rules first. One; here I am known as Professor Ethan. You will not call me by anything other than that and Sir or plain Professor.

Understand?”

Gilmore nodded, “yes Sir.”

“Very good.”

Enoch pushed the Bushes aside to show a clearing, it was big, trees grew up and covered the sky, stone houses lined the outer side of the clearing. Saplings grew around with lamps on their branches, in front of each house was a small garden, and a small lawn, then a walking path down to the middle of the clearing, which had a bigger Cabin, this bigger Cabin was surrounded by Flowers and small trees with Lamps hanging from them, Gilmore gasped “Sir what is this place?” she asked.

“This is The Main Place. Here students stay, they get paired with three other kids of their age and Gender, in the center is the Main Cabin, where you stay if you're sick, Hurt or if you're under 13 years old.” Enoch waved “come along now we must get you a Cabin.”

Gilmore Followed Enoch “you said there are Other Students? Like other Kids?”

Enoch laughed “yes of course there are other students! This IS A SCHOOL!

What did you think that it would be all Glory for only you?”

“Umm No?” Gilmore tried.

“Don’t lie to me Gilmore, that is another rule Don’t lie to teachers or anyone.”

Gilmore fidget she, is liked being told not to lie, even if she was lying!

Enoch knocked on the Main Cabin’s door, “come in!” a Woman replied, Enoch opened the door, and pushed Gilmore in

“In you go!” he said, closing the door and leaving.

Gilmore walked unsurely up the steps and into the ‘lobby’ a woman in a black dress sat behind a desk, “Hello dear! I am guessing you're here to sign up and get the rules right?”

Gilmore shrugged, “I don't know, Professor Ethan sent me in here.”

“Ah, Ethan! Well yes, that's what you’re here for then.” she pulled out a sheet of paper,

“Name?”

“Gilmore Pallino.”

“Age?”

“13”

“Gender is Female correct?”

“Yes!”

“Ok! So you in Cabin #8, here are the rules.” she handed Gilmore a sheet of paper “and a few forms to fill out, return them by next week.”

Gilmore Pocketed the rule sheet and held on to the rest,

Then she said goodbye and left the building, Enoch was waiting, “get everything?”

“Yeah, I did”

“Ok then let's go.”

(779)

Gilmore fills in the form.
That night when Gilmore returned to Bed she was much too tired to fill out the form so she went to bed, ignoring the consistent Babble from her sister about her so-called boyfriend.

She placed the Form on her desk, along with a pen to fill it out, then she went to sleep.



The next day Gilmore got up early and went to fill out her form, she went to her desk, and sat down she started to fill out the Form,

Name: Gilmore Pallino

Special Abilities:

Pet: May (cat) Libby (Lizard) Fifi (Turtle)

Likes: Animals, outdoors, Friends, free-Learning, Secrets.

Dislikes: Fish Stew, Mushrooms, Mean things (Animal and Human) not knowing things.

Any other info we should know: I don’t like fish stew, my last name is Gilmore but please just call me Gilly or Gill (said Jill) because Gilmore is a boy name. I can’t eat peanuts, they make me sick.


Gilmore was puzzled over Special Abilities, what did they mean?

So she wrote;

Special Abilities; ??? N/A (please clarify what you mean.)

Then she folded it up and put it in a letter, fishing the Rule Pamphlet out of her pocket she pulled it open and started to read it, this is what it said;

RULES

Dear Student, We hope you're smart and are reading this before getting into mayhem and being kicked out!

The following rules are simple and we hope you’re smart and follow them;


#1 Curfew is at 9:00, if you're seen outside of your Cabin after 9 o’clock you will be sent to the Main Cabin or Given Detention on the spot.


#2 Be On Time! Lateness at ANY event you're signed up for (let it be classes, then games, Detention etc...) breaking this can mean Detention or worse.


#3 You must respect the teachers and staff. There will be NO Back-talk, swearing, hitting or punching, Violence or any other out of reason Rudeness to the staff or teachers.


#4 during the hours that school is on you MUST wear School uniform (see Shopping list)


#5 Leaving the school grounds without an Adult or permission is strictly prohibited, for the matter of safety.


Shall you break any of the rules stated above and the consequences are detention (unless otherwise told) or warning than being Expelled? when

Gilmore studied the Rules till she was bored of rereading the same thing over and over when she pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down the rules on a spare sheet in case she lost the first one.

The Shopping List was folded inside an envelope, she Opened the lost and unfolded it, then started to read;

Dear student, the following items are what you need to attend our school; (You will be expected to bring any personal items you need and it will not be our responsibility to provide you with them.)

UNIFORM:

Black Robe (long sleeve)

black pants (male)

black skirt(female)

white socks knee high

white shirt (long sleeve or t-shirt is fine but must be a U neck, not a V neck)

black shoes

( and a tie will be provided according to your cabin)

EVENING ATTIRE:

For Males; blue/black/grey/green or dark Purple shirt and Pants, or shorts that stop at the knees.

For females; a short-shirt (any colour) Skirt (any colour) or a dress stops at Ankles no shorted and no longer, any colour.

notes;

Booklist will be given to you at the library according to what classes you're in.

Any other clothing needed will be given in a list according to what classes you take,

Any item, Not listed above is at the school.


Gilmore sighed and wrote down what she needed to buy, then she headed to the store, and sent back her form.

(540)

Welcome to School Gilmore Pallno!
It had been two weeks since Gilmore had sent in her form, and school was starting today! With her Suitcase Packed full of supplies she approached her mother, “Mother, can I talk to you?”

She asked her busy mother, “Hunny, really right now? I have to clean up the house!”

“Yes, mother I must Right now.” Gilmore insisted, her mother sighed and sat down

“Fire away dear,” she said, her voice hinted at her impatience and now Gilmore regretted not telling her mother sooner than the day she was leaving.

“Mother, I um, I am going to a boarding school. It's Far away and I am already signed up, I just want you to know where I am going to be for the Semester. Ok?”

Her Mother’s reaction was not really what Gilmore had expected, “WHAT! You're going to leave me here! Ditch Me! What about your school here? How will I tell everyone my daughter is at a different school?”

Gilmore sighed “Mother no one will care! I mean, I am going and you can’t stop me.”

She stood up, picked up her bag and left the house, her bag and her Lizard’s cage in her hands.

She stomped into the woods, she knew the walk to the Portal was a long walk, after all, it had taken hours last time! The Portal took Students across the World to the School which is located in a forest, the Portal sets up wherever the student lives, or near where the student lives.

Gilmore finally found the Portal, a Bush. She moved the brush aside and stepped through the portal.

The Portal was like a door, and once you opened it you could walk through it. She closed the portal and turned around, now she saw the ‘school’ or more the portal had led to the Dorms which are Cabins surrounding the Main Cabin. Gilmore Changed behind a bush and then she took her bag and Lizard and walked up to the Main Cabin, where she was to sign in, Students Mingled about, so e finding their Cabins other waiting to be Signed in, Gilmore lined up, The Girl in front of her a tall pretty Black-haired Girl, she looked the same age as Gilmore, Gilmore hoped the Girl would be in the same Cabin, then maybe they could be friends!

The line moved slowly, and when Gilmore was two away from the front she heard the Girl speak, “You know she does not speak! Why try?” the Girl seemed very annoyed, the Clerk looked at the Girl “please Miss, Don’t speak until you're asked to!” she said,

The Girl snorted and stayed silent when it was her turn she seemed to be in a bad mood, every response she said was rude and Snappy, “Of Course! I know every rule by heart! What smart person does not?” she replied with a rude snort, the Clerk handed the Girl a Purple Slip of Paper, Gilmore stepped up “Hello Ma’am” she said with as much respect as she could muster,

“Hello, Miss, I just need your name, and how many times have you attended school before?”

Gilmore took a Breath, “my name is Gilmore Pallino, but please just call me Jilly, and This is my first year at this school.” Clark started to scan the Big Book muttering, ‘Gilmore Pallno’

When she found it she said “AHA! Gilmore Pallino, Resident of… Wow, you're from far away! North America! Pet is a Lizard, and your cabin is Number Eight! Do you know all the rules dear?”

Gilmore nodded, “yeah I memorized them.”

“Ok, here is a list of your roommates’ names, and your classes.”

She handed Gilmore a Sheet of Paper, and a purple sheet of paper, “that is your key into your Cabin until you get a password for it.”

Gilmore Smiled “thank you, Ma’am”

Then she turned and left, she looked at her List, the names on it were;

Violet Lancy- Dancing.

Arisha Zuri-building.

Jorgina Bonde-farming.

Gilmore Pallino.


Gilmore’s eye was drawn towards Violet’s name, what an elegant, pretty name! So Graceful!

Gilmore followed the signs that had been stabbed into the ground telling new students where to go, When Gilmore got to her Cabin she saw that the candles on the inside were lit, she walked up to the door, it was Locked. She took out her Purple slip of Paper and put it under the Handle, the door Clicked, and Gilmore was able to open it.

When she did, the sight was amazing! When you first open the Door the room is warm and full of light, the room you step into is small, only about 8 by 8 ft.

But it has a closet and a boot rack built into the wall, on the other side it has a small desk, to place your bags while you take your boots or shoes off. And across from the Door is two doors, Gilmore took the Left one, and in this room, there was a couch, and a coffee table at each end as well as in front of it And each coffee table had a lamp, there was a Dinner sized Table at the other end of the room, and it had six chairs around it, then there was a counter, it had three wood cupboards under it, On the far wall there was a bookshelf, it was filled with books.

Then there was a door, Gilmore went through it. This room turned out to be a bathroom, it was a neat tidy room with a bathtub and shower in one, and a toilet on the other side, a sink stood beside the door, and it had a mirror that opens up when Gilmore Opened the Mirror there was four cubbies, they all had names on them, and Gilmore’s was at the bottom when she opened hers it had a spot for a toothbrush, hairbrush and any other Girly things a 13-year-old might need.

Leaving the bathroom Gilmore found a second door, this one led to a small hallway, the hallway had six doors, four of them had the girls’ names on them, Gilmore guessed that it was a bedroom, another other one was a clothes closet, and the Sixth led to a new room, but Gilmore decided to take her stuff into her room first, rather than lugging it around with her, she tried to open the door but failed “C’mon you silly door!” She said then she saw the lock, she pulled out her Purple slip of Paper and unlocked the door. She walked in, the room was rather big, considering the rest of the Cabin, it was about 15 by 15 feet. The walls were a light pink like a rose, there was a bed, (twin size) with two fluffy pillows and a fluffy Quilt that was light pink like the walls, on the far side there was a desk and a window, the Window had Light Pink curtains on it, the desk was made of dark brown wood, On the fourth side there was a small desk with a fish tank on it and a heat lamp at the top, there was a note beside it;

Dear miss Pallino,

Welcome to School! Do you like your room? What about your cabin? I do hope your Cabin mates are being nice! Are you excited for classes to start? Well, you might be wondering about the Lizard Cage! So I shall explain! Every student who comes has to fill out a form, and in your, you said you had a lizard named Libby, so I decided that Libby needed a new cage! It is all ready for her!

Yours Enoch Ethan.

She smiled, how nice! Enoch, no! Professor Ethan! had given her a cage for Libby! She picked up the Lizard and placed her in the new cage.

Libby ran under a rock and hid, Gilmore smiled “I’m gonna go see the rest of the cabin ok Lib?

Gilmore walked to her door, the door would not open! Then she remembered she had to make a password! So she made one and punched it in the box, the door opened and She was able to walk out, turning Gilmore went out the sixth door, it led to a new room, this one had a Laundry Room, and a small couch, the difference about this couch to the one in the other room, this one was Brown like chocolate, it also was Also a wrap-around, and it had board games and card games and any kind of game you can think of on a shelf beside it, this She decided was most likely the games’ room, and the other one a study room. And sitting on the couch was a girl, the same girl who was in front of Gilmore in the line, she was reading a book, “Hello, My name is Gilmore Pallino, and you?” she asked, the girl looked up, “ Violet, Violet Lancy.” she said in a way that hinted at Gilmore being annoying, “Is there anyone else here yet?” she asked Violet.

The girl shook her head.

Gilmore caught the sense of dislike coming from Violet and left the room. She went into the ‘study room’ and sat down. It was annoying, the early arriving girl, who seemed so pretty and Graceful was a snobby rude person that Gilmore did not want to spend any time with!

She hoped Arisha and Jorgina would be nicer.

As she sat there she started to wonder where she was, was she in Europe? Or Asia? Or North or South America? Or Australia? Just then the door opened and a girl walked in, she was huffing and Puffing as she lugged in her big trunk, She was Blonde, and about 5 feet tall, she has to wear a Plaid Dress, it was Red and Blue when she saw Gilmoreshe Smiled “Ah Hello! My name is Jorgina Bonde, but please Call me Jorgina or Ginna, but not like Ginna, but G-I-na”

She said with a thick English Accent, Gilmore stood up and smiled, “Hello Jorgina, My name is Gilmore Pallino, but just call me Gilmore.” she said, reaching her hand out to shake it with Jorgina’s, but the other girl seemed to not see it, “Do you know where the Dorms are?” She asked, and it took Gilmore a second to understand what she had said, with her accent, it was hard to understand her, “Oh, Yeah, they are not Dorms though, they are more of Bedrooms, we each have our own. I can show you yours if you want.” she offered but Jorgina Smiled and shook her head, “I don’t need to be shown, I can do it myself! I was on a Farm you know!” she said, as she pulled her Trunk away to her room, Gilmore sighed and sat down, it seemed that the Girls here did not want to make friends very fast, Between Violet's Rudeness and Jorgina’s Swiftness they seemed to want to live their lives without Friends in the way.

Gilmore closed her eyes, there was still one more girl, one more chance.

Arisha Zuri did not turn up till the End of the day when Gilmore was just coming out of her room after Unpacking her stuff, Arisha was a middle-sized Girl with Blue eyes and Brown hair when she spoke she had a Scottish accent, “Hello, my name is Arisha Zuri, nice to meet you.”

Gilmore was dumbfounded! A nice girl! “Hello! My name is Gilmore Pallino, nice to meet you too Ms. Zuri.” the girl’s smile was broad, “ah, no need to call me that! That is what people who don’t know each other call each other! Just call me Arisha! And I’ll call you Gilmore! We can be friends, yeah?”

Gilmore was more than delighted, this girl wanted to be her friend, “Oh Yes! Want me to show you around?”

Arisha smiled, “sure, But First, let's get my bags in the Dorm!” Arish lugged her bags onto her shoulders, “Umm, there is no Dorm, we have our rooms, I’ll show you, C’mon!” Gilmore led Arisha to the hall with the doors, she found Arisha’s name and Arisha opened the door and went inside, waving for Gilmore to follow, the room was Blue, it had a small desk with a bookshelf beside it, the bed was also Blue. The room was rather pretty, about the same size as Gilmore’s too, “My room is Light pink!” Gilmore said, looking around.

“Ah yes, the good ol’ Pink! I like Blue better!” she said, Arisha picked up a booklet, “Dinner is in ten Minutes! Let's go!” she said pulling Gilmore out of the room and down the hall, she pulled on a rain jacket and boots, “C’mon get your Rain Gear on! It's pouring out there!”

Gilmore peeked out the Window, sure as the sun came up it was raining, “Oh come on! I Forgot my Rain gear!” Gilmore threw up her arms in defeat, Arisha looked at her, “bad choice! It rains every day around here at about the same time too! You’re going to need to buy one from the Store!”

Gilmore was about to ask where they were when Arisha zipped up her jacket and ran into the rain, Gilmore Sighed in defeat, the weather had beat her. Just then Jorgina and Violet came into the Room, The two girls were Fighting,

“I did not!” Jorgina yelled,

“ YOU DID!” Violet yelled back, Gilmore took a deep breath and ran into the ran, she was soaked within five minutes of being outside, but it was better than listening to the two girls fight, Gilmore Stuck her hand into her pocket, and felt for any money she had brought, she knew she had taken $300 with her school for the year since she would not need too much.

She pulled out all the money in her pocket, she had $10, she hoped that that would be good enough for the Raincoat. She pulled out the soggy map of the school grounds, It ripped in half, Gilmore grunted with anger, and started to walk to a nearby student, When she got to the student she found that it was a boy, with blonde shaggy hair and blue eyes, he had a red raincoat pulled over his shoulder and he was pulling on a rainboot that had fallen off,

“Excuse me,” Gilmore said, the boy jumped, resulting in dropping his boot and falling over, he glared at her, “what do you want! Now I have a muddy boot!” his voice stern, and he had a thick Russian accent.

“I am really sorry, I did not mean to scare you. I am just wondering if you know where the school shop is?” she wiped the rain from her face, it was raining so hard she could barely see the boy now, and it was also getting dark from the rain.

The boy grunted, “Иди в баню!” he said in a voice that plainly said, ‘go away!’

Gilmore sighed she was wet and cold, “Bye then” she muttered and walked away towards a path, where she met a student again, this time a girl, she was the same size as Gilmore, she had brown hair that was pulled under her raincoat, she had hazel eyes, she wore a dark green Raincoat that had the words, Горд българин, on the back, Gilmore cleared, she thought, “Umm Excuse me?”

The girl turned around, “На мен ли говориш?”

Gilmore shrugged, “English?”

The girl sighed “I said, Are you talking to me?”

“Umm yeah I was” Gilmore shuffled a little, she was feeling rather awkward.

“Well, What Do You want then!” The girl demanded in a fierce tone, Gilmore jumped,

“I wanted to know if you knew where the store was?”

“What store?”

Gilmore rolled her eyes “Never mind.” she trudged down the path, feeling rather Annoyed, when she came across yet another student, this one also a girl, she had a blue raincoat on and Pink rain boots, she had her brown/black hair pulled up into a messy, Soaked bun. Gilmore sped up to meet her,

“Excuse me!” Gilmore shouted over the pouring rain, the girl stopped and turned around slowly, “Did someone call me?” she asked, her voice was dreamy and light. Almost Like she was in a dream. Gilmore nodded “Yeah! I did!”

The girl pinpointed Gilmore on the now fully dark path, “how can I help you?”

Gilmore felt like this was a joke! How could the first two be mean and the third have a chance at being nice? “Umm, well, I forgot to pack a Raincoat, so I need to buy a new one from the shop, but My map got wet and so now I don’t have a map or a raincoat and I’m going to miss dinner!” Gilmore said fretfully. The girl patted Gilmore’s back, “C’mon Ami, Let’s get you a coat.” she said.

“Oh! you don’t need to take me to the shop just tell me! I don’t want you to miss Dinner because of me!” Gilmore Exclaimed, but she was secretly happy that the girl wanted to come with her, she hoped that the girl could be friends with her.

“My name is Gilmore Pallino, I’m from Canada,” she said.

“oh! What a pleasant name! Mine is Nakusa Mellform. But please I just go by Naku”

The girl, Naku, pulled her hood up over her head, “I’m from Greenland.” she smiled, but Gilmore did not see it through the rain, “Naku? How far are the shops?”

“Oh not far, only a few hundred feet now.”

Gilmore gulped, she still needed to get to the shop, Buy a coat and get to dinner in time!

Naku looked at Gilmore, “Who are your parents?” she asked, she did not sound Dreamy anymore but serious.

“My mother is named Hulda and my father was named William.”Gilmore was quiet

Naku seemed to realize that she had said something wrong, “are you ok?”

Gilmore nodded, “yeah, I was just thinking about my father, he died a few years back, we never found out how he died, Mother claimed it was the evil in the woods.”
Naku shivered, it all sounded fishy to her, but she did not say anything, just then the shops came into view, “here we are the one with what you need is in that one” Naku pointed to the red shop, Gilmore hurried into the shop, when she opened the door a bell rang and the smell of Pumpkin pie and Gingerbread cookies wafted up to her nose, an old man, stood behind a counter eating a Gingerbread cookie, and an old woman had an apron wrapped around her waist, her gray hair was pulled up into a neat bun on top of her head, she wore glasses with Pink rims, she had a kind smile and a sparkle in her eyes, Gilmore couldn't help but smile, it was impossible not too! When the old woman saw the two girls she smiled “Oh my! Poor dear, you are soaked! I’ll get you a towel!” the old woman ran into the back room, the old man stepped forward, “Hello! Can I help you two?” he asked while holding out a plate of warm cookies to the girls, each took a cookie and started to eat it, “thanks!” they mumbled, “Yeah, I need a raincoat.” Gilmore said after finishing her cookie, the old man smiled “I have a few! Ahat colour?”

Gilmore shrugged “any, I don’t care.”

The old woman came back with a towel that smelled like Pumpkin pie, and a platter of warm cookies, “when it rains it’s cookie weather!” she said handing Gilmore the towel and the plate of cookies, “thanks” Gilmore started to dry off with the towel, and handed the man some money, “Here take it all” the man counted “No No No! That is plenty too much!” he said pushing more than half of it back, Gilmore took the money and shoved it in her pocket, then handed the woman the towel, “thank you-?”

“Caris”

“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Caris, I will come back soon, the cookies were great!” Gilmore said as she left the shop, Naku right behind her, “they are nice!” Naku said, Gilmore nodded, “yeah”

Naku looked at her watch “Oh man! Let’s go or we will be late!” Naku started to run, she was fast but Gilmore was faster, Gilmore and Naku raced down the muddy street and into the path and the Dinner hall just as the last stream of students sat down, the Dinner hall was a large room, it had six pillars, three on each side, but that was the only grand thing, it had 20 or so tables that were able to fit about 10 students at each, Gilmore and Naku managed to find an empty table to sit at, Both girls were giggling hard, their legs were muddy from running and their breaths short and fast, they pulled their hoods down off their heads, the hall was silent, the two girls managed to soften their giggles, a man, Who Gilmore had never seen stood up, He smiled a toothy grin, “Welcome! As you might know, the Headmaster is gone for a while so I am in charge!” there was a long sigh from most of the students, but the man did not seem to notice,

“After the meal is done please stay in your seats, as the list of your Classes! Now let’s eat!”

A group of waiters came out and dropped food on everyone’s plates, Gilmore was not really hungry and the food did not look too good so she did not eat, Naku gobbled up her food though and then asked Gilmore if she could eat her’s, “yeah, I don’t want it.” Gilmore pushed her plate to Naku, “How can you eat it?” Gilmore asked, almost gagging as Naku shoved Pea mush in her mouth, “It’s better than what I had at my house!” Naku said shoving in something that smelled like chicken but looked like baby poop, Gilmore looked away. If she did not she felt that she would throw up, ‘How can this food be better than ANY food?’ she thought, as she thought as looked around and spotted Arisha, the girl was sitting staring at Gilmore with disgust holding a spoon that looked like it was on the way to ber mouth, she sneered at Gilmore and mouthed a few words but Gilmore did not understand, she shook her head and looked the other way.

Soon dinner finished and the chatter started up again, Gilmore smiled as Naku shoved the plate away, it was empty.

“How are you eating that stuff?” she asked, Naku nodded and patted her belly,

“Yup! That was one of the best meals in my life!” she burped quietly and patted her belly.

“Man, Naku, how can you eat that stuff and say it’s the best meal of your life? Isn't it a good meal, something like; Chicken with golden crispy outsides and garlic and parsley, with Potato chips and Squash mixed up on the side? Or Sliced Turkey and chicken placed on gravy and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese?” Gilmore’s mouth watered, just thinking about it made her hungry, but Naku’s eyes were huge, like the dinner plates that sat before them,

“You eat that? Mother said only Good wise kings ate like that not-” she stopped and looked at Gilmore,

“What classes are you taking this year?” she asked, Gilmore, taken aback by Naku’s sudden change of subject, had to think, “I am not sure, the list will come around soon.”

“Well, you must know at least one class, what’s your main class?” she asked

“What main class?” Gilmore was confused, Naku rolled her eyes

“THE Class! You know the whole reason you and me and everyone came to this school! For our Special Abilities!” The room was loud and Gilmore hoped that she was hearing wrong, she had no special abilities, she was a normal girl from Alberta Canada, not some amazing super child from a fairy tale!

“Mine is Acting! I am very good at it, I got straight A’s in my school! Then Aldo told me and I am off to the races!” she said, “What’s yours?” she asked again, Gilmore gulped, she did not belong here! She had no special abilities! She stood up “I have forgotten, I think I must have gotten a chill outside and caught a cold, I must leave!” Gilmore stood up and hurried outside, she felt the eyes of every student on her back, she rushed out into the rain, pulling up her hood she found a spot and crouched down to think, ‘What's wrong with me? Why am I here? I’m not special.’ she thought, a tear slid down her face, it hurt to think that she did not belong, she took a breath, but the tears came and overflowed, she cried and cried, Then she felt a hand on her back, she looked up, and seen Naku standing there, “Here, it's your list of Classes.” she said, Gilmore took it “Thanks Naku” she sniffled, Naku bent down, “what’s wrong Gilmore? Did I hurt your feelings somehow?” Naku’s eyes were dark pools of concern, “and don’t like that you're fine ‘cause I know you're not.” she said. Gilmore looked at her, she did not want to tell Naku, she wanted to keep it a secret, she closed her eyes “I just don’t feel very good, it’s most likely homesickness.” Naku frowned,

“You're lying! I can tell because you are not looking at my face, you closed your eyes so that I would not see them!” she sounded hurt, “Gilmore, I’m your friend, Trust me to help you, so I can help you.” Gilmore gulped, she shook her head,

“ It's kind of personal if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know I know how it feels to hold in a secret one you find embarrassing or Weird or you think will get you in trouble, But Gilmore, Secrets are painful, they cause stress, sometimes Secrets come from stress, other times they come from a friend telling you never to tell, they cause strain on you, let the weight off your shoulders so you can stand tall and not slump like a rag doll!” Naku’s voice was not dreamy, it was strong and supportive, “Gilmore you're safe with me, share your burden, it's easier that way.” Gilmore wiped her eyes, it did little because of the rain.

“Ok, I’ll tell you, but please don’t tease me!” Gilmore looked at her friend, “Ok so Ummm I don’t have a special ability.” Naku had been right, even if Gilmore had only held the secret for a few seconds she still felt lighter after telling Naku.

Naku hugged Gilmore, “Oh Gilmore! Why are you sad? That’s ok not to know, half of us don’t. We just go and find out, it’s more work than just knowing, but it’s ok! And I’ll help you! We are friends!” she looked at Gilmore for a moment, Gilmore sat there,

“Ok, let’s get back to dinner, my butt is getting wet!” the two girls laughed, and walked back in, as they did every student turned to look at them, Gilmore felt her face going redder as everyone looked at her, she smiled and walked up to her seat, on her plate was a donut, Gilmore smiled, it was chocolate with pink icing and rainbow sprinkles, she took a bite, Naku was eating her donut like it was heaven on a plate, she ate every crumb and sprinkle, when she was done her plate looked clean. Gilmore laughed as Naku looked to her plate

“Hey! You ate your donut!” she whined

“Yeah! It was really good, a little stale but good nonetheless!”

Naku pulled out her Class list, it was rather short, and Naku read it quickly then shoved it back into her pocket, “I like this school! I have more free time than class time!” she looked at Gilmore who was daydreaming

“What about you?”

Gilmore jumped “Wha?!”
Naku laughed “I asked if you had much free time! Go on read your chart!”

Gilmore opened her sheet, it was long, two feet long. She groaned,

“Look! And I have to do all of this!”

Then she looked again and realized there were four sections;

The mandatory.

You can do it.

Find your skill! (mandatory)

And the last spot only had one thing in it: Lessons with professor Ethan.


Gilmore showed Naku,

“Looks like you have to go to the office to fill it in on some things, But look! You better hurry! You have a class with Professor Ethan! In 20 minutes!” Naku cried out.

Sure enough, she did;

Class with Professor Ethan…………………...7:00 pm.


“Well no, I have only 15 minutes,” Gilmore said, looking at her watch.

She got up, “wanna show me where his office is? I lost my map.”

Naku rolled her eyes, “just take mine! I’ll get a new one later! Now shoo!” she said as she handed Gilmore her map.

Gilmore took it and ran outside, it turned out that Enoch’s Office was placed behind the shops. Gilmore ran to the shops, and stood under the porch of one shop and looked at her map.
She groaned, His house was at the end of the lane and behind the grey shop. She walked slowly towards it, when she got to the Office she realized that it served as his home as well,

She knocked on the old red door, “C’mon in!” a strange voice yelled, Gilmore knew it was not Enoch’s. She opened the door and walked in, the office was small, (as was the whole building)

It had three desks all covered in paper and paper filers. The desks all had drawers that had paper sticking out of them.

“Umm, Hello?” she called out.

A man with glasses popped his head up from under a desk, “Hello!”

Gilmore had met him before, this ‘Man’ was no man at all, but a teenage boy.

His name: Aldo.

She had met him in her bedroom window on Leviah’s birthday. Aldo had been annoying. Gilmore sighed,

“Sorry, I must have had the wrong address! I was looking for professor Ethan,” she said backing off a little, Aldo jumped up,

“ENOCH!” he bellowed,

“What Aldo?” Enoch’s voice replied

“A student is here!”

“Oh my! Why she is early! I Must get out of the shower then huh?”

“Yes, you should!” Aldo replied.

And you should be ready too,” Gilmore muttered.

She expected Aldo to invite her in and ask her to sit but he did neither, He just bent down and went back to whatever he had been doing before,

“geez! Aldo is so polite!” Gilmore muttered, she stood and waited for Enoch to come in.

After 15 minutes he finally came in, he wore jeans and a red jacket.

“Dear girl! Come in! Come in! Have a seat!” He said when he saw that Gilmore was still standing.

“I forgot my supplies, sorry,” Gilmore said as she sat down.

“Ah, you don’t need anything! Ald, get out! My class is starting!”

“Umm, am I the only one?” Gilmore asked, “or is everyone else late?”

“You're the only one! Now I have some rules about my class:

If I say something surprising do not interrupt me!
Call me Ethan, I much prefer it!
This is a calm class, no need to wear your outfit."
Enoch looked at Gilmore, “understand? While my class is calm, you will still get detention or any other kind of punishment, and I still expect to be respected.”

“Yes, Sir I understand.” Gilmore said.

“Good, then we can start!” he clapped his hands together and smiled,

“As you might not know these classes are about YOU! I am going to teach you a lot about yourself and your family and your family history!”

“Sir, not to be rude but, my mother taught me everything I must know, so this class is kind of pointless.”

“No child, there is more to learn, ever so much more!”

“Ok, like what?” Gilmore asked, feeling rather bored.

“Like ever so much! I can’t teach it all to you right away. First I need you to tell me what you know, then next lesson I will start from that!”

Gilmore rolled her eyes,

Yeah sure I will tell a stranger I met only a little while ago my family info! Sounds smart!” She rolled her eyes again, “NOT!”

She got up and walked towards the door,

“Sorry, but, I have better things to do than these so-called ‘classes’” Gilmore turned and opened the door, she stepped out and slammed the door shut.

As she walked down the path she heard the door open,
Gilmore Pallno! Get back here right now!” Enoch yelled, “Fine! Detention tomorrow at 7:30 pm!”

Gilmore stomped away, part of her cried to go back and beg not to have detention, while the other half of her was angry and wanting to see Enoch’s face when she told him that his class was Boring.

She stomped up to c,bin and pushed her purple slip of paper under it, The door opened and Gilmore stepped inside, she was met with the smell of Pumpkin cookies, as she stepped into the Study room she seen that Arisha was sitting eating a plate of cookies,

“Where did you get those cookies?” Gilmore eyed them, Arisha glared at her

“I won’t tell, only my friends get to know.” her voice was full of jealousy

“What!? I am your friend!” Gilmore cried. Arisha shook her head,

“Nope, friends don’t ditch each other when they find a new friend.”

“What? Are you talking about Nakusa? She is my friend but so are you!”

Arisha shook her head, Gilmore sighed ‘I’ll sort this out tomorrow.’ she thought, then she went to her room, she flopped on her bed, it was soft and comfortable Gilmore sighed.

Gilmore!” Gilmore sat up, she was still in her clothes from last night, but Sun shone in her window, Libby sat at the side of her cage waiting for some breakfast, Gilmore jumped out of bed and opened her door, Violet was standing there,

“You missed breakfast, here you have to get up early! Your first class is in 15 minutes!” then she walked off.

Gilmore panicked “oh Libby I’m not ready!” she cried out, partly to Libby and partly to herself, she closed her bedroom door and started to find some clean clothes, she managed to get a clean School outfit, and brush her hair in five minutes, with only 10 minutes to get to her class Gilmore snatched a leftover pumpkin cookie and ran out the front door only to realize she had forgotten her bags, she rushed back inside and got her bags. Then opened her time sheet;

Gilmore sighed ‘farming? In the main cabin?’ she wondered how that worked

As she walked to the Main Cabin, Naku came up to her

“Hi! Sleep well?” The girl seemed full of energy Gilmore wished she could take some of it.

“I guess, do you have Farming class too?”

“Na! I have another class, it’s called Art!”

“Lucky! I love art!” Gilmore whined

“Yeah! It’s great, ‘cause my ability is Acting. I have to study all kinds of things, Art is just one!”

“Hey! it could be mine too!” Gilmore said hopefully

“No, I don’t think it is, sorry Gill!”

Gilmore cringed “Gill? That’s a boy’s name!”

Naku laughed

“Sorry friend, but I like it!”

Gilmore sighed in defeat, “ok you win!”

Naku and Gilmore walked up to the Main Cabin, it was swarming with students,

“Oh great. Everyone is in Art and Farming.” Gilmore said sarcastically.

The girls pushed into the Cabin, they then followed the crowd, that was when Gilmore remembered, “oh yeah, I got detention last night.” she said rather calmly, Naku looked at her with big eyes “On your first class! Oh, Gilmore! how?”

Gilmore shrugged “it was easy, the so-called class was boring, it was about my family. He wanted me to tell him what I knew, So I left.”

Naku frowned “You should have stayed, when is the next class?”

“I don’t know, I don’t plan on going back though.”
The girls followed the other students down a hall, and into a room, each student had to go into the room alone, and then the next, when Gilmore got up she waved to Naku, the woman at the door asked to see Gilmore’s timesheet, Gilmore handed the timesheet to the woman,

“Farming, ok.” she turned and pressed one of the many buttons and opened the door,

“There is a portal inside, step in it and you will be at your class, but move away from the portal or you’ll be squashed by another student.”

Gilmore stepped in and seen the portal, it was a door, she stepped in it and Whoosh

! She was glad she had not eaten breakfast, the cookie in her belly was fighting to come out.

When she landed she was out of breath, Remembering the woman’s words she stepped away from the portal, and sure enough, a student wooshed right into the spot that Gilmore had been standing in. after a while the teacher, a stocky woman with a dirty blue shirt and black pants walked around getting everyone’s names when she came up to Gilmore she smiled

“What is your name?”
Gilmore Pallno.”

The woman wrote that down and then moved on to the next student.

Gilmore looked around, The sky was blue, The land spread out for miles, and was dotted with farms.

The Woman called everyone into a circle, the students followed and Gilmore guessed that the class had about 100 students in it.

“Ok Class! Hush Hush!” the teacher called and any chatter that was there fell silent.

“Welcome to Farming! For some of you students this is your ability, and for others, you are taking this class for other reasons. But whatever the reason you are all here! Now, My name is Mrs.Morrow, I am your teacher! I will try to spend time with each of you in a hands-on class, but today we are having a Textbook lesson!”
The class groaned, Mrs. Morrow did not seem to care as she just went on,

“Let us begin!

Farming is the practice of Cultivating Land or growing livestock. Breeding and or caring for the land…….”

After half an hour Mrs.Morrow clapped her hands together

“And now I shall tell you what your Hands-On classes will be like!

Each student will have four acres to farm, you will have four cows, a few chickens, three goats and many many other animals. You will also grow a crop of your choice, to complete the class you must have a harvest of your crop and have all your Animals alive by the end. Understood?”

Everyone nodded. Gilmore groaned this was going to be a different kind of class! She headed back to the timesheet portal once class was dismissed, and stepped through it, her belly wooshed and then she landed. She stepped out of the room and then walked down the hall. She pulled out her Timesheet and looked at it,

Building………………….. 10:10 am (main cabin)

She groaned her belly was not looking forward to another whooshing ride in the portal.

She went back to the room and got in line, the place was buzzing with students again, when she got up she showed her timesheet, “Building.”

The woman pressed a button and opened the door, “ok.” she said.

Gilmore stepped into the room and hoped that she would not be sick, she walked in the portal and had the same wooshing feeling again. She gulped fearing the cookie was going to win the battle, then she landed, she stumbled out of the path of the portal, and sat down, looking around she saw that she was in a cloudy place, the air smelled musty, she looked around and seen other students looking confused as well,

“it was just sunny a few moments ago at farming class!” a girl with red frizzy hair said, Gilmore, nodded

“Yeah, it’s really weird.”

A man in his thirties stepped into view,

“Hello, Class! Welcome to China! Here we are going to be taking a Building Class! If every student could say their name that would be great!”

He pointed at each student and they said their names, Arisha stepped forward

“My name is Arisha.”

Gilmore waved at her Dormmate but Arisha did not return it and instead turned a d looked the other way.

When everyone had said their names the teacher said his,

“My name is Mr. Anjo! Our class is going to be on building a house, It is going to be a group project, and every day we will work as a team in one spot! And in the end, hopefully, sell it!”

Mr.Anjo handed out slips of paper and homework, the homework was about right angles of a square.

Gilmore smiled at Arisha whenever she could, but the girl seemed to be ignoring Gilmore, As Mr.Anjo gave his two-hour lecture about the importance of right angles he dismissed the bored class, the students rushed to leave, but Gilmore hung back. When most of the students had left she went up to Mr.Anjo.

“Umm excuse me, I have a question.” she declared, the man jumped up

“Oh! Hi! What’s your name again? Sorry.”

“Gilmore Pallno.”

“Gilmore you should hurry along and get to lunch, before your next class!”

Gilmore shook her head “Sorry sir, but I need help.”

The man sighed “what do you need?”

“Well, I…” Gilmore could not make herself tell Mr. Anjo that she did not java an ability so she lied, “well, it’s Arisha, she is not talking to me. At all, we were friends.”

“Look kid, I’m a teacher of building houses, NOT Building relationships.”

Gilmore sighed “thanks anyway.”

Then she left.

Lunch was horrible, and Gilmore did not eat, Naku ate all the food and then the two girls chatted,

“Art was great! We did so much!” Naku said as she stuffed the last spoon full of Slimy beans into her mouth, “how were your classes?”

Gilmore sighed “Boring, And I saw Arisha, she was being rude.”

“And who is Arisha? May I ask?” Naku asked, she sounded rather angry that Gilmore was worried about some other girl.

“Arisha is my Dormmate, bugt she is mad at me,” Gilmore explained, “and I find it hard to hang out with the other two, they are always fighting or being snobs.”

Naku smiled “why does it matter? You have me!”

“Yeah, but I want tons of friends, it would be great to have at least three friends.”

Naku looked hurt, she stood up, “I think I have a class to go to.” then she left.

Gilmore sighed “great, let’s just lose more friends.” she muttered sadly, but made no movement to chase Naku down.

Gilmore sat alone for a while, she had pulled out her timesheet and was staring at it, the next class was at 1:30, she had a while still.

At 1:00 most of the students left, they had classes or homework to be done before their next class, Gilmore watched as a group of three students walked out, laughing and pushing each other playfully, she sighed, “that is what I want.” she said softly. Then she seen Arisha, the girl was sitting picking at her food, her plate was still mostly full, Gilmore got up and went over,

“Hi, can I sit here?” she asked pointing to the seat that was empty beside Arisha.

The girl grunted, “don’t you have a friend to hang out with?”

“No, she was mad at me, and walked off,” Gilmore said rather sheepishly.

Arisha smiled “serves you right.”

“Can I sit? And you can tell me where you go those pumpkin cookies?”

Arisha smiled, “yeah sure.”
As Gilmore sat down Arisha pished her food away, “how can anyone eat this junk?”

“I don’t know, it’s gross though.” Gilmore was careful to leave Naku out of their topics, and for the rest of lunch hour they talked and enjoyed themselves, when it was time to go to the next class Gilmore felt good, she now had two friends, even if they did not like each other.

She pulled out her timesheet and started to look for her next class, and when she found it it was titled;
Professor Ethan.................... 1:30 (his office)
Gilmore sighed “is he trying to stock me?” she muttered, deciding that it would be a good idea to ask a teacher why Enoch was doing this she went up to Mr. Devinchla the Art teacher.

“Umm excuse me Sir/ can I ask you something please?”

The man turned to look at her “why sure fire away!”

“Well, Professor Ethan keeps making all these classes, and they are about my… Family. It seems kind of private, and I don’t want some teacher telling me stuff I already know. Do I have to go to the class?”

The old man seemed to think for a while, “well,” he said slowly “I think you should. Any class that is given to a student is given for a reason. And must be approved by the headmaster first, So it would only make sense for you to attend the class.” He smiled at her

“Do you take Art?”

“Yes, it is at 3:15 today.”

“That’s good,” he said and walked away. Gilmore sighed and started off towards Enoch’s office.

When she got there she knocked, and no one responded, so Gilmore turned to leave, if he was late then she at least had an excuse! But as she turned away she heard someone open the door, “Ahaha!” Aldo’s voice said it sounded happy and troublesome.

Gilmore turned on her heels and glared at Aldo,

“You could have opened the door ten seconds ago!”

Aldo smiled “Respect! I am a teacher!”
No, you are not! You are no older than me! And you are just a sad little messenger!” she said with mock sadness. Aldo looked mad enough to punch her, and when he did throw a punch at her head she ducked and punched his gut, Aldo bent over in pain. Enoch came to the door,

“Wha- Gilmore what did you do!” he roared, bending down to help Aldo up.

“He punched at me first! I was just defending myself!” Gilmore Exclaimed.

But Enoch did not listen he just waled the moaning and groaning Aldo in the house, Gilmore followed in and sat down, Enoch sat Aldo down in a chair behind one of the desks and gave him a heating pad, “Enoch, I think my ribs are broken” he whined

The old man looked worried, “I’ll get the nurse!” he said and rushed out of the room, as soon as he was gone Aldo sighed and grinned at Gilmore.

“You are not hurt!” Gilmore said angrily, the boy smiled

“Nope! He thinks that I am hurt, little does he know that having elf in me makes it so I can heal myself if I have anything from a cut to a broken bone! I can’t heal Bruises though, it kind of sucks, I can only get the pain gone from them.”

Gilmore glared at him, “how can you have Elf in you? Elves are fake, they are just a fairytale!”

Aldo made a mock hurt face “We are not! My mother was an elf and my father a human!”

Gilmore sighed “ok elf boy. How old are you then? 200?”

“No! That is a myth! Elves are just like humans, but different! Pure elves live to be about 250-300 years old. while Human-elves live to be only 150-200 years old, it is a big insult to call me 200. I am not old, I am only 13 years old!”

“And maybe you should get a doctor to look at your brain,” Gilmore said.

Enoch walked in huffing and puffing, “the nurse is on her way!” he said. Aldo went back to looking like he was going to die, and Enoch turned to Gilmore.

“Now this is no way to treat a poor boy! I want you to say sorry!” behind Enoch Aldo was making faces at Gilmore,

“Sorry Sir, but until the nurse comes I will do no such thing,” Gilmore said, Enoch looked ready to hit her, but held back. When the nurse arrived she was out of breath and dirty, she glared at Enoch, “this better be good.” she warned “I ran from the main cabin where I was looking after a sick student.” she went over to Gilmore “are you ok hunny?” she asked "Thanks for asking, besides the trama for having to jump away from Aldo before he punched me I am fine,” she said, the nurse frowned

“Then why was I called? And why was it such a rush?” she looked confused.

Enoch stepped forward, “It was that brat who caused the trouble. Aldo is the one who is hurt, not her.”

The nurse rolled her eyes “I am sure he is ever so hurt, I will look him over for your peace of mind though.” she sighed and started to pat Aldo all over, Aldo winced any time she touched near his ribs, then she asked him to lift his shirt he whined saying that it hurt to move his body, so the nurse lifted his shirt for him.

“Where did she punch you?” the nurse asked,

“In the ribs,” Aldo whined.

“Well, that is odd!” the nurse said, “because the bruise is on your stomach!”

Enoch gasped “Boy is it true? Did you lie?”

Aldo whined “it the side effect of being an elf, the bruises come up in different spots!” he gasped as if in pain.

The nurse shook her head, “that is not true Aldo. Don’t lie.”

The boy cried out in defeat and glared at Gilmore, “Enoch Punish her! She hurt me!”

Enoch glanced at Aldo and then at Gilmore,a Believe“no Aldo, Get out. I have a class to teach.”

The nurse left and Enoch shooed Aldo out of the Office, then he locked the door and looked at Gilmore, “I locked this so you can’t run out. All the windows are also locked you can’t leave class now.”

“Not creepy at all!” Gilmore muttered.

“Now last night, I asked you to tell me what you knew about your family. Now tell me,” he said.

Gilmore squirmed a little. “I do not need to tell you!”
Enoch sighed “you are ever so bold, tell me.”

Gilmore glared at him, “how about a deal? I tell you and you unlock the door.”

Enoch glanced at the door, “but you must not run off until class is over.”

Seeing as this was the best thing she was going to get she nodded “fine.”

Enoch seemed happy, he got up and unlocked the door. Then sat back down.

“Ok let’s restart this class with the deal we made. Please tell me about your family Gilmore.”

Gilmore sighed, the door was unlocked, Enoch had kept his part of the deal, now she should too. “I know that My family has one parent and that my father died long ago. I don’t remember him at all. I also know that my siblings are spoiled brats that rule the world…..”

Once Gilmore started she could not stop, she said every detail, going back 10 generations.

Ending in “... and that is what I know.”

It had been a few hours and Gilmore was tired, tired of talking.

Enoch seemed to understand this and told her she had done a good job and could go. It was now 4:30, she had missed Art class, and Art had been her last class. She Sighed and headed back to her Cabin, that was when the sky clouded over, it looked like it was going to rain, Gilmore ran back to her cabin.

When she got in Jorgina and violet were there and they were fighting,

“You were cheating! I saw you look!” Jorgina screamed

“Me? cheat! Ha! What a funny joke! I do not cheat! Do you think that pulling your hair behind your ear is cheating? I do not know what world you came from but it was not earth!”

Gilmore did not stick around to hear what Jorgina said back but instead slipped into her room, where the girls’ screams could still be heard, but they were muffled.

Gilmore sighed, and layed down on her bed, she was tired and had a while before her Detention, she closed her eyes and fell asleep……..

(8849)

Gilmore’s dream...
Gilmore ran into the mudroom, and pulled on her raincoat and boots, she was not taking any chances in the rain today! She did not know where to go so she headed to the main cabin.

Her guess had turned out, right. as when she walked up the steps and into the main cabin she saw that there was a note posted,

Detention list:

Gilmore Pallno

Mark Suckiua

Emma Fletcher

Molly Vandache

Meet up at, the detention room at 5:30 pm.

Gilmore sighed ‘Of course, post my name up, on the board for everyone to see!’ she thought bitterly.

Gilmore walked to the Detention room, it was one of the many rooms in the Main Cabin. She walked into the room and seen two other girls, they were sitting on wood chairs staring at a man, this man had a straight face and mean eyes. Gilmore knew he was the Detention Master.

Students feared this man, he often referred to as ‘Master’ was cruel and heartless in his ‘training’ he would work a sentence into a student’s brain till it was the first thing they thought of every morning. Gilmore gulped, this was going to be a really bad night.

When the rest of the students filed in the man glared at them all.

“You brats are here for detention, but I think you all deserve another one! You are all late!

You!” he pointed at the Girl in the farthest chair away from Gilmore “what is your name?”

The girl squirmed in her chair “Emma Fletcher, Sir.”

“Well Miss Fletcher, you were 33 seconds late.”

“But Sir, it was only 33 seconds!” she cried out, the man glared at her and she went red in embracement. The man turned to the second girl, “You! What’s your name?”

She also sunk into her seat,

“Molly, Molly Vandache.” she managed to say.

“Well, you Miss Vandache, are 55 seconds late.”

The girl looked angry but kept her mouth shut.

“And you!” he pointed at Gilmore, she wanted to sink into the ground but held her head high, she would not let him make her scared.

“I am Gilmore Pallno.” she said proudly, she made eye contact with him and smiled a little.

“Well, Miss Pallno, you have nerve! Your one minute late!” he sneered

“Well guess what!” Gilmore said standing up,

“Younge lady! Sit down right now!” the man said strictly

“No, Sir I will not sit down if you want to be so ‘Hour late by one minute!’ then take this!” she said, Gilmore took a stick, that had been leaning on the wall behind her, and smacked him on the head, “you will not be rude! You can not tell me I am a loser!” she said, hitting the man again, he jumped back, his harsh face soft and scared as he hid behind his desk,

“Ok go!” he shouted “Shoo get away from here!”

Gilmore waved to the other kids “C’mon!”

But the other kids looked at her,

“You should not have done that!” Molly said glancing at the stick and at the man, who was still cowering behind his desk.

Gilmore shrugged “He dismissed us!” she said then left, she ran down the stairs and out of the building, still holding the stick, after a while, Gilmore arrived at the shops, she closed her eyes, she felt bad and knew she was going to be expelled. Beating a teacher or adult was a really bad thing to do! She started to cry, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder, shouldersthe and the smell of pumpkin cookies. She looked up, the old woman from the shop was smiling down at her,

“What’s wrong dear?” she asked

Gilmore looked at her and wiped her eyes,

“I had detention, and when I got there the Master yelled at us, For being seconds late. I took a stick and beat him, now I’m gonna get expelled!” she said

The old woman smiled

“Dear child, you will not get expelled! That man is a bully and needs a good beating every once and a while!” she laughed “come on in and have a cookie, I have a fresh batch just out of the oven!” the woman led Gilmore inside, and placed a platter of cookies down on the counter.

“Believe me, when I was a child and came and got detention I would hide, and miss it, or act like I was sick, I feared him, he scared me. In my day there were many petitions to get rid of him, but the headmaster always turned them down, claiming that if students feared the Detention Master, also named Miky, Then they would behave. It failed, Students planed to be super bad, over-running the man, but it never worked, he used his skill to control the students and he never slowed punishing them, then, one day after he reportedly abused a student, the headmaster made the rule that the Miky could not touch the students, he could only make them serve like a normal, non-magic school would, writing lines, sitting still for hours, giving long lectures and so on, but Miky was not happy, he had had power and strength, now it was taken away, so Miky did the unthinkable, he chose a few students, and he tormented them, the students he chose were the ones who liked to cause trouble, My brother was one of them, he claimed that Miky would hit him, and yell and scream at him. My brother left school early because of Miky. Anyway, what I am saying is, Students don’t like Miky, I don’t like Miky, you did everyone a favour, you showed him that you are not going to bow down to him.” she smiled at Gilmore, “thank you Gilmore,”

Gilmore was confused, that made no sense! Why was she being praised to hurt someone? Just then someone knocked at the door “Gilmore! Gilmore! Wake up!”

Gilmore shot up out of bed, it had all been a dream. She sighed what a weird dream,

“Gilmore! Get up your going to be late!” Arisha was yelling, Gilmore sighed and rolled her eyes,

“I’m up!” she called, fixing her hair Gilmore opened the door,

Arisha stood there, she looked panicked, “sorry, I wanted to make sure you were up.”

“It’s ok, I was having a bad dream anyway.”

Arisha smiled “well, your detention is in 15 minutes, better hurry, take your raincoat, it starting to rain.” Gilmore nodded and smoothed out her outfit, her day had been busy a d not eating must have worn her out, “do you know where I go?” she asked looking at Arisha, the girl smiled,

“Yeah, if Enoch did not say where to go then I would say go to his office, I would think you have to serve it there.” she smiled “my older brother had detention with him before, it will be fine.”

Gilmore gulped and hoped it would be, her dream was still fresh in her mind, she feared that it would be true.



(1178)

Gilmore serves her first detention
Gilmore frowned, the office looked empty. ‘Maybe he forgot about it.” she thought hopefully.

But as she knocked the door opened and Aldo stood there, “hello?” she said, looking past Gilmore and into the night air. “Well, no one is here” She said, looking around, but just as she turned to leave she heard the door open,

“TaTaTa!” She heard Aldo’s annoying high pitched teasing voice, she groaned and turned around, Aldo was grinning wodly at her, “excited? You are going to have some bonding time!” he said. Gilmore rolled her eyes, “umm, no. I am here to serve my detention,and leave not, so-called bond with you and your scummy lying self.” she retorted, “where is Professor Ethan?”

Aldo seemed overjoyed, “Enoch is out, he has business to attend, so he gave me the honours!” Also clapped his hands together, “tut! Tut! It’s two minutes till your detention starts! Well, let's not waste time! LET’S BEGIN!” she rolled her eyes “There are still two minutes, and any good mannered person would welcome me in, ask me if I wanted a seat then give me a drink while taking my things and putting them away!” she rolled her eyes again “But never mind, You're so rude that it is no surprise that you forgot.” she pushed past him and walked inside, she put her bag on the floor and sat down, “what are we doing?” she asked

Aldo grinned, “That my detention friend is the secret! I can’t tell you until we are doing it!”

Gilmore rolled her eyes, “I am going to kill you!” she muttered under her breath, he was bugging her like crazy! Aldo stood up,

“C’mon, we must hurry!” He pulled her into a room, it was small and had tons of buttons, most of these buttons were blue and green, the blue ones had a letter ‘D’ on them, the green ones had a letter ‘W’ on them, “Welcome to the dirty jobs room!” he said with a odd joy that told Gilmore to dread this room, Aldo pointed to the wall on the farthest side,

“You see that? That is the portal, when I click a button you will see a slight shimmer, like the one that you use to get to classes, step in it and move aside, I will be coming in!”

Aldo stared at the button the clicked the green one closest to the door, the wall started to shimmer, and then form into a portal, just like the one from the one in the Main Cabin, Gilmore gulped and stepped it, she got the same feeling as the one in the Main Cabin, A whooshing squishy spinning feeling that made Gilmore want to vomit, the only difference; when she landed she landed in a wet stinky squishy spot. It was very dark and Gilmore had to wait a few moments to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, but she also remembered the warning to move, so still blind in the dark Gilmore tried to move but ended up on her face in the gross stuff, she heard a thump and a giggle, Aldo had landed. Gilmore lifted her face and wiped her face as clean as she could,

“What is this stuff?” she asked Aldo as she climbed out, Aldo, who had landed a foot away from the mess was waiting for her taping his foot,

“Glad you asked!” he chirped “this is the-” whatever Aldo was thinking, Gilmore would never know because he was cut off by a woman’s voice,

“Dear children! Get out of the muck pile! Why are you in there?”

Gilmore turned to see that a woman with dark black hair that was tied into a messy bun, was standing over to the left, she held a pitchfork and was covered in what Gilmore now realized was Poop.

“I asked you something! It’s rather rude not to reply!” she said, her voice was like an angel to Gilmore, it was soft and kind but also spiky and...well demanding.

Gilmore tried to stand up and looked over at Aldo, who was staring at her as she looked back at the lady. Would she think Gilmore had lost her marbles if she told the woman that they had jumped through a portal and into… wherever they were? Gilmore shrugged,

“Umm, I am not sure why we are here, where are we anyway?”

The woman snorted, she looked at Gilmore again

“You sure do know how to play dumb huh? You should know where you are, I mean you're here!”

Gilmore turned to Aldo for help, what could she say? But Aldo,just shrugged and smiled

“It’s your Detention, not mine!” he said, smirking a little.

“Umm, well this is going to sound very weird, but…” Gilmore took a breath, she was now in a real pickle, if she lied she would only make it harder for herself, if she told the truth then this woman would think she was crazy, She decided to spit it out and deal with sounding stupid after.

“I was at school in... I am not really sure where. But anyway I got mad in a class and stormed away, my teacher got mad and gave me detention, and now I am serving it, Here.”

The woman laughed heartily, then looked at Gilmore, she smiled and said

“Man, you have a very good imagination! But why lie? And to add to that! There are no schools around here for miles!” she frowned “Lying is bad, and I suggest you never do it!”

Gilmore felt like she wanted to have the floor open up and swallow her,

“Really! It’s true!” she urged

The woman laughed and smiled “No matter, you deserve detention! And you're in the right place too!” she turned around and waved for Gilmore and Aldo to follow, Gilmore struggled to climb out and Aldo grinned at her,

“Enjoying yourself yet?” he asked in a taunting way, Gilmore waved a fist at him

“Oh just you wait till I’m out of here!” Gilmore warned, but Aldo did not seem the slightest bit worried, he just smiled at her, Gilmore finally managed to get out of the poop pile, she wiped herself off and glared at Aldo,

“How did you land beside the poop but I landed in it?”she asked,

“Oh it’s a mastered skill that took ages! Believe me it makes you feel rather sick to the stomach!”

“It does not affect you much it seems!”

“Because I am trained in it, only beginners get sick!”

The woman rolled her eyes

“C’mon you two! It’s time to move!” she said, sounding amused at the whole thing, Gilmore looked around, before now she had only seen poop, but now it was obvious that they were in a basement, the room was large with yellowed walls covered in dirty cobwebs, there was a staircase and a big door, the woman led them to the stairs and went up, Gilmore glanced at Aldo then went up, the stairs were made of mettle and they were cold, When they got to the top the woman opened the door and light flooded into the room, Gilmore shielded her eyes the light was blinding, Aldo was doing the same, but the woman was not affected by it, or at least it did not seem to affect her.

The Woman let the two children walk in, then she closed the door, this room was big too, it had four long aisles, each had a long row of sand in it and a dairy cow sitting or laying in the sand, each cow was clean and nice-looking, they all looked happy and healthy, Then Gilmore noticed that there was a line of poop on the concrete behind each cow. Gilmore looked at the woman,

“Umm, is this a dairy farm?” she asked,

The woman laughed “of course! What other kind of farm has dairy cows?”

Gilmore smiled weakly “I am not really sure?” she said quietly, Aldo started to laugh, the woman’s face light up

“Aldo?” she said hopefully

“Hello, mother!” Aldo said with a glint in his eye, the woman’s smiled and hugged Aldo,

Aldo squirmed “Mom! let me go!” he pleaded but the woman, Aldo’s mom, did not let him go she just hugged him, then held him out at an arm's length, “Why do you only come when you're giving detention?” she asked smiling broadly,

Aldo just shrugged “‘cause I don’t want to bug you.” he said, but Gilmore could see that Aldo was not a fan of his mother, his mother then turned to Gilmore,

“Hello! My name is Betty, Betty Shoonar. Who are you?”

“My name is Gilmore, Gilmore Pallno.”

Betty’s eyes light up when Gilmore said ‘Gilmore’ but they went back to normal when she said ‘Pallno’ Gilmore thought nothing more about this,

“Can we get on with this detention please?” she asked

Betty sighed “yes I forgot about that, do you want a cloth to clean your face with dear?” she asked Gilmore,

“Yeah sure,” Gilmore said, still covered in the Poop that she could not wipe off.

Betty left to get a cloth, Gilmore turned to Aldo,

“So that’s your mom? Is she an elf?”

“You are smarter than you look, yeah she is my mom, and yes she is a pure elf.”

“Oh, so your dad is human then?”

Aldo rolled his eyes, “Obviously!”

Betty came back with a cloth and two pitchforks,

“Here you are dears,” she handed Gilmore the cloth and a pitchfork, and Aldo a pitchfork, which Aldo dropped

“Nah! ah! I am not working!” he said backing away from the pitchfork like it was some kind of snake, Betty looked sternly at Aldo,

“Take the fork and follow me.” they walked down an already cleaned row, where the cows just sat there chewing their cuds and looking happy. Betty led them down the next row, it was dirty,

“Ok kids-”

“We are teens!” Aldo interrupted rudely.

“Ok Teens today your job is cleaning the poop, just fork it down to the end of the row and leave it there, then do the next row, but whatever you do, NEVER go near the bull, he is wild and dangerous, he can kill a grown man if he wanted too.” she warned

Gilmore nodded, Aldo seemed to be lost in thought,

“Aldo ok?” Betty asked

“Ok Mom,” he said still looking lost in thought

Gilmore started to push the poop down the lane, Aldo took the other side and together they cleaned the row, Aldo whined most of the time and Gilmore was sweaty by the time she was done,

“great I am sweaty and covered in poop” she muttered as she pushed the last poop into the pile, She sighed and wiped her head, Aldo walked up beside her,

“Only two more to go!” he said brightly “Have fun!” he put the fork down and then walked away, Gilmore threw Her hands up in the air “what? You can’t just walk away!” she shouted after him,

“Yes I can!” he shouted back “it’s not my detention!”

Gilmore frowned, he was right, it was her detention not, his.

She frowned, again, where was Betty? Why had she left? Did she think her son would keep working? Or did she care? Gilmore shook her head and walked over to the next row, Where she started to clean the next pile of poop. When she finished that row, which took double the time without Aldo’s help, she moved on to the third and last row, this one was against the wall, it was airy and instead of sand it had shavings, Gilmore groaned, the shavings would be harder to clean up in. as Gilmore moved down the row she seen that there was very little poop down this way, she looked up and seen that there was, only a few cows stalled here, and then there was a pen, it was large and had a gate that was chained closed. Gilmore walked up to it and peered in, inside was a big Bull, he had Black spots and a white face. Gilmore smiled he was a pretty bull! But Betty’s warning Rang in Gilmore’s ears the bull was dangerous and Gilmore did not want to be hurt by him, she backed away from the cage and went back to cleaning.


It was late, Gilmore had just finished her detention, Aldo was waiting to go, Gilmore was just putting away her pitchfork, Betty was standing near Aldo, Gilmore decided to give them some time together, it sounded like Aldo never visited his mother and she must be missing him, Gilmore wondered what it would be like, trying to stay away from her mother or worse never to see her mother, she looked at Aldo, she had put her stuff away and could not dottle anymore,

Betty and Aldo would have to wait till a different time.

Gilmore walked up, she smiled at Betty, even if Gilmore was covered in sweat and poop She was happy she had met Betty.

“C’mon Aldo let’s get going!” she turned to Betty “thank you Betty it was a pleasure meeting you, even if it was because I got detention!” They both laughed a little as Gilmore and Aldo stepped into the portal, Gilmore closed her eyes as they whooshed back to Enoch’s Office,

When they landed Gilmore quickly moved to the side, she did not want to be squished by Aldo!

Aldo landed a moment later, he stood up and smiled

“Glad that’s over!” he said, “I hate my mother, she is way too loving!”

Gilmore was confused, why was a caring mother a bad thing?

“Why is that bad?” she asked, Aldo,,rolled his eyes

“How dumb are you? Elf Mothers are supposed to just raise their kids, not smother them in love

She does not act as an Elf should!”

Gilmore shrugged “I’m tired can I go now?”

Aldo rolled his eyes “I should make you stay and learn every fact about elves, but I’m very tired get put go!”

Gilmore did not need to be told twice, she ran out of the office and into the dark rainy night, she ran to her cabin, where she ran inside and wentyour straight to the bathroom, she was covered in poop and stunk horridly! She went to the shower and turned it on, but it seemed to be broken, the water trickled out slowly, and it was a gross brown colour too, Gilmore gaged and shut off the water, she then went to her bedroom and undressed and put on a par of Pjs, her face was dirty and stinky but she was in fresh clothing so she was happy! Gilmore fell asleep soon after laying down on her bed.

* * *

When Gilmore awoke it was 7:30 am. She sighed, her body hurt, her mind hurt, her bones hurt.

She got up and fed Libby, then pulled out her timesheet, her first class:

Mediation …….……………………………… 8:30 am.

“Great! I’ll be able to see Naku!” Gilmore said as she held Libby, then she realized that she still had not showered, she groaned and put Libby away, she got a towel, And fresh clothing, then she went she went to the bathroom, she turned on the water and the tap did the same thing as the night before, it just trickled out a brown liquid that stunk, was Aldo playing some kind of prank? Or was this cabin’s plumbing bad? Gilmore sighed and left the bathroom, she carried her towel and other clothing with her, when she opened the door Violet barged in, she suddenly stopped sniffed and backed out acting as if she was dying,

“Whats... That… stink.” she spat, Gilmore rolled her eyes

“It’s your brain trying to work and burning up!” Gilmore retorted,

It was no wonder Jorgina and Violet fought all the time!

Gilmore was not sure what to do, she had class in less than an hour and she needed to shower still, Her first thought was to ask a nearby cabin if she could use their shower, but that would be weird. So Gilmore resolved by deciding to ask Enoch. She started to walk towards his office when a boy walked up, he was the same boy Gilmore had met in the rain and had made him lose his boot, He glared at her

“Hey, you’re the bratty kid who annoyed me on the first day!” he said,

“Yeah, well thanks for all the help by the way!” Gilmore said returning his glare

“I hope you got soaked!” he said, Gilmore wanted to pish him but held back

“What do you want?”

“I just wanted to know what’s wrong with your face” He said, Gilmore glared at him, She knew he was trying to be a bug, but it was killing her not to punch him!

“Well, I happened to be hanging out with my pets last night, sorry if it bugs you!” she said keeping her voice even and calm, the boy clenched his fists and frowned, then left, Gilmore laughed a little, She had given the bully what he had wanted, in a different way!

As she walked on she started to wonder about why the boy was such a jerk, what had made him be like that?

She shrugged and stopped thinking about the boy as she walked up the steps to Enoch’s Office, she knocked, the door opened and Enoch was standing there,

“Why Hello Gilmore! I don’t think we have class today do we?” he asked

“Umm I do not think so, but I came over to ask if I could use your shower? Mine is broken it just trickles brown water out of the tap.”

Enoch laughed his boomy laugh,

“Sure, Aldo might still be in it though.”

Gilmore nodded and stepped inside,

“How was detention last night?” Enoch asked

“Well, it was Detention-y.”

“Well, that’s a good thing then, did you learn anything then?”

“Yeah, never get detention with Aldo again.”

Enoch laughed “Do you hate me now?”

“No, I hate Aldo double of what I did.”

Enoch raised an eyebrow, “why do you hate him so? He is a sweetheart!”

This time Gilmore laughed “Aldo? A sweetheart?”

Enoch frowned, “shut your trap or you’ll get ten detentions with him.”

Gilmore nodded “yes Sir.”

Enoch pointed to the door at the other end of the room and Gilmore went in, she closed the door and turned on the shower, it was warm and steamy and Gilmore was just about to undress when Aldo popped down from the roof,

Gilmore screamed and Aldo laughed,

“Hey, stinker!” he said holding his nose, “bathroom too smelly in your cabin?”

“No, you perve, the bathroom is broken. Now get out!”

Aldo pulled back glaring at her, “hey grumpy, I can give you another detention!”

then he left. Gilmore sighed, ‘really? What a brat could he not grow up any?’ she thought frowning as she got in the shower.

(3186)

Class with Miss Kay.
Gilmore walked into the portal, she was not sure when or where she would land, you never could know when stepping into one!

The room disappeared behind her and the world went black and swishy, her belly went whooshy-whooshy, Gilmore closed her lips, if she vomited she would be super unhappy, and then she would have to have another shower, which would be annoying!

As she landed Gilmore rolled out of the landing path, the ground was soft below her, it was like she was on a mattress made for a king! She opened her eyes and looked around, she was in a meadow, it was a huge meadow, with the sun shining into the long grass that waved sideways in the soft wind that smelled of the ocean, oak trees lined the edge of the meadow, the sun was not very hot, but it was warm and comfortable.

As the rest of the class landed and rolled away, Gilmore stood up, what a nice place! Spotting a woman who was sitting on a yoga mat, and doing what looked like sleeping, Gilmore walked over,

“Umm Hello?” she asked the woman, at this the woman snapped up and smiled,

“Why hello Miss…?”

“Gilmore Pallno”

“Hello, Miss Pallno! I am ever so glad to meet you! I am your teacher for this class! My name is Miss Kay.”

“Hello Miss Kay, I have a question for you.”

Miss Kay seemed to shine, her hair was a curly black, and her skin was an olive colour, she smiled widely and smelled of wildflowers and sage.

“Where in the world is this class?” Gilmore asked, hoping that Miss Kay would have an Idea.

“Ahh, yes! This is Nova Scotia Canada!” Miss Kay said waving her arms out and breathing in deeply, “It’s very pretty huh?”

“Yeah, it is, are you from Nova Scotia? I’m from Alberta, so this is my home country!”

“Well, I was born in Greece, but my mom and Dad moved here when I was four.”

Gilmore smiled “What is your Skill?”

Miss Kay frowned, “That is what we do not talk about in this class.”

Gilmore got the message and shut her mouth.

Miss Kay rolled up her mat and handed it to Gilmore, then she took a pile of rolled up mats and carried them over, to the center of the meadow where the rest of the Class was waiting, once the mats were rolled out in a large circle Miss Kay asked everyone to sit on a mat, Gilmore choose a Purple on that was close to a pretty flower on the ground.

Once everyone was seated Miss Kay introduced herself,

“Hello Class! My name is Katrina Flopper, but you will all call me Miss Kay, if you dare to call me anything but Miss Kay, I will make you write my name 500 times!

Gilmore made a mental note never to call her anything but Miss Kay,

“I am your teacher for this class, which is Meditation and Yoga.”

Gilmore clenched her fists, what a dumb class!

“I would like each of you to say your name and Skill! We will start with the girl on the Purple mat.” every eye turned to Gilmore, She smiled and loudly said

“Hello, my name is Gilmore Pallno, and my skill is…” she wondered what to say, could she lie? No that would be wrong, “...My skill is Unknown as of right now!”

She said, the class smirked and a few students even dared to laugh, Gilmore’s face went red, how embarrassing!

Miss Kay moved through the class slowly, and by the time she was through the class only had ten minutes left! Miss Kay stood up, “it appears that we are low on time! So we shall do our closing meditation, everyone lay on your mats with your belly to the sky.” she took a breath as the class rushed to lay down on their mats, Gilmore lied down and took in a deep breath of salty air, oh how good it smelled!

Miss Kay took in her own deep breath and started to read, Her voice was slow and soothing,

“Close your eyes class, Begin by bringing your attention to your body.

Take a few deep breaths” Gilmore took three deep slow breaths, she heard the rest of the class do the same, “As you take deep breaths think about the Oxigin Filling your lungs, giving you life, as you breath out Relax, let your body go…

You can notice the grass brushing your feet, you can feel the bug on your toes, feel the earth…

You can notice your legs on the ground, you can feel the mat beneath them, feel the earth and your body…

Bring your attention to your belly area, If your stomach is tense or tight let it loosen, calm and relax your belly…

Notice your hands, are they tense or tight? Let them soften, feel the earth…

Now bring yourself to your arms, breath in, feel anything? Breath out…

Notice your throat and neck, are they tense? Let them soften, feel your heartbeat…

Soften your jaw, let your face soften, feel the slight wind on your face…

Feel your heart, how does it feel? Is it tense? Let it soften…

Feel your whole body, Take one more deep breath, and when your ready you can open your eyes…”

Miss Kay stopped speaking, Gilmore kept her eyes closed for a moment, she sighed and felt the wind move over her face, she felt the sunshine on her body warming her bones, she smiled, it was nice to be outside in Nova Scotia… Gilmore opened her eyes and sat up, ten or eleven other students had done the same thing, the rest were all still lying there, some looked asleep, others looked super calm. Gilmore got up and rolled up her mat, “thank you Miss Kay that felt good.” she said still in a calm state, it was the calmest that she had ever felt, Gilmore smiled and handed Miss Kay the mat, the woman took it and smiled “I’m glad you enjoyed it, it means I did my job right.” Gilmore smiled and headed for the portal.

(1035)

Getting food...
It had been two days since her class with Miss Kay, and Gilmore had been busy, she had done tons of classes and had lots of homework to do, she had a class with Enoch tomorrow, lucky she had gotten tonight off, otherwise, it seemed like Classes with Enoch was every night, Gilmore was hungry, she had not eaten anything in days, she could not make herself eat the junk that the school gave them, and without Naku, Gilmore had been hanging out with Arisha, who ate but only cause she did not want to starve. Her stomach growled it was sore too, she sat on the couch in her cabin, Arisha and Jorgina were already sitting there and Violet was out at class so Jorgina had had some time to study with the other two girls.

Arisha looked up “Man Gilmore, eat some food!”

“I am not eating that junk they try to call food!” Gilmore replied Jorgina looked up,

“Geez. Gilmore give in, it’s all they will ever feed you so suck it up!”

Gilmore shook her head, “Nah! I won’t, I’ll starve first.”

“Or you could go to that shop that the old lady gives out candy and cookies and live off that!” Arisha joked, Gilmore laughed “Bye!”

Jorgina frowned “that is dumb, don’t eat cookies and pie to stay full!” Gilmore snorted and walked outside, Jorgina could make life hard by not making anyone like her, or she could make it easy by letting people have a chance to like her, but it had to be her choice.

As Gilmore walked towards the shops she noticed the sky, it was a lavender purple. She smiled, it was a nice night, not too hot, not cold, and best of all it was not raining, it had not rained all day, Which was weird because it rained every night. Gilmore walked down the path and soon arrived at the little shop, she went in and was hit with the smell of cookies and other good smelling treats that she could not decipher, the little bell at the top of the door tinkled and Gilmore felt the air from the door shut behind her, Gilmore walked in the door more the old woman, who owned the shop with her husband, was sitting reading a magazine she looked up and smiled, “Hello dear, can I help you?”

Gilmore waved to Mrs.Caris, She had not thought about what she should buy while at the store, she smiled “I’m just...browsing, thanks!” she said, she turned around and started to wander around, there was a counter with baked goods, they were not Mrs.Caris’s but they were baked goods, Gilmore took a slice of cake and walked up to Mrs.Caris,

“How much?” she asked, Mrs.Caris looked up

“I am sorry dear, that is 5…” she looked up at Gilmore, “you don’t want to eat these, you should be full after supper”

“I did not eat, I am not a fan of the food.”

“Neither am I, but we must eat, and I am telling you Cake, Pie, Cookies and any other tooth-rotting sweet will not do you any good, suffer the school’s food and then eat the sweets.”

Gilmore sighed, she hated that food, it was gross!

“I can’t!” she said simply, it was too gross.

Mrs.Caris looked at Gilmore, “no. I won’t sell it to you, you must eat healthy first, go over to the blue shop across the lane, they sell fruits”

Gilmore sighed she did not want fruit, she wanted sweets!

But when hunger calls you must respond, she walked across the road and went inside the small blue shop, it was stuffy, dark and stunk like the rotting compost pile that lived in Gilmore’s backyard at home. The place was filled with fruit flies, the little bugs flew up Gilmore’s nose, making her sneeze, she went up to the closest stand and took an apple, as she picked it up it squished in her hand, he jumped back, dropping the apple on the floor.

The next stand had Bananas, they were brown and smelled rotten, Gilmore gagged, how could this store stay alive? Selling junk like this!

As she moved along the stands Gilmore noticed that the fruit’s price tags were worn out and looked old, their yellowed tags had numbers that had been written out in a messy way, almost that of a little child. None of the fruit was any good, the place stunk and was dark, Gilmore decided to find the owner and complain to them, this was bad business! She went up to the counter, it was dusty and again worn out, she looked around for a bell, finding nothing that even resembled a bell she shouted

“Hey! You’ve got a customer!” nothing.

“Hello! You have a person waiting here!” nothing.

“Anyone here!” she shouted, just then the back door opened and a man who Gilmore guessed was the owner or employee, walked up, as he came into better view Gilmore wondered how he was even a loud near the school, whoever the Head aster was needed someone to tell them that this thug should not be near kids!

“What d’ya want.” he asked, his breath smelled of smoking, she guessed he had been sitting outside smoking, “Well…” she started unsure what to say, she had been expecting a less scary-looking person.

“Umm, well I wanted to ask if you had any… fresh fruit?” she said, wondering how to tell this man that his store sucked,

“Man! It’s right there!” he said sounding a little off his rocker. Gilmore sighed

“Sir, not to be rude but are you the owner?”

The man looked at her strangely, “The Wha-now?”

Gilmore rolled her eyes, “Whatever you know what your serves Sucks!” she said, at this, the man hit his chain covered hand on the desk, dust floated up and Gilmore started to cough, she backed out of the store as the man started to rant about rude Kids coming in and complaining about the great serves there, Gilmore ran onto the street, she was coughing and hacking, the dust had really affected her, she sucked in the fresh air and soon was not coughing too badly, Mrs.Caris came out of her shop, “oh dear are you ok, that was the wrong shop you went into, that blue fruit shop!” she pointed to a larger shop that was three doors down from the dark one,

“That’s Mrs.Bangle’s fancy Foods, she is very nice and will get you whatever you need, she is my Sister!” Gilmore nodded and walked over to Mrs.Bangle’s fancy foods, when she walked in the smell of fresh fruit, Apple pies, fresh bread and other yummy things filled her nose, the buzzer above the door sang a song along the lines of ‘welcome to my store! We have so much more!’ the place was large and airy, and also bright. Gilmore looked around, there were rows of foods, from homemade goods and fruits to Potato chips and Packaged cookies, Gilmore walked up to the fruit’s Aisle, she walked down it, there was shining red and green and yellow apples, round green watermelon, Pale orange Guavas, Purple and green grapes, spiky green and yellow Pineapples, Orangy yellow Mangos, Large green spiky fruits that Gilmore did not know what they were, Red, pink and purple cherries, Red Riberries, Blue/purple blueberries, Odd-looking red bumpy fruits, Round spiky brownish-green fruits, Yellow lemons, and many other fruits, Gilmore was looking at an Odd red ball with green hair that smelled super yummy when a short oldish woman with steel-gray hair walked up,

“Hello dear! Do you like Rambutan?” she voice was much like Mrs.Caris, making Gilmore guess that this was Mrs.Bangle.

“Umm, what is a Rambutan?” Gilmore asked Mrs.Bangle, the old woman laughed heartedly,

“It’s the fruit your holding, the Rambutan is grown in Thailand, on a tree. It tastes sweet and sour with a floral undertone.” Gilmore was amazed by this woman’s knowledge of the plant she pointed to a large spiky green fruit, “what is that?”

Mrs.Bangle laughed again, “that is a Jackfruit, It’s grown in Bangladesh, and tastes like pulled pork!”

“Wow really? How do you cook it?” Gilmore asked, thinking that it might make a good meal.

The woman laughed “here I’ll write a recipe down for it.” she raced away and came back a few moments later with a piece of paper, the recipe read:

1\2 tablespoon Olive oil

1 tablespoon onion, chopped.

One garlic clove chopped

3\4 Lbs of Baby jackfruit

1\2 cup BBQ sauce (or to taste)

Step one: Heat oil Over medium heat in a large skillet.

Add in onion and garlic, stir till Slightly softened.

Add Jackfruit; Cook and stir until slightly browned and Almost free of moisture. (10 minutes)

Step two: Move to slow cooker, add BBQ sauce and cook for six hours, stir every once and a while.

Gilmore looked up at Mrs.Bangle

“I’ll take this and everything I need for the recipe!”

The woman nodded and started to grab the stuff that Gilmore needed,

Then she went to the bread section and bought some bread, cold meat and lettuce.

Gilmore found out she had spent over a hundred, including the slow cooker and skillet when she had paid.

“I’ll send this stuff to your cabin, what number are you?”

“I’m in Cabin 8” She said, showing her purple paper slip.

“Ok! It should be there by tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks!” Gilmore called as she took the bags of food, tomorrow she would make pulled Jackfruit!

(1604)