Post by HorsegirlDylan on Sept 22, 2008 10:54:24 GMT -7
The Inherited Clock
Timekeeper 1/3
Chapter 1: Great-aunt Ethelie
Cathy slumped on the bed. It was hard being the middle one in a seven-person family. She had a sister called Alex, who was two years older than her, a brother called Eric, who was a year older than Cathy, an one year younger brother called Dann, and Xena, who was two years younger than her. Add Cathy and their parents, and that's the Choldings.
-Cathy!
-What, Cathy answered.
-School starts tomorrow, said the entrant revealed as Xena, -you'll go to a different school!
-And so, Cathy sighed.
-Your class'll be 7C. Here's your list of classmates, Xena said and threw an envelope onto Cathy's bed.
Cathy looked at the list.
Aycer secondary scool class 7C student list:
Downlake, Ada Emily Nina
Downlake, Emily Nina Ada
Downlake, Nina Ada Emily
Berg, Sonya Cloth Mary
Cholding, Cathy Zara
Emils, Eric Eric
Ericsson, Morning Misa
Etheil, Amy Alice
Etheil, Sweet Pearl
Horseman, Amy Ricy
Horseman, Lily Sarah
Primrose, Fredrica Eliza
Primrose, Dan Fredrick
Ithle, Joozef Inge
River, Joonas Joonatan
River, Samba Abeli Ant
Panner, Storm-Peter
Panner, Peter Robert
Rosalind, Rosa Rose
Suitcase, Lever Samba
Viper, Sapling-Star
Halfhill, Twiggie
Total 21 pupils, of which 13 are girls and 8 boys.
-The Downlake triplets, the Horseman twins and Star from my class; from 6A Sonya Berg, the Horsmas and Joozef Itilä; and from 6B the Ettiläs, the Downlakes and Samppa Suitcase, Cathy mumbled to the paper thinking about last year's rumors: that Samppa Suitcase has ran into the girls' toilets, and that the horrendous lights-out gang's leader was Cathy's little brother Dann, which was very likely, but also very worrying.
On the first day of school, the teacher Miss Sördberg ran trough the list:
-Downlake, Ada Emily Nina.
-Here.
-Downlake, Emily Nina Ada.
-Here.
Until she got to Cathy.
-Cholding, Cathy Zara
-Here, Cathy answered.
-Do you think you're famous when you've got a brother and sister in the same school? the teacher said.
-How does it matter that my brother and sister are in the same school, Cathy snapped back.
-Emilä, Etu Erik, the teacher continued.
-Here.
-Don't think about it, apparently Sördberg'll take you as her eyesore reeeally easily, Lily comforted Cathy in the breaktime.
Cathy looked at Lily, her mouse gray hair, her blue-gray eyes, her thin lips, and seeing Lily's calculating expression Cathy was sure Lily was calculating either the square root of one thousand five hundred and thirty-one, or trying to figure out what -1's factorial was.
-I think Sördberg should be fired, said Anu, who was hard to identify as Lily's twin, because Lily's hair was gray, and Lily liked maths and hated sport, Anu was a redhead, who liked sports and thought maths was silly. Both had the same blue-gray eyes.
Maths with Sördberg was torture. There was no other word for it. On the maths lessons, Sördberg's eyesore was Lily, and Lily admitted that the maths lessons' quality had gone down a lot. Finnish, Biology, History and English went the same, except that the eyesore was Cathy. Ethics, sports, Physics and Chemistry were taught by diierent teachers: Ethics by Ms. Bohm, sports by Mrs. Gosshawk, Art by Mr. Perch, while Physics and Chemistry were taught by the same teacher, miss Akire Hill, or Akire as she asked everyone to call her on the first lesson.
-Akire is NICE! Lily shouted after the first chemistry lesson.
-No, totally crazy! The Periodic table of the Elements! Mad! Sonya shouted to them.
Cathy looked at Sonya. She saw the same pale, wide face, the same blonde hair with a pale pink stripe from her fifth-grade dyeing attemp, the same wide lips, same big nose and the same browny-green eyes staring at her from behind thick-rimmed glasses
-Don't think about it, huffed Sapling-Star who'd just arrived, -in my opinion Akire's the best teacher.
When Cathy looked at Sapling-Star, or Starrysapling, as people knew her, deep in her blue-green eyes, it was hard not to believe her.
Still the Downriver triplets found her sandy brown hair something to tease her about. The Downrivers themselves were brown-eyed blondes.
Now when everyone else had Religion, Cathy got out as an atheist.
At home Cathy jumped on her bed. Idiot Sördberg had given them a ton of homework in Biology. Cathy was halfway trough replying to the question about when should you pick mushrooms, when-
-Cathy, you've got mail. Great-aunt Ethelie has died and left you one hundred bucks and a broken clock, Alex shouted from the kitchen, -Come!
-Yes yes, Cathy answered.
After she got back from the kitchen, Cathy looked at the clock. It looked like it had stopped, pointing at midnight. She pushed the clock on her desk, huffed
-Bah, and continued with her homework.