Professor Findle looked up as students came pouring gradually into class and watched them stand at their seats, looking at him. He sighed and greeted, “Good morning, students.” and they robotically replied, “Good morning, sir.”

  “Take a seat” the professor said, waving his hand dismissively. The students collectively sat as the professor started taking attendance.

  “Cream”

  “Here”

  “Dash”

  “Here”

  “Zedge”

  “Here”

  “Ziggy”

  “Here”

  “Mia”

  “Here”

  “Arane”

  Silence.

  “Arane?” called the professor, frowning now “She must be late”

  Arane looked up at her new school—Alleyway School. Even though it was called Alleyway, it wasn’t in an alleyway. Instead, it stood right beside the great church in the city, a great clock ticking beside it, as if to tell students they were late for school. Arane swallowed as the school towered over her, glaring at her muddy shoes, unkept, messy hair and messily done tie flopping in the wind. She jumped when she heard the bell ringing and immediately rushed through mud and made it in just in time to see the gates close behind her.

  Arane took the first deep breath she’d had today. Around her, students buzzed and chattered with their friends and trudged off to their classes. Few gave her curious or scornful looks at the sight of her legs and shoes caked in mud and her uniform and tie flopping listlessly with her wild, stick-out hair as she was missing her comb in the cottage. Ignoring all the stares, she trudged along like the others, squelching mud where she went and making the janitor mad. Frowning, she walked past the classrooms on the first level, but she couldn’t find her classroom, 7 Affection, anywhere. She then proceeded to search the 2nd level, then the 3rd, then the 4th… all the way up to the last level, the 7th.

  A midnight blue door, with gold stars that twinkled in the light however you looked at it winked at Arane as she checked her schedule. This must be the astronomy room, with astronomy being taught by…Arane’s eyes drifted from her schedule to the gold and blue bulletin hung beside the door. It said: Professor Findle. Astronomy teacher. Arane gulped, knowing she was late. She imagined Professor Findle to be fat and jolly, friendly and devoted to stars. At least, that was what she hoped he would be like.

  Mustering up her courage, Arane cautiously knocked on the door, opened it…and froze.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  5 students stared back at her, while a thin, old and scowling professor wrote at his desk. “Uh..I..well..” she stammered, before the professor cut her off. “Late. Sit beside Cream.” Arane sighed and went, muddy shoes squeaking and sloshing mud over the sparkling blue floor of the astronomy room, the professor frowning at the mess as he rang a bell for the janitor to come and wipe the mud off the floor.

  Embarrassed and guilty, Arane watched as the janitor shot her a furious look and swished his mop angrily at the mess. Arane heard a few of her classmates snickering and she pretended to be reading, aware of the stares but brushing them off. Professor Findle frowned harder and said, “Arane, what are you reading?”

  Arane froze. Everyone was looking at her. Slowly, she closed the book to look at its cover. Instead of the astrology book, she had a German book in her hands. Blushing and stumbling over her apology, she quickly got out her astrology book while the professor frowned even more deeply and shook his head, wondering if the transit student had any sense.

  “As I was saying,” the professor frowned again “The order of the stars are all based on- yes, what is it, Arane? Do you know the answer to this?” his tone suggested that Arane should keep quiet and just let him lecture. Arane shook her head. Anything about astrology and the stars left her with more questions than ever and more confusion and struggles to process information.

  “Why do we study stars, sir? What are the uses of studying stars? What exactly are stars? Are the order of stars based on, um, surface texture?” Arane blurted, before clapping a hand to her mouth. “My bad, sir!”

  Surprisingly, the old man’s eyebrows raised, giving him an inquisitive and surprised expression. “To your answer…yes, it’s correct. Stars are ordered based on their surface texture and spectral type.” Unfortunately, Professor Findle’s expression faded once more to a scowl. “As to your questions, curiosity killed the cat. So I suggest you just SHUT IT.” he growled, before turning his back on her and writing on the blackboard with a chalk ‘How stars are ordered’

  “What..?” Arane mumbled, surprised. She thought a good professor was a professor who was knowledgeable and answered sensible questions, and she thought her questions were sensible and related enough.

  For the rest of the day, the first lesson kept replaying in her mind and set her back for the rest of the other lessons. She kept her head down and bluntly took notes in class, not focusing much. As the final bell rang, Arane sighed and relief. She was free, free! Free from the prison that was called a school.

  She definitely preferred her old village school over this school, where professors were boring and intolerable.

  Walking back to the cold, lonely apartment, Arane was so lost in thought that she only remembered that her parents were coming back when she passed the hospital. That thought energized her so much that she found the energy to run back to the apartment, throwing open the door once she had unlocked it, expecting to find her parents there. But the light was off, everything untouched since Arane had left that morning. Arane slumped. She missed her parents very much and had been looking forward to their happy reunion.

  Maybe they’ll come back later, thought Arane, sitting down on the mattress in her so-called bedroom. But the bedroom was bare and empty, only an old mattress in a corner of the room. It was nothing like her bedroom back at her real home in the woods. From that point on, Arane started hallucinating. She saw cosy wooden cabinets and the wooden desk her father had singlehandedly built for her, for he had said: “Love is handmade”. She let herself and her mind wander, tracing all the events that happened next…until now. With a jolt, she got catapulted back into reality and looked around her. It was now nighttime, yet the doorbell hadn’t rang once.

  Worried, Arane dialed the hospital. The receptionist answered her call. “Hello?” called Arane uncertainly into the phone. “This is Ms Arane Piony. The hospital said that they would send my parents back here by nightfall, but they hadn’t arrived yet. Could you please check?”

  There was a moment of silence on the phone, before the receptionist said, “Ah, Ms Piony, I’m extremely sorry. The hospital taxi will be picking you up at the ground floor to take you to the hospital. Please be here soon.”

  Startled and fretful, Arane hurriedly made her way downstairs and boarded the taxi the hospital sent. They took off at full speed. After rounding corners, avoiding slow cars and swerving past unnatural drivers, they finally reached the hospital. It glowed in the streetlights, looking graceful but serious all at the same time. Arane dashed in, met by a frantic and sorrowful receptionist. “Just this way, ma’am.” ushered the receptionist, showing Arane to a grey metal door. Bursting in, Arane saw a terrible sight.

  Her mother and father sat in wheelchairs anxiously talking to each other. When they saw Arane, they cried for joy and Arane ran to their side, sobbing. Both Arane and her parents had missed each other dreadfully. Holding her mother and father tight, she wished that they could recover quickly and go back home. Without thinking, Arane whispered, “Mummy, I miss the forest. My longing for it is like an unstoppable thirst.”

  “Then satisfy your thirst,” her mother replied softly. “Go to the forest tomorrow."

  Arane gasped. “No, mother! How can I satisfy my thirst when you can’t?”

  “You must go,” her mother said firmly. “The forest needs you in a way you will never expect.”

  That night, Arane never left her parents’ side, knowing that once she went into the forest, she wouldn’t be seeing them for a very long time. And she was right about not seeing them for a long time. Her mother told her a story that night, when it was lights out in the hospital.

  Arane was a wolf controller.