Nocturnal Academy

Nocturnal Academy

By

Ethan Somerville

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SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Storm Publishing on Smashwords

Nocturnal Academy

Copyright © 2007/2019 by Ethan Somerville

www.stormpublishing.net

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Chapter 1

In the playground of Appleton primary, Alice Dibble sat in the shade of the biggest tree and concentrated on eating her lunch. She was very still and quiet, and tried to make herself as small as possible, but she might as well have had a big red target painted on the back of her school dress.

Three large boys, led by a fat youth everyone called Chunky, homed in on her like sharks that had smelled food. Hey, it’s Malice Dribble!

Alice, Malice, his two dumb mates sang as though they had thought up the most imaginative name in the world. Alice had only been called Malice Dribble since Kindergarten. She hunched down further into the collar of her uniform, as though trying to disappear inside it.

Chunky and his friends, Toby and Stan, surrounded her. Other kids who had been sitting nearby decided to scoot away, not wanting to get involved. What’ve you got for lunch today, Vampire Girl? A blood sandwich?

Alice managed to cram the rest of the bread into her mouth before Chunky could grab it, filling her cheeks so she looked like a chipmunk. But the big boy still managed to snatch up her lunchbox. Ooh, chips! Just what I need!

Hardly, you fat slob, Alice thought, but kept her mouth shut. She had long since learned not to talk back. Arguing just made the boys pick on her even more. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Mrs. Hobbs on playground duty. Of course she was looking the other way!

Chunky shared Alice’s chips with Toby and Stan, then threw Alice’s lunchbox on the ground. Laughing wickedly, the boys played a short game of footy with it. Alice simply watched and waited patiently. She bore their bad behaviour with silent courage. It had been going on for years, and although it upset her deep inside, she knew there was nothing she could do about it. She had learned to hide her hurt feelings.

This is boring, Toby complained after a while. Let’s make some water balloons to throw into the girls’ toilets.

Yeah! agreed Stan.

Guys, Chunky protested. Picking on Malice Dribble was his favourite game! But his best mates were already walking off. For them, teasing Alice wasn’t that much fun anymore.

Alice waited until Chunky had stomped off, and then grabbed her dirty, cracked lunchbox. Sighing she stuffed it back into her bag. Maybe today I’ll be accepted at one of the other secondary schools, she thought hopefully. Anything so I won’t have to attend Appleton High!

Alice had always been different, even as a little baby. It had taken her almost two years to start sleeping through the night. She hadn’t woken up to cry for food, only to play and enjoy the darkness and quiet. Even now she didn’t like getting up with the sun to watch cartoons, or run around outside. She loved staying up late, much to her mother’s concern. Sometimes she would stay up all night, only becoming tired at dawn. Then Mrs. Dibble would have a terrible time getting her out of bed for school.

Alice loved dark clothes and always wore lacy black dresses outside of school. She loved rare steak. She burned terribly in the sunshine because of her very fair skin. In contrast, her waist-length hair was as black as night and always loose. It fell from a centre part and hid her face. No wonder those boys called her Vampire Girl.

Alice preferred that name to stupid Malice Dribble. She wished she really did have vampire powers. Becoming a bat or wolf would be very handy when she wanted to go out at night, when Mum forbade her because twelve-year-old girls should never ever wander around alone in the dark.

The vampire ability to hypnotise people would have been very useful as well, to stop Chunky from teasing her all the time, and snotty girls like Carla Hightower from picking on her clothes and hair. She would have loved to become invisible so she could listen for juicy gossip. And a misty form would have been handy for slipping in and out of places.

Even a vampire’s great speed would have been welcome, so Alice could at least be good at one form of sport, like running. No matter how hard she pushed herself, she usually stumbled across the finish line last. Mrs. Parsons, her PE teacher, couldn’t understand it. Surely a girl as tall and thin as Alice would have to be a natural athlete!

Fortunately for Alice, her last year of Primary was almost over. Because of her good grades, Mrs. Dibble was sure that Alice would be accepted into a selective high school, and had lodged applications for every last one in the state. So far she had received only rejection letters in reply. It seemed good grades weren’t enough for schools like Bonny Blythe’s and St Augusta’s College for Gifted Girls. They wanted large amounts of money as well. Fortunately, some colleges were still to reply.

The afternoon bell rang, and Alice headed back to class. She made it through the rest of the afternoon with only one hassle from Carla Hightower, who bounced a screwed up bit of paper off the back of her head after she answered a difficult geography question correctly. When three o’clock finally arrived, Alice ran as fast as she could from school. Unfortunately she wasn’t quick enough. Chunky and his friends spotted her and gave chase, even though she didn’t live anywhere near them.

She had to walk the entire way along Granny Smith Street listening to their silly taunts. Please let me have been chosen for another school, she prayed. If I have to endure another six years of that at Appleton High I’ll go crazy! I don’t even care if I have to go to a boarding school in another state!

She turned into her own street, Pink Lady Lane. It was a long, winding road, lined with trees and hedges, and meandered off into the green hills around Appleton. Alice’s house was at number twelve, about half-way along. But first she had to walk past one of Appleton’s other high schools, Madam Nocturna’s Academy.

Mum had put Alice down for this school as well, though Alice didn’t think she would be selected. It looked very exclusive, the sort of place that would only accept girls like Carla Hightower. From Pink Lady Lane Alice could only see hilly grounds and lots of tall trees, which she supposed hid distant buildings. A tall iron fence, lined with hedges, surrounded the property, broken only by a single gate with Madam Nocturna’s Academy written on it in fancy letters.

Alice longed to stop at the gate and peer through. Maybe this time she could spot something in amongst the trees. But Pink Lady Lane was very quiet here, and if she paused Chunky and his mates would probably pelt her with apple cores, or something less nice. She kept on going, thinking about the mysterious academy and asking the same questions, over and over again. Why didn’t she ever see anyone on the grounds? How come there were never any students or teachers coming in or out? The gates looked like they had been locked for a long time – they had rust on them. She knew the school was still running – it had been listed in the phonebook and even had its own website. That was how Mrs. Dibble had applied for Alice.

Fortunately the boys broke off their pursuit when Alice’s house came into view. Her mother was working in the front garden, and looked up as she heard her daughter approach. She was a short, plump woman with curly blonde hair, tanned skin and rosy cheeks from working outside all the time. Alice looked absolutely nothing like her. She looked a bit more like her father. He now lived in a flat in the middle of town with an annoying woman named Janice.

Hello dear! Marlene Dibble called as she waved. Alice cringed, realising that Chunky would probably call her ‘dear’ all day tomorrow!

She glanced over her shoulder, but the boys were already slouching off, giggling.

Friends of yours? asked Mrs. Dibble hopefully.

No way Mum! They hate me! Alice cried with more anger than she wanted. She had to take a deep breath to calm herself.

Now Alice, everyone knows that boys only tease girls when they like them.

Alice gaped. She had never heard anything so ridiculous. Of course Chunky didn’t like her! Once she had overheard him call her a skinny, ugly bat to his friends, and she was sure he hadn’t known she was listening. But her mother seemed to believe it, and Alice couldn’t think of any way to prove her wrong. So she simply sighed and headed up the path, past the neat rows of daisies, roses and other flowers blooming in all the colours of the rainbow. All sorts of lovely smells came with them. Alice especially loved the frangipani that grew near the front door, and the jasmine that made white blankets on the fences every spring.

But why did her mother have to be so happy all the time? Alice couldn’t remember the last time she’d been really upset. She didn’t lose her cool when rude people pushed in front of her at the supermarket, or cut her off in the street. She seemed to have endless patience, which – unfortunately - Alice had not inherited either. When Dad had left to live with his new girlfriend Janice, Marlene had been quiet for days, but she hadn’t cried. Maybe she only wept alone.

Alice stomped into the house, checked the mail piled on the table in the hall, and then headed upstairs to the study to switch on the computer. Mrs. Dibble didn’t mind Alice doing her homework on the machine, but kept telling her ‘not to spend too much time in chatrooms’. How little she knew about her daughter! Alice hated the silly, air-headed kids who gossiped in the local chatrooms. She spent her spare time looking up information about vampires, werewolves and other strange creatures of the night.

Alice logged on and checked the mail. To her surprise she found a response from Madam Nocturna’s Academy. Her heart started to race with excitement. It’s probably another rejection notice, she told herself. Don’t get your hopes up! She wondered if she ought to let her mother open the letter. No – she couldn’t possibly wait that long. She opened the email, and the Nocturnal Academy’s letterhead came up. It was surrounded by flying bats and leaping wolves. A strange chittering and howling came from the computer’s speakers. Alice shivered with a mixture of excitement and fear.

"Dear Marlene Dibble,

Thank you for your application for your daughter Alice Dibble to attend our school. I am pleased to announce that she has passed the initial assessment process and has been selected to attend an interview on the school grounds at 6pm on the 31st of October. Should she pass this evaluation she will be accepted and join the ranks of many generations before her who have already passed through this illustrious academy.

I am looking forward to meet Alice. She sounds like a very interesting young woman.

Yours faithfully,

Madame Elliana Nocturna

Alice couldn’t believe her eyes. She had been granted an interview at Madam Nocturna’s Academy! She checked the letter again, just to make sure. Her racing heart seemed to leap in her chest. 6pm, October 31 was tonight!

She leapt to her feet and raced downstairs, back out into the yard where her mother was still working and humming cheerfully to herself.

Mum, Mum! Alice shrieked, startling Mrs. Dibble with her excitement. It was very out of place for the naturally reserved young woman.

What is it? Mrs. Dibble gasped, thinking that Alice had broken something or poured hot water everywhere.

I’ve been selected for an interview at Madame Nocturna’s! Tonight!

Tonight? What kind of a school interviews children at night? Mrs. Dibble exclaimed.

At six o’clock! Oh, I hope I get in! Maybe I should change. Before her mother could respond, Alice had dashed back inside to strip out of her hated primary school uniform.

Marlene Dibble did not share her daughter’s excitement. She had only put Alice’s name down at Madame Nocturna’s because it was so close to home. She had never thought Alice would actually be considered for such an exclusive-looking place. She remembered filling out a very strange form. Some of the questions had been very straightforward, such as ‘list your child’s best subjects’, and ‘name your child’s hobbies’, but others had been completely weird, like ‘Does your child like the dark?’, ‘Does he/she like to sleep in and is he/she very hard to rouse in the morning?’ and ‘does your child have a connection to any animal? If so, name the creature.’

How could questions like that possibly be useful? Surely schools preferred children who loved daylight and liked to be up bright and early? And what was all that about animals? Was it one of those schools with a farm attached? She could only shake her head in confusion. But she would be ready to take Alice down to the Academy at six. She knew how much her daughter didn’t want to go to Appleton High.

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Chapter 2

Alice and her mother left the house at quarter to six and headed off along Pink Lady Lane. The sun angled towards the horizon, turning the surrounding hills red. Groves stretched as far as the eye could see, filled with apples of all shapes and colours. A few minutes later they stopped at the Academy’s rusty old gates. Mrs. Dibble peered through the bars. I’m really not sure about this place, Alice, she murmured. It looks so quiet and deserted.

This is definitely the place, Alice insisted. Number 9 Pink Lady Lane. But now she had time to peer more closely at the gate, it really did look old and disused. Vines grew around the hinges and long grass covered the rungs at the bottom. Then she heard a crunch of shoes on gravel, and whirled around to see two people approaching.

She gaped in horror on recognising one of Chunky’s friends; Toby Thompson. He was a tall, skinny boy with knobby knees and huge hands and feet that looked like they had outgrown the rest of his body. He had let his curly sandy-blonde hair grow out over his ears to hide the fact they stuck out like mug handles. He was with a thin woman with a hard face. He looked so much like her that they had to be related.

What are you doing here, Malice? he demanded before he could stop himself. They couldn’t possibly have granted you an interview! There must be some mistake!

Alice opened her mouth to respond, decided there was no point, and turned away.

"Now