Excerpt for Emerald Shores by Amy Laine , available in its entirety at Smashwords
The Emerald's Shores
By- Amy Laine
My Mother used to tell me to look out at the sea just before the Sun rose into the sky. The Sun rising above the ocean, leaving a glimmer of hope behind it is what I try to paint onto the white canvas stretched before me. My mind is filled with the memories of the past and I try to concentrate on my task. If you mess up here....well you just can't mess up at a school like this one. They will kick you out-and my family can't afford me to be kicked out.
Mother worked three jobs to get me into this school. 'So you can have a better future. Something I should have worked at...you can't live like...THIS anymore...' Mother had sighed wistfully twirling my hair. This school is everything. If you can get into it well..that doesn't say much. It only means your rich, but Mother and I aren't rich. We used every penny for me to be here. Only ten percent graduate from this school. If you DO graduate from this school you get a LOT of money, a good reputation and surely a good future. If you tell the store manager because he won't sell you the last bit of sugar, 'I graduated from RH' they will reconsider.
I miss Mother right now. I long to go to my room and start a letter to her...but did I mention what happens if you don't graduate? You don't have any kind of a reputation. People will look at you with scorn and say, 'Look! I heard SHE didn't pass RH. No wonder. Doesn't look so sharp to me!' That is why I can not let that happen. If I leave now I get a DT. That means Discipline Slip. Of you get three of those in a trimester than you won't make graduation.
I glance down at the canvas I'm working on. I can't seem to get the Sun at the right angle and normally I wouldn't try so hard. But this is different. Number one it reminds me of Mother and our home. Number two if I don't try my best as Mother made me promise I would then I might flunk RH! RH means Rendon high-school and I really can't say where the name 'Rendon' came from.
The teacher is coming around inspecting everyone's paintings. “Beautiful Stephanie! I love the little details and those rabbits frisking about! Truly wonderful” Stephanie beams which I found out is the WRONG thing to do. Don't be fooled by Miss Clanges 'compliments'. Wait for it... I mutter under my breath.
“Don't you think that the eyes on that bear could be farther apart? My goodness look at him! He looks like he woke up with a bad side burn!” Miss Clange cries. “Oh and for heaven sakes Bethany your clouds look like white bricks!” “My names is Stephanie...” Stephanie says quietly. Miss Clange has already moved on.
Before I know it Miss Clange is standing in front of me. “Your painting is so intricate!” She gushes. I'm not fooled but I just nod in thank you. “And your Sun...so bright! That sunset makes me feel like I'm already there and that sand...I can feel it! So soft and yet grainy between my toes!” I have to admit. It IS hard not to give in and just puff out my chest with pride. But I know better. I can't do that, because after that comes the strike. “The Sun might be a little crooked in the sky though and I think you used too deep of a blue for the sea, and maybe that dolphin in the distance could be less...smudged? Then of course is the problem with the big blots on the shore...oh they might be shells...if you squint.” I want to point out that how can the Sun be 'crooked' and the ocean where I live (Or 'lived') was that exact color. Also the Dolphin is smudged on PURPOSE because it gives it more of a far off kind of distance. And my shells are NOT blots, and I know anyone could see that. But I just hang my head and utter a small, 'Yes Ma'am.” Miss Clange walks off satisfied at my humiliation.
After a couple more minutes we are dismissed to our lunch time. Normally I do not go the Diner (It isn't called a Cafeteria here) and I stay in my 'chamber' and write to Mother. I eat as I write but after the letter I doodle and draw whatever I want to. It always feels good to let my feelings out.
Sometimes I get jealous when I see someone walk by with all of THEIR friends and I sketch me and a group of friends hanging out instead of me stuck here by myself. Sure I know I could go down there but really, I guess I'm scared. What if they don't like me? How will I ever survive if they turn on me? What if they make fun of me? What if they distract me from getting to graduate? I'm so confused and I think about it everyday. Mother would tell me to try but she doesn't know the girls here. SO every day I grab my lunch tray then scurry up to my room as fast as I can go.
Today I'm in such a hurry to tell Mother what happened in Art Class today I spill hot chocolate down the front of my blouse and skirt. Everyone turns to look at me and I race for the Diner's doorway. I make it safely back to my room and I try to tell myself that blouse was smelly anyways after Physical Education. I sigh and throw it down the Laundry Chute.
Dear Mother,
Today so far hasn't been 'my cup of tea'. I hope you are doing better then I am but I will find a way to survive as you always taught me. Art Class has been a complete disaster. The Art Teacher Miss Clange is very complimentarily...in the wrong ways. I miss you a lot and I haven't made many friends but I'm sure I will. The food here is fine I assure you and none of the subjects are difficult for me right now. I will send you a copy of my Report Card in this letter. I miss you very much and I was hoping if you might send me my plaid skirt and Summer Blue Fleece shirt. (I'll tell you why later....maybe). I love you very much, and as I rush down life's highway I think of you often.
With Love,
Esmeralda Von De Millecefent
Essa
P.S Could you take a picture of the color of the Sea by the house for me and send it in your next letter? I would like to see if some colors I have on my Sea Painting are right. (Yes that will mean I am doing my best!) Please right back soon.
I mark the final period on my letter and re-read it. I open my desk drawer and find my Report Card. I glance over it.
Esmeralda Von De Millecefent
Art Class 99.9% A
Physical Education 100% A
Music Class 100% A
Math Class 100% A
Language Arts 100% A
Looking Glass Class 99.9% A
Outdoor skills 99.9% A
I sigh as I look at my report card. I can;t bear to look at any OTHER classes. I have to have ALL 100% to graduate! I get out my sketch book and start to draw what I have been working on all my life. I almost have the details done and then I will need to put a new coat of Stay On over it before I put it away.
I glance at the clock above my desk and realize I'll be late for my next class-Looking Glass-in only two minutes! I grab my back pack and race out of the room quickly locking it behind me.
I barely make it to class before the Great Doors shut. “Everyone grab a stool and start primping your neighbor. After wards there will be dress fitting...Oh dear then we will need to have the servants come in here. If some of you pass RH then you will need to know how to order someone around.” Lady Archnessia our Looking Glass teacher instructs. She is called 'Lady' because it is 'formal'.
I sit down at a stool and glance at myself in the mirror. It was strange the first time I looked at myself because I never had a mirror before. Brown hair curling and falling in waves with a small Crown Braid encircling the top of my head. It took me forever to learn how to do a Crown Braid but of course, since at RH you need to do your best, I took a 'whack at it' as Americans would say.
“Essa dear, why don't you try the light violet blush for those cheeks?” Lady Archnessia tickled my tuft of hair sticking up at the top of my head. Quickly I smoothed it down, before she noticed I had a hair out of place. She didn't notice- she was too busy picking out a blush for me. Lady Archnessia grabbed the brush and stroked it softly onto my pale cheeks and it took all my power not to sneeze or wack her hand away because it tickled so much!
“Thank you Lady A,” I mumbled a little embarrassed that she put it on for me. I may not be American but that did not mean I did not know how to apply make up! The shame. My cheeks went hot with shame, but no one seemed to notice under the pile of blush my instructor had scooped onto me. I really wanted to wipe all the makeup off and undo my hair from the braids- it just was not my style. Of course...mother would be so disappointed. One thing bad had been taught here at RH so far- having your own...flame. Like your own mind, to make your own decisions. I had always just followed mothers lead- but now, too my dismay, I was questioning my mothers decisions!
After Looking Glass is finally over I make my way to my least part of the day. It is not a class but sort of. It is for the kids that are 'foreign'. On the very first day of that class, the teacher who was just as selfish as Lady Archnessia insisted on being called 'Lord' Burns. He walked around the area we were given by the school in a silk Italian suit and maintained trying to look elegant. I am sure he was only doing it to impress Lady Archnessia but I can not be sure. On the very first day of that 'class' as well, he tried to ask me where I was from. I shook my head and sealed my lips tight. “Can't you speak?” His voice softened. Some of the other girls in the class snickered at my 'sudden' (it never really was 'sudden' I have always been not much of a talker) quietness. Lord Burns took my hand and placed it on a chalk board slate. “This will serve as your way of talking, to our class.” He announced. I just nodded. I wondered what he would think when he figured out I could talk.
I walked into the 'class for foreigners' at the end of the day and was handed the chalk board slate again. I was still thinking of how I would break the news of my sudden miraculous talking to Lord Burns when he announced we were going to have an activity. “We are going to have a lesson on communicating with the mute!” Was his excited announcement. My heart sank probably to my toes- or further if that is possible. Lord Burns turned to me and caught my arm. I tried to struggle, I really had no idea what we were doing, but he looked me in the eye. “It is okay Essa, we are only taking you to the center of the circle. Don't be afraid.” I hated how he was treating me different. But I resigned to his commands and let him lead me to the center. He sat me in a chair and asked me to show the kids a piece of sign language. I stared at him blankly. What was this 'sign language' he kept talking about? He handed me my slate and told me to write down something instead after he realized I was not taught sign language.
I took the slate and wrote, “Please do not lean so close to me, your breath reeks.” I looked back up into his stupid, but concerned eyes and decided not to show him that message. I erased it and wrote, “I am sorry that I do not know sign language.” He read it then patted my shoulder in comfort. “I will teach the simple ones first to you and the class then.” With that he started on some boring hand gestures and I really was just about to leap up and scream- that would show him I could talk. Of course, it was kind of fun playing this trick on him...but if I got caught? Oh no! I realized. I might get kicked out of RH!
“Sir!” I shouted. Lord Burns whipped around and saw Annabeth talking to Adriana. “Be quiet or you will be sent to the Headmaster!” He warned. Then he turned again and showed us how to make a 'bathroom' gesture.
What seemed like hours later we were released and I wandered to my chamber feeling more than exhausted. I flopped down on my bed as soon as I tumbled into my room and was asleep almost instantly.
That night I dreamt that I was standing on mother and I's beach with the current of the ocean sweeping softly over our feet, and the seagulls soaring high above. A flash of lightning cuts through the beautiful scenery and then my mother is not there anymore. In a panic, or terror I run into the water, deeper in deeper calling my mother's name. The waves rise up and the last thing I see is the tide sweeping down on me.
I wake in sweat and my eyes are huge. It felt so real! I shiver and pull my blankets closer. I rest my head to my pillow again and close my eyes begging for the relief of dreamless, peaceful sleep.