My First Coven

One September Day

 'Maddie. Maddie! Madelyn!'

'What?'

It was Thursday. Thankfully Tuesday and Wednesday had completely flown by which was great because I hate Tuesdays and Wednesdays are just as bad. I had come straight back from my after school Judo class, took a quick shower then went directly up to my room to wait for dinner time. Katie and Victoria had gone to the laundry room to wash their sports kit and had returned to find me passed out and snoring on my bed. I have never been as tired in my life than what I had recently.

I sat myself upright and rubbed my eyes as Katie and Victoria stood beside my bed, with a slight look of shock on their faces.

'What's wrong? Somebody died?' I asked, noticing their strange looks.

'Well... yes.' Victoria answered. Deadpan in her delivery.

'We just heard that Mrs Clarkson has died.' Katie added.

I blinked a few times, then blinked some more as if it would help me comprehend what I had just been told.

'Like dead dead?' I asked, confused. I don't think I'd completely woken up properly but I wasn't surprised; I was absolutely knackered.

'Yeah dead dead. I don't know how deader you can get than... well dead.'

Victoria was pretty dry most of the time. She had quite the wicked sarcastic streak in her too and half of the time I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.

It kinda made me want to laugh, but seeing both of them with serious looks on their faces; I knew it wasn't a joke in poor taste.

'Oh. Shit'. I replied. 'Do they know how or why?'

'Dunno for sure.' Victoria had wandered over to her part of the room, kicking her shoes off on the way as she dumped her laundry bag at the foot of her bed. 'We saw an ambulance leaving the staff car park but we heard that Mrs Clarkson might've had a stroke.'

'It's horrible. Maddie and I have Chemistry with Mrs Clarkson she's a really good teacher. Well, was.'

I looked over at Katie, noticing she was looking a little upset. I was feeling a bit upset too. We had Mrs Clarkson as our chemistry teacher since we started here. In fact, she'd been teaching at the school for quite some time now. Unlike a good chunk of the faculty however; Mrs Clarkson lived off campus in a small cottage on the outskirts of Hitchin, which was the closest town to the school. I liked her a lot. She was an older lady, maybe in her mid-fifties but it was difficult to tell. She was always nicely dressed and made up, but what I liked most about her was the fact that when she spoke to you; she spoke to you like an actual person. Not a child at school, but a young adult. She commanded respect that way just by treating others with respect.

'I wonder how quickly they're going to replace her?' Katie asked. Victoria just shrugged her shoulders as she flopped down on to her bed. She had a point, I had a bit of a think.

'Pretty soon I guess. We've only just started the new term I don't think they'd want to leave it too long.' I answered Katie. She nodded in agreement. I started thinking; well, daydreaming actually. I had a vivid vision in my head that my Auntie Morrigan would rock up to the school in her mad car, we'd have our girly weekend then she wouldn't leave the school and start work on Monday teaching Mrs Clarkson's class. It was pretty far-fetched but knowing Auntie M, it was something she would totally do. I had a bit of an internal giggle to myself. Yeah it would be pretty funny if it did happen.

Eventually we all trudged down to the dining hall in the main building for dinner. The entire hall was quiet and slightly sombre in mood, apparently the news had spread pretty quick. Quick enough for the schools headmaster Mr Banks to come out and address everyone before we were allowed to eat. He said the rumours were true and Mrs Clarkson had in fact suffered a serious stroke as she was leaving to go home. They would be searching for a replacement Chemistry teacher as soon as possible.