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haflTitle: A Tale of Two Schools, Chapter Three
Original work: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Pairing: Various
Rating: PG
The excitement of a new boy arriving after the term had already began died out after a few days and now, the weekend was almost her and Colm couldn’t but look forward towards it. Not only did the grind of schoolwork already started to wear him out, but he also wanted to see Neimi again. Apparently, from what Ewan was saying, the new boy’s sister also started attending Jehanna, so the girl must have been in similar uproar. He wanted to ask Amelia to pass a note to Neimi, but if a teacher saw it… No, the waiting wasn’t that unbearable.
Sunday wasn’t too far off in any case and there would be a chance to sneak away and chat with Neimi for a bit. He already had practice in it and the rush and bustle of the Sunday church outing was perfect for slipping away. Why did Mr. Vigarde pit more than one hundred unruly boys under charge of a single chaplain was something Colm couldn’t understand, but he didn’t complain in the least. Even if Arthur caught him, he would probably just smile understandingly and let him off with a measly hundred lines.
The village church wasn’t very large. It certainly wasn’t built with the expectation that the two schools would more than double the village’s population. Therefore, the first service was for the village residents, while the second for boys and girls from Grado and Jehanna. While the service was going on, it was easy to disappear in the crowd, since Arthur and sister Natasha from Jehanna had only two pairs of eyes to watch hundreds of their charges.
As usual, Colm went together in a group with Franz and Ross. Poor Ewan, who lived together with his father, an English teacher at Jehanna, had to go together with the girls, lost in the shapeless horde of Jehanna uniforms, which seemed to make even worse noise than the boys. Even though he knew Neimi for years, practically even since they’ve been born, Colm had trouble finding her in the throng. He did not lose sight of her, until he could secretly give her their old signal that meant, “I want to talk with you.”
Neimi of course understood the signal and she didn’t have any qualms about skipping the service. However, it seemed that Neimi already had other plans for the day, since when they met at their usual spot behind the vicar’s house, Amelia had joined them.
“Sorry, Colm,” said Neimi, “We had plans for today since long before. You aren’t mad, are you?”
Colm did have some objections, but he said nothing. While Neimi today wouldn’t cry about something as trivial as him being a little but disappointed, but he found it hard to not think of Neimi as the crybaby little girl with whom he grew up. For the matter, Neimi confessed to him that she cried from homesickness at the start of every single term.
“Thank you,” said Neimi, “And the fact that we had plans for today doesn’t mean that we can’t include you, does it Amelia?”
“It doesn’t,” said Amelia.
Colm did not pay much attention to Amelia, even though that as Mr. Duessel’s granddaughter with no other family, she lived at Grado, walking to Jehanna every morning. Neimi did talk about her a lot, but since the boys at Grado were being strongly discouraged from being too friendly with her, this was probably the first time they actually had a proper chance to speak with each other.
Since it was Sunday, most of the shops in the village were closed, but there was always Anna’s small store, or if they felt especially adventurous, Riev’s half-secret pub. Neither Anna nor Riev were particularly religious, so they were more than willing to make some profit off anyone forgetting to buy something over the week or wanting a glass on Sunday. Of course, they more than welcomed students, who rarely had other opportunities to visit the village, except for Sundays.
Joshua and Forde were apparently already at Riev’s and Colm made note to himself that he should visit soon. Riev was tolerated by the village people as long as he kept discreet, but if there were any trouble, there was little doubt that he would be forced to close shop, even move somewhere else. With the way Forde was carrying on… Franz did not say much, but even from that little, Colm knew that the pot was close to boiling over.
Anna, on the other hand, kept a much more dignified establishment. Apart from selling whatever may be needed in a village like that, she also kept a small café-like room, which was almost filled with truant students every Sunday. No doubt the school heads knew about it, but on Sundays, sneaking into the village was apparently tolerated, as long as there wasn’t even the slightest sign of trouble. Both schools still remembered Seth, who had made the mistake of getting caught while taking a shortcut through Mr. Valter’s garden, and both schools were able to agree that the swift expulsion was a far too harsh punishment. It did not dissuade anyone, but everyone made sure to tread lightly when outside his or her allowed bounds.
This particular Sunday, there weren’t that many students in the city that Colm recognised. Mostly there were unfamiliar girls, but Colm was surprised to see Tana sharing a table with Ephraim, the new boy, and a girl who was undoubtedly Ephraim’s sister. Apart from them, he also recognised Cormag who seemed to have an intense conversation with an older girl Colm didn’t know.
All this did not matter to Colm, but Neimi and Amelia hesitated a bit when they saw the room’s occupants. When they took their seats, Neimi spoke to Colm, “See that girl over there,” she said, discreetly motioning towards Cormag’s table, “That’s Vanessa, the Head Girl. I don’t know why she is here, but it’s not as if she can report us for skipping church.”
“Anyway,” said Amelia, “What are you going to have? Me, I’m already fed up with the meals at Grado. I swear that Jehanna has much better food.”
Neimi laughed. “Not on Sunday. Sunday’s food is little better than fasting.”
“I’ll just have a cup of tea,” said Colm, “I’m almost out of my allowance for the month and I have to save it.”
“At least you have an allowance,” said Amelia, “Grandfather says that since I’m living with him, I can just ask when I need to buy something.”
“And that’s why I’m treating Amelia today,” said Neimi, “Poor dear, she deserves more than the one decent meal she gets at Jehanna.”
“You have your allowance,” said Neimi, “It’s not Amelia’s fault you spend it all on trifles.”
“Sorry, I just meant it as a joke,” said Colm-
Still, it was hard to watch the girls, as they enjoyed one of Anna’s cakes, while Colm sipped his bitter tea. Anna never put any sugar or anything else into the tea, claiming that the contrast helped enhance the taste of the sweet stuff. Neither Neimi nor Amelia were interested in talking, so Colm let his attention wander around the room.
As he recognised no one else, he first turned his attention towards Tana, Ephraim and Ephraim’s sister, but they sat in a corner, removed from everyone else, so Colm was unable to hear anything that they were saying. Cormag and that girl, Vanessa, on the other hand, while not that much closer to Colm, were much louder. It seemed that the conversation had further intensified into a row.
“Your sister’s no longer playing,” said Cormag, “Jehanna won’t be winning any matches without her.”
“Shows what you know,” said Vanessa, “We completely trounced Rodenhurst in our last match and that was last week.”
“You may have,” said Cormag, “But didn’t Felicity break her leg in that match? Without her, your entire team is even more worthless.”
“Felicity’ll be back on the team before long,” said Vanessa, “And anyway, we’ve got a new girl and Syrene’s told me that she’s got great potential.”
“Syrene?” said Cormag, “Didn’t she leave Jehanna?”
“Oh no,” said Vanessa, “She stayed on as the Games Mistress after Miss Gascoyne married. See, we still have her on our side.”
“So what?” said Cormag, “She’s still not playing. Without her, Grado could beat Jehanna with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our backs.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” said Vanessa. “Grado doesn’t even have a lacrosse team. You only play cricket, don’t you?”
“Yes, and we’re the best team in the country,” said Cormag, “While Jehanna’s playing so many sports it isn’t good at anything.”
“Really?” said Vanessa, “Then how about a match? Jehanna against Grado in cricket. We’ll see how good you are.”
“Cricket?” said Cormag, “That wouldn’t be fair. Let’s play lacrosse. You girls will need every advantage that you can get.”
“Fine,” said Vanessa, “But don’t come crying after you discover that you’re hopeless at lacrosse.”
“On the last weekend before the term ends?” said Cormag, “To give you time to prepare?”
“Deal,” said Vanessa, “Though it’s you who’s going to need practice.”
At that moment, a bespectacled girl walked over to Cormag and Vanessa’s table. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” she said.
“Not at all, we were just about done,” said Vanessa, “Is the service already done?”
“I slipped away while it was still going on,” said the girl and took a seat, “Dreadfully boring, it was. Even Natasha and that Grado guy were unable to pay attention.”
“Colm, it’s not polite to eavesdrop. Who were you listening to, anyway?” said Neimi suddenly.
Colm turned around and saw that Neimi and Amelia were just finishing eating. “So what plans did you two have for today?” he asked.
“Nothing in particular,” said Amelia, “We just wanted to spend some time together. We don’t have time for that after school, since Grandfather wants me to come home as soon as I can.”
“I see,” said Colm, “I hope that I’m not getting in the way.”
“Oh no, Colm, you’re not,” said Neimi, “I can see Amelia every day, but I can see you only on Sundays.”
“Though you two will see each other everyday during the hols,” said Amelia.
“Did I forget to tell you?” said Neimi, “Father just wrote me. If your grandfather allows it, you can spend the hols at my home.”
“Really?” said Amelia, but the excitement quickly faded from her face, “It’s still hopeless, Grandfather will never allow that. He says that family should spend the Christmas together, even if it would be just the two of us.”
“Oh,” said Neimi and Colm thought that he saw a hint of tears in her eyes, “You must convince him, you simply must. Colm, can’t you do something?”
“Me?” said Colm, “I don’t think so. Mr. Duessel doesn’t really like me that much.”
“He outright dislikes you,” said Amelia, “Whenever he mentions you, he says that you’d do well to stop finding excuses for skipping Games. I don’t think you’d be of much help.”
“My parents want to spend the winter at sea in south France,” said Colm, “It’s not my fault that Monsieur Pent can only schedule extra lessons over Games.”
“Really, Colm,” said Neimi, “Your French is fine. You don’t need any extra lessons and it might put Amelia’s grandfather in better mood, so he’d allow her to visit.”
She paused and then she added, “Please.”
Colm was afraid that if he said no, Neimi would burst into tears, but even without this danger, saying no was out of the question. He could never say no to Neimi, not when she was looking at him like that.
“I give up,” he said, “I suppose I can do that, though Monsieur Pent was saying that he had nothing better to do than tutoring me, since his wife also has a class at that time and Clarine spends most of her time playing somewhere with Myrrh.”
“Maybe you can talk someone else into taking those lessons,” said Amelia, “I think I heard Mr. Vigarde say that Lyon was having problems with French. Oh, and thank you Colm.”
“Lyon?” said Colm, “I though that he was the best student we had at Grado?”
“Yes, he is,” said Amelia, “But you know how shy he is. He sometimes has trouble talking with people in English, let alone French.”
“Well, at least this Lyon sounds a whole deal more pleasant than the best student at Jehanna,” said Neimi, “She could probably take a page out of his book.”
“Oh, Lute is absolutely horrid, there’s no doubt,” said Amelia, “Did you hear that when she was asked to show Eirika around the school, she made Marisa do it?”¨
“Yes, that was perfectly beastly,” said Neimi, “I say, if she wanted to be a prefect, she should take both the rights and the responsibilities.”
“Ahem, I can hear you,” said a voice suddenly and when they looked up, the bespectacled girl who joined Cormag’s table was now standing by their own table.
“Well,” continued the girl, apparently the Lute that the girls were talking about, “I can’t let this slide. Both of you, two hundred lines for badmouthing a prefect. It’s Sunday now, but I want them by tomorrow’s evening.”
“Now, Lute,” said Vanessa, “They’re perfectly right. It wasn’t nice to push Eirika on Marisa without even saying please.”
“You know that I had to study,” said Lute.
“I know that,” said Vanessa, “But you still should have tried to be at least civil about it. Why don’t you let Amelia and Neimi off with just an apology.”
Lute didn’t say anything for a moment; she just looked down. “Fine,” she said eventually.
“Sorry, Lute,” said Neimi, her eyes still glistening with tears, as she almost burst into tears when Lute surprised them.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have talked about you behind your back,” said Amelia.
Again, Lute did not say anything for a while. “Apology accepted,” she said finally.
“All’s settled then,” said Vanessa, “But we should go now, it’s almost time, just look at the clock.”
Vanessa was right. It was almost time for the service to be over, so the remaining students were quickly vacating the shop and preparing to rejoin their respective schools, as they went back from the village.
Ephraim’s sister bade farewell to her brother and Tana. Colm bade farewell to Neimi and Amelia. Just as they were about to leave, Cormag called after Vanessa and Lute, “See you at the playing field, then.”
Original work: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Pairing: Various
Rating: PG
The excitement of a new boy arriving after the term had already began died out after a few days and now, the weekend was almost her and Colm couldn’t but look forward towards it. Not only did the grind of schoolwork already started to wear him out, but he also wanted to see Neimi again. Apparently, from what Ewan was saying, the new boy’s sister also started attending Jehanna, so the girl must have been in similar uproar. He wanted to ask Amelia to pass a note to Neimi, but if a teacher saw it… No, the waiting wasn’t that unbearable.
Sunday wasn’t too far off in any case and there would be a chance to sneak away and chat with Neimi for a bit. He already had practice in it and the rush and bustle of the Sunday church outing was perfect for slipping away. Why did Mr. Vigarde pit more than one hundred unruly boys under charge of a single chaplain was something Colm couldn’t understand, but he didn’t complain in the least. Even if Arthur caught him, he would probably just smile understandingly and let him off with a measly hundred lines.
The village church wasn’t very large. It certainly wasn’t built with the expectation that the two schools would more than double the village’s population. Therefore, the first service was for the village residents, while the second for boys and girls from Grado and Jehanna. While the service was going on, it was easy to disappear in the crowd, since Arthur and sister Natasha from Jehanna had only two pairs of eyes to watch hundreds of their charges.
As usual, Colm went together in a group with Franz and Ross. Poor Ewan, who lived together with his father, an English teacher at Jehanna, had to go together with the girls, lost in the shapeless horde of Jehanna uniforms, which seemed to make even worse noise than the boys. Even though he knew Neimi for years, practically even since they’ve been born, Colm had trouble finding her in the throng. He did not lose sight of her, until he could secretly give her their old signal that meant, “I want to talk with you.”
Neimi of course understood the signal and she didn’t have any qualms about skipping the service. However, it seemed that Neimi already had other plans for the day, since when they met at their usual spot behind the vicar’s house, Amelia had joined them.
“Sorry, Colm,” said Neimi, “We had plans for today since long before. You aren’t mad, are you?”
Colm did have some objections, but he said nothing. While Neimi today wouldn’t cry about something as trivial as him being a little but disappointed, but he found it hard to not think of Neimi as the crybaby little girl with whom he grew up. For the matter, Neimi confessed to him that she cried from homesickness at the start of every single term.
“Thank you,” said Neimi, “And the fact that we had plans for today doesn’t mean that we can’t include you, does it Amelia?”
“It doesn’t,” said Amelia.
Colm did not pay much attention to Amelia, even though that as Mr. Duessel’s granddaughter with no other family, she lived at Grado, walking to Jehanna every morning. Neimi did talk about her a lot, but since the boys at Grado were being strongly discouraged from being too friendly with her, this was probably the first time they actually had a proper chance to speak with each other.
Since it was Sunday, most of the shops in the village were closed, but there was always Anna’s small store, or if they felt especially adventurous, Riev’s half-secret pub. Neither Anna nor Riev were particularly religious, so they were more than willing to make some profit off anyone forgetting to buy something over the week or wanting a glass on Sunday. Of course, they more than welcomed students, who rarely had other opportunities to visit the village, except for Sundays.
Joshua and Forde were apparently already at Riev’s and Colm made note to himself that he should visit soon. Riev was tolerated by the village people as long as he kept discreet, but if there were any trouble, there was little doubt that he would be forced to close shop, even move somewhere else. With the way Forde was carrying on… Franz did not say much, but even from that little, Colm knew that the pot was close to boiling over.
Anna, on the other hand, kept a much more dignified establishment. Apart from selling whatever may be needed in a village like that, she also kept a small café-like room, which was almost filled with truant students every Sunday. No doubt the school heads knew about it, but on Sundays, sneaking into the village was apparently tolerated, as long as there wasn’t even the slightest sign of trouble. Both schools still remembered Seth, who had made the mistake of getting caught while taking a shortcut through Mr. Valter’s garden, and both schools were able to agree that the swift expulsion was a far too harsh punishment. It did not dissuade anyone, but everyone made sure to tread lightly when outside his or her allowed bounds.
This particular Sunday, there weren’t that many students in the city that Colm recognised. Mostly there were unfamiliar girls, but Colm was surprised to see Tana sharing a table with Ephraim, the new boy, and a girl who was undoubtedly Ephraim’s sister. Apart from them, he also recognised Cormag who seemed to have an intense conversation with an older girl Colm didn’t know.
All this did not matter to Colm, but Neimi and Amelia hesitated a bit when they saw the room’s occupants. When they took their seats, Neimi spoke to Colm, “See that girl over there,” she said, discreetly motioning towards Cormag’s table, “That’s Vanessa, the Head Girl. I don’t know why she is here, but it’s not as if she can report us for skipping church.”
“Anyway,” said Amelia, “What are you going to have? Me, I’m already fed up with the meals at Grado. I swear that Jehanna has much better food.”
Neimi laughed. “Not on Sunday. Sunday’s food is little better than fasting.”
“I’ll just have a cup of tea,” said Colm, “I’m almost out of my allowance for the month and I have to save it.”
“At least you have an allowance,” said Amelia, “Grandfather says that since I’m living with him, I can just ask when I need to buy something.”
“And that’s why I’m treating Amelia today,” said Neimi, “Poor dear, she deserves more than the one decent meal she gets at Jehanna.”
“You have your allowance,” said Neimi, “It’s not Amelia’s fault you spend it all on trifles.”
“Sorry, I just meant it as a joke,” said Colm-
Still, it was hard to watch the girls, as they enjoyed one of Anna’s cakes, while Colm sipped his bitter tea. Anna never put any sugar or anything else into the tea, claiming that the contrast helped enhance the taste of the sweet stuff. Neither Neimi nor Amelia were interested in talking, so Colm let his attention wander around the room.
As he recognised no one else, he first turned his attention towards Tana, Ephraim and Ephraim’s sister, but they sat in a corner, removed from everyone else, so Colm was unable to hear anything that they were saying. Cormag and that girl, Vanessa, on the other hand, while not that much closer to Colm, were much louder. It seemed that the conversation had further intensified into a row.
“Your sister’s no longer playing,” said Cormag, “Jehanna won’t be winning any matches without her.”
“Shows what you know,” said Vanessa, “We completely trounced Rodenhurst in our last match and that was last week.”
“You may have,” said Cormag, “But didn’t Felicity break her leg in that match? Without her, your entire team is even more worthless.”
“Felicity’ll be back on the team before long,” said Vanessa, “And anyway, we’ve got a new girl and Syrene’s told me that she’s got great potential.”
“Syrene?” said Cormag, “Didn’t she leave Jehanna?”
“Oh no,” said Vanessa, “She stayed on as the Games Mistress after Miss Gascoyne married. See, we still have her on our side.”
“So what?” said Cormag, “She’s still not playing. Without her, Grado could beat Jehanna with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our backs.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” said Vanessa. “Grado doesn’t even have a lacrosse team. You only play cricket, don’t you?”
“Yes, and we’re the best team in the country,” said Cormag, “While Jehanna’s playing so many sports it isn’t good at anything.”
“Really?” said Vanessa, “Then how about a match? Jehanna against Grado in cricket. We’ll see how good you are.”
“Cricket?” said Cormag, “That wouldn’t be fair. Let’s play lacrosse. You girls will need every advantage that you can get.”
“Fine,” said Vanessa, “But don’t come crying after you discover that you’re hopeless at lacrosse.”
“On the last weekend before the term ends?” said Cormag, “To give you time to prepare?”
“Deal,” said Vanessa, “Though it’s you who’s going to need practice.”
At that moment, a bespectacled girl walked over to Cormag and Vanessa’s table. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” she said.
“Not at all, we were just about done,” said Vanessa, “Is the service already done?”
“I slipped away while it was still going on,” said the girl and took a seat, “Dreadfully boring, it was. Even Natasha and that Grado guy were unable to pay attention.”
“Colm, it’s not polite to eavesdrop. Who were you listening to, anyway?” said Neimi suddenly.
Colm turned around and saw that Neimi and Amelia were just finishing eating. “So what plans did you two have for today?” he asked.
“Nothing in particular,” said Amelia, “We just wanted to spend some time together. We don’t have time for that after school, since Grandfather wants me to come home as soon as I can.”
“I see,” said Colm, “I hope that I’m not getting in the way.”
“Oh no, Colm, you’re not,” said Neimi, “I can see Amelia every day, but I can see you only on Sundays.”
“Though you two will see each other everyday during the hols,” said Amelia.
“Did I forget to tell you?” said Neimi, “Father just wrote me. If your grandfather allows it, you can spend the hols at my home.”
“Really?” said Amelia, but the excitement quickly faded from her face, “It’s still hopeless, Grandfather will never allow that. He says that family should spend the Christmas together, even if it would be just the two of us.”
“Oh,” said Neimi and Colm thought that he saw a hint of tears in her eyes, “You must convince him, you simply must. Colm, can’t you do something?”
“Me?” said Colm, “I don’t think so. Mr. Duessel doesn’t really like me that much.”
“He outright dislikes you,” said Amelia, “Whenever he mentions you, he says that you’d do well to stop finding excuses for skipping Games. I don’t think you’d be of much help.”
“My parents want to spend the winter at sea in south France,” said Colm, “It’s not my fault that Monsieur Pent can only schedule extra lessons over Games.”
“Really, Colm,” said Neimi, “Your French is fine. You don’t need any extra lessons and it might put Amelia’s grandfather in better mood, so he’d allow her to visit.”
She paused and then she added, “Please.”
Colm was afraid that if he said no, Neimi would burst into tears, but even without this danger, saying no was out of the question. He could never say no to Neimi, not when she was looking at him like that.
“I give up,” he said, “I suppose I can do that, though Monsieur Pent was saying that he had nothing better to do than tutoring me, since his wife also has a class at that time and Clarine spends most of her time playing somewhere with Myrrh.”
“Maybe you can talk someone else into taking those lessons,” said Amelia, “I think I heard Mr. Vigarde say that Lyon was having problems with French. Oh, and thank you Colm.”
“Lyon?” said Colm, “I though that he was the best student we had at Grado?”
“Yes, he is,” said Amelia, “But you know how shy he is. He sometimes has trouble talking with people in English, let alone French.”
“Well, at least this Lyon sounds a whole deal more pleasant than the best student at Jehanna,” said Neimi, “She could probably take a page out of his book.”
“Oh, Lute is absolutely horrid, there’s no doubt,” said Amelia, “Did you hear that when she was asked to show Eirika around the school, she made Marisa do it?”¨
“Yes, that was perfectly beastly,” said Neimi, “I say, if she wanted to be a prefect, she should take both the rights and the responsibilities.”
“Ahem, I can hear you,” said a voice suddenly and when they looked up, the bespectacled girl who joined Cormag’s table was now standing by their own table.
“Well,” continued the girl, apparently the Lute that the girls were talking about, “I can’t let this slide. Both of you, two hundred lines for badmouthing a prefect. It’s Sunday now, but I want them by tomorrow’s evening.”
“Now, Lute,” said Vanessa, “They’re perfectly right. It wasn’t nice to push Eirika on Marisa without even saying please.”
“You know that I had to study,” said Lute.
“I know that,” said Vanessa, “But you still should have tried to be at least civil about it. Why don’t you let Amelia and Neimi off with just an apology.”
Lute didn’t say anything for a moment; she just looked down. “Fine,” she said eventually.
“Sorry, Lute,” said Neimi, her eyes still glistening with tears, as she almost burst into tears when Lute surprised them.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have talked about you behind your back,” said Amelia.
Again, Lute did not say anything for a while. “Apology accepted,” she said finally.
“All’s settled then,” said Vanessa, “But we should go now, it’s almost time, just look at the clock.”
Vanessa was right. It was almost time for the service to be over, so the remaining students were quickly vacating the shop and preparing to rejoin their respective schools, as they went back from the village.
Ephraim’s sister bade farewell to her brother and Tana. Colm bade farewell to Neimi and Amelia. Just as they were about to leave, Cormag called after Vanessa and Lute, “See you at the playing field, then.”