This chapter is dedicated to Eman-AQ because she is awesome, has been with this story since the beginning, and is still here! Read her story Too Quiet- it is seriously amazing.
It was as though the girls had trumpets heralding their arrival. The minute that Anne stepped into the schoolyard, everything went quiet and every child stopped their playing to stare at the three newcoming girls. She could feel her face burning, and she turned it to the ground, hoping to sink into the dirt on her shoes. She didn't have to wait long, though- the students had a new diversion. The teacher had just rung the bell, and, grateful for the relief, she went with them to the door, Jane and Lizzie close behind.
Inside the schoolroom, the girls took off their hats, hanging them on hooks, acting like they knew what they were doing. They quietly sat as close to the middle as possible, squeezing onto one bench.
"Lucas Albertson?" calls the teacher, a young woman probably no older than seventeen.
"Here, Miss Ursland," calls a boy from the front.
"Margaret de Losa?"
"Here."
And so it goes on. There wasn't more than fifteen students, including Jane, Lizzie, and Anne, and it doesn't take long for Miss Ursland to notice them. "Who might you be?" she asks. Her voice was sweet, almost too sweet. "Come here and I'll put your names in my book."
Slowly, they walked up, feeling the whole class's eyes on them. Miss Ursland was still smiling that fake smile. It was clear that she didn't like teaching. "You first, dear," she said, motioning to Jane.
"I- I-" Jane spluttered, but was cut off by Lizzie.
"This is Jane," said Lizzie, confidently marching up. "Jane Jones. And I'm Lizzie- Elizabeth- Jones."
"Can either of you read or write? Do you have slates?"
Lizzie paused. "No, ma'am," she said quietly.
Miss Ursland's fake smile got bigger. "That's alright. You'll just be starting with the younger class. Sit right in front, there, by Judith there- yes, that's right. She'll share her supplies with you." A small brown- haired girl in the front moved over on the bench, scowling a little. Jane and Lizzie sat by her.
"And you?"
"Anne MacEilan," whispered Anne. The class's stares seemed to be picking her apart.
Miss Ursland paused to write the name in her book. Anne saw with annoyance that it was misspelled, but she kept quiet. "Can you read or write?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Sums?"
"A little."
The young teacher's face looked relieved. "Can you read this?" She handed Anne the McGuffey's Reader. "Open to any page," she said.
Anne opened to one of the first pages. It was a lesson in articulation. "Every vice fights against nature," she read. "Folly is never pleased with itself. Pride, not nature, craves much. The little tattler tittered at the tempest. Titus takes the petulant outcasts."(A/N: That's actually from the McGuffey's reader. You're welcome.)
Miss Ursland seemed satisfied. "Go sit there, in the back, by Victoria. Use this slate for today." She pulled the book from Anne's hands and a slate from her desk. "And a pencil. Hurry along, I've got a class to run, you know," she added, handing a slate pencil to Anne and waving her hands. "Back to work, now, class," she called.
The rest of the class had gone to work, as the teacher had commanded, and Anne sat down by a slim blonde girl in the back row. The girl smiled. "I'm Victoria," she whispered. "Good job on the reader- that passage always makes me stutter."
"Thank you," gasped Anne in relief. "I've not been to school here- what do I do?"
"You copy the sums off of the board and solve them- the seventh- grade ones. That is what you are, correct?"
"I suppose." Anne copied down the problems and set to solving them.
After what seemed hours of arithmetic, Miss Ursland stood. "Now that I've let you sit and work on your arithmetic quietly for a while, let's move on to the geography examinations before lunchtime."
A collective groan went up from the class as geography books were passed out- one per table. Miss Ursland stood at the front of the room by her blackboard. "Now, children," she cheerily called through the room. "First grade will go first. Henry- you start, please."
A first- grade boy stands up. "Now, Henry," begins Miss Ursland, "What is a spring?"
Henry's eyebrows knitted together and he bit his lip. "A... season?"
The whole class laughed. Miss Ursland scowled. "Incorrect. Come here." She strode to her desk and pulled out a birch rod. "Really, Henry, what have you been doing during the lectures? This is the third time you've failed the simplest of questions." She hit him, twice, on his backside, before putting the rod away and sending him to his seat.
The examinations continued, and all questions answered correctly, as Anne watched, trying to learn as much about this strange process. Jane and Lizzie were not questioned, and a relief had spread through their features as Miss Ursland had moved onto second grade. "Seventh grade, now," called the teacher after a while. All the students were getting restless. "Only three more people to go, children," she called, but it did nothing. She sighed. "Victoria, your turn."
Victoria stood up. "What was the extent of Missouri in the 1830s?" was the question. Her hands were folded atop her pink skirt and she bounced on the balls of her feet as she answered. "From the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains," she said. Then she sat down.
Anne wasn't a bit surprised when Miss Ursland passed her by. "Eighth grade," she called. There was only one eighth grader, a boy who had been staring at Anne the whole day, but looking down quickly when she turned his way. "John, come up for the exam, please." Startled, he did.
"In what hemisphere is the United States?"
He thought for a moment. "Western."
As John went to sit down, Miss Ursland stood up. "Go on," she said. "Outside with you."
Victoria took her lunch pail and almost ran out the door. Anne followed, with Jane and Lizzie close behind. Jane carried their lunch, and they sat with Victoria on the steps of the schoolhouse.
Victoria pushed a long blonde braid behind her ear. "Anne, I'm sorry," she began, "but I just can't tell your accent! Where is it from?"
Anne swallowed. "Ireland," she answered.
"Were you born there?"
"That's a bit more complicated than my accent." Victoria laughed.
"I have time," she said, taking a bite of an apple. "Tell me."
"I was born in Scotland," began Anne. "My father was Scottish, and my mother from Galway, in Ireland. We lived with my father's family until my twin sister and I were a year old. Then, we moved to Galway, where we lived until three years ago."
"That's not complicated." She shrugged.
"I told you the simple side of it."
Victoria laughed again. It was a laugh that was contagious- happy and bubbly, a laugh that made you smile. "Well, if that's what you say. My background's not interesting at all. It's perfectly normal." She said that she had two older brothers, who ran the mill in town with her father, and had lived in Running Creek since she was a baby.
"What about these girls?" she asked Anne. "Are they your siblings? And if you have a twin, where is she?"
"My twin's at home. And Jane and Lizzie aren't my sisters." Anne paused. "More like- wards of a sort. We took them in."
Another bit, another swallow. "If you've never been to school, how'd you learn to read?"
"My mother taught me."
Anne and Victoria talked until Miss Ursland came out and rang the bell. After lunch was a spelling test, but this time, Anne was called up. Shakily, she stood and went to the blackboard. Picking up a piece of chalk, she waited. "Spell 'lunacy.'"
Slowly, Anne wrote the word on the board. "Poetry."
Again, the word was spelled. "Thank you, Anne. You may sit down."
Soon, class was let out for the day. Jane and Lizzie waited by their desk. "Grab your hats," said Anne. She turned to Victoria. "Thank you, Victoria," she told her. Victoria smiled.
"Will I see you her tomorrow?"
Anne put her hat on and smiled. "You can count on it."
So Anne is going to school... what do you think? Remember to vote!