MesonHill’s Anem

Chapter 7: 24th October

Celeste wandered into the canteen, on arrival at MesonHill, hoping to find her friends there. After her eyes scanned the room, she spotted them sat at the table they appeared to have claimed in the centre of the canteen.

"Cely! Hope you had a good night." Fawn exclaimed. "We fetched you some food, from the lunch buffet, in case you hadn't eaten yet." She pulled out a bundle of food, wrapped in a napkin, from her blazer pocket and handed it to Celeste.

"Thank you!" Celeste smiled, taking the food from Fawn. "Has anyone any idea what time Axel will get here?" She asked.

Axel had mentioned, before he left, that he would send a text message to Beck when he knew what time he and River would be leaving their home to drive to MesonHill. Celeste hoped that Beck had heard from Axel, or the whole trip could go wrong. They’d be late for the ferry and they might not have money to pay for more tickets!

"Yeah, he sent me a text this morning, saying that he and River will be waiting outside the pound shop that Aria usually goes to at about seven," Beck said, holding up his phone screen to show Celeste.

Seven was the latest that they could all set off, because the drive down to Dover was around four hours and they had ferry tickets booked for 2 am the next morning. Setting off so early would allow River time to rest, after they arrived at the ferry port, to recuperate before another long drive, once they arrived in Calais.

"Who's going to leave first? We can't all leave at the same time, or it will look suspicious." Celeste exclaimed.

Beck and Fawn were leaving together because that was only natural for them. They had done everything together since they were five years old. But, Aria and Celeste would have to leave separately. Aria would hardly ever be seen without Jaxon, so that was suspicious in itself, but if Celeste was to join her, there would be numerous questions raised.

"Cely, you should go last, because you don't know what River's van looks like and you might not be able to find it. Fawn and I will go first, followed by Aria about ten minutes later, and we will all wait around the corner from school for you before we find Axel." Beck explained.

He had pointed out something that Celeste hadn't thought of. She didn't know what the van looked like, nor did she know what Axel's brother looked like. It would have been difficult for her to locate them if they happened to be parked in a different place from where Axel said they would be.

"Okay. I'll leave at five to seven then." Celeste said.

Beck had already formed a plan, sort of. Of course, it wasn’t to Celeste’s specific requirements. Beck had used terms that were generic and she wanted to be given a time down to the second that she would have to leave. However, Celeste was reluctant to decide on a time for the others to leave because she didn't want to seem too demanding. She especially didn't want to give any orders to Aria, knowing that she would be offended by having to take orders from somebody lower than her. Instead, Fawn took the lead.

"Good plan! Beck and I will leave at twenty to seven, and Aria can leave at ten to. That way, there's not an equal time gap between our departures, so it doesn't stand out." She said.

For the next few hours, the four of them sat in the main hall, talking about how great the trip was going to be. There wasn't much mention of going to find the Zirkyan stone, but more talk about what the hotel might be like and if they would go out into the town. Celeste didn't mind this, however. She knew that most of their hearts sat in finding the Zirkyan stone and that all of this talk was of the extra benefits that came along with it.

"Oh, I can't wait to get dressed up and go out into the French village to a restaurant!" Fawn said with such excitement.

"I can't wait to just get away from this place for once!" Aria actually let out a surprising laugh.

Celeste had noticed that Aria was beginning to relax a little around her, but whenever Aria realised that she was, she would soon stiffen back up and return to her natural stubborn stance. It was a shame, though. Celeste was starting to like the more relaxed Aria and found herself beginning to get along with her. She couldn't understand why she had to put on such a cold front and why it was specifically only present when Celeste was around.

...

Soon, it was 6.30 pm. The group decided to part and go up to their dorms. Beck, Fawn and Celeste enjoyed a small conversation on the way up to the Jade common room, whilst Aria made her way to the Garnet common room, which was on the opposite side of the school.

Once they arrived in the common room, Fawn told Beck to meet her back there with his bags in ten minutes, so they could leave together. Then, the three of them parted ways and went to their rooms to fetch their luggage.

Celeste didn't need much time to fetch her duffle bag, so she went back to the common room. It was mostly empty, seeing as most people had ventured home for the holidays. October was usually one of the holidays where everybody went home because Halloween fell towards the end of the holiday.

They didn't realise it at the time, but they had chosen the right time to leave, without being caught. Christmas time was too suspicious because their parents would expect them to be home, and the same for Easter. Whereas, Halloween was not as significant to those of the group who were Christened compared to the other two holidays.

After a few minutes of Celeste being sat alone in the common room, Beck came back through, followed by Fawn a few seconds later.

"Right, we're going to go now. Don't forget, Aria will be leaving ten minutes after us, and then you will be five minutes after her. We will be waiting around the corner for you, so don't worry. Good luck and see you shortly!" Fawn gave Celeste's shoulder a quick squeeze, and Beck gave her a short wave before they exited the common room to find Axel.

Fifteen minutes had passed now. It was time for Celeste to leave MesonHill, once again. She hauled the (larger than yesterday’s) bag over her shoulder, and struggled down the stone staircase that led to the main doors of MesonHill. She paused at the bottom, putting the bag on the floor to rest for a few seconds and catch her breath, before putting the weighted bag back over her shoulders, and heading out of the front doors.

She dragged herself and the bag through the vast, green grounds of the school, and along the, seemingly longer than before, road to the front gates. As before, the monitor stopped her to ask her name and where she was going.

This time, she answered with "Celeste Ripley. I am going to my parents' house for the rest of the holidays."

The monitor didn't question the excuse and let her through. She had assumed the others had been allowed through, too, considering she hadn't bumped into them on their way back into school.

She turned right when she was out of the gates where, as she came closer to the corner of the school, she could hear mumbling becoming increasingly louder. When she was inches away, she recognised an all too familiar chattering voice. Not surprisingly, being the most loquacious of the group, it was Fawn. They had waited around the corner of the school, just like they had said they would.

Celeste rounded the corner and threw her bag off of her shoulders, giving them a great stretch once the weight had been lifted.

"Cely, you made it!" Fawn grinned.

She gave Celeste a quick high five and before she could regain her breath, they started onwards to find River's minivan. She lunged the bag back over her shoulders again and followed her three friends close behind.

The street was dimly lit by the subtle street lights, as they walked through the autumn night. Their footsteps and chatter echoed against the silence of the street. There were very few shops in this area of town. The only one was the little pound shop, selling all sorts of sweets on the next street where, as expected, sat right outside, was a silver minivan.

Sat in the front of the minivan, were two blonde boys, resting their feet on the dashboard. The advancing group must have caught Axel's eye, as he quickly removed his feet from the dashboard and tapped his brother on the arm. He swung open the door and came bounding over to the group.

"Hey, guys!" He was beaming with excitement, his eyes scanning over the group until they fell on Celeste. He had noticed her struggling to hold up the weight of her bag.

"Cely, it's only two weeks! You must have packed for a month. Look at the size of that bag! Here, let me help you." He came rushing over and stole the bag from her shoulders. He made the bag look a lot lighter than it actually was, as he carried it so easily. She let out a huge sigh of relief, once the bag was taken.

"Oh my gosh, thank you! My back is in pieces after carrying that." Celeste laughed with pain in her voice, holding her back with her left hand.

All the while Axel was teasing her, she hadn't noticed that River had come to greet the group. He looked similar to Axel but was a little taller, and his hair a shade darker, though he still had the same cheeky energy as his brother.

"Who do we 'ave 'ere? New addition to't group, I see." River strode over to Celeste and held out his hand for her to shake. "River Reyes. How'd you do?" He nodded, whilst shaking her hand with a playful smirk on his face.

Celeste reciprocated the same energy and replied "Celeste Ripley, my good Sir. But, these scoundrels call me Cely." His grin became even wider, as she had completely matched his cheeky tone.

"Oh my. Yer've picked up a good 'en 'ere, lads. Certainly not o' your class. Way outta your kind's league. Far too intellectual for't likes o' you people." He joked.

Celeste was trying to compose herself and keep her upper-class acting role in motion, but River was making her laugh too much. Once she burst out laughing, he shook his head.

"Knew it! She's just like all 'en you. Can't keep a straight face for a single minute. Nah, how would tha' go down in an interrogation, ay?" He teased.

River's Yorkshire accent was much more prominent than the others'. Axel had the accent, too, but it was much less obvious than River's. As for the rest of the group, it was hard to tell that they even were from Yorkshire. They could have easily been passed off as Londoner's.

"Righ', load her up, Ax. Then, we'll get this show on't road!" He advanced over to the van and jumped back into the driver's seat.

There were two seats in the front of the van which, if they needed, spun around into the back where there were three rows of two-seaters on either side. The back row was taken up by luggage, along with a two-seater on the row in front. This left six seats spare for four of them to sit on.

Beck and Fawn decided to sit together and Aria had already made the decision for Celeste that she was sitting alone. Aria sat on the seat farthest away from the driver's seat, whilst Beck, Fawn and Celeste were sat right up front, with Axel sat in the passenger's seat.

"Everyone strapped in? All seatbelts are done? All doors are shut?" River asked. He sounded like a school teacher, taking some students on a school trip. The group all replied with a 'yep', and so, River set off.

For the first hour of the journey, everyone was in high spirits. River had been joking around with Celeste for the most part, and now and then, Axel would try to join in. River's ego was much bigger than Axel's, but it was clear he was only trying to make Celeste feel welcome and like she could be herself around the new face.

During the second hour, the conversation had run slightly dry, so Axel turned up the radio. The whole group unknowingly enjoyed this idea as they spent the next hour, or so, singing to songs that were being played, but Celeste didn't know many of them as she'd only been introduced to music by Fawn a few weeks ago. She joined in as much as she could and when some songs started to repeat themselves, in the third hour of the journey, she was able to join in more.

When there were only around thirty minutes left of the journey, the radio was turned down to a faint voice in the background. There was near silence in the van, as people started to take in the views of an unfamiliar place. They were getting much closer to the ferry port and there was still around three hours until they needed to be there, so they pulled into the next service station.

"Righ', if you need't toilet, go. If you want some food, go grab some. I'm gonna get a kip, so Aria, I'm teking your seat, so I can lay dahn." River announced. He had to bend over in the van as he stood up, because he was so tall.

Axel opened the side door of the van and the group piled out, apart from River, who made his way over to Aria's now empty seat. Axel and Beck wandered off to the male toilets, whilst Fawn, Aria and Celeste made their way to the female toilets.

After their bladders had been emptied, their stomachs started to growl.

"Gosh, have you heard my stomach? I think I need to go and buy some food. Anyone coming?" Celeste asked.

Axel and Fawn nodded, leaving Beck and Aria outside to wait for them. They went inside the small shop, which was stocked well for its size. Celeste made her way to the crisp aisle, where she picked up a few packets, and then went to the fridges to look for a drink. She thought it would be best to pick up a few bottles of water, in case some of the others wanted some, for later on in the journey.

She took her items to the older lady at the counter and paid her with a five-pound note, to which she received a penny change. She then left the store to stand with Beck and Aria, to wait for the other two.

Once they left the shop, they all went to sit back in the van, making as little noise as possible, so that they didn't wake River, but still keeping themselves entertained for the while they were there.