Saint Claude's Academy

One morning Emily awoke to Shilo, her Alaskan malamute barking at a dark figurer by her letterbox looking up at her window looks like someone was putting an envelope in the mailbox. Emily sat up wiping the sleep away from her eyes, and looked outside and the figure was gone. She started brushing her main of thick dark brown hair off her face so it falls down to her lower back. 'One day I will chop off this mop of hair' Emily mumbled to herself. Emily places her feet on the dark wooden floorboards and takes a look around her room it's been the same ever since she can remember. With the dark mahogany wallpaper and dark wooden furniture. When her mother was alive she always made Emily put down colourful rugs to make the room feel more alive. When her mother died, she got rid of the rugs. She liked the dark colour of the floorboards against the deep mahogany of the wallpaper. With her father away on work all the time he didn't tell her how it should be. At the moment he was away on one of his business trips in China. She received one of his emails yesterday, that is the only way she communicate with her father and a number she is only aloud to use in an emergency, but with being so far away and the time differences and his meetings she never called and neither did he. All she needed was an email once a week, but as she got older less and less emails have been sent. At first she was upset but now she isn't bothered, now she has Shilo and her lovely housekeeper Mrs Laurence, don't ask what happened to Mr Laurence nobody knows and it pains Mrs Laurence to talk about it, she says "it's for the best, he has things he needs to take care of." So I don't ask and she doesn't tell. While I'm sitting dazed still trying to wake up, Shilo is still barking and jumping around. I get a text from my very best friend Zoe, who has been in my life since first grade when we got paired up on the first day. We never left each other sides since. It's the last week of the school holidays and I've been hanging out with Zoe all day everyday. I look at my phone which is going crazy next to my bed, I look at the text and it says. "Hey sorry can't make it today, mother says I need to catch up on homework before school starts back. So I won't be behind AGAIN. Arghh!! Love always Zo." "Lucky you Shilo I'll be home today, what do you feel like doing?" She is still going crazy at the mailbox. I wonder what it is? Oh-well, time to get up. Emily lifts herself off the bed slips her feet into her bright pink slippers and and stumbles down the hall to one of the bathrooms. Looks into the full length mirror at her small posture with curves in all the right places and pail white skin. She has always liked the way she looked and so do all the boys. As she hopped out of the shower and is going back to her room she runs into Mrs Laurence. "I see you have risen miss Emily." With a smile on her face "breakfast is down stairs, same for you Shilo." Emily jumps down each step like she does each and every morning, and sitting on the breakfast bar is breakfast only one sitting though Mrs Laurence doesn't eat with Emily. But on the floor next to Emily's seat is Shilo's bowl. But Shilo is busy barking and jumping at the door and doesn't notice. Emily stands and walks to the door to let Shilo out. The sun is so bright and it already feels like it's 25 degrees out. "It's going to be a good..." but before Emily could finish her sentence, Shilo is running up to the mailbox, jumping and barking, like she does on Christmas morning, I wonder what it is, while Emily walks down the path to the mailbox, Dylan from across the street is there yelling at Shilo to be quite."Oh hey Emily, didn't see you there, it's going to be a good day want to go down to the river, a group of people from school are going. Hoping a big catch up before classes start up again, you coming back to Johnson's high yeah?" "Oh hey Dylan, yeh I'll come to the river, and umm I'm still not sure, I think I will be though it's not like I have lots of place's lined up or anything. Ha-ha." As she finishes talking to Dylan, she opens a letter addressed to her with a strange wax press on it. "Hey Em, you okey, you look like you've seen a ghost? Em, what is it?" Emily stands steering blankly at the words processing them over and over. She looks up at Dylan "It's a letter, a letter from the council?, it says 'We the council of Saint Claude's Academy state that you Emily Dalca will attend Saint Claude's Academy this year. A car will be waiting outside your house on the 5th February. The day after your 16th birthday.' Signed S.C.A." Emily looks up at Dylan. "There's a P.S it says I have to take Shilo?' Dylan jumps the fence and takes the letter from Emily's hands and skims over it. "What are you going to do?" Dylan says, "I'm not sure, but I think I should go. I mean I don't have a choice the letter says that a car will pick me up on my birthday, did you see who dropped it off?" Emily asked while rubbing her face with her hands. She looks at the letter again. "No when did it happen?" "This morning they, there was this man, in a full black suit and a blood red tie, he looked straight to my window like he was looking through me and he posted the letter then nodded and he was gone. He looked like someone that I don't want to get on the wrong side of you know what I mean?" Emily looks at Dylan hoping he would have the right answer, but he looks just as confused as she does. Then he says "the 5th of February, your birthday that's next week, are you sure Em? Like really, if you don't want to go I can talk to my dad he's the head of police he can trace the letter so they can't get you..?" Emily rubs her head "I should, I should be fine Dyl, I mean St Claude's Academy, it's meant to be one of the most elite academies ever!" Dylan still didn't look convinced. "Yeah, but it's still in Romania Em think about it, it's another country, it's not like you can just catch a bus. You don't even know who sent it." Emily was still confused but also slightly annoyed at how Dylan was taken the news, he should be happy for her. Emily shook her head. "Look, I'll give my dad a call, he will know what to do. What time are you guys going to the river? Give me a text and I'll let you know if I can make it. I have to go I'll talk later. Bye." As she was saying goodbye and giving him a hug she turned to run inside to the office to do some research on Saint Claude's. While looking at the website for Saint Claude's an icon popped up from her father, asking if everything was alright. There were also pictures of his business trip. She decided that she needed to call her dad and let him know what was going on. "Hello, Emily is everything okey? What's wrong? Is Mrs Laurence alright?" She always gets a shock at how old and tired he sounds on the phone, she thinks to herself must be because they don't really speak. "Hey dad, everything is fine. Um actually I'm calling to say that I received a letter this morning." But before she could finish what she was going to say her father interrupted saying that "it better be important. Emily you know I can't talk long." He sounded annoyed. "It's a letter from Saint Claude's Academy..." her father didn't say anything, at first Emily was about to hang up thinking the call got disconnected, then he said "that's great news, you need to pack immediately and make sure you pack Shilo's things as well." Now it was Emily's turn to process what he said. Emily was shocked. "Wait how do you know about Shilo?" He responded with a sigh "because I used to go to Saint Claude's, it's a very good school, a lot of things will make sense when you get there. I have to go it was good talking to you Emily. Goodbye." Before she could say goodbye he hung up the phone. She decided that she needed to tell Zoe what was going on. Emily sat there going over in her head. "How was I going to tell my best friend that I was moving and going to another school. That they won't see each for months at a time. How is I going to say goodbye..." As Emily sits there looking at her phone wondering how she was going to tell her best friend she was leaving her phone rings, it's Zoe. "Oh-well better late than never" Emily says before answering. "Hey Zo, I really need to tell you something, and I'm not sure how your going to take it, but..." Zoe interrupted "oh my goodness your with Dylan arnt you? I knew it, why didn't say anything? I mean come on Em!" Emily takes a breath "as I was saying, I have some news. I've been accepted to Saint Claude's academy... well not accepted more like chosen." Emily could hear Zoe breathing "I, I don't know what to say. Are you going to go? What about your dad does he know? Zoe sounded upset like she was holding back from crying. "Yes, he knows, he says I need to pack immediately. He says he used to go there, said it would be good for me." Zoe sounded close to breaking now. "And how does he know what's good for you, he hasn't exactly been around, in like ever! I'm sorry Em, what am I saying. I should be happy for you. I mean it's a once in a life time opportunity. So when do you have to go?" Now it was Emily's time to be shocked she didn't expect this sort of reaction. She really didn't know how she was going to react, she was overwhelmed of how Zoe took the news, she almost forgot she was on the phone until Zoe said "sooooo, when do you leave?" Emily replied "so um the day after my birthday." Zoe yelled through the phone "that's so soon. Alright we have a week. One week to plan the best birthday/going away party this town has seen. Arrr it's going to be great! I have so much to organise don't worry your pretty little head I'll take care of everything." She hung up before Emily could get a word out.