It turned out that I knew more about Ancient Greece than the fifth years.

Despite agreeing to help Katie with her work, I ended up contributing a lot to almost everyone else in her year. It hadn't been my plan, I really wanted to just sit there and read through my book on Roman history, but everyone seemed to have a problem with at least one element of their history work. It felt like being back at my old school where the only thing people wanted to talk to me about was my schoolwork. The only person to never ask was Janina, but she wasn't at Maddox.

"I have to ask, or it will drive me insane. Where did the name Flick even come from?" one of the girls, Grace, asked.

"That one is on me. My dad was home for a few days during the war so decided to try and teach me to spell my name. He wrote the first five letters, so 'f' 'e' 'l' 'i' 'c'. For some unknown reason, I yelled out Flick, even though it wasn't what he had written down and it just sort of stuck." I paused. "I've had to explain that far too many times."

"Wait, really?"

"Yes. I wasn't a very good speller as a child."

Grace tucked her bottom lip under her teeth to keep from laughing and I put my head in my hands to hide the blush rising in my cheeks. Katie knocked me in the side and pulled my hands from my face, gripping onto my wrists. She too looked as though she was fighting now to laugh, I just smiled sheepishly, the book starting to slip off my lap. I had been asked that question countless times in the past, and the story never got easier to tell.

The conversation returned to Ancient Greece for the rest of the lesson with Katie still looking like she wanted to laugh whenever she looked at me. We had just finished the final question on her worksheet when the school bell echoed through the halls. When it rang at breakfast, Jo had to explain how everyone could hear the bell no matter where they were in the school. All the dormitory Mother's had one and they would ring them from various places around the school.

I closed the book and tucked it into my bag, slinging it over my shoulder and standing up from the sofa. Katie wrestled her paper into her bag with Jo watching, rolling her eyes as Katie's worksheet got destroyed. Once she had stuffed her bag with paper, she slung it onto her shoulder and the three of us shuffled from the room and into the hallway. Students filed the hallways and emptied the classrooms. Some were headed to the common room whilst others moved down the stairs.

"I need to go to the Library. The librarian will have my head if I don't return this book on time," Katie said, fishing out a Maths textbook from her bag.

"How long have you had that for?" Jo asked.

"Three weeks."

"You're dead."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Katie shook her head and looked at me. "What have you got after break?"

"Sewing, I think."

"Are you any good?"

"Not really."

"Miss Feldman will love that. She's getting us ready for the schools centenary next year. For some reason, that includes in a tapestry about the history of the school. Every year group has to contribute something to it and if it's not right, she'll make you redo it."

"She's going to love me. I can darn a pair of socks, but nothing beyond that."

"You'll be her favourite person."

Katie nudged me in the side, and I followed her and Jo down the hall and up another set of stairs. I couldn't help but feel a tad uncomfortable when I followed them, as though I shouldn't have been there. The stairs led to a hallway similar to the one below with paintings hanging from the walls, the doors were the same dark brown wood as everywhere else and it all looked immaculate. My old school had a cleaner, but it never looked as clean as Maddox, dust didn't appear to exist.

We walked a little further down the hall until we reached a large wooden door marked with a gold plate. The plate read 'Library' and Katie twisted the door handle and we stepped inside.

The entire room was lined with bookshelves, each shelf was stacked with books and the labels on the side of the shelves said they contained everything. From archaeology to a few books on Zebra's, it contained everything a person could want. There were tables dotted around the room, some had students on them, and others were empty. It looked like the perfect place for some peace and quiet and to find a new book to read.

I stared at the rows of bookshelves as Katie walked over to a large, semi-circle desk and stood behind two other girls waiting. The Librarian leant forward over a desk and pressed a metal stamp against a book and handed it to the girl in front. She accepted the book and walked away. Beside me, Jo looked to the far corner of the room.

"I'll be back in a minute." She smiled and walked across the room to a teacher who peered over the work of another student.

Not really knowing what to do – and feeling a tad out of place by standing in the middle of the room – I walked up to the bookshelves and began to run my hand along the spines of the books. We had a Library at my last school but most of the books were held together with tape and I read almost all of them within a year of being there. It would certainly take me a while to read the number of books in the Maddox Library, and I considered that a challenge.

I walked along each of the shelves, running my hand along the spines as I went. Each book title appeared more exciting than the last and I couldn't wait for the chance to read them. When I reached the books on Ancient Rome, I pulled one off the shelf and started to flick through it. There were enough books here to get me through my independent study project and beyond.

"You look as though you're in heaven," Katie said, creeping up behind me.

"I've read my Roman book cover to cover five times since I got it before Christmas. I could live here."

"Go right ahead, no one will judge you." She laughed. "You can take out two books at a time and you have two weeks unless you ask for an extension. Though I doubt you'll need it."

"I'd probably renew them just to read them again."

Katie laughed just as the bell rang. I slipped the book on the shelf, vowing to myself to come back later in the day to take it out. Together, we walked out from amongst the shelves and collected Jo on our way. The two of them had their history lesson on the floor above whilst my sewing class took place on the ground floor, so we went our separate ways. Katie had to give me instructions on where to find the classroom.

I headed down the stairs to the first floor, down the main stairs and around the corner, through another door that opened onto a large hallway. There were no windows and the entire hall had been lit by the light bulbs on the wall, creating an eerie – almost gothic – feel. All it needed was a shadow skulking down it wearing a cloak to complete the feel.

A low babble of conversation came from the other rooms until I looked through one of the open doors and recognised some of the people from inside. I stepped in and took a seat beside one of the other girls at a large table covered in a white cloth and an assortment of coloured thread. At least a third of the cloth had detailed and intricate images on, each one depicting a different event.

The one that stood out the most was of the school being used as a makeshift hospital for soldiers during the Great War. I remember Dad had mentioned it when he first told me about the school and its scholarship program but seeing the Red Cross logo on the school alongside the image of a nurse made it real. I didn't think that was the type of thing someone could capture with a needle and thread.

Slowly the room started to fill up with the other girls from our year, including Victoria who sat across from me and watched as I fidgeted with my hands and stared at the cloth in front of me.

"Why were you not in swimming?" she asked, smoothing out her side of the cloth.

"Mrs Leverton said I don't have to join in. I don't own a swimming costume and I can't actually swim." I shrugged.

"You cannot swim?" She looked as though she was about to start laughing.

"I'm from London. There are no beaches nearby and I was too busy to go to the public pool."

"Girls! Can I have your attention, please!"

A young blonde-haired woman entered the room and clapped her hands together. She closed the door behind her and walked around to the head of the table. Her heels slapped against the floor as she waited for everyone to quieten down. She was far younger than any of the other teachers I had seen, and she had a slight accent when she spoke, but I couldn't pinpoint where she was from.

"This term we will be continuing with your portion of the tapestry for next year's centenary celebration. Today, I want you to start on a more recent piece of our history. Maddox Academy served as a refuge point for evacuees during the war. Before we start on the fabric itself, I want each of you to draw an image that you believe best represents evacuees. I shall choose the best to be sewn onto the tapestry."

She opened a drawer at the far end of the room and started to hand out sheets of paper and a pencil to everyone. Victoria immediately pulled her paper towards her and drew her left arm over the top so no one could see what she was drawing. It seemed a little extreme to me, but I let her get on with it and grabbed my pencil from in front of me.

I had never been much of a drawer, that skill went Michael and Michael alone. My stick figures looked more like, well, lines on a page than a person and I had never been all that successful with objects. Still, I grabbed the sheet of paper and set about drawing. Almost immediately, my mind started to wonder, instead of thoughts about the war and evacuees, my head had become full of facts about Greece and Rome. If we did a tapestry on either of those, I would have been of more use.

Although I may not have been that good at drawing, I attempted drawing something of use. The only issue being that my train looked like an oddly shaped pancake and my attempt at drawing people was just a straight-up disaster. After several attempts, I gave up and just started doodling in the corner of the page. I had tried, that seemed good enough to me.

"Alright, pencils down please!" Miss Feldman said. She waved her hands and a chorus of pencils clattered to the table. "Victoria? What did you do?"

"I drew an evacuee standing beside a steam train." She held up her piece of paper. "Steam trains meant multiple people could be moved from the city to the country at a time. The evacuee has a gas mark, a suitcase and their label."

"Excellent work, Victoria! I love the detail you put into the train and the evacuee. It really is a magnificent drawing." Miss Feldman turned to look at me. "Felicity Grieves? How about you?"

It felt unnerving to know that everyone knew who I was without me having to introduce myself. I just wished they could call me Flick.

"Oh, it's not very good. You're better off looking at someone else rather than my monstrosity."

"This is a safe space."

Victoria raised her eyebrow at me from across the table and I knew she wanted to correct Miss Feldman. The space would never be safe as long as she sat in the same room. Still, I could hardly say no for a second time, and I couldn't think of an excuse that worked in my favour. I grabbed the sheet of paper and showed them the terrible drawing I had created in half an hour. It looked like it had been drawn by a toddler.

The room fell silent and I could feel Miss Feldman's gaze burrowing into me. She stopped looking at the paper, all her attention had become fixated on me. I could see her eyes darting around, her brain looked to be running through a thousand thoughts a second. Yes, it may not have been a very good drawing, but it hardly warranted daggers.

"Is this task some sort of joke to you, Felicity?"

"No, ma'am. I'm just not that good of a drawer, I never had been."

I didn't see what the issue was. Back at my last school, not completing my creative work had never caused much of a problem. My academic work made up for my lack of creative prowess. Perhaps I had misjudged just how much I could get away with since passing the entrance exams. I thought passing exams that were rarely passed would help me out when it came to my lack of creative work.

"Do you not understand the plight of many of the children who were evacuated?"

"Yes, I do. My mother was evacuated to her cousin's house in Devon with myself and my brother in 1939. She told me everything growing up."

"Then you should have taken this exercise more seriously."

"I did! My lack of drawing abilities wasn't a problem at my last school."

"Regardless of how things were done at your last school, Maddox Academy prides itself on students putting their all into every piece of work they submit. I will be talking to Mrs Maddox about your behaviour and attitude."

Across the table, Victoria smirked and looked rather smug with himself. Miss Feldman continued to ask the other girls what they had drawn and continued to glare at me with every opportunity. She didn't appear all that encouraging towards the other students as she had been towards Victoria which told me all I needed to know about her. I drummed my fingers on the desk as the lesson seemed to slow down completely. My second day at Maddox and I was already in trouble.

After seeing everyone else's work, Miss Feldman decided that Victoria's drawing would become the centrepiece for the next stage of the tapestry. There had been no doubt in my mind she would be chosen anyway. Miss Feldman announced that she would make the necessary templates for us by the next lesson so few mistakes could be made.

When the bell rang to dismiss us, I couldn't wait to escape the room and Miss Feldman's glares that followed my every moment. I could feel her eyes drilling into my back as we left the room.

"That didn't go too well, did it?" Victoria asked, creeping up behind me.

"Not really," I said. I drummed my fingers on my arm.

"You should watch your back a little more, Felicity."

"Is that a threat?"

"A warning, and I suggest you heed it. We have a little tradition here at Maddox Academy."

With that, she stalked away down the hall and left me wondering what on earth she meant. 

~~~

First Published - June 8th, 2020