Chapter Sixteen: In Which I Spend Hours at the Library, or, More Puzzles
It only took me five minutes to find three of Glass’ previous schools in the first atlas’ index: Cornerstone, Eastwood, and Thierak. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t find either Allslost or Morrisburg in the atlas, and after combing through maps until 3 in the afternoon in the hopes of finding them there instead, I finally gave up. I’d have to try again next Sunday.
My brain hurt from all the maps I’d scanned, but I didn’t want to leave just yet. Pulling a scrap of paper from my pocket as I headed towards the newspaper section, I reviewed what I’d scrawled there several hours earlier.
Cornerstone, CL, Fraighe
Eastwood, NE, Fraighe
Thierak, Kingdom of Tir na Glaw
The next few hours, as I sat sifting through newspaper after newspaper, were a painful blur. Just as my search through the atlases and maps had, thus far, proven fruitless in regards to the last two schools, so was this hunt for anything related to Cornerstone, Eastwood, and Thierak. I’d been hoping to find even the smallest article on each school, anything to narrow down the location from just the states to the cities, and to confirm that I was on the right track. I’d even been hoping, though I knew that this was unlikely, that there’d be at least one article that came out around the same time Glass had been expelled from one of her schools, and that it would give a few details on what may have happened.
Unfortunately, the only thing I found was a story about an escaped goose that settled down on a grocer’s roof. It chased off all the customers, and the fire department had to get involved to remove it.
I left the library a little after 5 and began my ride back to Norlocke. It was still quite hot outside, but as I biked, the sun began to slip down the horizon until it was just a faint orange orb hanging over the edge of the world. With its descent, a slight chill crept into the air. I could finally focus on something besides the heat.
My mind wandered back over the events of the day. I couldn’t help but be disappointed that I hadn’t learned a bit more, but, overall, I’d still done pretty well. What I had learned, though, puzzled me.
It was already strange enough that Glass Farthingdale had been in five different boarding schools in less than five years, and that none of her transfers had been natural. But it was even more puzzling learning the locations of three out of the five. Eastwood Boarding School was located on Fraighe’s northeast coast. Cornerstone Academy, Glass’ most recent school, was located on Fraighe’s southwest coast. And Thierak Academy wasn’t even in Fraighe. It was somewhere on Tir na Glaw, an island kingdom hundreds of miles across the ocean. I could only assume that the other two were also scattered across Fraighe, or even the world.
Now, I can understand wanting to let your ward explore the country a little bit, and that boarding schools can be a fairly good opportunity for that. But what Glass had experienced seemed a little eccentric. Most students went to boarding schools at least fairly close to home, or, if they did travel a bit, stayed in one general area. For some reason, either Glass or her guardian seemed determined to put her in as many different schools across the country as possible. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but I couldn’t help the negative questions that immediately popped up. Did Glass not want to settle down anywhere? Was she running from something, in her mind or in reality? Was her guardian trying to keep her as far away as possible? Or were the reasons that Glass had been expelled so horrendous that any school even remotely close by had heard of them and wouldn’t accept her?
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe Glass just wanted a little freedom and exploration in her life. Still, it seemed odd to me. Something about the situation didn’t sit right. I definitely needed to find out where those last two schools were. And then I needed to learn more about the corporation listed as Glass’ guardian.
If only there was a way I could write a letter to Ms. Harcourt without getting caught. I began scheming again, the miles whirring by as I drew closer and closer to Norlocke, the sky darkening bit by bit as the sun gradually disappeared, and as a mass of black clouds rose up from the east and skittered slowly across the sky. The heat finally seemed to be leaving, but something else was on its way.
An eerie wind blew at my skirt. At first, it felt dry, but the longer it blew, the stronger and wetter it became. The taste of rain was all around, and the feel of electricity in the air. I did not want to be outside when the storm hit.
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