The Complete Four Book Series - Shifting Seasons by Sammie Joyce

Author:Sammie Joyce [Joyce, Sammie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sammie Joyce
Published: 2019-12-19T23:00:00+00:00

2

Margot-Celine

I found myself particularly antsy that day, waiting for last period to arrive when I would finally be able to speak with Lowell about her essay and whatever else was going on in her life. There was something about the expression on her face when she’d passed my house, something almost daunting that wore on me all throughout the day.

Or perhaps I was looking for answers where there weren’t any, trying to make sense of how an almost perfect grade student had become such a slacker overnight, it seemed.

For the most part, I turned my students to their textbooks, pretending to busy myself grading papers that I’d already marked, but my attention wasn’t on anything but Lowell that day for some reason I couldn’t explain.

I’d have to have been blind and deaf not to have seen that there was something unusual about the town in which I lived, something mystic and elusive. Even a recluse like me couldn’t avoid hearing the weird stories which enshrouded us. There had been odd rumors about ridiculous things occurring, most of which I didn’t put much credence in. After all, I was a teacher, a woman of science. Whatever sights the students had claimed to have seen could easily be chalked up to overactive imaginations, but that didn’t explain the feeling that enveloped the area.

Of course, most small towns, particularly remote ones, have colorful pasts and the ghosts which haunt them are better left untouched.

When I’d first moved there, three years earlier, I had written off the uneasy sensation as my own sordid past creeping up on me. Yet as the years passed, I’d learned that I wasn’t the only one to experience the odd undertones of my environment. Of course, I’d simply learned to deal with it, dismissing it as part of my new home. It was still better than the alternative, even if I didn’t understand it. Not everything in life was meant to be understood, after all. Some things were better swept under the rug, in my opinion.

Still, seeing Lowell on my private road that morning had stirred up something in me, something I’d suppressed. The mystery of the backwoods seemed to be in my face again and I found myself intrigued, even though I logically tried to dismiss it.

By the time last period arrived, I was consumed with a nervous anticipation that I had no reason to feel, but when my hazel eyes rested on Lowell’s pale face, I read a troubling exhaustion that a girl her age shouldn’t know.

What on earth has her so tired? Don’t teenagers just sleep all the time? I found myself wondering.

“Mlle. Carey, will you see me after class?” It wasn’t really a question and probably one I shouldn’t have asked so openly in front of the others, but tact had never really been my strong suit. The students made taunting “oooh” sounds, foreshadowing her trouble. Lowell looked at me, a slightly accusing glint in her teal eyes, but to her credit, she only nodded curtly.

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