Mrs. Shire’s Boarding School for Girls

(( So I wanted to write something that didn’t really have anything to do with The Long Road and all that and I wanted to play around with Laylan’s background a bit. So this is set about 5 years before everything going on. ))


She stood there staring at the gate and the elegant sign set into the brick wall next to it. Mrs. Shire’s Boarding School for Girls. It was an elegant sign, the words in a nice script that was legible but she wasn’t fooled. The gate was fancy as well, clean, shining, it just shouted ‘welcome, doesn’t this place look lovely?’ And it did.

Behind the gate sat a rather large estate, she counted six floors of windows some of which were open to let in the cool morning breeze. It was built of brick and had a large porch held up by white pillars entwined with flowery vines. From the distant it was indeed a lovely sight but the 16 year old standing on the outside new it was not. Sure she had never been to a boarding school but anywhere that wasn’t with Nana, lord rest her soul, had to be bad.

A young looking man stepped up behind the girl, Nana’s real grandchild. “Let’s go, we can’t stand here all day just looking at the place.” Putting his hand on her shoulder he ushered her back into the carriage that had brought them to the evil place as a footman went to open the gate and let them trough.

She scowled out the window as she watched the building come closer. The closer they got the more detail she could see. On the porch were tables and chairs where some girls sat and talked or played games. There were a surprising amount of girls outside for the time of day; the sky was just losing its pink tinge from the rise of the sun. The path that led towards the house was lined with bushes and flowers to make it look colorful and cheerful. Beyond those were large spans of green, green grass occasionally interrupted by more flowers, a gazebo and even a fountain. When the carriage rolled to a stop she could see an older lady standing at the open door with a wide smile on her face.

As she was helped out of the carriage she took her time to inspect the woman. She was tall and rather lanky looking and not a bit of skin that wasn’t on her face or hands showed from beneath her tightly laced, high necked, long sleeved clothing. Her graying hair was pulled back into a sever bun that was so tight it pulled her eyebrows up and gave her a creepy wide eyed look.

“Welcome!” she boomed as the girl was pushed towards the porch by her companion, “Ahh, this lovely young girl must be Laylani, and you must be Mr. Hamilton. Welcome to the school,” She curtsied low to Mr. Hamilton and when she rose she turned her freakishly happy smile on Laylani. “Welcome, my dear, I’m sure you will enjoy it here. Come let me show you two around.” The woman turned with a swish of skirts and once again she was ushered forward by Mr. Hamilton.

‘I’m sure I will not enjoy it here.' Through out the tour she had many more mental comments and was forming a declining opinion about the woman, who later introduced herself as Mrs. Shire herself. Not once did the woman speak directly to Laylani all her comments were directed to Mr. Hamilton. After all he was funding the girls stay here and thus Laylani was of no importance.

The whole thing was rather boring really so she wasn’t entirely upset. She did pay attention to some of the things the woman said, though most of it was boring history and some of the classes the school taught. She knew where the library, dining room, and other such rooms were. The top three floors were all bedrooms, each with its own smaller sitting room, or gathering room, with a small library within. The first and second floors were all class rooms and there were some other buildings outside behind the house for other classes.

When the tour was finally finished they were in the main parlor of the house, seated in lovely little couches with tea and sandwiches spread before them. “Do you have any questions?” Mrs. Shire asked with her eyes, of course, on Mr. Hamilton.

Setting down his cup Mr. Hamilton shook his head. “No, Mrs. Shire, I have no questions but I would like to talk to my charge alone for a moment,” he said with a disgustingly charming smile.

Laylani rolled her eyes as Mrs. Shire flushed and moved to her feet. “Certainly. When you are finished I shall be waiting just outside to show Ms. Laylani to her room so she may get settled,” with a shallow curtsy she left the room, closing the door behind her.

The smile on Mr. Hamilton’s instantly vanished and he turned a scowl to Laylani, who returned it. “Listen, girl, I don’t know why my grandmother took you in but I am not going to take care of a freak like you. If I hear you’ve been kicked out because of…of…of…well because of what you are do not expect me to come get you. This is your home now and without it you’ll die on the streets.” Pushing himself to his feet, brushing nonexistent dust from his over coat, he looked down his nose at the teenager. “Good bye, it has not been a pleasure.” And with that he was gone.

Not moments later Mrs. Shire, no longer all smiles, was back. “Follow me child. I will show you to your room. Your baggage, what little of it there was, has already been delivered there. You will meet your roommate after breakfast and she will explain the rules of the house to you.”

Getting to her feet Laylani sighed softly and followed the woman up a couple of staircases to the fourth floor. This was not going to be the happiest times of her life. She could feel it in her bones.

The room was rather plain which she was thankful for. She had feared it would be extremely girly with pink walls with flower print and everything. There were two beds neatly made with two pillows each and an extra blanket folded neatly at the end of the bed. The colors were basic blues and earthy tones save for the bed closest to the door. There was a third pillow pink as pink could be with neat stitching on it that read ‘home is where the heart is’ with a matching pink blanket. She sighed as she noticed the only other bed had her bag in the middle of it. At least the blankets were blue.

The rest of the room held two wardrobes and a chest at the end of each bed. There were also night tables next to each of the beds and a window seat. Other than the pillow and a few little knick knacks on the one night stand the room wasn’t very homey at all. Upon closer inspection she noticed that the window looked out over the back yard of the school and that her wardrobe held two uniforms. Cheerful black with lace cuffs and a button up neckline, oh joy. She didn’t even want to try it on and see how uncomfortable it probably was.

She didn’t even know what to unpack. Her meager belongings wouldn’t even fill the wardrobe let alone anything else. But she would need to anyway seeing as how she was going to be here a while. She didn’t have much clothing; Mr. Hamilton had sold all the good clothing Nana had bought her save for a few things that he begrudgingly left her. So she hung up two dresses and folded a couple pairs of trousers and shirts which she put on the bottom of the wardrobe. She hesitated on taking the very few non clothing items she had. She had to smuggle them from Nana’s house without Mr. Hamilton noticing but she did it.

She pulled a long chain from the bag on which was attached a locket that was just as big as the center of her palm. She clutched it for a moment, heating the cold metal with the warmth of her skin. She didn’t need to open it to know what was in there. A faded painting of a dark haired woman kissed the other side of the locket which was empty. Though when she had gotten it there had been half of a photo in the spot but not enough to tell her who it had been of. Slipping the chain around her neck she spilled it beneath her shirt and returned to her bag.

A slightly tarnished brush and a blood red gem wrapped safely in a cloth pouch were next to exit the bags confines. The first she set in the drawer of the night stand and the later she stuffed under her pillows. There were only two more things in her bag and they too were wrapped in soft cloth. They were beautiful butterfly hair combs which she rarely ever wore. They were her mothers and she hardly ever unwrapped them to even just look at them. Those she left in her bag which she stored in the chest at the base of her bed.

Just as she finished a girl walked into the room and startled Laylani who whirled around to look at her.

“Oh! Hello, you must be Laylani; Mrs. Shire told me you were coming,” The girl was just a little shorter than Laylani and she seemed nice enough. Her wheat colored hair was pulled back in a braid tied with a black ribbon (what was with all the black?). She wore the uniform she had seen in the wardrobe and it didn’t look too bad. The neck wasn’t as high as Mrs. Shire’s so that gave Laylani some hope that it might actually be comfortable. “My name is Hannah; it’s nice to meet you! I’ve been waiting for a roommate for a while.” Hannah curtsied to her which left Laylani at a complete loss of what to do.

“Um, nice to, uh, meet you Hannah,” She stammered out and shifted her weight, completely unsure of what to do with herself.

“Hehe, Mistress Kenna is going to have fun with you. She teaches speech class and English. But don’t worry I’ll explain how everything works here to you and which teachers you should be careful around. We’ll be great friends!” Hannah grabbed Laylani’s hands and giggled very girlishly smiling so widely her chocolate colored eyes vanished.

’This...is a nightmare.…’

Never in her life had one month felt more like fifty years. She missed Nana; she missed being able to do what she wanted when she wanted and not getting yelled at because she slurped her soup at dinner. Everything here had to be done perfectly and exactly how the Mistresses explained. ‘A lady does not slurp her soup, a lady does not slouch, a lady does not make such messy stitches, a lady does not burn a meal.’ and so on and so fourth. Apparently Laylani did not make a good lady. She couldn’t sing, she couldn’t dance, the only thing she could do was tend a garden but a lady was not supposed to get dirty while doing so.

Keeping control of herself in front of all the girls and the teachers was difficult as well. Somehow she managed to always make it out of the class room before Changing. She had a dozen hiding places in the school that she could wait out the change in. When she shifted back she would go back to class or back to her room depending on the time of day. She was starting to think she’d never have to worry about exposing her little secret to the entire school. Her hope didn’t last long.

It happened in the first week of her second month at the school and it was getting harder for her to get away from classes in time. She was so stressed and worried about shifting in front of her classmates that whenever she started to get yelled at by a Mistress she could barely keep back the shift. So it was to be expected that she wouldn’t get out in time at least once. And once was enough to expose her to the whole of the school.

It happened in sewing class, one of her worst subjects as Mistress Molly seemed to hate her on first sight. Laylani was struggling to make the pattern they were told to make at the beginning of class. She would glance at the other students who seemed to have no problem making the lily from their spools of thread. Trying to catch up she buried herself in her work only to have it snatched from her.

“Ms. Laylani! How many times must I call your name before you pay attention?”

Startled Laylani looked into the angry, beady little eyes, of Mistress Molly. “I’m sorry.” Clutching the fabric of her skirt until her knuckles turned white she waited.

Looking disgusted upon the fabric in her hands Mistress Molly tossed it back into Laylani’s lap. “You are supposed to be making a lily Ms. Laylani. Have you ever seen a lily that looks like that?” She motioned to the misshapen stitches moving around the white fabric sitting limply in the red headed girls lap. Mistress Molly didn’t give Laylani a chance to answer. “No, you have not. Take everything out and begin again,” looking down her nose at the girl Mistress Molly turned to face the rest of the class, cutting off some of the snickering that had been going on.

“I hope you all learn from Ms. Laylani’s mistakes, ladies. A lady must be…” And so she launched into a lecture about how horrible Laylani’s skills were and how with poor skills a woman would never find a good husband.

That’s when it started. Her skin tingled and the small hairs covering her flesh stood on end. She felt her insides roll and she tried to judge the distance between her seat and the door. It was further than usual as she had been late to class and had to sit in the back further from the door. There was no way she was going to make it. As if to prove that thought correct a girl sitting near her screamed.

“M-M-Mi-Mistress Molly! Look!” The girls shrieked as she pointed to Laylani’s hands.

Laylani didn’t need to look at her hands like the rest of the class did. She had felt the bones start to shift as her nails became claws that ripped into the fabric clutched in her hands. Her hands became paws and hair grew rapidly from her paws up her arms. Of course the entire room was now looking at her with wide eyes and gasps of horror.

“Freak!” someone shouted and that was enough to push her to complete the change.

It had taken two weeks to get the girls to stop making fun of her eyes or remarking on how odd they were because she had no pupil, just blue iris. She didn’t need to endure such teasing and whispers behind her back again. Fueled by anger and embarrassment Laylani exploded. The constricting fabric of the schools uniform ripped as it could no longer contain her changing body.

A feral snarl tore from her newly formed canine throat, fur along the back of her neck standing on end, as chaos erupted. Girls scattered and fought to get to the door uttering screams of horror. Laylani was faster. Pushing off of the chair she had somehow been standing on she lunged towards the door which set off more screams and an ‘eat me last’ from Mistress Molly. Everyone darted away from the door which left it open for Laylani to get by. Of course once she was out of the room she almost ran into the other girls who, drawn by the commotion, had slipped from their own class rooms.

Her ears flipped back against her head as yet more high pitched, annoying girly, screams came from the spectators. All it took was one growl from Laylani to get them to dart back into the safety of their classrooms. With the hallways clear it was easy to get to the sun room and outside as the doors were always left open on nice days such as this one.

She paid no attention to where she ran until she was in the cover of the woods that surrounded the grounds of the school. She thought about running away for good but common sense and sentimental issues stopped her. There was no way she could leave her mothers things behind, as well as her clothing, as those things were the only items she had of her mother until she found her. And she had no where to go. She was too young to get a job that didn’t involve selling herself. So she stayed in the forest for a while, hunting when she couldn’t ignore her hunger any longer and thinking.

She stayed in the woods until she knew everyone in the school would be sleeping before she headed back. She was glad her roommate Hannah liked to sleep with the window open; it made shifting into a bird and simply flying into their room easy. She was surprised to see the other girl sleeping in her bed at first. After all who would let someone stay in the same room with a monster? Apparently they hadn’t expected her back. At first the thought made her panic and as soon as she changed back she searched for her things, relieved when she found all of them where she had last left them. Dressing she sat on the edge of her bed and stared out of the window. She thought about running again but she reminded herself about the issue of having no where to go.

Sitting straighter she glared at the door of their room. She would prove them wrong. She would stay until she was old enough to leave and earn her own living with whatever skills she could teach herself. Resolved she climbed into bed and let her mental and physical exhaustion take over.