Free Spellweaver by CJ Bridgeman

counsellor tried to follow
her but was caught in the rush of students as they hurriedly and
eagerly exited their classrooms. As she reached the door at the far
end, Felicity flicked a final glance over her shoulder and saw Mr
Oakley helplessly watching her leave the school
premises.
    Once she got outside,
Felicity ran as fast as she could and did not stop until she got
back to the flat.

 
    6.
     
    The months drew on and
the season became colder. By mid-December, the temperature had
dipped so much that it had already started to snow. The flakes
floated down in their thousands, sometimes soft and gentle, and at
other times caught up in the bitter winds of an angry storm. The
only thing that kept spirits high when school remained open was the
impending festivities of Christmas.
    Christmas meant very
little to Felicity. Usually she spent the time off boarding school
studying. Her mother didn’t put up decorations or send cards, and
she never disclosed to Felicity the reason why. The house was as
gloomy and quiet at Christmastime as it was the rest of the year.
Her father’s flat was much the same; as the festive holiday drew
closer, there was no sign that Felicity’s father was going to
purchase a tree or that he had an artificial one stuffed in a
cupboard somewhere.
    The atmosphere at
school was very different. In the last week of term, Felicity
noticed students exchanging gifts wrapped in brightly coloured
paper, ripping them open although it was still a week until
Christmas Day. Felicity herself received a few cards from students
with whom she had barely even held a conversation. Girls came to
school with tinsel in their hair and tiny festive characters
hanging from their ears. Mobile devices blared out the sounds of
Christmas tunes in the corridors until the students responsible
were shouted at by teachers trying unsuccessfully to implement the
mobile phone ban. A huge tree with mismatched, secondhand
decorations stood tall in the main foyer, the perfect target for
the pranks and jokes of the Greenfields students; by the end of
term, it looked more than a little worse for wear.
    It had been just over
three months since Felicity had joined the suburban school and she
was finally starting to feel as though she was settling in. Her
relationship with her father had not improved. The two of them
barely spoke, only exchanging strained formalities as they
accidentally met one another on their way somewhere else. It was
for this reason that Greenfields had become a kind of haven for
her.
    Hollie still insisted
on dragging her wherever she went and told everyone that the two of
them were best friends, much to the disappointment of many of the
girls in her entourage. Felicity had disclosed many things to her
that she hadn’t previously, including admitting that her mother was
dead. But she still couldn’t bring herself to go into detail,
although a part of her wanted to. The only other person that
Felicity felt she knew was Jamie, and although the three of them
did not spend much time together in school (because Hollie had a
reputation to protect), they frequently saw one another in their
spare time. Hollie acted as though she begrudged spending time with
her twin brother, but Felicity had learnt that it was all for show.
However much she tried to hide it behind the insults and looks of
disgust, Hollie enjoyed having Jamie around.
    Felicity was reluctant
to admit it, but she enjoyed having friends. Every day she went to
school and Hollie had something new to tell her and Jamie had a new
insult for his twin. The two of them bickered incessantly, but it
was clear that they had a great affection for one another. Felicity
was almost jealous, for she had tasted friendship for the first
time in her life and could only imagine what closeness siblings
had, let alone twins. Of course, she would never say any of these
things aloud.
    The twins approached
the coming holiday with a sense of dread. Their father was going to
Spain with their