I hurdled a bench in the courtyard and rushed to my class.

“Run Forrest, run!” I heard a girl yell with a thick English accent. It was a comment followed by may laughs.

I continued running and slid to the door of my first period class just as the late bell rang. Tearing the door open, I made my way to the first available seat, somewhere in the back, and got comfortable. It was going to be my first class in the new school, in this new town, in the new country, and so far, I was not quite sure how I felt about it. The teacher of Latin seemed to be struggling with the roll. “Dominē O’Donnell?”

Och, no. “It’s Domina O’Donnell.”

“I did notice the new name on the roll. Thank you. Teagan is it?”

“Tis.”

He was a beefy man to be sure, quite tall with a lot of greying facial hair on him. “Nomen mihi est Dominē, Magister, whichever you prefer, Clarke. This is Latin 4, which of course you know since you signed up for the course. Unde est?”

I noticed the majority of the student body had their eyes trained either on him or myself. It was rather unnerving, I thought to myself, running a hand through my short cut, sandy blonde hair. “I’m from Ireland, out by Galway a bit.”

“Are ye Catholic?” An inquiring mind wanted to know.

“No.” He did not ask if I was Protestant, which was also a relief for I was not either. Through much study and learning I had decided that I wanted to be a Pagan, a Druid Pagan, which had its roots in Ireland but is hard to practice sine I am the only one I know. I care a lot about the environment, and believe in many myths, legends, and superstitions, and am pretty good at reading a tarot deck. Runes are a bit more tricky. My parents are Catholic, and they aren’t quite sure what to think about my choice in religion, right now they figure it is just a phase, as teens tend to go through.

“Where do ye live now?” The redhead seated beside me asked.

“The uh, old Sanborn Manor.”

“You live there?” A few people asked bewildered.

“Isn’t it haunted?”

“I haven’t seen anything yet.” I replied.

The class started up but I was not really paying attention, I was thinking. If the house was haunted, as the kids said then that would explain a thing or two about why I was uncomfortable in the place.

The redhead was watching me. When she noticed I had returned to earth she learned in, “M’name’s Kevin, Kevin MacMurray.”

I turned to her, “Yer Irish.”

“Och, that I am. Not even first generation British, but I wanted te tell ye, welcome te Manton.”

“Thanks.”

“So ye really live in Sanborn Manor?”

I nodded.

“Goddess.”

“Ye just said somethin’ bout the Goddess.”

“Aye, sorry bout that, it gets out every now and again. Hope I didn’t offend ye.”

“I’m not offended. No one else I know swears like that. ‘Cept me.”

“But I thought---”

“No. But about the castle I live in. Is it really haunted?”

“Aye.”

“How so?”

“Pictures are relocated. People in the portraits have vanished. Some claim to have seen a ghost or two. Others suspect they’ve seen vampires.”

Have you been inside?” I asked eagerly.

“Aye, once. Some o’ the local boys thought’d be funny te lock me inside and torch it. Te see if I could get out usin’ me witch powers. A young girl appeared, lookin’ kinda like you actually, an’, well, I dunno if she was real, or imaginary, human, ghost, or vampire, but she led me to the cellar and out of the carriage house. By the time I reached the front o’ the house again the boys were gone, the fire was out, and the girl was nowhere te be seen. Te this day I’m not sure what spooked ‘em, or what happened te the fire, an’ I’m pretty sure I don’t want te know.”

“Great,” I replied, “Now I have te go home, and won’t ever get te sleep.”

“They can’t hurt ye.”

“I know that.”

“An’ I don’t think that ye’d be bearin’ any ill will towards they so they shouldn’t bother ye.”

“Thanks.”

After Latin, the pair of us had a study hall, where she gave me a quick tour of the school, so I would not look like a complete fool when I went to my next class, then we went to the library. I loved it. I was as all school libraries should be with the whole old book smell permeating the room. Kevin led me to a confine corner where three rather attractive boys were hanging out. Two had jet black hair, and one, had brown. “Kevin.” The brown haired boy’s voice was cold.

“Lads.” The redhead’s voice remained chipper despite their dreary moods. “Don’t mind them, they’re always here. Almost like they don’t go te class…” She trailed off glaring at them. “But anyway, these are the two most important walls of the library. This one wall,” she pointed to the back wall against the likes of which the boys were rested as they read, “has any and all town and country historical information that one might ever need. Good fer genealogy, family history, an’ maybe researchin’ the house ye live in. Whatever ye want, it should be there. One the other wall,” She motioned to the wall behind her, “is everything ye could want te know about supernatural sightings, everywhere, history, myths, legends, and the occasional novel, it’s all there. Me and the lads’ve got a bit of a race te see who can read the most books. Right now I’m winnin’ but it never stays that way fer long. You interested in joinin’?”

“Uh, sure,” I replied.

The boys looked up at me briefly upon answering.

“Ye can read---” she extracted a weathered volume from the shelf, “this one. I wanted te read it, but since yer ‘ere ye can summarize fer me.”

I laughed, “Och, I can try.”

“Good, bye lads.”

They nodded in acknowledgement, and one or two of them looked up to see us off.

We headed to another part of the library so Kevin could do some of her work. Since I did not have any I got started on the book, whatever it was. Vampyre History in England. Well all right. I’m too big on vampires, and tried to tell Kevin that is really wasn’t my forte. She would hear none of it. It would broaden my knowledge she argued. “But really…”

“I heard it was really good. Some crackpot idea that the Irish infested England.” She laughed lightly and turned back to her work.

Infested? What kind of word was that anyway? Much too descriptive for my liking, but I held my tongue and my imagination as bay in order to begin the story. It was hard to read at first with the Ye Olde English, but it was by no means Elizabethan and for that I was thankful.

Eventually I got into it, and read the book between classes, during them, and after school, as I walked home. As I exited the building, book in hand, the three boys from the library swarmed around me, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. And I know a thing or two about disappearing acts.

“So you’re the new girl.” The brown-haired boy stated.

“Aye, what’s it te ye?”

“Nothin’ from Ireland?”

“Aye.” I eyed them cautiously, sizing them up. I always had a bit of trouble back home, no one really ever took a Pagan lightly, everyone seemed to have something against them. These boys did not hate Kevin, nor did they like her especially much. So why pick on me? They were all about the same height, near six feet, not much taller than myself, and scrappy looking. No good.

“No need to get touchy.” The boy said sounding amused. “What’s your name?”

“Teagan O’Donnell. Ye?”

“Ion Kale, Eli Grey, and Daniel Lee.”

So very English names. “Nice te meet ye. I’m sure I’ll see ye round.”

They nodded and hung back, while I picked up the pace and headed home. Once at Sanborn, I tried to pay the least amount of attention to my surroundings as possible, I yelled to my folks that I was home, and ran up the stairs, unloading my stuff in my room and doing my homework. I went to bed later than I wanted to, but the book proved to be extremely interesting, so I did not sleep until I finished it.