~They're Wrong~

I wander around the halls trying to find the large observatory perched at the top of the east tower. I know it exists, but honestly I haven't the faintest idea where an entrance is. I check my timepiece and see that I am already five minutes late to the astronomy club.

Charlie is either going to be upset or really worried.

I momentarily grimace at the thought. I stop walking for a moment suddenly concerned about how I've suddenly come to sympathize with this boy I have barely known for more than a day.

Towards the end of the corridor I notice a doorway leading to a stairwell. The only logical place to check now would just be up. I climb the stairs and to my dismay, it ends at a locked door. I sigh in frustration and look up. There I see a ladder that is meant to be pulled down, so I grab it and pull it down to wear I can stand on it and climb up through the small doorway in the ceiling. As I crack it open I can instantly see the inside of what must be the observatory that they converted into a planetarium.

I sigh in relief but suddenly hear a girl's voice address me from across the room. "Well? Are you planning to make yourself even later by standing in the floor like that or do you plan to join us sometime in this generation, Red?"

My cheeks flush as I climb fully into the room and allow the door to close underneath me. The inside is beautiful, spectacular even. I make my way across the room towards where I see Charlie sitting on a stool near the large telescope. I cannot help but admire the glories that the sparkling ceiling presents my eyes with to mimic stars and magnificent galaxies that are light years away.

"Name?" the same brunette from earlier asks me.

"Gwynerie Murphy."

"Alright, we are going to call you Gwyn because 'Gwynerie' sounds like an old lady's name. Not to mention it's a mouthful. My name is Ella, and I am the president of this club. Did you not receive your letter from us today? We sent them out during the midday meal with directions inside to help you find us."

"No... I left early," I say, scratching my arm nervously.

"Well, you found us thankfully. I expect you won't be late again if you ever want any leader positions in the club." She takes a deep breath and continues. "Now that we are all here. I would like everyone to look up at the ceiling. What do you see? Little flecks of light? Stars? Other worlds and lives? Patterns? Tiny fairies?"

While she gives everyone a moment to look up and think about all that she just said, Charlie leans over to me to whisper in my ear. "I thought you got lost."

"Well since I didn't know that there were directions, I saw where the observatory was on the outside of the school... It ended up being much harder to find once inside though."

"It's pretty big here isn't it?" he chuckles quietly.

"Yeah, did you know they have a room dedicated solely to boots? That's right! I told you these people wear boots."

"Sure, whatever you say, Gwynnie-dear. Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to look at specks of light on a ceiling."

I glare at him for a moment before also turning my eyes to the ceiling. What was that she said earlier? Patterns and tiny fairies?

"Whatever it is you guys see is completely up to your own interpretation of what the stars mean to you. We aren't going to go too much into that part of the stars and constellations though because this is astronomy, not astrology. If you were here for that kind of thing, you might as well leave now," Ella states with a completely flat expression.

I begin tracing out patterns in my mind. Nothing actually made any logical sense, but they were patterns nonetheless. I connected my invisible string between the stars, pulling them together tightly into little pictures for my mind. One I made to look like a slingshot while another looked more like a bunny. Come to think of it, they actually look almost the same... or maybe I think I just traced over the same few stars twice accidentally and called them different things each time. I think staring at this ceiling-sky for too long is going to make me dizzy.

After a bit more instruction and dizzily staring at the planetarium ceiling, Ella explained that we will be doing some nighttime activities with permission for the Headmistress to stay out after curfew. At that time we will watch the stars from the telescope with the observatory's ceiling open. Before she said that part, I hadn't noticed the series of levers and metallic arms that must all be used to manually open the ceiling to the room at night to really watch the stars.

As we all begin to leave, Charlie makes sure to walk directly next to me so he can be ready to help me through the trap door.

"You should probably head back to your dorm now. We have to prepare for dinner, don't forget. I see you then alright?" Charlie says after we make it down the stairs.

"Sure. See you then, Charl."

"Did you just choke or did you intentionally leave off the ending there?"

"What do you mean? Of course it was intentional."

He thinks for a moment before a large grin spreads across his face. "So you are developing your own nicknames for me now? Oh, but Gwynnie-dear! Wouldn't you say we are moving too fast?"

"Oh, shut it with that nickname. If you really hate it I'll go back to calling you Willi-"

"No, I don't mind," he begins to walk in the opposite direction of me towards the boys' dormitories, but pauses and turns around once more. "It's nice."

—-—

The next few days went quite similarly to the first; trumpets scared me out of my sleep, I bamboozled my face during my first class, Professor Montgomery insulted me with truths endlessly, I got mocked at lunch, dosed off in History and Business, dealt with my psychopathic maths and sciences professor, and stared at a weird ceiling covered in little lights with Charlie. Overall, not super eventful.

"You've never been to a city?" Charlie had mocked me earlier this week.

"Well, I've been to the more populated bits of my town which are quite lively if you ask me," I told him.

"Sweetie, that doesn't count," he laughed. "Don't worry. Father Charlie will take you into the city on Saturday so you can get a real experience of what a city is."

So that's what's happening today.

I'm unsure of what to wear to the city as I gaze into the closet of clothing that they provided to me. I also still have my old trousers and sweater that I used to wear back home, but I hardly believe that will be acceptable for the school to see me wearing. Girls are supposed to wear skirts and dresses, not pants... even though they are so much more versatile and sensible.

In the end I settle on a baby blue skirt that flows to just about where my knees are and long-sleeved, ribbed, white shirt with a v-neckline. It seemed proper enough. Then again, I'm not used to dressing like this, and I did not have much to choose from. It was either this, a school uniform, or their "fancy" attire for our evening meals.

I slip on the plain, white flats that the school gave everyone for their uniforms and grab the gaunt from the small money-dish on the vanity so I have something to use to buy what I might find while in the city. I have never held a coin of such value before, so I'm finding myself curious as to what a gaunt could buy.

Charlie meets me at fountain in the courtyard after breakfast which I had shoveled down, quite unladylike might I add.

"Are you ready?" he grins giddily, briefly looking me up and down observing my outfit choice.

"Well, if I were not ready, would I be meeting you here right now?"

"Ditto."

The carriage ride into the city takes us around an hour. We had to ride with two other students who had been waiting for the next carriage as we were, so we didn't talk much on the way. I couldn't help but notice their whispered comments to one another while making curt glances at me and then to Charlie. I wish I could have heard what they were saying out of pure curiosity, but their words were just barely inaudible to me.

The two girls jumped out of the carriage in front of Charlie and I whilst giggling. Charlie went to help me down out of the carriage, but I just jumped down ignoring his hand.

"Well excuse me for trying to be a gentleman," he's says with a mock-hurt tone.

"Well excuse me for being a capable young woman, Father Charlie," I giggled at referencing what he had called himself the other day to which I received a glare. "So where do you want to go first? You're the one supposed to be giving me some sort of tour, correct?"

"Yeah, don't you worry one bit. I have this all completely planned out. We have like six hours before we have to be on a carriage to be back in time for dinner," he says before suddenly grinning deviously. "Which means I have plenty of time to shove you into random clothing shops. Now come on, we should get started now." Charlie winks and grabs my elbow to lead me down the cobblestone street to the nearest clothing shop.

As we enter through the glass door, a bell at the top of the door makes a little jingle to notify the shop opener that someone has entered. The shop is full of what must be hundreds of shirts, skirts, dresses, shoes, purses, and plenty of other varieties of wardrobe. The small show was crammed from wall to wall with what seemed like endless racks of these items.

Charlie drags me over to the nearest rack of dresses. He begins pulling out dresses and putting them up against me to test how they might look. Some of them he shakes his head with wide eyes before putting them back on the rack while others he drapes over his left arm. Eventually he moves onto a separate rack after choosing three dresses. I simply watch him in complete and utter amusement as he picks out for clothing for me. Off to my side I take notice of a beautifully knitted, yellow scarf. It's long and wide with small tassels at either end. It's quite simple, but in my eyes there could be nothing more beautiful.

Finally, Charlie shoves three dress, two shirts, a skirt, and two pairs of shoes into my arms. "Go. Try them on. Now," he says as he points towards the back wall of the shop where there are three curtained stalls for trying on clothing.

I take the clothing from him and enter the closest stall. I hang the clothing on the hook on the wall next to the long mirror that stretched from the floor all the way up to around a foot above my head. I change into the first dress that Charlie had picked out and paired it with a pair of light brown sheepskin, heeled boots that had fleece lining the inside with the top of the ankle part having a plaid-looking cuff. The dress is white on top with thin straps that criss-cross in the back. The top also has a flowery-lace design before falling into a plain, knee-length, light pink skirt.

I step out of the dressing stall with the simple outfit on. Charlie scans me for a moment before saying, "The shoes and dress I think work nicely apart... definitely not together."

"Really?" My face falls as I look back down at myself to examine my outfit. "I thought they worked nicely together..."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... Even so, I still don't think you should pair them together. NEXT!"

I turn back around and repeat this same process multiple times for each outfit that Charlie had picked out for me. He eliminated some of the things that he had chosen, but for the most part he liked he majority of what he picked out.

"Are you going to let me pick anything out?" I say after exiting the stall with my original clothes on, holding everything that Charlie had approved in my arms.

"Mmm... No. Next time you can. I don't think I trust your ability to choose anything after seeing that first pairing you put together."

"I thought it looked good!" I whine.

"Well, you were sorely mistaken then, sweetheart," he cooed, poking my nose.

I walk up to front desk where the shopkeeper stood. He looks at everything I lay out on the counter, taken a moment to add up numbers on a notepad. "That will be 45 pelts, miss." I hand him the one gaunt that the school provided me with and he returns me with 55 pelts using eleven coins. So one gaunt can get me a decent amount I see... I'll have to mail a few of these back to my family in a couple weeks.

"Thank you," I tell the man as he neatly folds everything up, organizes them into a large white box, and ties a string around the box making it look like a present.

As we leave the shop, Charlie stops and tells me he forgot he wanted to grab something quick that I had seen. What that could possibly be as this was clearly a store of only women's clothing and accessories is beyond me. I glance down the street, watching people mill about (some holding boxes similar to mine), eating foods that they purchased from the venders, and talking in groups. It was amazing to see so many people, all so carefree in one place. Charlie was right; the busy part of my town where the few shops are were nothing in comparison to this.

While I am busy people-watching, someone bumps into me, causing me to go off-balance and hit the cobblestones beneath me. Why is this always my luck?

"Gwynerie? Is that you?" I hear a slightly familiar voice sound from about me. I look up and see it is Abigail. "Oh, it is you! I am sincerely sorry. I should have been paying better attention to wear I was walking!"

"It's not a problem. I actually find myself in this exact position quite often," I laugh as she offers out a hand to help me to stand. She pulls me to my feet, and I begin to pat myself off in attempt to get any dirt off of my skirt.

"What's in the box?" she asks, noticing my white box full of what I just bought in the shop.

"Oh, it's just some clothes and shoes that my friend picked out from me in there," I explain, gesturing over my shoulder.

As if on cue, Charlie exits the shop holding a small paper-bag. "Who's this?" he asks.

"Hi, I'm Abigail White. I'm in Gwynerie's first class," Abigail introduces herself as she sticks out her hand for Charlie to shake.

"William-Charles, nice to meet you," he responds curtly before turning his attention back to me. "What next?"

"That's up to you, Mr. Tour Guide," I shrug.

"Is he leading you around the city?" Abigail interjects with a hint of confusion.

"Yeah, I am," he says.

"Well, should she not be lead around by a girl who understands style and beauty better than a guy might?" Abigail says placing a hand on her hip.

"I'll have you know that I have five siblings who are all girls: three older and two younger. I know plenty about style, Miss KnowItAll."

Abigail purses her lips, ignoring his comment, and turns to me. "Would you rather me show you around a bit? I think you might enjoy a little girl-time away from this baboon."

I feel Charlie's eyes searing holes through me, awaiting my response to her. "Um... No... I think I'm alright, Abigail. Thanks though. Maybe another day? We kind of planned this earlier in the week..." To this, Charlie grins as though he just made the most amazing achievement in the world.

Abigail narrows her eyes as she moves her eyes between Charlie and I suspiciously. She takes a deep breath with her eyes closed before smiling, completely changing her original demeanor. "In that case, how about I join you both?"

"I don't thin-" I begin, but she cuts me off.

"Don't worry! I don't mind one bit," she says cheerfully, lacing her arm through mine and leading me away from Charlie.

I glance over my shoulder to see him taking a few large steps to catch up to us as Abigail quickly hurries me away. Help, I mouth to him.

He shrugs and mouths back, I'm sorry.

"Surely a girl cannot go with jewelry. You seem like a necklace kind of girl, am I wrong?" Abigail says as we stop in front of a jewerly-vender's booth off of the main street. She doesn't give me a chance to respond before she begins holding up random necklaces of different styles to my neck. "Something bulky? Hm, no. With your skin, I believe a simple silver necklace will work nicely."

"How about this?" Charlie chimes in, holding up a simple, silver chain with a small rose pendant dangling from it.

"It seems you do know somewhat what you are doing. Give it here so we can see what she looks like with it on," Abigail says as she snatches the necklace from him. She puts it around my neck, holds up a small mirror to me, and asks, "Do you like it?"

"I mean, it's nice, but-" she cuts me off again before I can finish my sentence.

"Great! We'll take it," she tells the vender. "I'll pay for it, my gift to you as a token of our budding friendship."

I send a sideways glance to Charlie, unsure of this girl's motive. He just shrugs in response. I'm not used to people being like this towards me. It oddly makes me suspicious of her.

"How about we stop at one of these small cafés for lunch?" Abigail asks and turns to me.

"Sounds like a good idea," Charlie says, but Abigail ignores him, smiling, and waiting for my response.

"Sure, I guess. I could go for some food right now I guess," I say, slightly lying. My whole life I had to conserve on small bits of food, so really I was not hungry in the slightest as I was used to only a small piece of bread and cup of soup each day or sometimes even every other day.

We find our way into a small café called Rosie's at the corner of the block. Abigail chooses a small round table by the window to sit at. We each look over the small menu cards in a pile at the center of the circular table.

A young woman wearing an apron over a blue dress approaches us and asks, "Welcome to Rosie's! What would you like?"

"Might I get a croissant and a parfait?" Abigail asks politely.

"I'll have a coffee. Black, if you could," Charlie provides.

I look at the menu unsure for a moment. I don't believe I've ever really had any of what the menu lists. "I guess I'll have a cappuccino and some toast with raspberry jam?"

"Got it. I will be right out with your food," the girl says, eyeing Charlie a little too intensely for my liking.

She wasn't kidding when she said she would be "right out" because within only a couple moments she was right back out to us with everything we ordered. She tells us that she will be back with the check when we are finished and to enjoy.

"That girl was staring at you, William-Charles," Abigail prods.

"She was? I had not noticed," he says, nonchalantly sipping his hot coffee, wincing at its temperature.

"She was. You should talk to her."

Charlie looks at me before responding to Abigail, "I'd rather not."

"Why not? She's cute~" she pushes.

"Because I'm really not interested," he says with his eyes trained on me.

Abigail follows his gaze to me before saying, "So you are interested in her then?"

"Gwyn? Sure. I dragged her here didn't I?"

His blunt statement causes me to gasp, inhaling my cappuccino down the wrong pipe. I begin coughing hysterically, gaining the attention of the entire café within seconds.

Charlie quickly begins patting my back. "Are you alright? Do you need water?"

I bat him away with my hand. "I'm fine. I just started drowning in my cappuccino is all..." 

What got into him? Making him say such strange things...

—-—

Abigail ended up not coming back with us because we decided to head back to the school shortly after the café incident. It was a relief to finally have some silence. It seemed that the girl enjoyed listening to herself speak as that was all that she did the entirety of the time she was with us.

"I'm going to drop this box off in my dorm quickly so we can walk around a bit before dinner," I tell Charlie as we step out of the carriage upon arriving.

"Sure thing. I'll walk you to the hall and wait for you to come back out," he says.

"You're not going to take that bag back to your dorm while I go up into mine?"

"Nope. I'm too lazy to walk all the way back there," he laughs and shrugs. "Besides it's so small. I'll just carry it a bit longer."

"If you say so..."

I try to make my trip up to my dorm as quickly as humanely possible as to not keep Charlie waiting for too long. I drop the box onto my bed and hook the necklace Abigail had bought me around my neck. It does compliment my skin and hair quite nicely... Doesn't change the disgrace of my hair color though.

"Took you long enough," Charlie jokes as I exit the girls' dormitories.

"Shut up. You know as well as I do that I was gone barely a minute or two," I say jabbing his side.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just pulling your leg."

"Well, stop. It's giving me a cramp."

"A cramp? Really?"?

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Nothing..." he laughs, scratching the back of his neck. "Anyways, I found a hill in the fields behind the school. It's right at the edge of the woods, but it has a beautiful view of the school and sunset. Sadly I don't think we'll catch the sunset because we have to go to dinner, but I'm sure it would be beautiful from there."

"Alright then. Lead the way," I say gesturing for him to go.

He holds out his elbow for me to hold onto. We make our way down the small path that leads the fields behind the school. I know some of the clubs that involve outdoors utilize this space for games and meetings. I even saw the book club laying out here on blankets reading to one another and discussing the book they were reading. I would have truly loved that club... but Charlie convinced me to join him in the astronomy club which I don't regret. It's actually quit4e enjoyable. I look forward to Wednesday night next week when we will be staying out after curfew for two hours with the Headmistress's permission to watch the stars through the open roof of the observatory where we hold meetings.

Finally, we reach the edge of the woods at the top of an exhaustingly steep hill. The school might as well be in a ditch with a hill like this next to it. Charlie was right yet again though. From up here we are able to gaze across the entirety of the school grounds. It was all must more elegant than I had thought previously. Do misunderstand me though; I always thought it was beautiful, but never did I see it as this wonderfully elegant as it is now from this view.

The sun glistened of the bricks of the towers in such a way that reminded me of the planetarium's dome ceiling. A bunch of little glittering lights across the stone giving it the look of a starry sky only during the day, if that was even possible.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Charlie asks, snapping me from my daze.

"Indeed," I respond, struggling to tear my eyes from the scene in front of me to look at Charlie.

Suddenly I am presented with yet another beautiful view. The sun shines across his features giving him a heavenly golden glow. His green eyes seemed even brighter than I've ever seen them before as they are reflecting the vibrant grass surrounding us.

I don't realize I'm staring until Charlie poses with both hands behind his head, smirking, and says, "Like the view?"

"Not at all, you just have a leaf in your hair," I seamlessly recover.

He feels through his hair quickly, finding that I'm lying. "Hm, weird. There was no leaf to be staring at."

"Must have blown away. The wind is stronger up here on this hill," I say, sitting down and running my fingers through the soft grass.

"Fair enough," he says and joins me on the ground facing the school. We sit there in silence for a moment before he drops the white bag from earlier in my lap.

"What's this?"

"Why not open it and see for yourself?"

I glare at him lightly for his cocky response as I reach into the bag feeling a soft material. I pull it out revealing the beautiful yellow scarf that I had seen this morning at that first shop we had visited.

"You saw me look at this?" I ask in shock.

"No, I have great intuition. Of course I saw you staring at it as if it was a fresh piece of bacon! Not to mention, I had to practically drop the clothes in your arms to get your attention because saying your name simply wasn't doing the job."

I pull him into a tight hug, probably to his surprise as it takes him a moment or two before he wraps hims arms around me and rests his hands on the small of my back. It had been a long time since someone had gotten me a real, genuine gift. I know my brothers have given me that stuffed animal and cupcake on my birthday weeks ago... but that was just what they had lying around. This was bought for me and only me.

"Thank you. So much," I say sincerely as I pull away from Charlie.

"You're welcome. I didn't know it was such a huge deal," he says with a chuckle. "Next time I want a good Gwynerie-Hug I'll remember to just buy you something."

"Oh, quiet," I laugh while hitting his arm. "This won't work every time. I swear to god, you better not go around buying me random things."

"Fine, fine..." he trails of examining my face. "Did you know how amazing your hair looks right now? This light makes it look like it is a living flame."

My face falls and I look down at the grass. "It's a horrible color. Why don't you see it like the rest of our society does?"

"Gwynerie," Charlie says softly. I don't look up so he repeats himself, only more sternly this time around. "Gwynerie." He grabs my chin gently and forces me to look up from the ground and into his dazzling green eyes. "Get with the times. I know most people say horrible things, but that is only because they are jealous. Do you realize how rare it is to have your hair and freckles? It is old and expired views that some people still carry with them today about red hair and freckles being 'ugly'."

"They aren't wrong, Charlie."

"No! They are the definition of wrong," he urges and sighs. "Gwynerie Murphy. You're magnificent. I knew it the second I bumped into you on that small street causing you to drop all those books."

We stay like that with his hand under my chin for a moment without saying a word before he breaks the silence.

"You're gorgeous."