The third seer, Chapter2

Chapter 2

Sam and Lilli met each other outside their rooms the next morning. It was the first day of classes and they were about to meet the other girls. Last night at dinner there had been no one else there and the cooks had told Sam that everyone normally came much later to eat. That was also why the food was still cold.
“Lil, where do you think our teacher is?” asked Sam suddenly.
“Not sure, probably that way,” she pointed down a long winding passage that led into the other half of the building
“Okay, let’s try it.”
They walked for about five minutes. A few times they passed passages leading off the main one. They also passed a few giant black and brown doors. When they eventually reached the end, both of them were a bit out of breath.
“Look there are some girls, we must be in the right place,” Sam pointed out.
Just then a man stepped out of one of the doors. He looked at all the girls irritated, and then said, “Girls, please follow me. I am Master Khaa and I will be your teacher. You will come to this room every morning where I will inform you about what you will be doing for the day.”
He was a tall man dressed fully in red, you could see by his darker skin that he was from Karango, the country just south of Damensal. Damensal and Karango were not friendly neighbors, unfortunately feuds like that normally ended in war.

Sam soon found out that the girls in her class were not as easily intimidated as she thought, they were cheeky and they seemed to all know each other already. There was one girl who’s name was Helen, she was the girl that everybody listened to. She was bossy, but everybody still thought she was brilliant. Sam had caught Helen sneaking glances at her quite a few times during the day, but only because she had been looking at her. 
What does she think of me, thought Sam, I’m just an ordinary brown haired girl, sure I’ve got bright green eyes but that’s no reason for her to stare. Maybe she thinks I’m pretty! Sam grimaced at the thought. She did not consider herself pretty, and she was sure nobody else did. Maybe the girl just found her interesting.
When their first class with Master Khaa finished, Helen and her group of friends walked over to Lilli and Sam.
“Hi, I’m Helen,” she said with a silky accent, Western.
“Hi, I’m Sam.”
“And I’m Lilli,” Lil added when Sam didn’t mention her.
“Oh, we’re going to our next lesson now if you want to walk with us?” 
“Sure!” Lil said hastily when Sam hesitated to answer.
After a while, Sam started to realize what Helen was doing. She was being very nice to Lil but completely ignoring her! Sam could not believe her. How could anyone, after just talking to a person once, decide that they did not like them and then ignore them? She didn’t know what to do, should she talk to Lil later or should she just leave it? Maybe if she just pretended not to notice, they would start talking to her again, or maybe not.
Sam made up her mind, “Lil, I’ll see you later.” Sam said after her next lesson, it was lunch break and she wanted to go somewhere, anywhere as long as she was alone.
“Where are you going?” Lilli demanded.
“I’ll see you later, just going to look around,” Sam walked away before Lilli could protest.
She walked for a bit and eventually found a door leading outside. Sam sat alone near a flower bush in the sun outside, quite happy to just lie there. A bell rang and broke through the quiet peacefulness, all sense of serenity gone.   


Sam woke up very tired, Lil, she saw, was the same. They had both stayed up in Sam’s room talking until a master had come by and shouted at them for being up so late. When the bell had gone, it had been hard to get up.
“Sam, Lil!” It was Meg, one of Helen’s friends.
“Morning Meg, what’s wrong?” Sam asked.
Meg had a distressed look on her face, but she smiled slightly when Sam asked her, “I just got a letter from my dad saying I have to go home as soon as I can. The only problem is that Master Khaa has all my books from last winter. If I don’t bring them home with me when I go, my dad’s going to get really angry!”
“Oh, why don’t you just ask Master Khaa for them?” Lil asked.
“He said I couldn’t have em last time I asked, but now I really need them!” Meg said panicked, a single tear dropped onto her shirt. 
“Well if there is anything we can do to help just let us know,” Lil said this, not really thinking there was anything they could do that Meg couldn’t do herself. Meg had obviously thought about it because when Lil offered to help she jumped at the chance. “Well actually there is something you can do that Helen, the other girls and I can’t do because we are too busy!” As she said this, a little smile tugged the end of her lips which Sam thought looked a bit evil, “You can get it for me!”
“What! Just ask Master Khaa to give them to us?”
“No! Just take em. He will never give em to you if you ask! He’ll never even notice they’re gone.”
“What? Steal?” Sam asked not believing what she was hearing.
“It’s not stealing Sam, because it’s rightfully mine!” Meg said, as though she actually believed it.
When she saw Sam’s cross expression, tears filled her eyes, again.
“Please Sam, I don’t have time and it’s so easy! There’s no chance you’ll get caught. If I don’t get it my Dad’s going to be so angry, please Sam!” Now she was begging, the tears in her eyes had started to overflow and the distress in her voice was clear. Sam was starting to consider her options. The more she thought about it the more she realized she was stuck. If she denied Meg, she would tell Helen. Then everyone would know she was a coward and she would not be able to make friends with anyone. If she accepted and was caught, who knows what punishment she would get! The girls were nearing the mess hall for breakfast now, so Sam quickly finished the conversation. “Me and Lil will talk about it and tell you when classes start. If we do it, we need to know exactly how to do it, okay?”
“Okay,” Meg said “Oh and Sam”
“Mmm”
“Thanks!”
“I didn’t say I’d do it,” Sam said and walked away.