One

There’s a place called Hailsham, and it sits atop the highest cliff face overlooking the Bering Sea. The shards of granite slanting up towards its walls knife the sky and the trees that haunt the shadows of the guard towers rot from years of exposure to the salty mist. The walls are stone, built centuries ago. They guard the largest living Catholic Colony East of the Five Archways.

          In Hailsham there are four subsections of the plot: the residential area, the markets, the Church, and the Academy. Each serves its place, and if not, the consequences are more than dramatically enforced.

          Hailsham Academy is in the farthest right corner of Hailsham, and is the building nearest to the sea. Hannah’s dorm window looks out over the water, and now and then she’s lucky enough to feel the last particles of ocean water still in flight after have been crashing into the cliff face. She watches the sun fall into the waters before blowing out her candle, and this is her luxury. There aren’t many students at Hailsham who have the gift to see such beauty every night, and she writes about it in her journal.

          Hannah sits at the head of her bed and is staring out into the water. Its morning and she hopes that today is one of those days when the Vestals let the girls sleep for an extra half hour before calling the breakfast bell. The boys are always called first, and sometimes the Vestals are so caught up in everything that they forget to ring their section of the Academy awake.

          She watches the waves dance around and notices the splashing and the foam. She can subconsciously hear the murmur of the happenings deep inside Hailsham Academy and knows that the Vestals will not be forgetting them, and that yes, she would need to be ready when they finally come.

          Hannah gets up from her bed while lifting the covers up and off her legs. It’s cold in her little room, but that’s the way it’s always been and she likes it that way. Sometimes she purposefully leaves her window open at night so that she can brave the cold like some adventurer. So that she can feel how it feels to be out in the cold dead forests.

          Her room has always been the same; her bed pushed up against the far and left wall just next to the little window, and her desk and candle right next to it. The mirror’s past the end of the bed and against the wall with the door, but her closet door opens up and hides it from others.

          Hannah walks over to the closet and opens it and smells the fragrance of her clothing. Every last piece of fabric inside makes some sort of dress, all because the Vestals insist on women wearing dresses. Since she had the ability to learn Hannah has been told how wearing dresses was a women’s duty to the Lord and that anything besides that on her body would be to spite him.

          But Hannah has her dirty secrets. She smiles thinking of it, because sometimes when the Vestals aren’t prowling the floor, she slips off her clothing so that she’s be completely naked, and she’s hop inside her covers and feel the warmth up against her flesh.

          She sticks her hand in and starts flipping through the hangers. In all she has twelve dresses all of which her mother and grandmother made her. Most had flower patterns on them but her favorite three were just blue. When she wore them she felt like one of those people who went to the Lost Land of America on the boat. But every girl wore dresses like that, so she was no different than anyone else.

          Hannah's not ordinary, but she's not unique either. She looks like Pride and Prejudice and Where the Wild Things Are, or Ann of Green Gables. Her hair's pulled back into to black braids that falls to her shoulders, and her few dark freckles on her skin brings out her grey eyes. She actually keeps her teeth clean, partly because she doesn't want them to look like most others nasty yellow teeth, but also because she likes the taste of baking soda.

          From the closet she brings out the lighter blue dress, the one with the ribbon that cuts the dress in half at the waist. It fits her more adequately than the other things. She decides this dress is her absolute favorite and tells herself to remember to tell that to Claire when they meet in the Breakfast Hall.

          It’s Common’s Day which means they don’t have service in the morning, thank God. Hannah strips off her night gown (which was also made by her mother) and throws it on. She shuts the closet and looks in the mirror at herself and stares at her braids. They’re mashed up against her head because she’s an idiot and forgot to pull them out last night. Course she doesn’t care, but the Vestals will, and she doesn’t want to work in the Gardens during her free time.

          The bells sound in the corridors and Hannah rushes over and reaches under her bed where she keeps her sneakers. They’re pretty stained, but again, she doesn’t care. Most likely within the next month or two she’ll inherit a new pair, probably too small and she’ll have to break them in.

          She slips them over her feet without thinking to put on a pair of socks and quickly moves to the door.

          Outside in the Corridor most of the students are opening their doors. Some, eager to eat the s**t in the Breakfast Hall and get the best seating, are already heading down the spiral staircase down the hall; Hannah can see some of the girls ponies bobbing up and down as they descend.