Goodbye Tienen

Fleure’s POV

“Wait, I know just the thing.” Aunt Christina rushed to her room to look for something.

Today was the day of the entrance ceremony and after the results of the entrance exam, I had been given the honor to speak to the student body. Who on earth got that bright idea? However nervous I was, Aunt Christina was even more nervous at the prospect of me standing in front of everyone, and right now she was fussing and doing her utmost best to help me do something nice with my hair.

Lise had been really angry when she learned the details of my self-punishments and the fact that I had been clipping my own hair short as one of them, so I had started to let it grow again. But after just 2 months of summer break, my hair now had a length that was hard to work with. It was still too short to tie together, but already too long to just let it be.

On top of that, another problematic aspect of my new school was brought to my attention after enrolling. Even though school uniforms were a thing of the past in Belgium, since this was a European school project and not a Belgian one, for the first time in my life I would have to wear a uniform to school.

When my uniform arrived in the mail, I had been worried that it would be one of those embarrassing sailor uniforms, but luckily it was a different type of uniform. It was more the British kind, that was composed of a dark raspberry red blazer, a white shirt, a necktie a checkered patterned skirt and we got the choice between black stockings or black knee socks. For colder days there was also a wool sweater.

After getting dressed, I looked in the mirror and felt like I was doing cosplay. Were there really parts in the world where people dressed like this for school? Somewhere in the back of my head, I felt like this uniform was all a practical joke that someone was having at my expense, and I would be the only one at that entrance ceremony in this funny-looking outfit. “School uniforms… Probably some old perv that came up with the idea…” I whispered to myself.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Aunt Christina returned with a silver hair clip with an emerald-blue flower on top that I recognized immediately. I remembered my mom wearing it. Aunt Christina added the accessory to the side of my hair creating a cute offset by breaking the symmetry.

While I looked into the mirror, for a split second my mind flashbacked on how mom used to wear the same clip on the side of her head when we went to concerts. However, it didn’t do the same thing for me as it did for mom. Mom always sparkled brightly when she wore this clip. I on the other hand. was still forced to style my hair with bangs so that I could hide that hideous scar and my nervousness about having to speak in front of so many people

Nevertheless, I brought my hand to my hair and caressed the clip as something precious. I looked at Aunt Christina and said, “Thank you, I did not know you still had that.”

“She gave it to me a long time ago before I went on a date. It was her lucky clip. She always used to say that nothing could go wrong as long she was wearing that clip.”

With that in mind, I touched the clip again and felt myself calm down. It soothed me. It felt like I was taking a part of mom with me.

When we got out of the bathroom, Aunt Christina forced me to pose for her in my school uniform. “I can’t not have a picture of you like that!” I thought she was making fun of me, but then I noticed she was really emotional about the situation. “Smile! It’s the start of a new phase in your life!”

After the camera made the shutter sound, I noticed she was crying and she said, “I know I was the one who forced you to do this, but It’s going to be so lonely here without you.”

A year ago, Aunt Christina forced me to participate in the entrance exam for this dorm school. Back then we weren’t getting along, and my future wasn’t looking too bright, so it was more of a last resolve kind of thing that she had agreed to, but that had in turn sparked events that had resulted in the two of us getting along a lot better now. Especially now that Lise was back in my life.

“At least you and Inge won’t have to worry about me anymore. Maybe you should ask her to move in.” Aunt Christina had been dating my ex-counselor for quite a few months now. I had been shocked when I found out, but over summer break I had grown comfortable with the situation, I had even given them a private performance to serve as one of their dates, which had been good to learn a different side of Inge. It was the first time I met her as just a normal person. Before that evening, Inge had always been something like a teacher in my mind. Not a real person, if you know what I mean.

Inge had kept her word to me and never broken our trust and Aunt Christina looked so happy when she was together with her. Seeing what it did for Aunt Christina, Lise had been right that it would have been wrong of me to interfere with their relationship since I was moving out anyway.

Aunt Christina blushed at my suggestion to let Inge move in, but then suddenly ruffled my hair and said, “Cheeky girl!”

“No! What did you do? After all that effort getting my hair right!”

Aunt Christina was laughing while I rushed back to the bathroom to comb my hair again in front of the mirror. Luckily the hair clip was still firmly in place. At least one of us seemed to have managed to calm her nerves. The damage was limited due to my hair being so short, but I did not want to risk being in front of everyone looking like I still had bed hair.

When I nervously returned back to the living room, Aunt Christina had already put on her coat and was searching for her car keys.

We had already packed the car yesterday evening, the only thing that I still had to bring was my most precious possession: the cello that hosted Lise and Rosalinde. I had convinced Aunt Christina that there was no way that we could leave a priceless instrument like that a night in the car, but to me, it was of course more about not being separated again from Lise whose ghost had been bound to the cello with the help of Rosalinde, the ghost of a young girl that was bound to this ancient instrument.

When I picked up the case, I could immediately feel their soothing presence. “Let’s go!” I said while taking a final look at my room. This would still be my room, but I would most likely not return here until fall break. The time that this was the place where I spent most of my time was over now. Not that it had really been a happy time, I had mostly practiced my cello feverishly in here… But Aunt Christina had a point. It did feel like I was turning the page of a chapter in my life.

“Are you coming? We don’t want to be late!”

I rushed toward the front door and took one nostalgic look back.

“You will be back here before you know it. Fall break is already in November.” Aunt Christina said, but I could feel she said that more for herself than for me.

Even though that introduction video I watched said that the school would be near Brussels, instead it was in a small town called Vaalbeek near Leuven which is still 30 km from Brussels, but apparently, foreigners call that close to Brussels. The Virtuoso Academia was in an old Franciscan monastery that had been repurposed and was located in the middle of the Meerdaal woods. It was a lot more remote than I thought it would be when they spoke to me about a school near the capital. As a matter of fact, it was in the middle of nowhere. It was hard to find a place as remote as this in the region of Brabant.

When we arrived at the parking in front of the main building, I was surprised by how serene this place felt, even with all the hustle and bustle of all the students who were arriving and bringing stuff to their rooms, this place seemed to exhume a calmness. This was indeed an ideal place to dedicate yourself to practicing music.

“Let’s go see where you need to be before we start unpacking.” Aunt Christina nudged me to action. I nodded. That seemed like a sound plan indeed, but I did insist on bringing my cello with me. It just did not sit right to leave it in the car even if it was for just a moment.

When we entered through the main entrance, we were immediately faced with Frank who was dashing out orders while helping people with questions.

“In God’s name. Why of all people do we have to meet him here…” Aunt Christina mumbled.

Aunt Christina and Frank really didn’t get along. I don’t know every detail of it, except some story about Frank ogling her, but that was not enough to warrant the way Aunt Christina always reacted to him.

When he noticed me, he got a big smile, but then he noticed Aunt Christina next to me, and the smile immediately turned into a more forced and nervous one.

“Ah, our honor student made it! Fleure, it’s good to see you again!” I think this was the first time anyone ever referred to me as an honor student. He shook my hand and waved uncomfortably at Aunt Christina. It was the first time I saw those two interact directly with each other. What on earth could have happened between those two, for him to act like that… He seemed to be actually scared of Aunt Christina.

“Why are you here?” Aunt Christina asked.

“Ahum.” One of Frank’s throat scrapes. That nervous tick was really bothersome once you picked up on it.

“As one of the founders, a board member, and a teacher in this academy, I am helping the students find their way on the first day,” Frank replied nervously.

Aunt Christina was clearly growing tense when she got that new piece of information and I heard her mumble “At least he plays the trumpet, so he won’t come in a mile from Fleure…”

Frank, being an authority figure here, was trying to keep things light and friendly, and tried to change the subject “How do you like your uniform? I think they look even more lovely than I had imagined. Uniforms were one of my proposals for this school, and I was the one to finally decide on which uniform we would be using here at the academy.”

Really? My thoughts of an old pervert picking them out just became prophetic…