CHAPTER ONE - The Punishment

“I thought the movie was awesome!” Hazel leaned over her desk in science class to talk to her friends. “And that vampire was really good-looking.” She blushed a little as she remembered him.

“It was fine,” Gabriela said, “but some parts were just boring.”

Hazel rolled her eyes. “Nonsense. What about that handsome vampire?”

Gabriela shook her head. “He’s not my type.”

“He’s everyone’s type!” Hazel protested.

“Guys! Be quiet,” Emma said in a loud whisper, pointing at the board, where Ms. Butterwick was writing down an explanation of the water cycle.

Unfortunately, Gabriela and Hazel were much more interested in the movie they watched last night in their shared dorm room than in the science lesson right in front of them.

“It’s impossible to be quiet when Gabriela thinks the vampire guy from yesterday’s movie isn’t cute,” Hazel answered.

“I told you—he’s not my type,” Gabriela repeated, frustrated.

“We can talk about this when class is over,” Emma answered in a frantic tone. “But you don’t want to upset Ms. Butterwick.”

“We aren’t going to!” Hazel said.

As if Ms. Butterwick had heard that last line, she turned to face the girls.

“Enough!” she said harshly in their direction. “Step out of the classroom, please,” she ordered.

Ms. Butterwick carefully placed the chalk she was using on the chalk tray and pointed the three friends out the door.

“You girls seem to have far more interesting things to talk about than the water cycle,” she said.

“We’re sorry,” Gabriela said when they reached the hallway. “It won’t happen again. We promise!”

“You have all earned detention. Go to the principal’s office. Immediately!” she commanded.

“Not Ms. Semper’s office,” Emma whispered, nervously fidgeting with her hands. “She’s scary!”

“I beg you to reconsider,” Gabriela pleaded.

“No. You three are always chatting in my class and distracting the rest of the students. Now, go!”

The girls sheepishly started walking towards Ms. Semper’s office. They liked their school, even if it was strict. Since it was a boarding school, the students slept in shared rooms instead of going home each night. It was fun having that time to share with friends.

The school building was a little spooky, though, with long, dark hallways that led to small, cramped offices—like Ms. Semper’s.

“I can’t believe how far Ms. Semper’s office is from the classrooms,” Emma said.

“I know. I’ve always been scared of her,” Gabriela said.

“Right? Have you seen her hair? It’s always tied in a knot. I don’t understand how she isn’t bald yet,” Hazel said.

Hazel was passionate about all things fashion and would constantly give her friends makeovers.

“It’s not just about her style,” Gabriela added. “She’s always alone, and it’s weird! I’ve never seen her talk to anybody. Actually, I’ve never even seen her smile.”

“Maybe she’s just shy,” Emma suggested.

“I bet there’s another reason,” Gabriela said.

“I’m telling you, it’s her awful hairstyle,” Hazel insisted.

Before they knew it, they were standing before a wooden door with a sign that read, “Ms. Semper’s Office. Knock before entering.”

Emma knocked, and they heard Ms. Semper’s stern voice from inside.

“Come in,” she said.

The girls entered her dreary office and noticed how damp it smelled.

“Hello, girls,” she said, and stood to welcome them, revealing the plain black dress she always wore.

“Good morning,” Gabriela said, the other two girls standing silently behind her.

“What brings you here? You are supposed to be in class right now,” she said.

“Ms. Butterwick sent us here,” Hazel explained.

“Ah. I see,” she said, raising her black brows. They matched her midnight-colored hair perfectly. “What have you done?”

“Nothing,” Hazel assured her.

“I’m sure Ms. Butterwick didn’t send you to my office just to say hello,” the principal answered.

“No,” Gabriela said. “The truth is, we were chatting during class.”

Hazel pulled nervously on her thick, pink braids. “To be fair, that class was awfully boring,” she added.

“That’s disrespectful, child,” Ms. Semper snapped back in response. “Ms. Butterwick is a very intelligent professor, and you’re lucky to have her as a teacher.”

“If you say so,” Hazel muttered.

Ms. Semper sighed. “What about you, Emma? Do you have anything to say?”

“I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again. I tried to warn them to stop,” she said without looking up. Emma had always been the quiet one who worried a lot about school.

“Well, clearly they didn’t listen. You know the Eastwood Boarding School for Adolescents values discipline. As punishment, you will have to clean the school’s basement thoroughly,” Ms. Semper ordered.

“There’s a basement?” Gabriela asked.

“Indeed. And I want it squeaky clean. Is that clear?” Ms. Semper said.

“Yes, Ms. Semper,” all three girls replied in unison before leaving her office.

CHAPTER TWO - The Portrait

“Who knew the school had a basement?” Hazel asked. “And with so much ugly stuff in it,” she added, holding up a faded green rug.

“Be careful. Your allergies might start acting up with all that dust,” Emma warned her.

In fact, the dust on the many cardboard boxes made them all sneeze over and over. There were no light bulbs in the room, and it was so dark that they needed candlelight to see.

“Are we supposed to clear out the dusty air in here?” Gabriela asked her friends.

“That’s impossible. There aren’t any windows.” Hazel sat down on one of the boxes to reapply her lipstick by the candlelight.

“This is no time for makeup, Hazel!” scolded Emma. “Who’s going to see you? A mouse?”

Hazel put her lipstick away with a scowl.

“Ms. Semper told us to look through the boxes, throw away the useless stuff, and keep what is valuable,” Emma said. “Let’s keep going so we can escape this horrible place!”

The girls got started on their task. Some boxes were filled with history books, and Hazel made sure to throw them away immediately. History was her worst subject.

“Hey, look what I found,” Gabriela said, holding a crumpled, purple hat in her hands. She placed the hat on her head and stood.

“I feel like a bird with all these feathers,” she said, shaking her head playfully.

“That’s because you look like a bird,” Hazel told her from the box she sat on. “That hat is a disgrace.”

“I think you look nice. It’s vintage,” Emma said. She always tried to see the positive side of things.

“You see, Hazel? It’s vintage,” Gabriela said.

Hazel just laughed.

Emma and Gabriela did most of the work going through boxes. Some had chalk and pencils while others were filled with clothes, notebooks, strange decor, lamps, rugs, and blankets. They all looked grimy, gray, and useless.

After three hours of hard work, the girls were done. Except for one box—the one Hazel had been sitting on.

“Up you go, lazybones!” Emma said to Hazel. “We have to do that last box.”

Hazel sighed and stood. It was the biggest box of them all.

“What do you think is in there?” Gabriela asked her friends.

“Who cares? We can just leave it here and go back to our dorm,” Hazel suggested. “I’m sure Ms. Semper won’t even notice that we didn’t unpack one box.”

“You didn’t unpack any,” Gabriela told her.

“Maybe,” Hazel said, “but I sat through it all.” She nodded, agreeing with herself.

“Very useful,” Gabriela said, laughing. “Come on, one more box, and then we’re free to go.”

“Ugh,” Hazel groaned. “All right.”

As the girls opened the box, a cloud of dust exploded all over their faces. The box was filled with books—yearbooks from previous graduating classes. They seemed to go back as far as the Class of 1925 and all the way up to the present.

“Interesting,” Hazel said. “These are all generations of previous students. Should we keep these or throw them away?” she asked.

“They’re nice memories of the school. Let’s keep them,” Gabriela said and handed them to Hazel to clean off.

When they were just about finished emptying the box, Emma looked inside to check that they’d gotten them all. As she did, she gasped.

“Girls,” she said, staring in horror at the bottom of the box.

“What is it?” they asked at the same time.

“Th-there’s something else here,” she whispered in a shaky voice.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Gabriela told her.

“I think I did,” Emma said, looking pale and shaking.

“What’s in there?” Hazel asked as she approached.

As she looked into the box, her jaw dropped and her body stiffened.

“Guys,” Gabriela told them. “You’re scaring me.”

She felt her heart stop when she, too, bent over to check the bottom of the box.

There sat an oil portrait of Ms. Semper.

And at the bottom of the frame, there was a golden nameplate that read: “Miss Cynthia Semper, 1924.”

“How could this be?” Hazel asked.

“She was alive 100 years ago?” Emma whispered.

“That’s impossible,” Gabriela argued.

“You’re seeing it,” Hazel told her. “This is a portrait of Ms. Semper, dated 1924. Someone painted her a hundred years ago. She was alive back then.”

“I knew there was something sketchy about her,” Emma told her friends. “But I never thought she was immortal!”

“What do you mean, immortal?” Hazel asked.

“Immortal,” Emma repeated. “It means when people live forever.”

“No one lives forever!” Hazel protested. “Maybe she’s just 100 years old!”

The other girls just stared at her.

“Guys.” It was Emma again, but this time she had the other yearbooks open in her hands. “Look what else I noticed.”

The girls examined the yearbooks and noticed that Ms. Semper was in every single one. There were pictures of her with all the previous generations that had attended the school, from the 1920s all the way up to the 2000s.

But she hadn’t aged. She looked just as young in every yearbook.

“Should we tell Ms. Semper that we know her secret?” Gabriela asked. “We can demand an explanation.”

“No! Are you crazy? She can’t know that we know,” Hazel protested. “Who knows what she’d do? The best thing we can do is to pretend we never found anything.”

“But—” protested Gabriela.

“But nothing,” Hazel insisted. “We’ll keep it a secret.” She looked at her friends. They nodded.

CHAPTER THREE - Scars

That night, the girls went to bed and tried to forget what they had just learned about their principal.

As they tried to sleep, thunder and lightning crashed, but the noises didn’t wake Gabriela. What woke her was a nightmare about Ms. Semper chasing them around the school’s halls.

She sat in her bed trying to forget her dream. But when she turned her head, she gasped. The portrait of Ms. Semper was hanging on the wall!

“What?” she asked herself, trying not to panic. “How did it get here?”

“Girls!” she shouted to Emma and Hazel. “Wake up!”

She went to their beds, shook them awake, and turned on the lights.

“Mmm?” Emma said, still half asleep.

“What is it, Gabriela? If I have eye bags tomorrow, I’ll blame you for not letting me sleep enough,” Hazel warned her.

“Look!”

That was all Gabriela said, pointing at the wall where the portrait hung.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Emma’s scream was quickly muffled by Gabriela’s hand on her mouth.

“Quiet! Everyone will hear you,” Gabriela said.

“Is this a bad joke? Did you put it up there?” Hazel asked Gabriela.

“No, I didn’t bring it up from the basement or hang it on our wall, Hazel!” Gabriela said, frustrated.

“Something about that portrait is wrong,” Hazel said. “That is a portrait of our principal who doesn’t age, and it has magically appeared in our bedroom.”

She walked slowly towards the painting and removed it from the wall. As she held it, she looked at her friends.

“We need to get rid of it,” she said.

“I agree,” Emma said. “But how?”

“Let’s just return it to the basement,” Gabriela said.

“And wait for it to appear again tomorrow night?” Hazel asked. “No, thank you.”

“Let’s burn it,” Emma said. “Fire can destroy anything.”

“But the only place to start a fire right now is in the common area. We’ll need to go downstairs and use the fireplace. Someone could hear us,” Gabriela warned.

“Ms. Semper’s bedroom is far away. She won’t hear us if we’re quiet,” Hazel said.

Gabriela and Emma looked at each other, and Emma nodded, reassuring her friend.

“Ok,” Gabriela said. “But we need to be really quiet.”

The common area was a popular place for students to hang out. It was a big living room with several leather couches and chairs. The girls descended to the area carefully.

“Start the fire,” Gabriela whispered to Emma. “Let’s do it quickly.”

“Yes,” Hazel said, holding the big portrait in her arms. “But before we do, I think we should give Ms. Semper a makeover.”

She handed Gabriela the painting and took a red lipstick out of her pink satin pajama pocket. She painted over Ms. Semper’s lips in the portrait.

“Do you think red lipstick was popular back in 1924?” Hazel asked, squinting her eyes and looking at the portrait carefully.

“I don’t know, and that doesn’t matter right now,” Gabriela whispered.

Hazel shrugged her shoulders.

“Girls, the fire is ready,” Emma said from the fireplace.

The smell of burning firewood started to fill the air. The heat from the fireplace felt cozy against the room's chilly atmosphere.

“Just throw it into the fire,” Hazel said.

And Gabriela did. She threw the portrait of their immortal principal into the fire, where the flames began consuming it.

The next morning went by as if nothing had happened. The girls woke up, got ready, and went to Mr. Davidson’s art class. That’s when they heard the rumors. Tyler, one of their classmates, was whispering to his friend about Ms. Semper’s new appearance.

At that moment, Mr. Davidson looked at them and said, “Girls, I just remembered. You three need to go to Ms. Semper’s office. She said it was urgent.”

Gabriela and her friends looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

“Thank you, Mr. Davidson,” said Emma. “We’ll go after class.”

“No. Please go now. She really needs to see you,” he insisted.

Gabriela nodded, and the three girls left the classroom.

“This can’t be happening,” Emma said in the hallway.

“Relax!” Hazel said. “She will make us reflect on our bad behavior or something like that. There’s no way she knows that we found her portrait and know she’s been alive for a very long time.”

“I don’t know, Hazel,” Gabriela said. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Relax,” Hazel said. “Leave it all to me.”

Ms. Semper waited for them in her office, sitting behind her wooden desk. When the girls entered, the first thing they noticed was the scars that covered her face. They were burn scars!

“Hello, girls,” she said, her smiling lips covered in the same red lipstick that Hazel had used on the portrait!

They swallowed nervously. Could the painting be connected to Ms. Semper?

“The basement is almost fully clean,” she said, “except for the floor. Please make sure to go downstairs today and sweep it.”

“Yes, Ms. Semper,” Hazel said.

Gabriela and Emma were too scared to speak. They all nodded before returning to class.

CHAPTER FOUR - The Secret is Out

After school, the girls walked back into the basement.

“We need to talk about what happened,” Emma said. “Ms. Semper was affected by the things we did to her painting.”

“We won’t talk about that,” Gabriela said.

“Why? Because you’re scared?” Hazel asked. “Something weird happened with that painting, and we need to face it.”

“That had nothing to do with us,” Gabriela said.

“Yes, it did,” Hazel said. “The painting has some power over Ms. Semper.”

“Ok. Let’s say that the painting was connected to Ms. Semper. That's why her face is burnt and she is wearing red lipstick,” Gabriela said. “Then why is she still here? The fire turned the whole painting into ashes. If the real Ms. Semper was truly connected to her portrait, she wouldn’t be here. She would've burnt entirely, not just her face.”

“That is true,” a voice behind Gabriela said.

It was Ms. Semper, carrying her burnt portrait in one of her arms. She held a candle with the other one.

“I’m connected to my portrait. Whatever happens to it, happens to me.”

The girls gasped in unison.

“B-b-but how?” Gabriela asked.

“If I hadn’t taken my portrait out of the fire, I would’ve turned into ashes,” she explained. “Fortunately, I heard your noises and checked the common area. I saw my portrait in the fire and pulled it out immediately.”

“How did you know it was us?” Hazel asked.

“You’re the only student who wears red lipstick. It wasn’t that hard,” she said.

“We’ll keep it a secret! We can just forget about this whole thing and go back to our normal lives,” Gabriela pleaded.

“I don’t think so,” Ms. Semper said, grinning wickedly.

Hazel swallowed nervously. “You can at least tell us how you’ve been keeping yourself alive.”

“Excellent question, child,” Ms. Semper said. As her gaze shifted, her eyes turned sad. "The school board has powers that can make good teachers live forever. I was a teacher before I was a principal, you know.”

“What’s the school board?” Hazel whispered to Gabriela.

“The directors of the school. They control what all the teachers do,” Gabriela whispered back.

Hazel nodded, then turned to face Ms. Semper. “Why would they want to do that?”

“So teachers can teach more generations. I taught from the 1920s until recently, when I was promoted to principal,” Ms. Semper explained.

“But you never talk to students or other teachers,” Emma said. “It doesn’t seem like you enjoy working at our school much.”

“Because I’m sick of everything!” Ms. Semper shouted. “Do you think it’s easy being immortal? Living forever while everyone else moves on? I’m stuck here, at the Eastwood Boarding School for Adolescents, supervising for eternity!”

“We’re sorry,” Gabriela said. “We’re sorry that you aren’t happy.”

“Me, too,” she said. “But I’ve finally figured out a solution. I may have to live forever, but I don’t have to be a principal if I get rid of my students,” she explained.

“What?” the three girls asked in unison.

“The school board has made me dedicate my life to students, and students have made my life miserable. So, I asked myself: what would happen if there weren’t any more students? Then I wouldn’t have to be stuck here, supervising. I could go anywhere I want and do whatever I please.”

“You want to get rid of us?” Hazel asked.

“Yes. But please don’t take it personally. I want to get rid of the whole school. Where do you think the soccer team is? Or the chess club?” she asked.

“They’re traveling, representing the school in competitions,” Gabriela guessed.

“No,” Ms. Semper answered. “And they aren’t coming back. I got rid of those fools already. Now it’s your turn.”

“But what about the other students? You’ll still have to look after them,” Emma said quietly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of them too.” She looked at the candle in her hand. “That’s what this is for.” She smiled again.

The girls gasped. They understood Ms. Semper’s intentions: she wanted to burn the school down—with all the students inside!

“You can’t just burn the school down! Are you out of your mind?!” Hazel asked.

Ms. Semper squinted her eyes, and her face reddened with fury. She dropped the candle, letting it fall onto the old, wooden floor, where the fire began slowly growing.

Within seconds, the flames spread to a large portion of the basement, dividing the girls from Ms. Semper like a wall.

“What are you going to do now?” Ms. Semper dared from the other side of the wall of fire.

Hazel wasn’t very good at school, but she liked it when science intersected with fashion. She knew her wool jacket wasn’t very flammable, and this gave her the courage to fearlessly jump through the wall of fire, covering her face with her sleeves.

Ms. Semper’s gaze widened in shock. She tried to run to the door to lock the girls in, but Hazel was faster. She launched over to her principal and managed to seize her wrist.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” she told the principal. “We won’t let you hurt any more students!”

The flames raised the temperature of the small basement, making the girls and their evil principal sweat and pant.

“Let go of me!” Ms. Semper yelled as she tried to wiggle out of Hazel’s grip, but the lean girl was stronger than she looked.

“Never!” she shouted as she took the portrait from Ms. Semper’s hand and threw it across the room to Gabriela.

Gabriela remembered what had happened last time with the fire and the portrait, and she wasted no time.

“Don’t you dare!” Ms. Semper shouted as Gabriela held the painting over the fire. “I’m warning you! Don’t burn my portrait!”

“Watch me!” she yelled and threw it into the fire as Ms. Semper’s screams filled the room.

“Make it stop!” she begged, falling to the floor. “It burns! It burns!”

Her body shook, and she turned red and then black as the portrait blazed in the flames.

“It’s working!” Emma said. “Burning the portrait will get rid of Ms. Semper!”

“Stop!” Ms. Semper cried out. “I warn you! Stop!”

But her screams slowly turned into whispers as she crumbled into ashes. At the same time, the fire across the room became smaller.

When Ms. Semper was finally gone, the fire died.

The girls looked down at the pile of ash that their evil principal had turned into.

“It’s done,” Emma said, relieved. “Finally. We got rid of her! She won’t hurt any more students.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust any teachers or principals again,” Gabriela said. “Who knows if they’re immortal as well?”

“I agree,” Hazel said, looking around at the basement where this all started. “Let’s get out of here before we find any more portraits.”

EPILOGUE - Twelve Years Later

Gabriela was reading in her living room. As a teacher, it had become her nightly activity. But a knock on her door interrupted her focus.

Who could it be at this late hour? she thought.

She opened the door, but no one was there. A single piece of paper lay on her doormat. It was a letter.

She opened it and read:

“Ms. Gabriela, we’re excited to offer you an incredible opportunity for your professional career. We’d like you to take on the role of principal at the Eastwood Boarding School for Adolescents. If you accept this offer, make sure you stop by one of our facilities to have a portrait of yourself done. It is a necessary tradition.

Best regards,

The School Board.”

The letter slipped out of her hands. She gasped.