January 1st, 1895 — Padmore Park
Caroline, ever aware that others might call her an odd duck and not particularly caring, sat on one of [new and improved] the park benches eating ice-cream and swinging her legs back and forth as she did so. Others must also must like the icecream she decided otherwise it wouldn't have been for sale and anyways it somehow always tasted better to her when it was cold outside. She was waiting for one of her school friends but they seemed to be taking eons to find her.
Having returned home for the Christmas Holidays, she had already dutifully gone to check on the homes of all her animal friends to ensure that they had survived without her loving care. She had of course been rather disappointed at first to find that she would have to wait to visit Padmore Park and check on any of it's occupants - including those had she feared had been affected by the sinkhole. She knew she ought to feel sadder for the humans that had lost their lives in the catastrophe however it was the animals that she had felt worse for since the rescuers would not have cared to find or help them.
Now that was no longer an issue because the park was open again and was going to take full advantage of her favourite place until she went back to school and was confined again to the classroom and forced to listen to her teachers.
She knew she ought to listen to them… or at least listen to them more than she did.
‘I suppose I’ll do that next year’ she thought to herself and took another lick of her ice-cream. Her list for next years was unfortunately getting rather long as she kept adding things that she would rather not do and whether or not she’d actually complete it was probably unlikely. She had also decided to try and write home more often, to complete her homework on time, not to cause Professor Foxwood quite so many heavy sighs and be lectured less by Ms. Paxton. She also going to finally pet Phil the Niffler and make friends with him. She knew keeping her room tidier ought to be on the list, as she was sure her dorm mates were less than impressed with her rather forgetful nature but… she chose be realistic.