Blue Skies Academy - Chapter 3

   The morning was but a mere breeze in my brain. I was now with April, walking to campus. It's only a few minutes' walk, but it's more than enough time for me to start overthinking the situation.

   "I know it's a big step for you since you've been homeschooled your whole life, but let me tell you, most people here are nice!" She says.

   But I'm now fully zoned out. I completely forgot about the whole "new identity" thing and rather started focusing on trying not to embarrass myself. We reach campus, and I snap back to reality, eyes widening. The building is huge, to say the least.

  "Yeah, our school does tend to have that effect on newcomers. It used to be a castle for a bitter, old duke. But that was a long, long while ago, back in the XVII-th century. Since then, the building was left to degrade until M. Bouchier, an ancestor of the LaRoche family and the founder of Blue Skies, came along and apparently saw the few rocks that marked the remains of the old castle fit for a new school. But oh well, he's an inventive man, after all. We should be the first ones to arrive, so it's easier to give you a tour without struggling to navigate through the busy hallways." She gives a giddy smile. "Let's go!"

   I still don't know why April thought anyone would ever struggle to pass through the hallways: they are ginormous! Everything about this school is ginormous. I don't know if it's to rub it in anyone's face that they're rich, but it's definitely denouncing the amount of riches put into the project. As April keeps talking, her voice echoes in the empty building. It gives a certain mystery to the place, as if it were enchanted. The tour takes more than I anticipated, and cars slowly start to pull up in the driveway.

   "Alright, well, one last thing you should know is to never, ever venture in the left wing of the school. It's reserved for superiors, and the consequences for the people that go there are generally, I mean literally, really grave."

   "Thank you, April. Really. You've been of great help."

   "Of course! Now, I checked your schedule, and we have most classes together. The first one starts at 9 pm and it's sociology. It's just down that hall," she says, pointing to some other, huge, never-ending corridor.

   We walk towards our class, but I stop in my tracks.

   "April, do you mind if I just go to the bathroom real quick?"

   She giggles a bit before pointing to a pair of doors right next to our class'. Once inside, I sigh aloud. Just what have I gotten myself into? No. I wasn't going to let myself spiral down that route. Come on, Kamari, you've always wanted your life to be exciting, even if that means going from your boring one to hunting down an assailant in the middle of some school-castle overnight. It's fine. I straighten the tie of my uniform and run a hand along the soft material of the navy waistcoat. Of course the uniform had to be blue. The puff sleeves of the white shirt peek out from underneath. I dust off the invisible debris on my straight fit pants and throw myself one last look in the mirror. While I look as rich as I can, the uneasiness on my face makes me stick out like a sore thumb. I'll blame it on being introverted. Walking back outside, where April is waiting for me, I see her talking to another girl.

   "Kamari! There you are!" April exclaims.

   I walk over to her, a bit anxious.

   "This is Sarah, my bestest friend!" she laughs at the girl under her arm.

   Sarah has a soft presence about her, one that is much more tame than her friend's. "Hey, it's nice meeting you." She has a warm smile, the few strands of light brown hair dropping over her face adding to the charm. We shake hands.

   "I've heard so much about you. You're the talk of the school."

   "Yeah, seems like it..." I smile awkwardly. I start twisting the elastic on my wrist. I didn't expect to be introduced to someone right as I got out of the bathroom. But as I look around, I see that people have started flooding the hallways. It's a good thing April and I came earlier.

   "What do we have here?" I hear a voice behind me.

   It was a red-haired girl with piercing blue, almost green eyes, and a snobby look on her face, eyeing me up and down.

   "Hello to you too, Fab," says April, rolling her eyes and smiling

   But she doesn't seem to acknowledge her. "Hi. Kamari, was it? I'm Fabiana. Fab for friends." She extends a hand towards me, yet she doesn't even smile. I take it. She could be a model. "Hope you have what it takes for this school."

   "Give her a break, Fabiana," says April, rolling her eyes. "She barely walked five meters into the school."

   "And?" She's definitely not one to mess around. "This is not the time to be fooling around. She came in the middle of the school year, so she should hope to adapt rather sooner than later." She gives me a look.

   I avert my eyes. She's right. My timing is definitely suspicious and prone to attract attention. Keeping a low face is, I think, the best solution.

   The bell rings. A very typical, old-fashioned sound. Fab leaves first, her heels clacking on the marble floors. She has the skirt option of the uniform, and I doubt the pants would make her look and less feminine. The classroom is similar to a university classroom: the desks are higher with every step you take on the stairs leading to the back of the room and there are two big blackboards behind one big desk that is the teacher's. They seriously took "old-fashioned" to another level. I mean, who writes with chalk in our century anymore? And in such a prestigious school, too... April notices my inspection.

   "Pretty weird, right?" She smiles.

   "Oh- No, no. I'm embracing the change of style."

   She laughs. A relieving sound. With April being so comfortable around me, it puts me at ease as well. We take our seats next to Sarah, who's already waving our way, and the teacher comes in.

   The lecture passes quite fast. There was no awkward "There's a new kid, introduce yourself" stage, and the professor dived right into the material. My hand was numb after the amount of notes that I took. Turns out one of those blackboards was some kind of computer screen substitute. I take back what I said about the whole "old-fashioned" ordeal. After chatting with the professor at the end of the lecture, just so he can figure out how much I know about the material and giving me a stack of paper that definitely took a whole forest to make, I reach April and Sarah in the hallway.

   "I swear, Mr. Morisson has some of the most boring classes," says Sarah.

   "That's so far from the truth it hurts. I love sociology," protests April.

   "I did enjoy h-"

   But I don't get to finish my sentence as something slams into my back, and I fall to the floor. As I look at the thing, more like to the person that collided with me, they start speaking.

   "What the heck! Who do you think you are, you moron?!"

   "Wow, okay, you're forgiven. Thank you for excusing yourself." I retort.

   He snorts and stands up. It's a guy... A pretty tall, well-built, blonde guy... A pretty snobby and high-up-his-ass guy. My eyes narrow.

   "Hold on- I'll be damned. You're the new girl!" He snickers. "What an impression you've made. I don't know what you think you're doing here if you can't even look where you're going."

   "Excuse me?! I wasn't the one walking." I don't care who this jerk thinks he is, but i was hoping to move on with my day without suffering his snobbish remarks any more than I already had.

   "Listen here, you little girl." His eyes narrow. "I don't care what your life was like before you came here, or what you think your presence here might change, but get this thing straight: I'm always right. No matter what you did or didn't do, I'll always have the upper hand because, in case you forgot, I have money and you..." He eyes me up and down. The guts of this guy- "Well, you have enough to be here, but not enough to overpower me."

   "Alright, guys, cut it out." Thank God for April. "Dude, you can take your banter or scolding or whatever you call that somewhere else. It's her first day, cut her some slack."

   He snorts once more. "You're right, I shouldn't waste my energy on someone that's only going to be here for a week at most." He gives me his most dismissive and superior look. "Next time, I won't be so lenient."

   And with that, his friend group and him are gone. Sarah helps me up.

  "I swear, someone has to teach this boy some manners." I sigh.

   April and Sarah share a look. I guess he's just that intimidating. I have no idea who the guy is or how much money he has, but nor can I say that I care. I won't stand insults, not from him, the King of England, or anyone else, for that matter.

   I try to shove the whole event into some dark, forgotten corner of my mind and focus more on getting through the day without any more bumps in the road.