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Taro decided that he liked the name of the school. Chronos Academy was a large, gothic-looking building that looked very old. It looked more like some kind of enormous mansion than a boarding school.
Chronos Academy was not exactly a famous school. At least, it wasn’t famous in New York where Taro lived. The school had sent him a letter, asking him to attend high school there after apparently looking at his grades from his middle school. They had chosen one kid from each of the fifty United States, and Taro was chosen to represent New York. He had no idea why; his grades were all A’s, but he was sure that he wasn’t the only kid in New York to get all A’s.
Taro looked around at his new classmates, who were exiting the underground subway behind him. There were more girls than guys, he noticed. One of them, a shorter, black-haired girl walked up to him.
“I think our suitcases got switched on the train,” she pointed out, pointing at the wheeled suitcase Taro had. He looked down and noticed that sure enough, it wasn’t his suitcase.
“I guess so,” he replied, quickly switching with her.
“I’m Rachel,” she said.
“Taro,” he replied. Her eyes widened.
“Interesting name,” she commented. “What nationality is it?”
“Japanese,” Taro answered. “My parents named me that so that I could stay in touch with my heritage or something.” Taro sounded almost bitter when talking about his name; he never really cared for it. It came from the Japanese ta which meant ‘big’ and rou which meant ‘son’. It was really kind of ironic, since his brother was much larger than him, although a year younger.
“I like it,” Rachel commented. “Although I imagine people bugged you about it in school, huh?”
“Actually I have it pretty good,” Taro answered thoughtfully. “My brother’s name is Diasuke, so he got teased more than me.” Taro and Rachel fell into an uncomfortable silence, so Taro looked around at the school. They were told on the train to wait at the entrance to the station for a representative from the school that would lead them inside. But until he or she came, they would just have to wait.
“So, what state are you, uh, representing?” Rachel asked.
“New York,” Taro answered, suddenly feeling weird about being the only New Yorker there. He was ‘representing’ New York… he felt like a Miss America contestant. “You?”
“New Mexico,” she answered. “So are you a freshman?”
“Yep,” Taro answered. “Most of us Americans are, I think.”
“Yeah,” Rachel replied. “There are about two seniors, five juniors, ten sophomores, and the rest of us are freshman. When is this representative supposed to show up? Iceland is much colder than New Mexico and I’m freezing!”
“I think that’s her now,” Taro said, pointing to the opening doors of the school. The two, large, wooden doors opened to reveal a short woman who quickly walked the twenty yards to the crowd of American transfer students.
“Quiet down please,” she called over the murmurs of the students as she walked over. She came to a stop in front of them as the crowd’s talking died down. “I am Ms. Chambers, and I’m the Vice Principal here at Chronos Academy.” Ms. Chambers was short, rather fat, and wore a grey suit, grey shoes, and a small pair of glasses with a grey frame.
“In a moment I will be leading you into the school,” she announced. “I will show you where the dormitories are, where the cafeteria is, and where you can obtain your class schedules. I will also introduce you to the principal of the school. I must warn you, he’s a bit…” Ms. Chambers looked behind her, as if to make sure the principal wasn’t there. “Scatterbrained. In fact, I’m not sure why he invited you people in the first place. But anyway, please remain quiet during the tour; if you have any questions, please raise your hand.”
With that, Ms. Chambers turned around and walked towards the building, the transfer students walking close behind her, excited to see their new school. It took about thirty seconds to get to the front doors of the school and walk up the marble steps in front of the doors. Ms. Chambers grabbed the handles and pulled hard, opening the doors to Chronos academy.
Chronos’ inside foyer was decorated just like the outside of the school. It had a gothic, castle feeling to it. The floors and walls were made of stone slabs, the walls had huge stained-glass windows with images of heroic looking people with dates underneath them. Taro still couldn’t believe it was a school. The students gasped as they looked around the foyer.
“This way,” Ms. Chambers said sternly. “Quickly, please.” The students followed her up the large, stone staircase on the right side of the foyer (which reminded Taro of Harry Potter). When they reached the second floor, the building looked more like a traditional school. The first thing that they saw was an alcove with two doors: one on the left and one on the right.
“The boys dormitories are through the door to the left, and the girls are through the door to the right,” Ms. Chambers said. “You may go in to find your beds and drop off your bags, but then please come back outside.” The students charged forward into their dorms, yelling about whether they wanted a top or bottom bunk. Taro found it quite funny when Ms. Chambers was almost trampled.
Taro walked into the door on the left, looking around at his dorm room. It had eleven bunk beds (twenty-two beds total), a fireplace, two leather couches, three or four leather armchairs, and a large, plasma screen TV. Taro heard groans of disappointment coming from some of the other guys, and he couldn’t imagine why until he saw that there were tags on the beds with the names of states on them. The beds were assigned.
Taro saw that the top bunk on the bed closest to the door had a tag that read ‘New York’. He put his suitcase next to the bottom bunk, but didn’t bother climbing up. He knew he would be leaving in a second.
He almost jumped when a duffel bag landed on the bottom bunk of his bead. He looked at the tag, which read ‘Hawaii’. He looked at the person who threw the bag.
“Hey,” the kid said. He was tall and blond, and looked like he got a lot of sun. “I’m Ryan.”
“Taro,” Taro said. He noticed Ryan raise an eyebrow at his name, but he didn’t say anything.
“Looks like we’re bunkmates,” Ryan commented. He read the tag on Taro’s bed. “New York, huh? That’s a pretty long way from Hawaii.”
“Yeah,” replied Taro. “I’ve never even been to a beach. I’m from Manhattan, and I’ve never really gone far from there.”
“Wow, I’ve never been to a big city like that. I’m from Honolulu, but I’ve been to places all over Hawaii,” Ryan explained. “Come on, let’s go outside before that Chambers lady has a seizure.” Taro smiled and followed Ryan outside. He noticed that most of the girls were already out there, talking to each other. Most of the guys were still in the room, fighting over sleeping arrangements.
“Taro!” Rachel called. She ran over to him through the crowd. “Who is Ms. Chambers talking to?” she asked in a whisper as the last of the students came out of the dorms. Taro looked at Ms. Chambers, who was muttering to herself. She was moving her hands wildly, and Taro noticed that he was not the only one staring. He and Ryan laughed, and Ms. Chambers noticed. She quickly stopped talking to herself.
“Is everyone here?” she asked. Someone called that their friend was using the bathroom. “Well tell them to hurry up!” Ms. Chambers commanded. “We have a lot to see.”
Ryan turned to Rachel. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, Taro?” he asked, smiling much wider than usual.
“Uh, sure, this is Rachel,” Taro said. “Rachel, this is Ryan.”
“Hey,” Rachel said softly, with a smile so wide that Taro decided it must have hurt. Ryan and Rachel stared at each other for a while with goofy smiles on their faces, before making more ugly faces when Ms. Chambers started yelling.
“Alright students, it’s time to tour the campus!” she screamed in a shrill voice, causing a few students to cringe. “Let us go!” She walked back down the stairs and into the foyer with the students following her. She walked through a door, which lead into a big room with a kitchen clearly visible in the back. The room was filled with picnic-style tables placed in perfect rows. There were enough to seat about three hundred people.
“This is the cafeteria,” Ms. Chambers announced. “You will all be eating your meals in here. There will be no assigned time for meals, seeing as the students here all have different sleeping schedules. You might even say some of them are nocturnal. Just come in here when you have time between classes and get some food. It will be free; the cost of food was included in your scholarships. Moving along!”
Ms. Chambers lead them out of the cafeteria and through another door in the foyer, which led into a hall with a row of wooden doors on either side. They all had numbers on them. “These are the various offices of the school,” Ms. Chambers announced as she walked down the hall. “Each one is a different office. 101 is the general office, 102 is the admissions office, and all the way at the end is 112, the principal’s office.” She continued walking and came to a stop outside of said office, looking at a note that had been left on the door.
“Apparently the Principal went to buy… blueberries, so you will have to meet him tomorrow,” Ms. Chambers said. “As I said, he’s a bit absent-minded. Moving along!”
She walked back to the front of the hall, stopping outside room 101, the general office. There was a large, yellow envelope at the bottom of the door, which Ms. Chambers bent over and picked up.
“As you may have noticed,” she said, “You students are the only ones here. The rest of the students will be arriving two days from now after your transfer student orientation day tomorrow. Tomorrow you will be going to all of your classes and meeting your teachers and such, so here are your schedules.” She opened the folder and took out the papers, calling out the last names of the students and handing them their schedules. When Taro got his, he almost squealed in delight.
“First period isn’t until four in the afternoon!” he exclaimed, showing his schedule to Rachel and Ryan.
“That’s weird…” Rachel said. “Isn’t that a little late to be starting classes?”
“Yeah, but not as late as last period, which starts at two a.m.” Ryan commented, looking at his own schedule.
“Chambers did say that some of the students here are pretty much nocturnal,” Taro remembered out loud. “Maybe this is why.”
“Alright, that’s about all,” Ms. Chambers announced. “Tomorrow, for you Orientation Day, please meet in the foyer at three-thirty-five p.m. You may go upstairs to your dormitories now; it’s almost time for bed.” Ms. Chambers walked down the hall to the office next to the Principal’s and went inside, leaving the students to go back to their dorms on their own. Taro shrugged as he, Ryan, and Rachel made their way up the stairs and to the area with the dorms.
“See you tomorrow Rachel,” Taro said as he walked over to the door on the left and she walked to the door on the right. “Bright and early!” he joked.
“Yeah right,” she said smiling.
“Night Rachel,” Ryan said with that annoying, goofy smile. Rachel returned it as she disappeared inside the girl’s dorm room. Taro and Ryan went into their dorm room and quickly got changed and climbed into their beds. Taro thought, just before he fell asleep, that it was a little creepy that classes were so late at this school. But he had no idea how creepy Chronos Academy could really be.
I had a lot of trouble deciding between a male and female protagonist, but I finally decided on a male. Of course, he's going to be put in a 'damsel in distress' role quite a few times, so that'll either be interesting or really weird.
Please review!
