Woot! Points for me for getting chappys up quick-like! Next chapter is already mostly written! Throw a party! It's Trench-Time!
Introductions and Complications
"I was told you were to be allowed to sleep past wake up call because of your late arrival last night, so you've missed a bit of the first round of classes. I'll be taking you to your first class shortly, it's just a ways forward down this hall and then to the left..."
I tuned out of her babble, stifling a yawn.
The day so far had been uneventful, and I hoped that it would remain so. I was tired.
The woman (in between her long sentences, I'd managed to ask her name- she was a Mrs. Morell, a 'housekeeper' of sorts) had led me from my room to a kitchen where a fat male cook (I hadn't caught his name) had fed me broiled eggs and a pile of buttery toast even Denny's would have been proud of.
The kitchen had been inhabited by the male cook, and six other women who appeared to be servants of varying ages. From their quiet chatter, I'd managed to gather a few facts about where I seemed to be.
Apparently I was in some kind of school. And, judging from the stack of plates on of the younger maids was complaining about washing, a fair-sized one. Not large, by any sort, but by no means small. It was also some sort of boarding school, like Richmond High, but only for girls. And they learned things here that were… well, not unusual, just out of the norm. I caught a few bits of conversation about archery and armory, to name a few. Odd. Now, Mrs. Morell bustled me to a small classroom of sorts, where a small crowd of girls was being arranged at a series of desks that sat in rows in the classroom. The one conducting the process was an elderly man who I took to be a teacher or professor of sorts. He blinked nearsightedly at me for a moment, and then a grin split his weathered face.
"I'll take Miss Vand from here, Gail," he addressed Mrs. Morell. "You can leave now." There was an unmistakable air of power and confidence about the man; the aura radiating off him somehow reminded me of the swelling waves of the sea.
He motioned me toward him as Mrs. Morell left, and then gestured toward a desk to the left of the classroom, near the front. "That shall be your seat, Miss Vand, he said simply. I nodded, and then took a seat, waiting as he seated the rest of the girls.
I took the opportunity to watch the others carefully, to see how they interacted. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be new and most people acted as if they weren't quite sure of themselves just yet, so I didn't feel as though I'd stick out so much as I'd feared when I'd first entered the room. I was glad of that.
There was a sudden tap on my shoulder. I jumped, and then turned warily to meet eyes with a girl who was seated in the desk just behind me.
The first thing I noticed about her was her radiance. There was just no other way to describe it. She had this… this thing about her… a glow, her aura. She was just radiant.
"Hello. Are you new here?"
Dangit. Maybe I did stick out here after all.
"Umm… yeah." I sounded sheepish to even myself, and I mentally stuffed my foot into my mouth.
She grinned. That almost immediately made me take in her physical appearance. Her skin was a beautiful porcelain white, her long, wavy hair a magnificent golden red hue that made her deep blue eyes an instant standout. She was also very tall, her long slender frame almost had to be crammed into the confines of her desk. Yet she still managed to look dignified and graceful at the same time.
"S'okay," she chuckled. "I've just been here a couple years. Don't worry, most people here are new just like you are. I was just checking to make sure." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Ella. Ella Snow."
I took her hand and shook it lightly. "I'm Skylar."
"I like your name. I don't like mine. I was apparently named after my great-great-grandmother. Ellacrielisa Brendate Snow. Thank goodness most people call me Ella.
She giggled, and I couldn't help but laugh along wither her. It was contagious.
"I'm afraid my name isn't quite as impressive as your own," I said, smiling a bit. "I'm just plain old Skylar Rose Vand, at your service."
She grinned. "Glad to have met you, Skylar. The professor introduced himself before you came in. He is Professor William Wallace. He teaches two classes- Geography and Strategy. One of the best classroom teachers we have here, actually. At least I think so."
"Hmm." I felt like an idiot. Ella was such a chatterbox, and I felt inadequate next to her. If not for her genuine smile and her kindness, I either would have hated her, or would have been smitten with envy of her.
"All right, ladies, lets quiet down now." The professor was speaking now, and I turned back to face him.
Time for school.
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Oh my god, this was bad. Bad, bad, bad.
Not only was Skylar missing the next day at school, Chase realized, but Amy was well. He couldn't be absolutely one hundred percent positive, but he had a sick feeling Justin had something to do with it.
Justin acted so casual, so natural, that once Chase spotted the act, it was impossible to ignore. Why hadn't he seen it before? It seemed so obvious now. Justin was definitely up to something.
The students were nervous now. The added disappearance of two of the students on top of the vanishing of the teachers was hot gossip for the entire school, and the kids were starting to worry. The only way to really attempt to forget about the troubles they were facing in the school's new environment was to play Trench so competitively, that
It overruled all other thoughts and emotions.
Which they did. And it worked, to an extent. The sides of the teams were determined by popularity and social status- jocks and the more popular kids on one side, the side that usually won, and all the others on the rest. The social misfits often did favors for the elite team members, to try to get accepted onto the winning side. It rarely worked, but when it did, it spurred others on the underdog team to do the same, so that they might be given the chance to rise socially as well.
Chase had chosen the underdogs. They were a chaotic group- never before had they ever joined together to try to accomplish something, and it didn't really look as if they were motivated to do that even now. Violence reigned on both sides of the gym, the fad that some of the upperclassmen had started- capturing people from the other team against their will and dragging them to the trench on their side, was ever-popular.
And then someone suggested playing the game outside, and of course, it was met with cheers. It was like a massive, all-school game of capture-the-flag, except with almost no rules.
Chase watched with mixed horror and grim disdain as people captured members of the other side and interrogated them on their plans of attack, what their next move would be, and other tactics along those lines. The sad thing was, people actually took it seriously. The game claimed superiority over even their schoolwork, which before had taken most people's priority.
Richmond High was a highly selective school, and if you didn't meet their high social and academic standards, you would not be accepted, or, if you failed to continually meet the standards once accepted, you were asked not to return the next year.
The students' decline into the single-minded focus of the game was frightening to Chase. Was he the only one who thought it was total depravity?
And then, a few days later, Chase got an idea.