Steiner Academy
I Global Concepts
In the green hills, the late summer sun turned tiny drops of dew into glimmering diamonds, hiding in the grass. The jersey cows tottered back and forth, munching on fresh green grass and white dandelions, their fluff-like petals dispersing to the pine trees at the sigh of an old bovine.
The bells could be heard, early every morning at the same time, as a farmer took his heard of cows walking along the steep hills to a new pasture, fresh for the grazing. Cow bells, chirping birds, the trickle of a distant stream flowing over well-polished rocks made for the symphony of the morning.
Far away from the smoke and squander of Zürich and Bern, the hillside homes offer not employment or financial gain, but a lifestyle. A lifestyle so typically Swiss it could have leapt from the pages of a tourist magazine.
But in these hills lay something different to the farmers and the families. A boarding school. A boarding school for the children of international diplomats, foreign ministers, and dignitaries. To save them the trouble of constantly shifting school with their parents work. The school, a grand old farm house, tucked away from the main road into town, played host to over 200 students, divided into four houses; Güld, Lawrack, Ward, and Melba. The houses were more for the teacher's sake, to categorise the students easily and sort them to dorms, but for the students themselves it was a great divide, a competition between houses.
"Back again" sighed Jonathan, he dropped his case on the ground, staring at the main hall of the school
"Yep" Kaitlyn nodded, her hand-me-down over stretched sock falling down her leg.
The six siblings stood in front of the school that they all knew too well. Alistair, the eldest, straightened the already dinted prefect badge in his tie. Sinead and Finnegan stood digging one another in the ribs, enjoying there last year if zero responsibility. Arthur, remaining the only mature sibling standing in front of the school. Kaitlyn and Jonathan, the youngest of the family, argued over who would have to take the itchy old blanket.
"What if I have a girl!? She'll be grossed out!" He exclaimed, throwing the rolled up knitted blanket back at Kaitlyn
"She'll have already have seen your face! Don't worry!" She threw the blanket back at her brother before Arthur stepped in
"Just be quiet! Jonathan take the blanket, but Kaitlyn, you have the jumper" Arthur snapped, trying not to completely lose his head on the first day of school. As clouds brewed over head The younger siblings grumbled and shoved heirloom fabrics into their backpacks.
It's not as though money was an issue for the Kirklands. No, they were happily well of - the same could be said for many of the students of the school. However, Mr and Mrs James and Louise Kirkland were deeply Catholic, deeply charitable and deeply frugal. The family's - or parent's at least - is one of the reasons that there are so many in the Kirkland family. Or the 'Kirkland Clan' as they are affectionately known by the teachers that hang around the campus. The Catholic ideal of never using forms of contraception made for a method known as the 'rhythm method'. But, like so many things, it doesn't work. So, the Kirkland Clan grew. And grew. And grew.
"Welcome!" the domineering voice of the Headmaster Romulus, "Welcome to another year of our wonderful school, now as I'm sure the majority of you all know, this is the 50 year anniversary of our little school here, so keep an eye out for celebrations throughout the year…" The eccentric Italian headmaster continued on, rambling off the usual speech about behaviours and rules. All of which would inevitably be broken by the end of the year. After the speeches from the teachers, the welcoming, the presentations of the prefects, the 7th form initiation, and the school song; the school was dismissed to the dorms to unpack and unwind before school begins.
This was all so new for the two Italian twins, feeling lost in the large crowd. First form left them small and vulnerable in the scheme of things. The majority of the school was spread across no less than five different buildings, connected by compulsively maintained paths, mapping the school in every direction. The two twins stuck close together, as their father had told them to. And if trouble was ever to find them, to go and find their Grandfather. Who happened to be the headmaster. In the crush of the school halls the knocked over a fellow first form student. He shook his head, snow white hair flopping around and into his eyes.
"Get up Emil!" called a harsh but somehow indifferent voice. The twins stood back as a boy with his hair pinned to one side yanked the young boy up, "don't get crushed on your first day… Now let's just get to the dorms"
The twins could tell that the little boy had to be a first year because of his starched collar and bare knees. Their Grandfather had told them on many occasions 'remember boys, when you two come to my school, you won't get the long pants, you wear shorts and knee high socks until you reach the forth form. We allow the fourth year boys pants as that is around the time that they realise how short some of the girls wear their dresses'. They had never really understood what their grandfather meant by that, he seemed to always say cryptic things like that. To Feliciano and Lovino it would remain an afterthought, until they could get to the dorms.
A blustery wind dragged the heavy clouds around, with a fresh dumping of cool rain, dispersing loitering students like ants. Tino stood under the cover of an awning with Berwald and Mathias. The white haired boy and his brother appeared with them suddenly and Mathias took off, his unruly hair flattening in the downpour
"Come on! Hurry up! I want to get to the dorms alive!" he cried running to the Güld dorms. Berwald and Tino looked to the brothers Lukas and Emil and shrugged, running after their wild friend. Lukas fixed his little brothers collar and sighed.
"Just be careful alright? I can't be with you all the time" he said, tightening the small boy's tie.
"I can take care of myself! I don't need you to pretend to be Mum" snapped Emil swatting his elder brothers hands away
"Whatever, but I'm in 6th form now, so you're going to have to look after yourself, I'm not going to be there all the time. Either learn how to tie your own tie, or make some friends that do" said Lukas, heaving his bag back onto his shoulder.
"I can make friends" Emil protested, trying his very hardest not to be too childish.
"We'll see"
As the early morning sun lifted into the sky, and the daily routine began. The solace of the morning replaced by teenage groaning and moaning and moaning as they tried to shift themselves into gear for the morning.
"Ugh," groaned a particularly loud American boy, "it's too early for this shit" he rolled from his bottom bunk bed onto the floor, a bundle of sheets following him. A small Letvian boy laughed at the great hulking boy curled up on the floor like a pathetic child. And yet, the American planned to join the school Rugby team. Good luck.
The little Larrikin Latvian leapt from him bed and landed on his feet. It felt good to be a fifth year, for some reason making the leap from somewhat senior school, to senior school gave him that little extra confidence that he needed to push on. So as the morning progressed and clothing was found Alfred the American nearly tore apart the dorm house in search of his prized rugby boots.
"God! This is the one time I actually play this stupid sport and I can't find my shoes!" he growled throwing a pair of underpants across the room.
"Have you checked under the bed? You usually leave things there" said a gruff German voice, watching the American in his search. The Flaxen German collected his things and left the pig-sty of a dorm, "I'll see you at breakfast"
The food hall was strangely buzzing with a kind of energy that could only come from sleep deprivation.
"Welcome the Steiner" sighed Lovino as his brother munched on overly-sweetened toast.