This past week had been chaos for John. In a matter of seven days he'd been given a mom, a home and a school outside of military academy; it was all too much to handle. There he sat, in the house that belonged to his new mom, looking over the welcome letter the school had sent him that included his schedule and various re-printed and teacher signed greetings.
He thought back to the orphanage he had been in for the past three years of his life. How much uncertainty he had every day waking up, and how many sleepless nights he had. He would probably never see the kids that he had called family, or the nuns that had called him son. He would never again lie in the green cots that sagged under his weight and tore after a few weeks.
Looking at John you would immediately feel a pinch of fear. He stood at exactly six foot with muscles that looked carved standing off of his arms, legs and chest. His fiery red hair hung down over his forehead and around his ears, he hadn't let it grow this long since he got out of the military academy.
His face was always stern, as if he was always contemplating his next move and he probably was. In the military academy he excelled in leadership and strategic manipulation, graduating top of his junior class. It was also because he spent three years in an orphanage, keeping silent and to himself.
He sighed; looking down at his schedule made butterflies begin to circle around his lower intestine. John doesn't look it, but he was naturally a nervous person, but who could blame him. He had never gone to a normal school before, he had never participated in school activities other than the weekly dorm face-off back in military school, and he had never held a typical conversation with normal kids.
"They'll be more afraid of you than you are of them." Jilan, the dark skinned woman with the heart of gold, had told him that many times in the past few days. John had to respect her words considering she had just made the gutsiest move ever by adopting him. He was 17 years old, which made him more than likely to not get adopted and instead live by himself after another year.
When an elderly black woman stepped into the orphanage seven days ago John didn't have a clue that he would be where he was now. He owed Jilan everything at this point, she had given him an excellent home, a warm bed and the one thing that had been missing in his life; love.
She had also taken him shopping for the first time in his life. She told him that he was her kid now, and that she was going to spoil him, but he had no idea that by the end of the day she would of went through a couple thousand dollars just buying clothes. He was grateful; he was tired of wearing the ratty hand-me-downs that he had from the orphanage.
She never asked for any thanks either, the only thing she ever asked of John was that he use what she was giving him to better himself. He wasn't quite sure what she meant by that, he thought he was fine the way he was; but he couldn't let her down so he did what he could.
To keep up her streak of being an amazing foster mother, she took John to Sol Academy to register for his senior year. She encouraged him to join sports, she said it was a great way to meet new people and possibly grab a date for one of the many school dances.
John wasn't entirely interested in dances, but sports sounded nice. So while they were picking classes, John had asked the school counselor what sports they offered and he simply replied "What do you like to do?"
"I like to run." John said glancing down at green and black stripes that crisscrossed on his newly bought running shoes.
"We have track and cross country. Are you good at running long distances or running fast?"
"I'll do both." The counselor gave him a look of disbelief for a moment until he realized John was serious, and then he signed John up for both and told him 'good luck'. The counselor tapped on his desk impatiently as John marked the small boxes next to the classes he wanted to take.
After getting the paper handed to him the counselor typed in the information on his expensive computer before hitting enter on the keyboard. A few moments later and a piece of paper began to slide out of the printer with John's classes on them. He read them to Jilan as they road home.
Pre-Med – Dr. Halsey
Foreign Relations – Mr. Cutter
Student Tutor
Gym – Mr. Johnson
Lunch
Advanced Engineering – Ms. Anders
Psychology – Mr. Mendez
Astrophysics – Mr. Keyes
"What are you planning on becoming?" Jilan teased him, "A damned astronaut!"
John couldn't think of a witty reply so he just half laughed half smiled until Jilan turned the volume for the radio up to drown out the silence that he was so used to.
"You'll probably never see this house again after tomorrow," She had said as they shared dinner in the dining room of her over decorated house, "The school houses their students in dorms on campus, but don't get your panties in a bunch, you'll be seeing me a lot."
That made him feel a little better, having someone to be there for him was a huge change from the 'you have to live on your own' mentality that had been drilled into his brain his entire life. Jilan was his guiding light at this point; she had him by the ears and was showing him how to be 'normal'. No more waking up at 4 in the morning to run drills in the rain.
It was at this moment in time that John thought that there might actually be a god up there somewhere, looking down on him, helping him out. But with a knock at his new door, he was sure it wasn't god, it was Jilan.
"Uh," John stammered, not sure what to say, "Come in."
Jilan stepped in smiling that pleasant smile she always had on. She stepped over and took a seat next to John on the bed he had been using as a desk since he had gotten here.
"Tomorrow I'll drive you up to the dorms so you can get your stuff set up and you can meet a few people. You won't have class till Monday."
John glanced down at the black watch that was fastened to his wrist; it said it was Saturday. Jilan put a comforting arm around John before continuing.
"I'm sure you'll do fine dear." The butterflies seemed to scatter, leaving him feeling surprisingly empty. He lay back on his bed as Jilan got up and walked toward the door. She paused for a moment before shutting the light off and closing the door behind her.
"Thanks." John said under his breath as he kicked his shoes off and slipped out of his shirt. He drifted off into a dream. Before he knew it they were whisking off of the interstate onto a familiar street; Sol road, it leads directly to the High school slash boarding school.
They hadn't said much on the way, but they didn't have to. John wasn't sure why but he felt like Jilan knew what he was thinking, almost as if she could read minds. She always seemed to know how he was feeling, even when he couldn't show it.
They pulled through the huge steel gates that read "Sol Academy" and drove down the smooth asphalt pathway that lead to the dorm room check in. The check in process was relatively quick, John just handed the short, perky lady behind the counter his registration form and his schedule and she plugged the data into her computer. A few second later it spat out a Dorm section, House number, and Room number on a piece of paper.
"You'll be rooming with one other person John, have a nice stay at Sol Academy." She was way too perky, almost like a robot.
Jilan swerved her way over to Dorm section II and to house number seven. The vehicle jerked to a stop before John stuck a foot out of the vehicle and onto the wet ground. He quietly shut the door behind him, trying not to draw attention to himself. Jilan slammed her door before accidently hitting the "panic" button on her key ring instead of the "trunk" button. People looked at John as if it was his fault, and he didn't blame them.
"Damn thing!" Jilan said as the alarm finally stopped blaring. "Sorry about that John."
"No problem." He kept his head down as he grabbed his suitcase and backpack from the trunk.
"If you need me you'll be able to find me around campus," Jilan said as she got back in her vehicle. She waved and sped off again, swerving to dodge a car that was pulling out of a parking space. He heard her curse as her tires squealed to a stop and he couldn't help but chuckle. He grabbed his bags and headed up the stairs into the beginning of his new life.
Getting to his dorm was easy; it was on the first floor all the way down on the right. The door number was 117 and he kept repeating it to himself as he stepped up to it. He pushed it open to reveal a spacey room that only held two desks and a bunk bed in the far corner. It was the biggest room he had ever laid eyes on, but it was also the most vacant.
The top bunk had a suitcase already laying on it, so John just tossed his backpack on the bottom bunk and dropped his suitcase at the foot of the bed. He looked around not sure what to do next; he remembered back in the military academy when he tried to un-pack before his roommate showed up and the guy beat him into a pulp for it. It still didn't make much sense, but nothing ever does.
He unzipped his backpack and took out the laptop that Jilan had bought him and placed it on the desk that was connected to the right corner of the room.
"Already claiming a desk eh?" It was a female's voice coming from the door way behind John. "You must be my roomy, I'm Linda."
"I'm John." John said as he turned to face Linda. He wasn't sure what shocked him more, the fact that they allowed co-ed sex roommates or the fact that Linda's dark hair was hanging perfectly across the right side of her face, giving her this mysterious look. He couldn't help but smile to himself.
"You're new here right?" This is the first person he's seen and everyone already knows he's new.
"Uh, yeah." John said rubbing the back of his head.
They sat in silence for a bit, the only sound was of people in the hallway mingling and getting settled, until Linda walked over to the bunk and grabbed her backpack.
"If you want the top you can have it, I just wasn't sure if anyone but me liked it."
"No," John stammered, "I don't mind being on bottom."
Linda giggled a little bit at the unintentionally sexual joke and John gave her an inquisitive look until her realized what she was implying; the he smiled a bit.
"Well, I just came back to grab my MP3, so I'll see you later." She walked away before John could say another word, but it didn't matter since he wasn't going to.
He walked over and slipped into his bunk and starred up at the support that kept the top bunk from falling onto him. Then he tried to take a nap; tomorrow was going to be a rough day.