"Welcome to the Tri-City Associated Academies Annual Open House! Did you manage to pick up a brochure at the entrance? No? That's perfectly fine, I have extras for everyone.
Now, as you are probably aware, the Tri-City Associated Academies is a collection of three different high schools that straddle the border of, as the name implies, three cities. The combined campus ground is enclosed by an old-fashioned brick wall that encompasses a total area of about two-hundred acres.
If you flip your brochure over, you'll find a map of the entire campus. As you can see, most of the school grounds are either lawns of forest areas, all maintained by our most excellent grounds keeping crew. At the center of the grounds stands the crown jewel of the Associated Academies: The Hooligan Athletic Complex.
Judging by the laughs I'm hearing, I'm not the only person who thinks it's a bit of an odd name but shhh, don't tell them I said so!
Coming back on topic, the Hooligan Athletic Complex was originally commissioned and built by Harold Hooligan. Ah, yes, I see some of you are making the connection now. For those of you who don't know, Harold "Harry" Hooligan was a graduate of the Tri-City Associated Academy who went on to build a very, very, VERY successful property empire that stretches across the globe.
Now the HAC as we tend to affectionately call it around here, is not actually just a single building but a collection of two gym buildings, a swimming complex that houses our three Olympic sized pools, a combined indoor sports facility, soccer pitch, football field with a track around it, open field and track, and a baseball diamond. While
Now, we've just passed one of the three visitor centers that sit at the main entrance to each of the three schools. We take student safety here very seriously and these centers serve as a primary deterrent for individuals who aren't supposed to be on the school grounds.
Back to our maps, you'll see that we took the north-east entrance that's sitting on the outskirts of Peacable Township and coming up any second now… ah, there it is. Welcome to Peacable Technical Academy or Peace Tech, we call it. The full name gets to be a mouthful after a while.
A quick intro on Peace Tech. Currently serving roughly three thousand students, Peace Tech is one of the premiere technical high schools in the country. Peace Tech offers up a non-traditional curriculum deeply steeped various technical courses mostly steeped in the field of engineering.
The current headmaster is Gobber Belch and he has served as headmaster for the last eleven years now.
We're now approaching the main campus for Peace Tech. The larger building that you see to your left is where the faculty offices and lecture halls are located. Adjacent to it is the lunch hall where they serve a mean mystery meat Friday, or so Mr Belch tells me.
Moving along, we have the subject buildings, each one dedicated to a single subject. We won't be passing through all of them but the ones you can see from here are the Mechanical and Animatronics Hall, two of the more popular programs here at Peacable.
In just a bit, we'll be taking the inter-school tram service to get to the next campus because it's a bit far to walk. Now, as we're on the tram, we'll be passing the Hooligan Athletic Complex so you'll get a close up view of the area. Unfortunately, the complex is currently closed due to the central office's annual setup audit. In keeping with the Tri-City Associated Academy promise to deliver the best well-rounded education possible, each facility on the grounds goes through a bi-annual audit to make sure that all facilities are up to standard.
Oh, here's our ride now. Everyone hop on and hang on and enjoy the view. I'll be quiet for a while now because I'm sure you've all heard me drone on for enough. I'll let you guys know once we're near our next stop."
"And I'm back everyone! Now, if you'll look to your right, you'll see Mazy School of Arts. As you can guess, we've crossed over from Peacable into the City of Mazy. Mazy School is, as you can see from the map on your brochures, is located in the south-eastern corner of the school grounds. There are currently about a thousand-five hundred students enrolled in Mazy School.
I can see many of you wondering what Mazy School has to offer and let me just say before any of you start thinking that painting and the likes is the only thing students at Mazy School do, you should know that Mazy offers an intense curriculum steeped in research.
What kind of research, you ask? History is a very important aspect of the Arts and a lot goes into analyzing the state of mind when an artist begins their work. The cohort is generally divided into those more interested in the historical and mental aspect of the arts and those who just love to make things.
Students cover not only the traditional form of art such as painting and sculpting but also indulge in other forms that fewer people see as art such as writing and videography. Mazy has had more than one student go on to write very popular books. As you may notice, Mazy is a much smaller campus than Peacable and is, in fact, the smallest of the three schools. An expansion project is in the works but is still in its infancy.
Just behind me, there are various galleries that hold the work of former and current students so go head, take a look. We'll meet back here in, let's say… forty-five minutes? Yes, okay, good. For those of you who are thirsty or hungry, the Mazy lunch hall has been opened to those of you who have an official open house tag so go in and take a look, you're more than welcome."
"Alrighty everyone, are we ready to hit our last stop? Well come on down to the tram then, we're in for another scenic ride through the school grounds."
"We're coming up on Berk Private Academy now… Unlike the other two campuses which are open to public enrollment, Berk Private Academy's enrollment process is much more stringent. With a current student population of roughly six hundred, Berk actually has the largest campus solely because the Hooligan Athletic Complex actually belongs to Berk Private Academy. The stipulations of the endowment by Harry Hooligan is, however, that while Berk owns the entirety of the complex, that it be used in tandem with the other two schools.
Berk Private Academy is considered by many as an "elite" school but let me be the first to dissuade you of that notion. I'm a current student here at Berk Academy and I come from a very normal family, we're not wealthy by any stretch but I've been given this incredible opportunity to study in Berk Academy because they want the very best.
Roughly two-thirds of the entire student population is currently attending on full-ride scholarships, not a single cent out of the pockets of any of the students or their families. If you can prove to them that you belong, they'll work their absolute hardest so that you will have the chance to do so. Now, as you can see from the architecture of the main building, it is very much in the sty…."
A father's attention was pulled away from the teenager speaking up front by an incessant tug of his hand. Kneeling down next to his nine-year-old daughter so that she wouldn't interrupt the guide's presentation by speaking overly loud, he stood witness to his little girl's claim.
"I'm going to study here when I grow up." Little Astrid Hofferson said with absolute finality as she pointed at the Berk Private Academy's main hall.
AN: Just a random idea that popped into my head and refused to go. It's a shorter than I'd like but hopefully it's only because this is meant to be an intro in a very specific way of storytelling. I apologise if it seems a bit disjointed but there was a particular style I was trying to go with in this chapter. Also apologise for any errors or mistakes in the writing as finished writing this after 36 hours of being awake and no else to look over this story. Please do let me know if you spot any errors.
