September 1st, 2002
Jeremie Belpois watched silently out of the window as the morning sun rose. He had been sitting in a car for the last hour, and was fairly tired of it, not that he was complaining though.
Today was the first day for boarding students to move into the dormitories at Kadic Academy. He had been woken up by his father at 5 in the morning to start packing and drive out to the school, which he lived an hour or so away from. He had said goodbye to his mother and left with his father to move into the dorm he'd call home for the next year.
Jeremie was nervous. School had never been hard for him, nor would it ever for a person of his intellect. Jeremie was incredibly intelligent for his age, so much that his parents sent him to Kadic, which was supposed to be a high-quality school for kids his age. Grades weren't what worried him.
He had never felt completely comfortable at school. He didn't make friends easily, nor did he relate to many people very well. His intelligence often created a barrier around him that no one seemed to want to disturb. Sometimes it's rather lonely to be so smart, he'd think.
However, the time alone allowed him to hone his skills at programming and designing robots, both being big hobbies of his. He had spent numerous hours constructing robots out of scrap he had found, sketching out schematics, and programming them to move, pick up items, or whatever he pleased. Jeremie was looking forward to see what kind of programs they had for robotics at Kadic, or if anyone else was interested in them.
"Are you okay Jeremie? You look a bit worried." his father commented, looking over at his son, who had been staring blankly out of the window for a solid ten minutes now.
"what?" Jeremie asked, snapping out of the trance he'd been in.
"You looked a little upset. Are you nervous about school? I could imagine being so, I was too when I went to Kadic, but it gets better, much better after a little while. I met some of my best friends in the world there, you know"
Jeremie smiled a little. His dad's words were encouraging, and his dad had usually given him good advice. He did doubt meeting friends he'd keep his whole life, though.
"I even met your mom there. Who knows? You might meet a special someone..." his father said with a smile. Jeremie returned it with a weak smile of his own, rolling his eyes at the thought. He doubted he'd even meet friends, much less someone else...
After a little while longer, the car slowed to a stop in front of rather official looking gates. Jeremie and his dad got out, and began taking out the boxes and cases of Jeremie's belongings. Many other students were doing the same, and they all appeared to go into one of the large center buildings he assumed was the dorms.
Once inside, he stood in line for a moment, waiting for a large man in a red jacket to give him his room number.
"New student?" the man asked in a gruff, yet friendly voice. Perhaps noticing the nervous look on Jeremie's face, he continued. "The name's Jim Morales, I'm the physical education teacher here at Kadic. You're boarding here, aren't you? What's your name?"
"uh.. Belpois. Jeremie Belpois, seventh grade." he said, shifting the weight of one of his bags to take the slip of paper handed to him.
"Boy's rooms are on the second floor of the building. I will give you all the rules later, so you do not by any chance break them, though you don't seem the type, do yah, Belpois?"
"uh.. no sir..." he said, still slightly nervous. Without another word he awkwardly shuffled out of the line and to the staircase leading upwards.
After achieving victory over the forces of gravity, Jeremie managed to carry his bags to what seemed to be the boys dormitories. Walking down the hall for a few minutes, he spotted a room labeled "JEREMY BELPOIS". Cringing a little at the misspelling of his name, he opened the door and stepped in.
The room was very basic, including a bed in the left corner of the room, and a large wardrobe to his right. A simple computer desk sat straight in front of his, directly under a window.
He set his bags down, slowly taking in the room. It'd take very little for him to get comfortable here, so at least living at Kadic wouldn't be as bad. His father made his way into the room, carrying with him the last box of Jeremie's items. Walking over to his son, he clasped his shoulder.
"Now don't forget to call us, you know how worried your mother gets." he said. Jeremie nodded, giving him a look that said he knew.
"Bye, Jeremie! I'll pick you up again during the holidays. Front gate where I dropped you off, okay?" his father told him, walking up to the door.
"Okay, dad. Bye!" Jeremie called out to him as he left the room.
As the door shut, he sat down on his bed, taking a minute to relax before he began unpacking everything. He started simply by organizing his clothing into the wardrobe, along with other school supplies he probably wouldn't be needing for a while. After that was done, he started packing some of the smaller things he had in the shelves built into his bed.
After all the menial tasks were done, he focused on the large box his father had carried in. Jeremie opened the box, revealing several CPU's and two blocky monitors. It took about an hour of connecting wires, heaving heavy monitors up, and rearranging before he had the whole system set up on the desk, taking the entire thing up.
He started up the computer, sitting down in the computer chair also provided by the school. It took him a few minutes, but he got everything turned on and working. He began connecting to the internet when he heard a knock on his door.
Getting up and opening it, he saw many of the other boys that lived on the floor standing outside their doors. Jeremie walked out into the hall, to see Jim assembling them all.
"All right, here at Kadic Academy, we have a few ground rules." Jim started, pacing down the length of the hall. "First off, you should not for any reason be inside of your doors from 8 AM to 3 PM during your classes. Secondly, you should not leave your dorms after 10 PM unless it is an emergency..."
Jim continued down the hall, reciting more rules, telling them the cafeteria's schedules, and so on and so forth. Everyone was beginning to become really tired of listening to him.
Unintentionally, he caught the eye of another student that lived in a dorm rather close to his. The boy was only an inch or so taller than he was, and had short brown hair. He dressed rather normally, with a pair of baggy cargo pants, and an overshirt of a similar army green color. The boy had a serious face, the one of a person you wouldn't want to mess with.
Surprisingly, the boy nodded towards Jim, who had just passed them, and rolled his eyes, smiling afterword. Jeremie chuckled lightly at the joke, nodding in agreement.
Jim finished his speech, telling them all to get back to their whatever they were doing. Jeremie went back to his room, laying down on his bed for a bit. Checking the clock he'd set up a while back, he saw there was a whole hour until lunch was served.
He propped himself up with a pillow, silently mulling over the days events. The boy in the hall acted pretty friendly towards him, rather surprising for such a serious looking guy.
It took a few minutes of thinking before he recognized the kid as a boy who lived in his neighborhood. Ulrich Stern was his name, if he remembered correctly. They never really saw each other much, or talking much for that matter. Still, it was nice to see a familiar face at the school.
Jeremie decided he'd better start finding his way to the cafeteria, and maybe just get used to the school's layout. He got up from his bed, checking his computer briefly to see if it had connected. Seeing that it had, he sat down for a minute, opening a folder he'd made earlier this morning.
Turning on his webcam, he began recording,
"The Diary of Jeremie Belpois, Day 1. I got settled into my dorm a while ago, and just finished being briefed on school rules by Jim. I saw Ulrich Stern, a kid who lives in my neighborhood back home. Although I'm not quite certain, he might be an okay enough guy to be friends with. But for now, I'm just glad I got the computer connected alright. If at all possible, I might talk to one of the science teachers to see if there's any robotics programs I can join. It may also be worth checking around the town for stores that sell anything for robotics. I have to go now, though, or else I'll be late for lunch."
Turning off the webcam, he got up and left the room, joining the crowd of people walking out of the dorms to the cafeteria.