Rolling hills and snow-capped mountains surrounded her on all sides. The scene itself was awe-inspiring, with emerald green hills covered in various deciduous and non-deciduous trees carpeting most of them. Since it was early spring, most of the deciduous trees were in flower, adding contrasts of pink and white blossoms against the deep green that surrounded everything, and that was just where the trees were concerned. Flowers carpeted the ground, coloring it all the shades of the rainbow. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought this was a scene painted by a VERY talented artists. However, this was no painting. This was real. Because of the flowers, the air smelled sweet, and since it was still mid-morning, the air was crisp and cool.
Rinsi smiled to herself, admiring the beauty of the Willamette Valley that surrounded her. More specifically, it was the school. The building was humongous! Why shouldn't it be? After all, it was a school. The building itself was cream colored, surrounded by flowering bushes and trees. The front lawn was expansive, trimmed with flowers and bushes, and perfectly manicured. The lawn itself was dotted with students meandering about, some sitting next to trees or in the sun as they ate their lunches, which were either home packed, or bought from the cafeteria. She was mildly surprised that some of the students didn't really look like they were human, due to their own special gifts. However, this didn't last long, since before arriving she took time to study as much as she could on various gifts and their effects.
As Rinsi walked along the long driveway that leads to the school, she couldn't help but look around warily. Granted, she had, for the most part, gotten over the events of her birthday party. She had always been good about getting over difficulties quickly. Still, there was some remnant of fear and distrust left over. Still, she was pleasantly surprised when some of them smiled and waved at her, rather than looking at her in fear and disgust. Rinsi gave a small smile and wave back to those who greeted her, and continued into the main building of the school.
The main building itself was huge, and very much like a maze to her. The halls were painted a pristine white, and had various bulletin boards posted here and there. The floor was a meticulously kept tile floor that was a pale green in color. It was a new place, and it was kept very tidy. However, she always had a bad sense of direction, and knew she would be lost within five minutes. This was fine by her, since she also loved to explore, and figured that exploring would be fun, and a good way to find her way around later. After all, she had all day to find her classroom and get things set up as she needed them. Finding her dorm would be another thing all together, but she could do that later.
Hm, my classroom is 121, she thought to herself, I wonder which direction that is in.
Rinsi looked around, and saw something small and square in shape on the wall at the end of the hall. When she approached it, she found it was a plate on the wall, showing numbers and an arrow pointing down the adjacent hallway. It was a way of telling students and teachers that certain classrooms were down that hallway, much like hotel rooms in a hotel, or patient rooms in a hospital. The sign she was looking at had rooms one through twenty-five in that particular direction. Looking around she saw a similar sign on the opposite wall, telling her that rooms twenty-six through fifty were in the other direction. Since the building itself was only three stories, she thought maybe there was another building behind it, or that there were not many more classrooms after hers. If neither option was the case, then there were more classrooms beyond those hallways. That being thought, she headed towards the opposite hallway, labeled as twenty-six through fifty. If she was lucky, her classroom would be on this floor, and relatively easy to find.
As Rinsi wondered down the halls, she saw only one person in the hallway. It was a young man, who looked to be about sixteen years of age. He had dark hair and eyes, with chiseled features that made him look quite handsome. He seemed to look at her closely, as if deciding what to do. For a moment she was afraid, but when he smiled and approached her, she was put at ease.
"You look lost." He said, his smooth, velvety voice melting her just a bit.
"I kind of am." She said sheepishly. "I'm trying to find my classroom."
"Which room are you in?"
"I'm in room number one hundred twenty-one."
"That's on the third floor. Each floor has fifty classrooms. Follow me; I'll take you there."
"Thank you. I didn't expect this place to be so….huge."
"Why not?" said the young man as he headed for a stairway at the end of the hall.
"Well, I guess I didn't think there were that many gifted people in the world."
"Why shouldn't there be? Currently there are nearly seven billion people in the world. Out of that seven billion, or just under, it is estimated that at least twenty percent are gifted."
"Which means a lot of students. I get it now. You're pretty smart."
"Nah, I've just been attending here for a while now. Didn't you read the pamphlet?"
"Not yet…" Rinsi admitted sheepishly as she now followed him up the wide, sturdy steps to the next level.
The young man just rolled his eyes. Just who was this lady anyway? The way she spoke and carried herself made her seem like a teacher, yet she still knew nothing of the world of mutants, or what she called 'gifted' people. She was obviously still very new to all of this, as was evident already.
"By the way," he said suddenly as he lead her to the next set of steps, surprised that he wasn't feeling winded at all yet, "What's your name?"
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm Rinsi Starlight. I'm the new literature teacher."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ki'iro."
"Nice to meet you, too, Ki'iro."
The rest of the walk was relatively silent, with the exception of Ki'iro pointing out other classrooms she might need, as well as the library. Rinsi took special note of the library, since she knew she would use it a lot for her class, and for herself. When they approached her classroom, she could see through the window on the door that it was dark inside, however there was enough sunlight filtering in through the windows that she could see numerous desks and chairs all waiting to be filled with students. The dry marker board was freshly cleaned, and showed no signs of prior use. Her desk sat to the left of the board, and eagerly awaited her arrival.
"Thank you for your guidance, Ki'iro." She said politely, "If it's not too rude, may I ask why you are here?"
"Only if I get to ask you the same."
"That's fair."
"I'm here to learn how to control my abilities. Almost everyone here is the same way."
"What are your abilities?"
"I control shadows. What are yours?"
"I…don't know yet. I have so much to learn just yet, and I'm not sure where to begin."
"Don't worry about that. The other teachers are trained to be able to help people who know they are 'gifted' – as you put it – but don't know what their gift is just yet. You should talk to the principal about that."
"I will, thank you."
The sudden, loud ringing of a bell made Rinsi jump a bit, much to the amusement of Ki'iro, who just smiled at her. She certainly was attractive for a teacher, though he knew that he couldn't get close to someone like her. She was a teacher, after all, and such relationships were looked down on. Besides, he long since knew that people weren't safe around him, that even if she was younger and they could date, he would just make her unhappy. He brushed all thoughts of relationships aside and waved to her.
"I have to go now. That bell means class is going to start soon."
"Okay. Thanks again!"
And with that he trotted down the hall, headed for his next class which was on the lower level.
Rinsi pulled a key out of the pocket of the blue jeans she was wearing and inserted it into the lock on the door. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of students she would have. Would there be telepaths? If so, it wouldn't matter much, since her class had no specific right or wrong answers. Would there be super intelligent people? She hoped so!
After entering her classroom, she approached her desk and found on it a laptop computer waiting for her, as well as what looked like a ledger. The computer was plugged into the wall already, so all she had to do was open it and set it to how she needed it. She opened the ledger and saw a list of names with squares next to them, indicating days they would be in class. It looked to her like there wasn't much to do, except for gather the reading materials she would need and set up a syllabus. At least now she knew where her classroom was, so she would not get lost later, and thanks to the directions from Ki'iro, she now also knew the location of the library.
"Well," she said out loud, to no one in particular, "if I'm going to set up a syllabus, I need to get the books first.
It had taken a few hours, but Rinsi finally had chosen several books for the class to read. They ranged from Shakespeare, to Stephen King, to H.G. Wells, to Anne Rice. They ranged from all different eras of the written word, and all different genres of it. She wanted her class to have a wide variety of reading material. To restrict them to one era, or one style, was to rob them of the cultural and ethnic diversity of the written word, and to do that was a crime. At least, to her it was a crime. She could not bring herself to rob her students of the knowledge and fun of a variety of literature, though most of it was fictional. The hardest part of searching for reading material was restricting the number of books she assigned to her students. She doubted that she could get them to read fifty books or more in a mere three month term, on top of having to do work in other classes. It would just be too much for them.
"That's an aweful lot of books." A voice said from behind, making Rinsi jump a bit.
Rinsi turned around to find a young lady – who looked to be in her teens – with blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a pair of cat-like ears on the top of her head, though, and Rinsi wondered if that was just for show, or if they were real.
"Are you really going to read all of that?"
"Ah, no. I've read all of them already."
"Wow! You're a really fast reader!"
"No, I read them before coming here. These are the books I'm going to assign to my class. I'm Rinsi Starlight by the way. I'm the new literature teacher."
"Nice to meet you, Rinsi. I'm Nakya."
"Likewise." Rinsi said cheerfully, "May I ask, are those ears for real?"
"Yep! I'm a neko. A real neko, that is, and not some weird otaku who likes to dress up as one."
"Otakus are fun, though."
"Hm, I guess so."
"Are you the librarian in charge?"
"No, I'm a student. The librarian is over there."
Nakya gestured towards the opposite wall, where Rinsi saw a tall person who appeared to be blue and covered in fur standing behind a desk. He wore glasses and a pair of nice slacks, a nice white shirt, and a suit jacket. His appearance was surprising to her, but she quickly got over it. She carried the books over to the desk, nodding thanks to the neko girl on her way.
"May I help you?" the ape-like man said as she set the books on the desk, "I see we have an avid reader!"
"Be that as it may," Rinsi said cheerfully, "this is actually for my class."
"Hm, looks like you've got some very good choices. I'm Dr. Henry Phillip, or 'Hank', by the way. You can just call me Beast if you like. I'm the physics professor here, though I also work here in the library on my spare time." Said the blue ape man as he scanned the bar code that was on the inside of the back cover of the books, and stamped a date on them to show her when they were due, which was at the end of the term.
"No offense, but I think I like 'Hank' better. I'm Rinsi Starlight, the literature teacher. It is nice to meet you."
"None taken. I prefer 'Hank' myself. Here you go, they are all set. They are due at the end of the term."
"Don't you need a card from me or something?"
"Not at all. We already have you in our system, and since you are the literature teacher, your check out time is longer, since the books are being used for your class."
"I'm impressed. This place sure is efficient when it comes to getting people set up here."
"Thank you, we do our best."
Rinsi just smiled and slid the tall stack of books back into her arms to be carried to the classroom. Hank wondered if she would be okay carrying all of those books, but didn't say anything. She looked capable enough, and he was curious to see what she could do.
Author's Note: Well, things are a little slow going, aren't they? Don't worry, things will be moving along soon, so be patient okay?
For those of you from the thread this story is derived off of, DON'T HATE ME PLEASE! You will be in it, don't worry. I'm just setting things up right now. You'll begin to see the similarities soon! Don't you worry!
Also, I'm still in need of a beta tester. Email me all you beautiful beta testers out there!