Once upon a time, I went to school. I walked through the playground, pausing to admire the many wooden and metal structures littered throughout it.
"These will probably be important at some point in the future," I thought to myself, when I noticed something interesting on the ground near the door to the school. It was an acorn, but it was no ordinary acorn. It was lying separate from all the other natural debris caused by dirt, tree droppings, or woodchips, and was incredibly large. I picked it up, slipping it into the pocket of my blue rain jacket. As I stared at the door that waited right in front of me, an idea crawled through my head. Once I stepped through the threshold into this new world, there would be no going back. I couldn't stop myself from stepping through the threshold and leaving the rest of the world behind. It made me feel kind of free, like nothing hurted anymore.
Almost immediately after beginning my epic, coming of age story, I reached a fork in the road. The first big decision of my life. I could either go to the classroom on the right, or the classroom on the left. I stood, transfixed, in the lobby of the building, for what seemed like an eternity, and what very well may have been, compared to the thoughts flowing through my brain. I knew absolutely nothing about either of these classrooms, or more importantly, what people might be lurking within them. This was way too important of a decision for me to make on my own, so I took out my Lucky Penny. My mama says that if I ever need to make a decision that's too hard to for me to make on my own, I can always rely on my Lucky Penny to decide for me. My mama sure knows a lot, so I always make sure to follow her advice, even if it's wrong sometimes.
I flipped the Lucky Penny, and for one instant that was full of suspenders, time stopped, and nothing else existed or mattered in the world, except for me and my disc of copper. Tails. Good. Tails never fails. I decided that that meant I should go into the classroom on the right.
As I stepped into the classroom, I noticed that there were a bunch of other people my age just kind of doing their own thing, and one person that wasn't. That person approached me and asked, "Your name is Maddie, isn't it?"
My blue-grey eyes widened. Just like that, my identity had been exposed. "How did you know that?" I asked, using my right hand to brush my caramel-covered hair that dangles all the way down to my shoulders.
"I'm your teacher," they replied. "so it's kind of my job to know."
That seemed a little bit unfair, but okay.
"Go on, you can put your belongings in one of those cubbies over there," said the teacher, gesturing to a row of blue cubbies cut out of the wall. Unfortunately, I had no other belongings that I could put in the cubby, besides the blue rain jacket. My fingers brushed against the Lucky Penny in my jacket pocket as I remembered that the pants I was wearing didn't have any pockets. I wanted to continue wearing the jacket.
"No thanks," I replied, shaking my head.
The teacher shrugged. "After that, go to the rug in the middle of the room for centers." I had no idea what 'centers' was, but that seemed a little bit unfair too since I wanted to talk to some other people before they made me do something else. No one else seemed to be going to the rug either though, so instead I walked up to some shy looking boy that looked a bit like Bob the Builder.
"Hi," I said, raising my hand as a form of greeting. "My name is-"
"Um..." he stuttered, "I think we're supposed to go to the rug in the middle of the room." Averting his male gaze away from me, he walked over to the rug and sat down. Confused and a bit discouraged, I followed him over. After seeing two people go over to the rug, the rest of the class eventually settled down and joined us. As if on queue, the teacher walked to the front of the room.
"Welcome, everyone," they announced, their arms spread wide. "to Paige Preparatory School. You lot will be known as the graduating class of 374."
374. Three hundred and seventy four. I felt the number roll off my tongue, savoring its bitter taste. The current year was 362, and I had only been around since year 356. My mama says that this year is called 362 cause it's been 362 years since the last Convergence. She also says that I'm still too young to know what a 'Convergence' is yet, but that she'll tell me once I grow to the proper age when all good little boys and girls get to know. It was a long time until year 374, higher than I could even count. Was I really going to be inside here for that whole time?
An excited, scratchy voice cut through my deep thoughts. "374? Jeez, I can't even count that high!" All of the heads in the room decided to turn to look at the source of the voice, which was only a small boy with long eyelashes that was wearing a baseball cap and appeared to have scribbled a makeshift moustache and beard on his face using a permanent marker. He grinned and put both of his hands behind his head.
The teacher put a finger to their lips and produced a shushing noise, causing the boy to become quiet. "Please don't interrupt me until I am finished speaking. You lot will have time to talk amongst yourselves in several minutes." Beard Boy looked a bit disheartened as he muttered something and looked into the dirt.
"Now," continued the teacher, gesticulating wildly in an almost excessively grandiose fashion, "it is time for centers. Every day, at the beginning of the day, each and every last one of you will participate in centers. They are called centers because you will all participate in centers. They are called centers because you will all gather on the rug at the center of the room beforehand. This is an exercise to make sure that everyone gets to know each other, and so no one feels left out. However, it also has some very strict rules, so please pay attention so you don't get confused later."
And with that being said, and a feeling in the very pit of my stomach, the first day of school began in earnest.