Chapter 5- School Rules and Time Passes
A/N: Some of the rules of the school are going to be taken from the book "Back Home" by Michelle Magorian as the school is run British fashion like that particular book. This is also when Anna sees Helix for the first time.
It didn't take long for a prefect to show up to escort Anna around. All the prefects were Seniors with the worst case of the silver spoon mentality that Anna had ever seen. This girl with frizzy curly hair was exactly what Anna had been dreading since Oliver had first said she was going to a private school.
"So, are you Anna James?" The girl asked with a bored voice. Obviously she thought she had better things to do than escort the mayor's ward around the school.
"Um, yeah. Are you the prefect that's supposed to take me to algebra?" Anna asked in a small voice. Apparently the prefects at this school were good at making anyone in lower grades feel like they mattered less than the dirt.
"Yes and I should tell you now that "Yeah," is considered slang at this school. I won't report it as you are new and didn't know," the girl said in a prissy tone.
"Oh. Well, I am sorry. I didn't know like you said," Anna said with a slight wince as they walked to her first class.
"In between classes, I'll explain the rules to you. The first rule is you have to wear the full uniform every day with the exception on Friday. That day we can wear whatever we want as long as it complies with school rules," the girl said, talking as she walked.
"Don't all of you hate wearing ties to school?" Anna asked, practically running to keep up with the older girl, who apparently hated having to escort new students around school.
"You get used to it after awhile. What did you wear at that public school you went to?" The girl asked without stopping in her stride.
"Me and my brother, Owen, wore blue jeans, t-shirts, khaki pants, and turtlenecks, although I was the one who wore turtlenecks and button-down shirts. We also wore tennis shoes and I would wear loafers and flats," Anna said.
"With the exception of the tennis shoes, we can wear the loafers and flats. Tennis shoes are only allowed for gym. The headmaster also told you that school clubs are a must here?" The girl asked.
"Yes, but he also said that it was too late in the year for me to be a part of any. He said I will have to wait for the fall semester next year," Anna said.
"Here we call it terms as they do in England and he is right. But the counselor should be able to help you with your schedule when you go see her. Here we take foreign languages in our Sophomore year. And here we have a wide range of languages and even ones that a lot of schools won't teach like German, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian," the girl said as they stopped at a door.
"Heh, I guess I'll know something when I meet with my counselor," Anna said as she looked inside the classroom. Boys and girls were all in the class, talking to each other. Like all schools it had to be a clique that everyone was a part of. Anna wondered where she fit into all the snobs at this school or if there were any students that didn't have a spoon-fed mama and daddy's kid mentality.
A middle-aged woman with graying brown hair and glasses came up to her. Right away, Anna could see that her algebra teacher would be pleasant. "Welcome. I am Mrs. Harrison. I will be your algebra teacher, dear," the woman said, with a warm smile.
"Oh, hi. I'm Anna James," Anna said as the woman dismissed the aide and took her to a seat that was not in the back, but in the middle of an aisle.
"The mayor's new ward?" The kindly lady asked.
"Yes, Ma'am," Anna said as she put her new school books on her desk.
"Miss James, at this school, "Ma'am" is considered slang and disrespectful to adults in general. We call everyone by the last name. Mr. Dowen, will you please explain to our new student what words are not permissible here?" Mrs. Harrison asked a young man with horn-rimmed glasses and his blond hair stuck up in an Alfalfa hair-do.
"Yes. Mrs. Harrison," the boy said, his voice squeaking slightly. Apparently puberty was affecting his vocal cords. He sat down in the desk next to her.
"Hello," Anna said with as friendly a voice as she could muster.
"I'm Alistair Dowen. My friends call me Al," the boy said with a friendly look on his face. If he would ditch the squeaky voice and glasses Alistair might be considered kind of cute. Maybe he was what Cayden had looked like when he was younger, minus the blond hair.
"I'm Anna. My family and my brother's basketball friends called me Ann sometimes," Anna said.
"So, how many words do you know that are slang here?" Al asked.
"Only "Yeah," and "Ma'am." How many other words are slang here?" Anna asked.
"Hi," "Okay," and "Uh-huh" are considered slang. Here it is considered to say proper English and all the words you now know are slang are considered crude and only common people use it," Al explained.
"Oh. Well, Oliver, his sister, Thea, and the housekeeper, Raisa, didn't exactly tell me that there was a vocabulary list," Anna said with a slight wince.
"Probably because Mayor Queen didn't know there was a list. What did he tell you about the school?" Al asked.
"Only that it's private and we have to wear a uniform every day except on Fridays," Anna said.
"Well, yes to both. I guess he didn't tell you about the lunches. We have gourmet restaurants catering the cafeteria and today is French cuisine. They have Coq au Vin and crepe suzettes to die for," Al said as if that kind of food walked on water.
"I've never actually eaten French food. My mom liked it though. My experience is Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and Greek. Me and my brother also ate a lot of Big Belly burgers, Taco Bell, and the Mellow Mushroom," Anna said.
"Sounds good to me. On Fridays they bring in those kind of restaurants too. We can eat Big Bellies on Fridays. I opt for the Mellow Mushroom a lot on Friday," Al said.
Anna went to work on algebra problems and all too quickly class was over and the prefect was taking her to her world geography class.
A month passed and school would be over very soon. It was spring and Anna was waiting outside for Oliver's girlfriend, Felicity. Felicity had said that Oliver was giving Anna money to go shopping for summer clothes and he had asked if Felicity could help her pick stuff out as he had no idea what to buy in the way of clothes.
Felicity pulled up and waved. "Hi, Felicity! You ready to go shopping?" Anna asked, putting her backpack in the backseat and getting in the passenger seat.
"Yeah, but first I need to meet a friend of mine. She's a hacktivist at some place called Helix," Felicity said, the word Helix freezing Anna's blood. Helix! Dad's group of weirdos!" Anna thought. She wondered if Cayden would even be there or if he even knew that Owen, her mother, and Jim were dead.
"Hey, you okay? You just went as white as a sheet," Felicity asked.
"I'm fine," Anna said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. Chances are Cayden was there, but Anna didn't know what she'd do if Cayden wasn't there. While she had missed him, she was still angry that he had missed Owen's basketball game and hadn't shown up when her mother, Jim, and Owen were murdered. It had to be all because of him that she had been on the streets, dumpster-diving and fishing clothes and food out of it.
Felicity pulled up in front of a building with a lot of windows and glass doors. They went inside and Anna stood frozen, her blue eyes looking around at walls of computers. Anna had never seen this many computers outside of a Circuit City or Radio Shack. A girl with dark reddish-brown hair and glasses came up to them. "Hi, Felicity! Who's your friend?" The girl asked, looking at Anna.
"Alena, this is Anna James; Oliver Queen's ward. I'm taking her shopping for summer clothes as he doesn't know how to do it. He usually gets me or Thea to buy her clothes and Thea's busy and Oliver has a press conference dealing with the aftermath of Prometheus," Felicity said. Oliver had been working with a man called Adrian Chase who had turned out to be a serial killer. Anna had heard about it on the news she was watching for her World Geography class as Mr. McGowan wanted them to pay attention to world events.
"Yeah, we've been watching the news. A reporter says that Oliver is offering "Canned Platitudes," Alena said, turning to the wall monitors.
"Well, the question is, do we have anything?" Felicity asked.
"Manhunts aren't exactly is Helix's wheelhouse, Felicity," Alena said.
"Yeah, you helped me unmask Chase. Now we need your help trying to find the cretin," Felicity said stiffly.
"Well, from what you told me, they've got Homeland Security, the FBI, and A.R.G.U.S. working on this," Alena pointed out.
"Yeah, and last night Chase played them like Maximum Force," Felicity said snidely.
"I used to love that game," Alena said in a hushed voice. Apparently that game was a big one for people in the 90's and early 21st century.
"I know, I did too. Apparently it's seen better days. Point being, I was expecting you and Helix to come up with a fresh new perspective. Maybe pull out some new trick, something Chase isn't gonna anticipate," Felicity said disgruntled.
"Well, it would help not having to waste time reinventing the wheel," Alena said.
"You wanna know what intel they're working with?" Felicity asked.
"Getting into Homeland Security and the FBI is easy, Felicity. Their cyber sec is one really bad joke. But breaking into A.R.G.U.S.' network-" Alena started to say.
"Allow me, guys," Anna said, going over to a empty computer and sitting down.
"You know how to hack into a computer?" Felicity asked.
"Is the Pope Catholic? It's gonna be a few seconds and viola! The intel of Chase being in New Jersey came from an A.R.G.U.S. drone," Anna said as she typed fast on the laptop and information came up.
"Yeah? So?" Alena asked.
"So, the information was then sent to an unsecured phone," Anna said, looking from the computer to Felicity and Alena.
"Seems like a big-time breach in operational security. Wait," Alena said.
"Wait," what?" Felicity asked.
"What if Chase has a buddy inside A.R.G.U.S.? Someone who tipped him off, who pinged the unsecure cell phone?" Alena asked. Anna turned back to the computer, typing furiously. A picture of a man, named Jordan Pierce came up on the screen.
"Yeah. That would be him," Anna breathed softly.
"Yeah, I have something to do guys. I'll let you know when I find something," Alena said, leaving quickly.