Author's Note: Hey everyone, summer school is over and I have free time now with a few days without work, and I will have time to write because I'll have no connection to Wi-Fi so all I will have to do is write so I will have a stockpile of chapters. Sounds like a good deal, writing may take me a bit longer cause the next few chapters and the ones following it will have to cover more content to get from orientation till the end of trimester one. I'll try to update every few weeks or so. Hope you all are still reading and enjoying.
Orientation was a simple affair. Alek and I made our way up the stairs, leaving Dr. Barlow on the first floor. The dining area of the cafeteria was larger than the common room in the dorm, with tile floors so polished and starched, that if the light caught it a certain way, you would be blinded. There were uniform, four by seven rows of circular tables, flanked by three rows of commonplace rectangular lunch tables. The view out of the windows was spectacular, a beautiful view of the sun as it was beginning its descent over the flat stretch of grass and dirt that made up the runway extending from the hanger.
The first three rows of circular tables were where the new students were being seated. We sat at the closest table to the back, so we wouldn't illustrate how late we actually were clocking in at about five to six minutes late. As Dr. Barlow said with her absence it didn't seem to be starting. I leaned over to Alek and whispered,
"With all the money they put into the rest of campus, why do you think they don't have a fully paved runway, and just some barking field that looks a little worse for wear?"
He seemed to think for a minute and just shrugged and simply said, "It's rustic," but he followed that up with "maybe it's cheaper to maintain than concrete or blacktop." I shrugged and we continued on this speculative topic until the time for the presentation to start.
At six o'clock a screen was pulled down from the ceiling in front of the assembled students, and a projector was wheeled out as Dr. Barlow made her way through the empty tables and came to a stop before the students. The projector whirred to life as the school's sigil appeared on the screen: a shield with one peak in the middle and the two edged ones leading down to a point at the bottom. The sigils inside was a take on the Ouroboros, with a whale with a part of a gear in its mouth and looping down to where it is in place of its tail. Underneath this strange and unique show of heraldry were the words, Leviathan School of Aeronautics.
Dr. Barlow introduced herself as a Nora Barlow, Teacher of biology and the head of the science department at LSA. She bid us all welcome and started a slide show, describing to us how classes work and the two different tracks the school offers.
"As most of you know not all of you are taking aeronautics and not all of you are taking mechanics, that is your choice and in your paper work specified which you chose to be in, this is one of the only main differences," she flipped past the slide she was on and into the next one outlining what the courses entailed, "Mechanics students their classes will report to the main hanger to receive instruction from our mechanic's teacher Otto Klopp. While Aeronautics students will be in an instruction room off of the main hanger under the instruction of Captain Hobbes." She began droning on about their credentials and how long they've been here and how experienced they are. Alek started whispering,
"Have fun being stuck in a classroom learning how to do flips and what not, while I get to do hands on." I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder the smile on my face showing that I meant it good naturedly and whispered back,
"We don't even know what we're gonna be doing, clart for brains, it'll probably be lectures galore, so the people who have a basic knowledge or next to none can catch up." He shrugged pushed back his brownish red hair into tousled mess but it worked for him. I turned back to the presentation and Dr. Barlow had switched slides and had moved past basic math and English classes, the sciences, of which science was the student's choice and would be determined on day one, the same case along with language classes.
"The languages this school has to offer is, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Latin. For those taking biology, Latin would certainly help you." I snorted a bit at this and said to Alek,
"She's pushing biology so hard it kinda makes me want to not take it," Alek just let out a quiet 'Pfft' sound and said,
"Nuh Uh, I'd prefer to have someone I know in my class and not just a bunch of random people." I put my hand over my heart and responded sarcastically,
"Aw Alek I'm touched; I didn't know you cared so much." He just rolled his eyes and reached behind my chair and flipped my hoodies hood over my head.
"Shut up Dylan."
I pulled my hoodie down and stuck my tongue out at him and fixed my hair moving it to the side so it flowed along the top to the side of my head over my undercut.
The Doctor was about to start on dorm rooms, curfews and the campus utilities when there were the sounds of rapid footsteps coming up the stairs into the room orientation was taking place, Dr. Barlow stopped as a lanky boy about my height rushed in, flustered, and even more so when he realized everyone was looking at him, he power walked the rest of the to the table next to ours and I could see that he wished this experience to be done but his wish was not going to be granted.
"Were the instructions not clear upon the time that orientation would start, mister….?" Dr. Barlow inquired mockingly. The boy looked up and started stammering. "I…... uh… um... I got here late ma'am and I uh…. Lost track of time…." He trailed off before he realized she asked for his name, "OH…. My name is... uh Eugene... Eugene Newkirk." Doctor Barlow raised an eyebrow,
"Well, Mister Newkirk, please ask one of your fellow classmates to find out what you missed, afterwards if you please." She added after Newkirk started to look around to people to ask. The rest of orientation passed like a breeze.
The dorm rooms are equipped with showers as opposed to the large communal showers like most other private boarding schools. This makes hiding my secret way easier, how did I miss this before. I looked over at Alek questioningly,
"You didn't notice that? I guess it just looks like a closet door next to the dresser at the base of my bed" I nodded as Barlow was talking about curfew that extended from 11:00 at night to 5:30 in the morning. Breakfast started at eight o'clock, classes at nine o'clock, lunch at twelve and then classes should end by three thirty and dinner is from five o'clock until six. She added as an afterthought that dinner would be served to us after orientation. seeing as the new students were the first ones here while the older students arrive tomorrow it made sense that it wasn't from five till six tonight.
The doctor went on to mention the gym facility and that it is open to students to use at their own leisure. She gave the whole spiel about drugs and alcohol on premise. Finally she closed with discussing student teacher work opportunities and the final project, where certain students could work under a teacher for a few hours a day and if the teacher so chooses could earn a measly salary, almost all teachers have this work opportunity. She also told us about the final project for LSA.
"During your first trimester here you will be expected to pick a partner, someone you can work well with by the time the second trimester rolls around, when that is done you will receive the rest of your project." She turned off the projector and someone came to wheel it out, "Now everyone can report down to the café lines to get dinner, goodnight."
Everyone all got up and stretched and Alek said to me over the din of the crowd of students,
"Well I guess that's what she meant by teaming up"
"I guess so" I said shrugging my shoulders. As me and Alek were beginning to head down to the lines I felt a tap on my back and turned around to see that Newkirk kid.
"Um hi I was wondering if you could spare some time to tell me what I missed?" he looked like a lost puppy and I nodded and held out my hand,
"Sure thing, the name's Dylan." He reached out and shook it and replied with his. He looked to Alek and did the same. We started to make our way to the lines, filling him in on what we paid attention to ourselves.
Author's Note: I'm bad at describing hair but I have two links on what the twos hairstyles kinda look like, also if you have any requests on certain things to happen to the pair in the story let me know I'm always open to suggestion. Aleks hair: post/21087735006 Deryns hair: post/58584936699 , Thanks again for reading!