double life: first day of school

It was a clear, sunny day. The sky was blue and the leaves of the trees where greener than any other time. If you looked carefully you could see in the distance the foggy mountains in the country side, maybe it wasn’t so sunny there. The trees closer to the window were home for many animals, in the closest branch there was a squirrel munching an almond or some other kind of nut, it had a red-like fur, close to the squirrel there was the sound of a woodpecker banging it beak against some tree. They were oblivious to the thousand children in the near buildings and the children were oblivious to what they were doing too, but for one girl.

“Nichole Cristales! You should show the proper conduct at school, respect your peers by paying attention to what they are saying” a man said, the principal of the school. He didn’t know Nichole and that´s why he even bothered to talk to her, if it was the other teacher he would´ve let her alone but he hardly ever appeared therefore he didn’t really know her except for her name and her number in the school student´s code system: 288.

--“I know what he said” the girl said not stopping to look out of the window –“Joshua Arlington, twin brother of Aaron Arlington, just turned 16, he likes arts, especially music, he can´t swim, he hopes to get along with all of us, ah! We should call him Josh” from the corner of her eye she saw how the principal, Mr.Bennett, got red, he was angry that she had said word by word everything that Josh had said. The boy just furrowed his eyebrows, probably, making the same conclusion as everybody else: she was weird.

--“go take the empty seat behind Nic” the homeroom teacher said, he was there for the first class. The boy did as the teacher said, he slowed his pace a little when he passed next to Nichole to acknowledge her presence perhaps but she didn’t turn around. The principal left, he said something but Nichole decided it was not important to listen to that.

The school was a boarding school on top of a hill surrounded by forests, a river and tall stone wall but the one of the main entrance, the campus was big and nice, several buildings were the classrooms buildings, auditorium, library and other places usually found in schools, the dorm buildings were at either side of the campus, opposite and far from each other, one for the boys and another for the girls. The class groups, however, were co-ed and the groups stayed together for every class except for some elective subjects in the afternoon, the teachers were the ones who came in and out for every class, therefore, everybody knew each other for quite a long time.

“None of that will be a problem for me” the boy behind Nic was telling to himself, despite that he was quite friendly and sort of a people´s person he was feeling a little intimidated for being the new guy when everybody had been there probably since …years “it´ll be OK, I´ll be fine…maybe it would have been better to be together with Aaron…” suddenly he was interrupted by the teacher. “I’m sorry?” Josh said, he hadn’t paid attention, this 3rd period seemed to be quite boring, it was math after all, math…he was no good for math.

“What is the answer? Weren’t you paying attention on your first day?” he had heard some kids saying that the math teacher was really strict… “Math, why is it so hard, he thought” he opened his mouth to apologize when he listened a whisper.

“X equal 8”

“X equal 8?” Josh finally answered. The teacher gave him a look that said “you better pay attention…” and wrote the answer.

“Very well, Nic, seems like you have just volunteered yourself to help Josh in math, right? –he said without turning from the board- first of all I think you could start by lending him your notes –this time he did turn to look at both of them- OK?” The girl turned to face him and nodded.

When the bell rang announcing the 3rd period, Math, had ended Nichole got to her feet, turned around and gave Josh her notebook. “Be sure to bring it tomorrow, please” she said in a monotone voice. When Josh grabbed the notebook he noticed she had a bandage over her right hand.

“Thanks” she nodded and went away, her pace fast but graceful, it was like seeing a cat walk. He ran after her, he wasn’t done talking to her. By the time he got to the end of the hall she was nowhere to be seen… “Later, I guess” he muttered to himself and walked over his footsteps to go find Aaron.

Josh went out of the building looking for the fountain, Aaron and him had agreed to meet at the fountain where they entered the building. He got out of the building to a field with green grass and many benches with students on them. There was no fountain, he went back, there was another exit at the side of the building, another garden, it seemed similar to the first one, no fountain, finally, he found the fountain but Aaron never appeared. “Aaron! What´s wrong with you?!” he scolded Aaron in his thoughts while looking to his cell phone and the dead battery in it.

The bell rang announcing everybody should come inside. Josh got up and started to walk back to his classroom.

“ah! Man! I have been looking for you all over this stupid place! Why is it so frigging huge in here?!” Aaron complained out loud. The group of boys that were with him laughed.

“Aaron! Where the heck have you been?!” Josh said madly

“come on! There are many fountains in this school guys and as you must have already noticed it all looks the same at the beginning” one of the boys said and laughed. “Now, let´s hurry, I don’t want to spend more time in detention”

They all started to walk back except Aaron. “I´ll show you where I was. Didn’t you remember where we entered, Josh? You just had to walk over our footsteps” it was hard for Aaron to let go of things. The rest of the boys went away while Aaron started to run to the other side of the building. Josh behind him. Even though his better judgment was telling him not to, he couldn’t help but to follow his twin.

Once they got there, to the other fountain, Aaron didn’t stop, “you see, there it is!... now I´ll be going this way, hurry ´cause your way back is way longer!” Aaron said without stopping and went away down the hall. “I´ll really be in trouble…but maybe they´ll spare me if I say I got lost.

When Josh got to the other fountain he realized it was not the other fountain, it was a third fountain. “For God´s sake, I´m lost again! Stupid Aaron! Why did I follow you?”

He turned around when suddenly he saw a shadow and thought that maybe it was a janitor or some teacher…now his excuse was true, he was lost indeed. The shadow got lost, he turned left, right but he didn’t see a thing. He sighed and looked up and then down and there he saw a girl sat in the grass, her head resting against her knees.

“Nichole! Shouldn’t you be in class?” he said “why am I saying that?!” he thought. A hint of a smile showed on her face.

“Shouldn’t you be there too?” she said just to let him listen how that question sounded: like a teacher or a mother.

“I´m lost” he said honestly.

“Ah” there was silence.

“Won´t you help me go back, shouldn’t we go back?”

“Being late is bad in here…”

“So we shouldn’t appear at all?”

“Seems like you are the responsible type ha?” she got to her feet and started to walk. Josh followed her. He couldn’t help but notice how graceful was her walk. “Stop looking at me” she said. Her words startled him since she hadn’t even turned to see him. “There –she pointed to the left hall- the third room on the left side” he looked down the hall and counted the doors then he turned to ask Nichole if she wasn’t coming. She wasn’t there anymore.