Academics of Excellence in Academics (BOOK 2)

Chapter 7-New Face

"Good morning girls, please, have a seat." The man pointed at the four chairs in the corner of the room. They hesitantly walked over to the chairs and slowly sat down. "You will call me Mentor, but my name is Malcolm." He introduced himself. The four girls stared at him blankly, confusion still washed over their faces. Hailey was the first to break the awkward silence, "My name is-" "DID I SAY YOU MAY SPEAK?" Mentor hollered, to which Hailey bit her lips and stayed silent. "I know your names. You are Hailey, you are Jenna, Macey and finally Kate." Mentor nodded as he recognised each girl easily. No one dared to make a sound because they had not been told to do anything. Internally, they were rolling their eyes and wishing that Sir could come back soon. "I have rules around here." Mentor started to instruct them. "Obey me. Anything I say. Here's the first few thing you can start obeying: be on time, be obedient and only do as I say." Mentor said with an evil glint in his eye. The look he gave was icy cold and they shivered before nodding.

"Give me your phones." Mentor pointed at the coffee table in front of them. They hesitantly placed their phones and electronic devices on the table, not feeling safe around this new mentor. If they had their phone, at least they could call the police or call for help if he did any funny monkey business. Now, however, they were helpless. Unfortunately for them, Mentor did not trust them at all. "Are you sure you girls have given me everything?" He demanded. They nodded but Mentor narrowed his eyes. "Stand and stretch your hand out. I am going to pat you down." He commanded. Worry and fear flickered in the girls' eyes as they reluctantly stood. All they wanted was to bolt. Mentor looked each girl in the eye as he patted them down. As he came to Kate, she wiggled and squirmed uncomfortably. "STOP MOVING!" He yelled in her face, to which she started to tremble. Her heart pounded wildly as his hand connected with her face. Gasps came out of their mouths and Kate's face was tinted red. Mentor's hands continued to grope her as he "checked" her. He found nothing and gave up the "search".

After some more instructions, they were brought to the room right next door. "This is going to be your study room. You will come here immediately after school and will start on homework. When you are done, you will do extra assessment books." Mentor explained. The study was fairly large, and they had it all to themselves. It consisted of plain mahogany wood and aesthetic desk. After a tour of their new study and assigning each girl to a desk, he sat them down. "Now, for a couple of administrative matters..."

"Firstly, we are introducing a points reward system. Your life in AEA is simple: it is dependent on points. For every extra piece of work you do, for every extra credit you earn adds to your points. If you improve on your examinations, you will get more points. However, if you misbehave, be rude, forget your homework or regress, your points will be deducted. All these points goes to how you live your life in AEA. The most basic meals are free, but trust me, they are so plain that dogs do not want to eat them. So you will need to earn your points to buy food, stationery, uniform and anything you might need from the bookshop downstairs. This pendent is how you are going to track your points. Teachers and mentors have access to your point system, so we will add or deduct as we please. Your pendent will instantly sync the updated points. It is also a form of identification, and has a GPS tracker to update me on your whereabouts. Escaping or going against my instructions will be recorded and you will be severely punished. For starters, each of you start off with 100 points.

Secondly, you are going to have an extremely tight schedule, so don't even think about slacking off. There will be many things expected of you, but I am sure you will pick it up soon enough. As you should already know, handing in homework late is unacceptable. You must improve in your studies, and you must be organised. Having a clean workspace ensures clear thoughts and will make sure you IMPROVE. I will come to inspect you girls whenever I please, but mostly in the mornings, noon and before bed time. I will let you know through your tablets and you must be ready. Failure to do so will result in a great deduction of points. I am NOT as kind as the stupid sir before me, and I don't intend to be.

Thirdly, your CCA (co-curricular activities) will begin soon. It is the same as last time—Hailey and Macey you will be in dance, Jenna in swimming and Kate in art club. All your CCA will happen on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. You are expected to excel at your CCA, and under no circumstance will you skip CCA unless you are dying. After CCA, you may have 15 minutes to take a shower and change and I expect you to come back here immediately to start on your work. Is that clear?"

The four girls gulped and whispered, "yes mentor." They really hated this new system, and it looked like they were going to face much much much stricter circumstances than last year. Furthermore, they had a mystery to solve: where was Sir, why did he disappear and what happened?

______________________________________________________________________________
1002 words if you wanna know
Hello everyone, I am back! The situation has been pretty rough recently as everything is switched again and so I am really sorry for this late update. I was not too sure how to get around Mentor being strict, but I hope you hate him :) Anyways, please comment and vote! Let me know what you think, and thank you for all those who constantly support me. It really encourages me :> Please stay safe and healthy! Peace out ✌️ 💕