Little's Academy

Cold arms and warm welcomes

"Name?"
"Um-" He paused. What was his name again? His hands were sweaty and his breath felt shaky. The lady at the counter looked up, a look of pity on her face. He hated that, pity.
"You're alright, dear." She said, looking back down at her form.
"Alexander Blanchet." He mumbled, just barely audible.
"Alright well here is your name sticker. Go to the door with the color that matches and they'll be someone in there to help you." She smiled while handing him the sticker. It had his name printed beautifully and a small light blue star in the corner. He walked over to the room with a blue sign saying "Welcome new students!" surrounded by glitter and puffy stickers. Ten years ago, this all would have been weird. Strange. That is, until people began to be put in classifications based on their truest wants and desires. Most of the population remained with what they were used to, but a small portion was put into either caregiver, or age regressor. Alexander's classification reading "Age regressor" had been a complete shock. Because of his official classification, he was supposed to attend an academy made to cater to Age regressors and their caregivers. This all felt like a crazy dream. He had no idea where to even start.
"Hi buddy, what's your name?" A man at a nearby table asked.
"Um. Alexander." He responded, looking at the floor.
"Alright well Alexander, fill out this form and bring it back to me in the morning. Right now it's just about bedtime, so go on through that hall and find the room with your name on it. No going out after bedtime for you littles, alright?" The man at the table said, motioning to the hallway before turning to the next person in line.
Alexander made his way through the hallway, reading each and every name plate on the wall until he reached his. It was light blue with teddy bears around it. He smiled as he looked at it and opened the door. Inside there was your standard dorm room, except it was a more childish themed room. He entered the room, closing the door behind him. He turned on the light, which made the room look even cozier. He looked at the little table to the left of him where a little bunch of papers sat. Some papers were just notices welcoming him or reminding him of the school schedule and his class schedule. He shuffled through them, half reading. He stopped when he arrived at his meal card. Age regressors were required to buy or apply for a meal card, considering it was assumed they would regress sooner or later and typically age regressors did not have the best reputation with cooking. He put the card to the side, revealing the paper behind it.
Orientation at noon on Friday 10/8 in the Auditorium. Be sure to attend and hear all about what the year ahead has in store.

Alexander cringed inwardly. He hated social situations. He would rather not go, but he was curious about what would be discussed. He now turned his attention to the paper he was given by the man at the desk.

Name:
Pronouns:
Little age:
Legal age:
Daddy/mommy age preference:
Daddy or mommy?:
Type of little:
Preferred traits of caregiver:
Name of favorite stuffie:
Favorite nickname/pet names:
Favorite little gear:

Alexander stared at the paper in slight shock. He couldn't believe this was actually happening. He couldn't remember his name not five minutes ago, how was he supposed to know what to look for in a caregiver? He quickly scribbled it in.

Name: Alexander Blanchet
Pronouns: He/him
Little age: I dont know
Legal age: 18
Daddy/mommy age preference: I dont know
Daddy or mommy?: I don't know
Type of little: I don't know
Preferred traits of caregiver: I don't know
Name of favorite stuffie: Bunny
Favorite nickname/pet names: I don't know
Favorite little gear: I don't know

Yeah. The guy at the counter was not going to be happy with this. He turned to the door, ready to go turn the paper in at that very second. He paused, however. He remembered what the man at the table had told him.
'No going out after bedtime.'
According to the pamphlet he read, It was just barely five minutes past said bedtime. Part of him wanted go obey the rules and get ready for bed but the other half of him wanted so badly to test the limits and just see what would happen. The second half of him overtook the first half. He opened the door, peeking out before he stood in the hallway. Huh. Nothing was happening- He bagan walkingy down the hall. Still nothing?
He was thrown out of his thoughts and a strong pair of arms picked him up from behind, causing him to squeak in surprise.
"Hey there, little one. Why're you out of bed past bedtime?" The man asked, Alexander only kicking his feet in mid air, attempting to get down.
All he managed was a childish "Down!" He blushed with embarrassment as soon as it processed what he had done.
"Alright but I just need to know why you're out past your bedtime. It's a big day tomorrow, orientation, tours, caregiver pairings. You need all the energy you can get. Why are you out of bed?" The man said, putting the boy down. He didn't know how to explain the fact that he went outside just to test the boundaries of this place. Wait, caregiver pairings?? He didn't have much time to process anything, however. Not with the man looming over him.
"Um. Paper?" Was all he managed to come up with, holding up the paper to the tall man.
"Ah I see. Honey, you can turn this in to Lucas in the morning. Go on to sleep." The man said, ushering the boy back to his room. Alexander however let out a whine. He quickly covered his mouth, not understanding what just came over him so suddenly.
"What's the matter? Have you already checked your wardrobe? It's stocked with all sorts of clothes for little space. Just about anything in there should be comfortable enough for nini, okay?" The man said, making sure the boy made it back into his dorm.
"Alright well you go get ready for sleep, and no leaving your room past bedtime." The man finally said, closing the door and walking away. The boy simply put the paper down and laid down on his sheets in his day clothes. He didn't care to see what "little space" clothes there were because he had never regressed and was convinced he never would. He was sure he would be able to go through the required years at the academy with no caregiver and no problems. That did not seem to be the case, however. The school seemed set on giving him as many problems as it could.
He woke up the next morning and finally decided to look at the closet.
"There might even be a few good outfits." He thought. He was completely unsurprised when he was met with a wall of pastel pinks and blues. He sighed, picking a plain blue sweater and putting over the clothes he was already wearing. He didn't really care what he looked like at this point. Maybe if he made himself the most unattractive and undesirable he could, he would be able to just slip by without a caregiver. Perfect plan?
He walked out of his dorm after he made sure he had all the necessities; phone, wallet, student ID with building color coded lanyard, and paper thing he was supposed to turn in. He made his way down the hall at about the same time the students in the other rooms did.
"Hi i'm Jackson! But you can call me Jackie. What's your name?" A boy in a dinosaur patterned sweater and dark green overalls said, waving at Alexander.
"Oh uh. You're talking to me?" Alexander said, looking around him a bit, just to make sure.
The boy laughed. "Yeah, silly! What's your name?"
"Alexander. But you can call me Alex, I guess." He mumbled in response.
"Cool! Well Alex, are you excited? I can't wait to get paired with a mommy or daddy!" Jackson said, looking as if he could explode with excitement.
"Um. Not really? I actually didn't really wanna be here.." Alex said, still continuing to mumble.
"Really? Well I hope you get paired with someone you're okay with." Jackie said, taking Alexander's hand and leading him into the auditorium. There was that same guy from the day before, at a desk, now collecting papers.
"Let's go turn these in, Alex!" Jackie said, still as chipper as ever. They turned in their papers and made their way into the section of the auditorium that was color coded light blue. The orientation itself was boring and went by rather slowly. The only part that caught Alex's attention was when they mentioned caregivers.
"The standard little will typically be assigned one caregiver that matches with what you wrote on the form you turned it earlier." The presenter said, pausing to motion from the age regressor side of the auditorium to the caregiver side.
"There are however some exceptions to that."
Alexander leaned forward, desperately waiting for presenter to mention a possibility of no caregiver.
"Particularly bratty or high maintenance littles may have the chance of being assigned two caregivers rather than one." The presenter said with a smirk aimed towards the bratty littles in the audience. The orientation then concluded with a message to check emails that afternoon to see class schedule and caregiver assignments. He trudged back to his dorm, trying to ignore Jackson's hyper ranting about the perfect caregiver. When he got back to his dorm, he decided he might as well check his email. Might as well get this over with.

Hello student Alexander Paisley Blanchet,

Here is your class schedule for the fall term.
Period 0: Advisory S14
Period 1: Regression 101 S25
Period 2: Math/science G4
Lunch Break
Period 3: English/History G7
Period 4: Nap time S14
Period 5: Art and Drawing S2
Period 6: Social time S3

Alexander couldn't believe his fucking eyes. What kind of schedule was this!? He even had a scheduled nap on this thing. No way in hell was he going to completely follow this. Ditching every now and then never hurt anybody. Whatever it took to deal with the schedule he'd have for the next term.
He opened the next email, the one he dreaded even more than this one.
Hello student Alexander Paisley Blanchet,
Here is your caregiver's information. We hope that everything goes along smoothly. If there is a problem with this pairing, please see the student help desk in J1 to get it resolved. Happy regressing!
-Care class Supervisor

Name: Samuel C. Thomas.
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 19
Nicknames: Sam, Sammy, pretty much anything else
Summary: Just wanting to take care and spoil a little boy. I can be stern at times, but I validate feelings and accept input. I do have rules but none that are nonnegotiable. I do however require an open mind and positive attitude.

Alexander wanted to barf. Positive attitude? Yeah right. At least now he knew how to piss the guy off. Maybe then he would gladly go request a switch in pairing. He would have to make it his mission to give "Sammy" the worst year ever.