Pearl Academy I The Emergence

Chapter 6

The integration of a new Novice will come with its changes and its challenges. Variables will shift and turn as gears in a clock. Beware, the next steps should be taken carefully. There are choices that need to be altered as the emergence begins to take effect. The push and pull of the continuum will go against you and it will affect you severely; therefore, take the necessary precautions.

As your predecessors have made the same errors, you cannot afford to do so. Expect to fail and you will. To put it plainly, do your part and I will do mine.

-Excerpt from The Journal of Lunatics from the year of the Dark Moon

*****
My room is really nice. Ridiculously clean and tidy. My half of the room is entirely empty, but the other half has been well settled in. I roll my suitcases over to my side and sit on the empty twin bed. My eyes roam over the high ceiling.

The Headmistress wasn't kidding when she called this part of the dorm 'the tower'. It even had a nice overlooking balcony. The glass doors seem thick enough to keep all the chilly air out. I drop my backpack on the floor with a thud that echoes all the way up to the ceiling. The room is nice and welcoming, but it's not the same as my own room at home. Home! I pull out my phone from my pocket and dial Karen's phone number.

She answers at the first ring. "Hi, honey! How was it? Do you like it?"

"I haven't gotten the tour yet, Karen." I laugh at her eagerness. "I haven't even met my roommate! Give me a few days to give you the rundown you want, alright?" She huffs on the other side. It looks like she's more excited than I am, and I'm the one actually attending the school! "How're the munchkins? They haven't invaded my room yet, have they?"

I'm sure that they're ripping each other apart for it. I was the only one with her own room because of the big age gap I had with the rest. "Surprisingly, no. They've kept clear of it." Huh. "For now, at least." Yeah, that sounds about right. I get up from my bed and walk around, being careful not to go into my roommate's space. "The principal? How is she?"

"The Headmistress," I correct her, "and she seems...like she's very serious about her job." I find myself stepping out and retracing the steps down to the commons. "Uh oh, is she that bad? There's not much about her on the school's website." The website didn't have much information at all about this place. In fact, the only thing that the school website showed me was what the building looked like from the outside and the school directory. The background was found after intensive research. "I didn't have a long conversation with her, so I wouldn't be able to tell you in detail." Karen hums on the other line.

I hear constant banging on her end. Loud ones. "Uh, Karen? What are you doing?" My feet gravitate towards the far wall of the commons. There are many paintings hanging on there. A few are just of the original building of the academy before the founder expanded and built the new dorms. "I'm trying to find my frying pan! One of those rascals took it." I cringe as more banging echoes through the speaker. "Uh, I threw that out months ago." Silence.

My eyes roam to a much bigger painting. A portrait of a woman. She's wearing a Victorian gothic dress. It had a laced-up white top with a black skirt with silver buttons on each side of her waist. She looks really young, but the tight bun in twisted tightly on her head makes her look older. But her eyes. There's something strange about it. It's like they're following me. Weird.

"Why would you throw it away, Kelly? It was a perfectly good pan!'

"No, it wasn't," I scoff. "It was disgusting and burned through." She goes off for about a minute or two, but I'm not listening. The necklace she wears catches my eye. There's something engraved on it. I can barely make it out of the awkward scribble on the painting.

Karen sighs loudly on the line. "It doesn't matter now, I guess. Listen, I have to get dinner ready. I'll let the kids know that you called, okay?" At the mention of the munchkins, I look away from the painting. "Okay, I'll talk to them tomorrow. Tell them I miss them." We say our good nights and she ends the call first. I am disappointed that I couldn't talk to them. I would've been able to sleep better if I got to hear them.
I sit on one of the colorful sofas and bask in the silence. Will this be my new home now? Will I be able to fit in here? It's the constant conundrum of my existence at this point.

"Hi, there!" My head snaps in the direction of the voice. A smiley, blond-haired girl stands in the doorway with two plates of food. She's wearing the blue and white school uniform-the variation with the plaid skirt. "Sorry, if I disturbed you," she walks in, "but Headmistress Black told me you'd be here. I was waitin' on you for hours." This girl has a warm, southern accent that brings a smile out of me. I get up and take one of the plates from her hand.

"You didn't," I assure her. "I was just taking it all in."

We sit down on the sofa I was previously sitting on. "My name is Savannah Campbell, but they call me Sadie 'round here." She outstretches a hand towards me. "Kelly Foster." I shake it once. "Nice to meet you. Are you from around here?"

Sadie scrunches her nose in disgust. "From West Virginia? Heavens, no!" She waves the question away with a flick of her hand. "I'm from the deep trenches of Georgia. My parents sent me to this school two years ago. Why'd you ask?" I scoop a mouthful of food with my spoon. "No reason in particular, really. You just have a similar accent to someone I know that's all." We both eat together and try to get to know each other better. And before dinner was officially over, I made a friend out of my roommate.