Riptide Academy

New Beginning's Part One

The scene outside the window raced by as the car sped along the highway. Although my mind raced, I wasn't nervous one bit; I knew as soon as I got there, though, the nerves and worries would only swamp me. It's a big craz to move schools, but to move from a high school to only the best school around wasn't a cinch to score. Especially when it was a boarding school. Riptide Academy.

Riptide Academy was seen as the best out of all schools in the city- except it wasn't in town. The school grounds were located near a beach thirty-three minutes outside of town; its campus consisted of multiple buildings, all for just general classroom use or specific for that particular class. Their sports and music programs were elite, so I was looking forward to training with some of the best but also not looking forward to the extent of practicing I'd have to do for my instrument and sport. The Academy consisted of a high school, Tafe and University that were separated by giant ovals, and fences. The fully fledged high school was located on the outskirts of town with boarding dorms whereas the TAFE and University classroom buildings scattered the private land before the private beach the academy owned.

The car pulled off the main road and into a dirt lane. It's pretty inconspicuous for a supposed grand and rich academy.

"Madam, we have arrived." the driver told me as we pulled up onto a bitumen road and ahead laid the sleeping high school.

In awestruck, I tried to reply, " Hey man, I told yo- AWWW WOW! Not to call me Ma'am. I know you probably don't like me calling you man, but I would like you to stop calling me ma'am as I don't like it like; well not used to people calling me that. But you get where I'm trying to go, right?".

"Yes, I do. Not many people are used to it. And I know you know I was only trying to be polite, so thanks for politely telling me. I don't get many nice things said to me by the rich snobs at this university; they take me for granted since they can't drive out of campus. Names Kyle. I saw your goalie bag; big fan of the Hockeyroos and or Kookaburras?" He asked.

Me and Kyle chatted the rest of the way about the recent games the men's and women sides had played recently as well as some of the best games and saves our Goalkeepers have done. The conversation drifted from topic to topic, and I could tell Kyle was happy to at least have someone talking to him, rather if it was about hockey or just in general. I didn't want to imagine what the snobs had said to him. Even if they had talked by the way, he said they'd taken him for granted. Kyle helped unload all of my stuff, and he even helped pack it onto a set of chairs in the office for me to grab more easily later.

"I hope you enjoy your time here Alex; I'm the chaperone 'driver' for all the Tafe and University students as they won't get to do much driving out here with their new licenses. So hopefully I will see you around sometime. Who knows, maybe even with some friends?" he added as he set down the last bag of my gear.

"Mhm. Who knows what will happen. Maybe I will see you sometime soon? Thanks Kyle. " I replied.

He smiled, waved goodbye, and then disappeared out the office doors.

"That's unusual." someone said, and I whirled around "Not many people get to call Kyle by his name, even on their first day." a girl the same height as me with emerald green eyes and brown hair was standing near the front counter smiling.

Next to her was a slightly taller girl with turquoise eyes and dark brown hair with sandy blond streaks.

"I'm Jaimie, your roommate and your new hockey captain. It looks like." she said, eyeing up my green and blue stand-up goalkeeper bag. "Next to me is Charli. She's the concert band leader as she's the oldest member and also a clarinet player like you. She's our roommate as well. "

"I thought you guys only had two people per dorm?" I questioned.

"No." she laughed "That's the high school and or what other places would do. But here, they let you live in houses close to the campus so you and your roommates can technically experience what it's like to live in a house. Specifically, without family. Yeah, it's scary at first but all of us are new as well except for Charls; She's been here since high school." Jaimie explained.

This Uni, Tafe even had a high school connected to it, "Rich bastards!" I whispered.

"Most of them are, here. But a few are nice and have been able to snag a chance to study at this place." Charli laughed.

I could tell she wasn't one of the snobs.

Both of them came over and grabbed a bag or two, leaving me with a full backpack on my shoulders, my clarinet case hanging from one shoulder by its strap and wheeling a field hockey goalkeeper bag by its handle along the concrete path towards the student houses on the edge of the small town at the beachside. By the time we reached one of them my claves we were aching, and I was puffing but I still managed to hall my gear into the house and set it down on the tiles near the kitchen table.

"Each house is different." Charli said, taking a seat at the kitchen table "So while ours has tiles, the other's could have laminated floors or carpet. Who knows, but I moved in three days ago and Jaimie arrived yesterday, making this her second day here."

"Sorry but we've already claimed two rooms, the rest are for you to decide between; but for now I'd say the hard part is over and I don't know about you but if I was staying in a house for most of the year I'd have a lot of time to get to know every inch of it. I'd rather explore the campus and town. After all, school starts in two days and I wouldn't want to be completely clueless. Where do you wana head first? Maybe into town to see if we can get you some supplies?" Jaimie added.