Riptide Academy

Settling In

A loud, repetitive noise woke me up from my sleep just as the door to my room opened. My room was small but just bigger than the one I had at home with similar features like the sandy carpet and cream white walls along with the bed up against the wall opposite from the door underneath the windows; yesterday we had emptied out my suitcases and had dumped all my clothing onto my dresser to be sorted out today as well as some other things laying on the floor. In the doorframe stood a tired looking Jaimie.

"Someone else new here just arrived. You better get ready." she informed me.

"Oh thanks. Wait-SHOOT! My best friend was supposed to arrive today!" I realised.

Jamie shut my door and I hastily threw on some clean clothes before rushing out of my room down the hall near the garage to see who our new roommate was.

"Oh! MY! GOOOOODDD!" I screeched when I saw who had been banging on our door.

Standing in the doorway as I crash tackled them was my best friend since prep, my face was covered by her brown hair and her blue eyes were streaming tears all over my shirt.

"I'm so glad we ended up as roommates! I don't know what I would've done if I would have been with completely new people, my anxiety would have killed me!" she cried.

"Uh mind filling us in here?" Charli said.

"Hey. I'm Alex's best friend. Ember." Em replied.

Once greetings were out of the way we helped lug her stuff inside and to my half surprise she chose the room near me. The room next to mine had been converted into a gaming/ office space. After that unusual awakening we had breakfast and started our tour around campus. Most of the campus was for the school students but a part of the buildings is for or used by Tafe or Uni students. Only three buildings; the arts, Man arts and sports centre -otherwise, no one from the different years should have classes together.

The school grounds were a hundred years old this year, so I was sure we were in for special events as well as some big renovations to the grounds. The music building was huge as it tied in with the stage and Drama students. We shared the stage and some rehearsal rooms with them but the big soundproof practice rooms for us alone was a major upgrade. A, C, and F Wing or block were all normal classrooms with one exception for upstairs C-wing being computer labs. Downstairs D-wing, E-wing were science labs and S-wing was a whole science building. Other than the man-arts building, H-wing the rest were teacher offices, dorms or sports buildings.

"We have the two hockey centres next to each other as I was telling you and across the soccer field or grass field if you want to call it is the arts building. I guess that's where Ember and Charli will be the most." Jaimie wrapped up her little tour speech.

Em unpacked her things while I sorted out the mess of my room and we headed to the canteen for breakfast. There were wooden tables placed in rows across the canteen with chairs tucked in underneath, they all could probably sit about five people max even though they were closely packed they weren't too close for people to listen in to conversations. With my tray full of food, I awaited the others opinion's for where we should sit. Charli pointed to a table at the back left corner up against the wall but close enough to the doors; we all made our way there.

"I think this is a good place to sit. It's close to the doors if anything were to happen and not many people would sit near the walls, so we won't be bothered by anyone." Em stated as she sat her tray down and pulled out her chair to sit in.

"I know today is Sunday; school officially starts for the high school, Tafe and Uni kids tomorrow but since depending on the classes you take your class times will vary so even though you may not have school one day you still can't just do nothing unless you have nothing to do but chill. Oh! And all weekends are school free days besides sport games because of the students that might have part time jobs!" Charli just continued to explain as she'd been here since high school.

The conversation died out as we ate. More and more students began to fill up the hall in waves; we had been the earliest at six am but that still didn't stop a few kids from coming in a little bit after us. I had just swallowed the last of my first egg on toast when someone cleared their throat beside me. Looking up I saw a middle-aged woman standing beside our table with the most genuine smile.

"I hope you're enjoying your stay so far. I'm Principal Howards, but most kids use my nickname. Howdy. Don't ask where it came from okay." she laughed "Here are your timetables for your classes, and yes sometimes your classes can switch so be careful. I'm also looking forward to seeing if you can help with our ice hockey shortage.......uhhh?" Principal Howard stalled, not knowing my name.

"Alex. Alexandra Williams." I told her.

"I'm Em, Ember Taylor."

"And I'm Jamie Durrant."

"You know me, Principal Howdy, from high school. Charli Steele."

"Ahhh! Ember, I was told your cousin should be here soon." Principal Howdy mentioned. "Good luck at tryouts for the IH team Alex. Here are your guys' keys to your dorm and I guess I can trust you with your cousins as well." she said as she placed our timetables and keys down on the table.

"That means my cousin is our roommate as well!" Em cried after Principal Howdy had walked away.