Jade Mountain High School

Jade Mountain High School-Clay

Clay didn't need an alarm on his first day of his senior year at Jade Mountain High School, for his four youngest siblings were in his room surrounding his bed and saying, "Wake up, Clay!"

He turned in his blankets, burying his nose in the quilt. "Nooo," he whined. "It's the first day of your senior year," Sora reminded him. "Fine. Then leave so I can find what to wear," he told the quadruplets, waving a hand at them to go away.

They filed out, chatting happily, as Clay rolled out of bed and onto the carpet. The soft, soft carpet. He might just fall asleep again right here. But he remembered how important today was and pushed himself up, walking sleepily to the closet.

He didn't want to have to change; his blue banana print pajamas were perfectly comfortable, even if they were a little immature for someone of seventeen and didn't provide much warmth. But if he wanted to impress Peril McCloud, his crush since junior year, he had to look his best and definitely could not wear something with little bananas on it to school.

He pulled out a brown corduroy shirt and jeans, throwing them on quickly and tugging on a brown leather jacket and sneakers while he was at it. He stopped to finger the necklace he wore. It was small, a ruby strung on a leather cord. Nothing special. Except that his aunt, Asha, had given it to him when his mom had tried to put him and his siblings up for adoption. Asha had taken them in instead.

He shook off the memory and ran downstairs with his backpack. Sora, Crane, Marsh, and Umber were all at the kitchen table, discussing the science homework they'd completed the night before. He kissed each of his sisters' cheeks and ruffled his brothers' hair before joining his oldest two siblings, who were sixteen and fifteen respectively, in the kitchen, where they were helping Asha make pancakes.

"Good morning!" she said when she saw him. "Ready for senior year?" "Ready as I'll ever be," Clay shrugged. "Come on," Marsh said from the table, interrupting something Crane was saying about homogenous compounds. "You three have it easy. We have to start at a whole new school as freshmen."

"True," Crane observed. "We do have the most reasonable explanations for nervousness." Sora nodded. "I have to go to college next year," Clay said to them. "Top that." As each of his siblings gave nothing to top off his graduation in ten months, he grinned.

"I can top it," Asha said, "by telling you to take this tray of pancakes to the table. Can you handle that, senior?" Clay laughed and took the tray, setting it down in front of his four youngest siblings. When everything for breakfast was ready, all eight of them sat down and started to eat.

"On a scale from one to ten, one being the least and ten being the most, how excited are you for the school year?" Asha asked. "7," Clay said, stuffing his chocolate chip pancakes into his mouth. "Manners," A sha reprimanded affectionately. Pheasant giggled.

"Probably a solid 6.6." "No need to make it complicated with decimals!" Umber cried. "You're in ninth grade. You should've learned about decimals in fourth. So exactly what did you do during math class in elementary school?" Crane laughed, high-fiving Pheasant.

The family was consumed with laughter until breakfast concluded and Clay gathered Pheasant and Umber to drive them to school. Reed would take Sora, Crane, and Marsh. "So, do you guys know what class you have first?" Clay asked them, merging onto the access road.

"I have advanced chemistry," his sister said, peering at her phone where her schedule was listed. "Athletics," Umber shrugged. "I have music," Clay said. "So, Clay, anyone cute at school?" Pheasant asked, wiggling her eyebrows. "If I tell you, you have to promise to keep it a secret," Clay said. "With my life," she pledged.

"Okay. So...there is this one girl named Peril McCloud, BUT she doesn't even know I exist. It'll never happen," he said. "Sure it will!" Umber said energetically. "You're a really nice guy." "People don't fall for 'really nice guys'. They fall for people like Deathbringer or Qibli or Riptide," Clay pointed out. "Notice something about them? They all have girlfriends."

"You'll get a girlfriend soon. But, wait, wasn't Peril a year older than you?" Pheasant asked. "Yeah. She's a college freshman now, but the community college is on the same campus as the high school, remember?" Clay said. He put on his blinker and carefully changed lanes.

"Right. Community college, high school, and middle school all on the same campus mixed together," Umber said, nervously cracking his knuckles. "Seems like a lot." "It is, but you get used to it," Clay assured him.

"We're getting close," Pheasant said, gripping the seat. "Don't worry," Clay told her. He knew his little sister was often stressed and liked to calm her down as much as he could without seeming obvious. "You'll be great," Umber told her.

"Okay, okay. Thanks," Pheasant said, smiling at her brothers. Clay pulled into the driveway, with Reed's stunted Corolla right behind him. They found parking spots and met in the school courtyard.

"I can't believe we're all finally going to the same school," Sora said. She had her arm linked with Crane's. "It's almost time for the first bell," Reed told them. "Oh, look!" Clay cried at the same time. "My friends are here!"

He pointed to a group of seven people gathered at one of the picnic tables in the courtyard. Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, Sunny, Deathbringer, and Riptide were all there, sitting and talking.

Sunny looked over and saw him. "Clay!" she said. She leapt up and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. "You're here!" "Sunny," he laughed, hugging her back. "I just saw you last Sunday." "I know, but now we're all at school together!"

Just as she said that, the bell rang and they had to get to class.