Entranced

Chapter 11 New Home

Even though I'm tall, I had to stand on my toes to see over the crowd in search of Penny. She would know where my dorm was. I finally spotted her, but couldn't get her attention. After a few minutes of pushing past fellow students and calling her name over and over, I gave up trying not to embarrass her. I tilted my head back and yelled,"PENNY!" Everyone around me turned to look at me, but kept walking.

Penny stormed toward me, looking annoyed.
"What is it?!"
"Do you know where I can find my dorm?" I asked politely.
She huffed. "You yelled at my across the entire hall for that?"
"Well it worked, didn't it?"
She sighed, then smiled suddenly. "This is my favorite part about getting new students." I followed Penny up a giant two-way staircase.

There were rows and rows of lockers spaced far apart, some painted colors or covered in stickers and letters. It wasn't crowded with people like the first floor was. In fact, only a few students walked around, and they gathered when they saw us. Penny introduced them but I forgot their names almost immediately. One guy held a clipboard.
"Follow me," Penny instructed. We turned to the right and stopped in front of a blank locker door tucked away on the end of the very last hallway. I actually kind of liked that it was hidden. It gave me a little more privacy.

"Here. It's Grace, right?" The boy with the clipboard asked as he handed me a piece of paper with my locker combination on it. I nodded and took the paper. I tried the new combination, messed up, and started again. There was a click and the door swung open.
"It's empty!" I said in surprise. Even the walls were blank white, and there was not any furniture.
"That's the point," Penny said. "That's why they're here." She pointed to the group of students. I walked in a circle around my new dorm.
"Okay. Describe your ideal room," said a girl with a pony tail and glasses.
"Seriously?" I exclaimed.
"Seriously."
"Uh, maybe blue walls?"
"Like this?" She tapped a page on a notebook with her finger and it turned blue. My eyes grew wide, but it honestly wasn't the weirdest thing I had seen today.
"Maybe a little paler." She tapped the paper again, and the color shifted.
"Perfect." Another student walked up and touched the paper, then the walls. The room lit up with sudden color.

This went on until I had a fully furnished vintage-style bedroom, complete with a canopied bed and a desk. Everyone else left, and I walked around my new dorm, fingering through art and writing supplies on my desk. Wait a minute, I thought. It had already been two hours. My mom would be freaking out. I scrambled to pull my phone from my backpack and send a quick text to my mom. Oops. She replied saying it was okay and she would pick me up in ten minutes. I stuffed my phone back into my backpack and pulled it onto my back.
Smiling, I marched out of my locker-dorm and into the hallway, down to the underground staircase. It seemed so long since I had first walked up that staircase. I knew I had become a different person in the two hours I had spent in this crazy school for the Entranced. For people like me.