The All-Boys Boarding Academy (On Hold...sorry)

TABBA- Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

We landed in LAX and had to run to catch our connection to Salt Lake City. We reached the gate just as they were closing the gate. The looks on the airport employees as we ran down the hallway to board the plane was priceless!

We were laughing the whole time it took to find our seats and the whole way down the runway. That is why I loved my father. 

I fell asleep as soon as we took off. When I woke up, we were in Salt Lake City! Oscars A.B. Boarding Academy was about an hour out of the city so Dad rented a car. 

"Who knows, maybe I'll spend a few days in Salt Lake City!" Dad said happily. I knew he wouldn't though. He had to get back to Auburn University to turn in his paper. I just smiled and nodded along.

The drive to my new school was boring and uneventful. Utah....yay...? Really actually not that exciting. 

However when we saw the school...well we instantly knew that it was the school. It was the only building around and it was green. Not the dusty brown everywhere but green grass, green trees. Even from a mile away, you could see it.

Pulling up after driving down the long driveway, it was easy to say there were no students here yet.

It was August 30th, two days before everyone was supposed to be here but the principal said it was all right that I arrive early.

 "Bye Daddy." I said with tears in my eyes as we stood beside the car.

"Bye kiddo. I'll see you for Christmas break. We will go to Toronto. You will see, it will fly by." He said into my hair. Probably hiding tears.

"Can we go visit Mommy's grave for Christmas?" I asked suddenly and regretted it as he tensed.

"We will see kiddo, okay?" He said pulling out of the hug quickly and getting into the car. 

"I'll see you later!" he yelled as he drove off.

I was left standing there in front of dorms with 3 heavy suitcases. Oh the joy.

I began dragging them one by one to the elevator- yes ELEVATOR- that would take me up to Dorm Room 15 which was on the upper story. Still, an elevator for just 2 floors?  This place was spewing money. 

Finally after half an hour I managed to drag all my bags up to my dorm room. I got lucky, it seemed no one else had moved in yet! Then I remembered that was because I had arrived early. I shrugged to myself and began to settle in. 

The room was huge. I mean MASSIVE. You could easilve fit at least 2 school buses in here. On each side of the room was a double bed with your own dresser at the foot of your bed AND a small closet.

The walls were decorated with the school colors which were a marine blue and white. On the wall above the beds a mural was painted of the school.

You had to share a bathroom with your room mate though but even the bathroom was big. There was a shower and a seperate bathtub! Two seperate sinks and mirror cabinates. A toilet and...a urinal?

Hmm..maybe they sometimes switched up boys dorms and girl dorms? It was strange and a little creepy but I shrugged.  Not something to worry about too much.

I looked at my watch, it was coming up to noon. I knew they were serving lunch at 1pm because the football team had arrived at the school a few weeks before hand for training. They finished practice at 12:30.

I decided since I had about an hour left I could go for a walk around the school and get my bearings. Something I tried to do was to locate the bathrooms and drinking fountains so in case of an emergency you could find them easily.

I stepped out of the dormotory and began walking towards the sports fields and locker rooms. The sun was blazing down on me and it was so hot the horizon seemed to blur. The only sound I could hear was the crunch of my sneakers on gravel. In the far distance you could hear the faint yells coming from the football field. 

I reached the locker rooms and noticed that there were no signs on any of the doors saying if they were the boys or girls locker room.  I checked the map that had come with the letter. All it said was 'Locker Rooms'. 

Strange. Oh well.

I shrugged it off again. Maybe they didn't have signs at the time or you just knew. I wasn't going to let too much bother me at the moment.

I walked around the soccer fields a couple times before exploring the baseball fields. When I saw the football team walking back into the locker rooms I began to find my way toward the cafeteria. Along the way I noticed that both on the map and as I walked that there were alot of unmarked bathrooms. Finally I found one on the map that said "Women's Bathroom" and I rushed to go find it. However once I got there I discovered that it was a faculty bathroom!

This was beginning to puzzle me more and more. I checked my phone. It was only 12:45. Dang. Still 15 minutes before i could go get some food, even though I was starving.

The trophy room was on the way to the cafeteria so I made a short stop there. I was interested in playing women's soccer so I was curious to see if they had won many prizes.

Walking around the spacious trophy room I couldn't find a single woman's sport. All the trophies, medals and plaques were for football, men's basketball, baseball, golf, men's soccer, fishing, etc... I was really becoming confused. Was this a male dominated school? Sexist even?

As I thought about it more and more, the more I became determined to find out what was going on. Checking the time again it finally said 1:05. Time for lunch!