Stonewall Academy

"Take care of yourself love." My mother says as she pulls away from our embrace. "I will mum. Bye!" I say as I climb into the large black bus. The driver takes my bags and heaves them into the luggage compartment. "Thank you." I say politely. He gives me a nod and gestures for me to sit in the bus. I take my small bag and sit on a red leather seat in the back.

This year I am taking part in a school project. It is where certain number of students, approxiametly 1,000, from various secondary schools around the world come to this particular boarding school for a year. There they can pick different subjects and activities to take part in that they usually wouldn't be taking part in at their regular schools. I was one of the fortunate students picked to attend.

After about forty five minutes the bus came to a stop. More eager students piled into the bus. Ready to take on the new school year. I look up to see a girl around my age with bright red hair smiling down at me. I unplug my earphones from my ears. "Hey. I'm Jessa. Is this seat taken?" "No. Not at the moment anyway. You can sit here." I say with a nervous smile. "Thanks. What's your name?" She asks. "Niamh." I reply. "Oh cool. Is it Irish?" She asks. I nod my head. "My grandmother's uncle was Irish." She says proudly. "I'm American." She says, an American accent clearly evident as she spoke.

After hours of chatting and even sleeping for some, the bus pulled up outside a huge piece of land with multiple buildings plotted around the area. "Woah it's huge." I gasp as I take in my surroundings. Jessa nods beside me. Every studend started gathering up their belongings and piled off the bus.

"Thank you, sir." I say as I climb off the bus. "No problem, little lady." He says. Jessa and I assemble with all of the other lost and confused looking students who are gathered around a streetlamp. "Can I have all of your attention please." A tall lady with brown hair and brown eyes asks. Everyone goes silent and turns to see what the lady has to say. "Thank you. Welcome to Stonewall Academy. My name is Ms.Brown and I am here to help you through the year and to answer any questions you might have. Behind me you see a series of buildings and small cabins. There are four possible areas that you could belong to. Blue, Red, Green and Yellow. You will each be handed a map and with your name, area colour and house number on it. You will then know where to go to settle in. You are all expected to achieve high scores on all tests and to behave in a polite and mannerly way. I hope to see you all at this evenings gathering where you will all choose your subjects. As soon as I hand you your maps you are free to go to your cabins." She starts handing out maps to different students. Jessa and I reach Ms.Brown and she hands us each maps with our names printed on the top in bold black letters. We thank her and leave to find our cabins. "What area colour are you?" Jessa asks me excitedly. "Em...Blue." I say. "Same! What cabin?" "216" I say. "I'm 215!" She squeals jumping up and down. "I can tell we're going to be great friends." I laugh and she nods in approval.

We reach our cabins. Each cabin is a simple grey colour with the door open and the key to enter the cabin placed on the mat of each door step. We each have a small garden and a white fence closing off each persons garden patch. I say good bye to Jessa and enter my cabin. I look around. I hasn't got any furniture but has a small kitchen with an oven, microwave, fridge, freezer and multiple cupboards. I walk through the next door, which is directly opposite the front door and look in at the room. The walls are a simple cream colour and has matching cream curtains and bed sheets. There is a huge double bed, a television hanging on the wall, a desk, a full length mirror and a wardrobe in the room. This must be my bedroom. It is a decent size. It has an en suite attached to it. I walk over to my desk and pick up the piece of paper that was placed there. It read "Welcome to Stonewall academy. We hope you enjoy your stay this year and hopefully many years to come. This cabin is yours now which means you can personalise outside and inside by painting and decorating to your hearts content. The outside walls of your cabin will be judged by a professor later in the year so make sure you make them as crazy as you want. They must represent you. We supply all colours of paint that you can use free of charge. Just ask Ms.Brown. Good luck!".

I start unpacking. Ten minutes later I hear a knock at my door. I get up and walk through my kitchen to answer it. I open it to see a boy with curly brown hair and another with messy ginger hair. "Hi" I say awkwardly. "Hey. Nice to meet you. I'm Harry and this is Ed. We're your new neighbours. I'm in 217 and Ed's in 218." I shake both of their hands. "Hi. I'm Niamh. It's nice to meet you too. These cabins are pretty cool yeah?" I laugh. "Yeah. It will be fun trying to cook dinner without making the whole place go up in flames." Ed laughs. "I'm able to cook so I'll be perfectly fine. Maybe you guys could come over some time for some dinner?" I ask. They both nod their heads in approval. "Well...We'll see you around. Bye!" They say as the they walk back out of my gate. I wave and go back inside.

I hear my phone ring. It's my mum. "Hello?" "Hello. How are you getting on?" "Great actually. The cabins have two rooms and a bathroom. One for the kitchen and eating and one bedroom with the en suite. I've also met three people already; Harry, Ed and Jessa. Oh and we're all allowed to paint the dull grey walls whatever way we want to and the professor will judge them!" I tell her excitedly. "Woah. I am so glad you like it there. We will come visit this weekend. I have to go now. I love you." "Love you too, Mum. Bye." I hang up the phone and take my keys and some money and stuff them in my brown leather bag.

I exit my cabin and lock the door behind me. There are a couple of students riding small vehicles. They are like cars but really small and only fit two people and have a small boot. I see Harry passing by on one. He waves to me. "Hi." He says as he pulls up in the small space outside my gate. That's what those spaces are for. "Like my car?" I laugh at his words. "That's not a car." He laughs too. "Close to one though. You get your keys at the office." He says. "I'm only Thirteen!" I laugh. "Me too. It's legal. The school takes all responsibility for damage done. You can even bring them to the town. They have special lanes for them. Like bicycle lanes but for these." He tells me. I am getting way to excited. I thank him and say goodbye as I walk next door to Jessa's cabin.

I knock at her door. She answers almost immediately. "Hey." She says. "Hey. I was just about to head down to the town and I was wondering if you want to come with me?" I ask. "Yeah sure. I was just about to get my car. We could go after and then drive down?" She asks. "Sure." "I'll just go get my bag." She says and disappears into her bedroom.

"I'm ready." She says as she comes out of her front door. She locks it behind her and we go to the office to collect our keys for our cars. "Hi girls. Are you here for your cars?" A tall elderly man asks. "Yes, sir." "Names?" He asks and raises his eyebrow. "Jessa Wood." "Niamh Young." We reply. He hands us our keys and leads us to our cars. "Each car is silver but I expect you to create a design to match your cabins. Ms.Brown can give you them. Good luck." We thank him and go to admire our new cars. It has two cream coloured leather seats and a medium sized boot. "Off to town?" I ask. Jessa nods her head. I start my car and start driving down the road following the signposts that direct me to the town.