Not Where, But When

Chapter 2: Please!

"Angelina, you were out for a good five minutes," the girl said. She was sitting at the desk to my right and she highly resembled my best friend, Kate Grayson, when we were sophomores at Redwood Preparatory Academy – especially with those glasses. It looks exactly like the pair that Kate used a red sharpie on to cover the naturally purple-pink temples. In the present, she's another one of the Martial Arts instructors at GPA. The girl wore the more boy version of the Redwood uniform for the hot months: a short sleeved white oxford shirt, khaki shorts and a tan belt, white socks, and closed toed suede shoes.

    "Who...?" I started.  I glanced down at myself before looking back at the girl. I also was wearing a white oxford shirt, white socks, and black flats, but instead of khaki shorts, I had a knee length plaid skirt (navy blue, white, and red).

    The girl rolled her eyes and sighed with mock exasperation. "Do you not recognize me, your best friend Kate Grayson? I am disappointed!"

    "Okay, Kate, you can take down the realistic scenery and props. Ha ha very funny. If I didn't know any better, I would say that we're back at Redwood for real. Where's Jessica, Luke and Wyatt?" I asked.

    "Angelina? You are at Redwood, and everyone is in their respective classrooms," Kate said slowly, her tone inflicting upwards towards the end of her sentence; her left eyebrow rose in confusion. "But you already know that, right?"

    "Seriously, Kate," I said getting frustrated. "You can quit this act."

    "What act?" Kate asked sounding genuinely confused.

    "Kate, I'm tired and I'm not in the mood for these games right now."

    Kate opened her mouth but the sound of the bell interrupted her and everyone around me scrambled to take their seat. The door at the front of the room opened to reveal the teacher I had for first period, Latin, in 10th grade: Mr. Copeland. How did Kate get poor Mr. Copeland in the joke as well? It looks like he hasn't aged since – high school... And Kate was genuinely confused earlier, not to mention that all this must have cost gobs of time and/or money – time and money that none of us have. Maybe this isn't a joke... If it's not a joke, then what is it? I can't really be... Can I? I mean, it's impossible, right? Right?

    "Bonum mone, discipuli!" Mr. Copeland said jovially in his regular Latin fashion as he set his books and laptop down at the table in the front of the room. If my memory serves me correctly he just said 'good morning, students,' but I'm not 100% sure. He immediately turned to the whiteboard at the front of the room and wrote the day's Latin warm up. "I wish we teachers had our own class rooms. Things would be much more efficient," Mr. Copeland said wistfully.

    One of the things that I remembered most about Redwood was that we weren't the regular high school in the US. We had entrance exams like the local private schools – but Redwood Preparatory Academy, itself is actually a semi-private school, meaning that it's free, but donations are highly encouraged and warmly received – and a very strict class system and curriculum. The curriculum had set, mandatory classes i.e. no electives (clubs took the place of those); it's all a part of the Redwood formula. Each grade had five classes, A to E, consisting of 20 to 25 students; The A classes had the best behaved students as well as the highest class average, and the E classes had the lowest grade average (still great in comparison to the public schools though) and the most behavioral issues across the grade. B through D were a gradient between A and E based off grade averages more than behavior. That placement was determined by the entrance exam score and interview, which is too much if you ask me. As a student I'm stuck with the same classmates from grade 9 to grade 12, and as a class we're given a classroom for each year (in the back of the classrooms, there are small lockers which contain textbooks, the lunchbox, and other personal items and require your own lock). The other schools give classrooms to the teachers. On the flip side, I heard the Teacher's Lounge is really nice here at Redwood Prep. Mr. Copeland had often wished that we were more like other schools in terms of the classroom arrangement.