Merged

Scene One

The worst year of my life began one full week after school ended. I had just finished my junior year of high school, and I was looking forward to relaxing this summer before I started my most important year of high school- senior year. I had just come home from my early morning jog when I saw a letter on the table addressed from my school, Hilton Academy, to me. I looked around either of my parents, then remembered my dad wasn't getting home until next weekend and my mom was out at the spa. Even though I heard a rustling upstairs, that must have been our housemaid, Clara.

I grabbed a letter opener and ripped the letter in a sharp, straight line across the top, and then dumped its contents out. A formal letter with my name across the top- Miss Aubrey Carson- fell out, and I began to read.

The school always sent out an annual newsletter that explained upcoming events to its students after the school year ended. However, this time the letter was a little longer than usual. As I read, I found that this time I contained information specifically directed at rising seniors, mostly just clarifying senior privileges to us. But the letter didn't stop there, like I thought it would have. Instead, there was another paragraph:

"Due to recent financial obstacles, the town of Newbury is no longer able to support two separate private schools, and consequently, Hilton Academy will be merging with Willard Academy this fall, year 2017."

I reread the line to make sure I wasn't dreaming. This doesn't even make any sense, I thought, our schools are rivals. Why would they think combining us is a good idea? I groaned and read on.

"Also due to Hilton Academy's larger campus area and field space, the students of both schools will attend Hilton Academy in the fall, and they will continue to work under one roof. There will be more information on this in the upcoming months. Have a nice and safe summer!"

I threw the letter down on the counter. This was horrible. The absolute worst way to spend my senior year. Now all the kids from Willard Academy, Hilton's rival school, were going to be thrown in my school, and we were going to have to have classes together, eat lunch together, and constantly be in the same building.

If the teachers knew how bad the rivalry between the schools was, they would have never agreed to this stupid merge. One time, during my sophomore year, some Willard kids set loose two dozen chickens in Hilton Academy. The chicken feathers ended up everywhere and they eventually had to shut down the school. They even called the police to try to catch who had released the chickens and to try to capture the chickens themselves. In return, a few Hilton kids called in a bomb threat during Willard's prom. I heard that Willard was standing outside their prom for a full hour before the bomb squad could clear the building.

The most recent prank was during last year, when a bunch of football guys were in their locker rooms changing, someone had set up big buckets of paint to fall down on them when they opened the doors. The guys knew it was Willard's doing because the paint was purple and white- Willard colors.

Another thing about the schools was their totally different atmospheres. At Hilton, academics was clearly the priority, as our sports teams were mediocre but our students excelled. We always got more scholarships and attended better colleges. In contrast, Willard prized sports trophies more than smarts, and the big three sports were football, hockey, and baseball. Willard would recruit specific kids from out of town and offer them scholarships just to come to the school because they were so good at a certain sport.

That's exactly when I knew nobody was going to be too eager about this merger, and sure enough, I had gotten two texts from my group chat with Kellie and Tiffany a minute after I finished reading:

Kellie- "Ughhhhh did you guys see the letter from school?"

Tiffany- "Yes! OMG are they trying to ruin our lives?!?!"

I sighed. I could already tell this was going to be a long year, and the school year hadn't even started.