The Academy: Ashland

The Captain

           The next time I woke up, I was lying on a sofa in an officey looking room. My beanie was on the floor next to me and I was still drenched in sea water. As soon as I sat up, the room began to spin and I immediately grabbed my head. Once the room stopped spinning, I looked around and noticed a chair in front of me had a plate with a sandwich, a water and a sticky note.

            I grabbed the note and paused as my head began to spin again. When the spinning stopped, I looked over the note. The sticky note was bright green and the handwriting was blocky, cramped and oddly familiar. After a moment, I decided I'd figure it out later and began to read.

ASHLAND, EAT AND DRINK.

I WILL BE BACK WHEN YOU REGAIN CONCIUSNESS.

THE CAPTAIN.

            I rolled my eyes, but grabbed the sandwich and started eating. As I finished the sandwich, the door opened and a man walked in. The man was intimidating. He had cold blue eyes, short blond hair and wore black cargo pants and a tight black shirt. Immediately, I knew this man was the Captain.

            “Hello Ashland,” he said.

            “Hey,” I said.

            The Captain walked over to the desk, sat down and said, “I'm the Captain.”

            “I figured,” I said. “What do you want with me?”

            “We've been keeping an eye on you,” the Captain said. "We believe you have potential."

            “And that's not at all stalkerish,” I said.

            The Captain chuckled, “I would like to compliment you on how well you're handling this,” he said, “ Most kids cry or yell, but you seem to enjoy resulting to arrogance, sarcasm and wit.”

            I rolled my eyes, “I would like a towel and to know why you kept drugging me.” I said.

            “Your body reacted differently to the sedative. You woke four hours earlier than you were supposed to with the amount we administered,” the Captain said.

            “That's great, I'm thrilled,” I mumbled. “When can I go home?”

            “As far as you're concerned, this is home,” the Captain said. “All of your things have been moved here, along with the clothing Kaycee picked out for you. I'm afraid you can never go back to Philadelphia. As far as anyone knows, you’re dead.”

            I swallowed and forced down the tears I knew where threatening to spill before saying, “Alright.” At that moment, I was proud of myself, here I was, being told I would never see the city I grew up in again and, my voice didn't crack at all. I began to fidget with my beanie, “What is this place?”

            The Captain raised an eyebrow at me, “The Academy.”

            “I don't go to school,” I said, shivering.

            “It's not a school, it's more of a boot camp,” the Captain said, walking over to a closet, pulling out a blanket and wrapping me in it.

            “Thanks,” I mumbled. Suddenly I realized, if this Academy place was with the government Luke, Michael, Jacob, Zac and Evan would probably be shoved back into a group home. “This place... are you with the government?”

            “No. They don't even know we exist,” the Captain said.

            I breathed a sigh of relief, “Alright.” I said, picking up the water bottle and taking a sip. “Are there any rules I should know?” So I'm sure I'll break them all.

            “The top two floors and the bottom floor are restricted. You have to train for at least four hours a day and curfew's eleven.” the Captain said. “You also need to show a certain amount of respect for the adults and team members.”

            I rolled my eyes, “Okay.” Yeah right.

            The Captain watched me for a moment before pulling two needles out of his pocket and saying, “I'm going to need to insert a tracking device into you're arm.”

            “And you're going to knock me out again.” I said.

            The Captain chuckled, “Sorry, kid, it's necessary.” he said.

            “Liar. You have a needle fetish.” I said.

            The Captain rolled his eyes, “Are you going to do this the easy way or are you going to be difficult?”

            I thought for a moment and said, “I'll be difficult later, right now I'm cold, wet and lazy.”

            The Captain chuckled and pushed one of the needles into my right forearm. “Tracking device.” he said before injecting the tranquilizer into my other arm.

* * *

            So yeah, that's how I got to the Academy. There are about fifty people here, most are kids but there are some adults. I don’t know why I never really freaked out more than that, I think I kind of knew that this place was okay and I was safe here so there was no reason to freak out.

Here, first impressions don't mean much, it's really all about what happens after the first impression that matters.