Living in the Shadows

CHAPTER 3 ZORUA

May 2nd

Breakfast was a little more lively the next morning. Grandfather, Jake, and I were having a real family breakfast with eggs, pancakes, waffles, toast, and fruit salad. After we finished, Grandfather got the car ready; he was going to drop me off at school on his way to the airport.

"You remember the rules?" he asked once we got to school.

"Yes, sir." I had already gotten out of the car and was talking to him through the window.

"Jake will be here to pick you up so be ready to go when he does."

"Yes, sir."

He nodded before he drove off.

When I got inside, I went straight to the headmistress's office. The headmistress, Zora Tao, is an elderly woman in her mid-seventies with a spine of steel. She's a very nice and fair lady, but you do not want to make an enemy of her.

This was the first time I'd been in here since the last time I was sick. There were achievement awards, paintings, and school photos on the walls. One of the photos that caught my eye was an old black and white one where my teenage grandparents were holding a trophy and a younger Headmistress Zora was holding a Zorua.

No matter how many times I see this picture, it still stuns me that my grandfather used to be that happy.

"Jenna, please come in," Headmistress Zora said from her office. Her office was in the back of the main office. When I came in I saw Jack, Ben, Crystal, Melody, and two little boys about seven years old in there too.

"Jenna, these two boys are Caleb and Jaxon," Headmistress Zora explained while gesturing to the boys. "They're my great-nephews and visiting students from Hoenn Island Junior Academy."

I waved at them. Caleb had sandy blond hair, brown eyes, and glasses while Jaxon had spiky brown hair and the same brown eyes. They both were wearing different green or blue t-shirts with the other color for shorts. (That's not their school's uniforms, just so you know.)

"Hello." They both said at the same time.

"Aunt Zora is showing us around the school, so the makeup assignments will be given out by someone else," Caleb explained. "These other kids are also here for makeup assignments too."

"Clearly, they're here all the time," Jaxon said while smirking.

"Wrong." The others all said at the same time.

"Jaxon!" Headmistress Zora scolded, "I'll have you know that Jenna rarely needs makeup assignments." her gold-yellow eyes, just like mine, shot daggers at the boy who sheepishly hunched his shoulders. "And as for everyone else." She paused as she looked at the other students. "They're about average.

"Ben, you and Crystal will see Mr. Bannon for your assignments. Jenna, Jack, and Melody, you'll be seeing Mrs. Cake. You're all dismissed."

We headed out and went our separate ways. Mr. Bannon is the school's Tech Engineer and Mrs. Cake is, believe it or not, the Chemistry teacher.

To understand how makeup assignments work, I need to explain the class schedule.

School starts at seven a.m. with morning classes each being two hours long. Then an hour-long lunch break plus an hour and a half for final classes followed by the school announcements. (We have ours in the afternoon rather than in the morning.)

If you miss a day or two, you spend your lunch break catching up on school assignments. I don't think I need to say that most of the student body chooses at least two real classes: science, math, tech, etc. then non-homework classes. (I know I said that Saturday was when students could catch up on work, but you don't need to if you only missed one or two days. It's only when you miss a few days in a row that you come to school on Saturday.)