One Year Before High School

Chapter 5

"So...we all set?" asked Maci. The backpacks said yes. It was still very early in the morning, but not enough so the lights were still on. The corridor was full of people walking about, chatting among themselves. It was very loud, yet Ella barely registered them. She was too nervous.

The Northwest group, as the uncreative author temporarily dubbed, were waiting in the halls. Everyone was already out, no one wanted to miss the first day of class.

Ivy eyed her carefully, then patted her on the back. "Ell', we discussed this," she said. Ella looked at her, "I...I'm not so sure anymore Ivy..." she said.

"But I'm going with you" replied Ivy.

"I know! But the thing we discussed last night..."

"Let's not worry about that for now," said Ivy. Ella went to protest, then bit her words and went with her.

"Anyways guys! I'm so excited!" said a very exuberant Maci. Carla rolled her eyes at her display of enthusiasm. Tanya and Emily shared their similar feelings (though with slightly less energy).

"Yeah, I'm excited for what's to come too," said Tanya; Emily agreed. The hallways thickened as they walked with students, and excuse me's becoming more common. They all went to the stairs beside where their dorms connected with the main room.

It came

Ella was pleasantly surprised because the bell was not a blaring sound that would edge on student's nerves, but rather a nice piano chord that sounded enjoyable and not something that sounded like two pots banging together.

Everyone scrambled to get into their classes, and Ella was no exception. She flagged down where she was supposed to go in her Guidebook's map and went for it. Easier said than done because as soon as she made one step, two students blocked her view. She tilted her head hurridly, from side to side, but they were too tall, and there were too many people.

The central area of the school had become a sea of students. Ella thought she could hear the sound of the walls creaking in an attempt to contain the massive amount of people. Several small decorations, tables and such, were in danger of being knocked over.

Ella attempted to get closer, but then stepped on someone's shoe. "Sorry!" she said and edged closer. More pushing and shoving, and with one more misstep, she could end up on the floor. A communal clock was showing, and it said that class would start in a few seconds. She frantically scanned the area, but with all the people, it was hard to tell where...

More pushing and shoving. After about a minute, Ella started to hope that she was at least being shoved in the right direction because with her point of view, everything was a blur of movement.

A hand grabbed her.

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Ella started, then realized that it felt familiar. She looked down in shock and saw Ivy grabbing her wrist. Her look was partly exasperated, partly it's-okay. Ella didn't know how to feel about it. She dragged her to the elevators and caught the last one up. The two stairs up only led to the main classrooms, which is where you go if you were in normal classes, but enriched and rudimentary classes were one more level up, and the only way there was with elevators.

The room they came to was similar to the main lobby, except that there were a cafe and library (the one Ella went to a few days ago). There were two huge doors that led to an open, glassy tunnel of sorts that let in the sunlight. Students streamed like ants, and Ella wasn't an exception. Pulled along by Ivy, they ran down one of them and ended up in another circular room.