For you to get the idea of where I am now I should probably tell you about my experience when I turned 11. I turned 11 on March 22, giving me only 4 days to remain at home with my family. Aside from me leaving soon it was a pretty average day, we don't really do the whole gift thing here. My mother didn't make me a cake, but that is not any different from the usual birthday. The DFSD (Departmental Food Service Division) brings us our food for the day each morning and today they included a tiny desert in my meal for that evening. That is all the celebrating that is done.
No one ever talks about how you are taken from your house when its time for them to come get you for Boarding, so 4 days later I expected them to come nicely, let me say goodbye to my parents, take a bag with me, and walk peacefully out of the door. Oh how I was wrong. They came exactly one minute into the 26th day of March, pulled me out of my bed, and forced me outside into the bus with all the other frightened kids in their sleep clothes. None of us got to bring anything and none of us got to say goodbye to our families.
There were buses for each sector of every city. They gathered up all the kids and dropped us in the huge station at Town Hall, where we went in lines to get our necklaces scanned then be sorted into different areas. Each area was a new school. I was completely shocked to see BOYS in my area as well as girls. Only rumors were heard of schools that took both.
Back on the buses we rode in utter silence, some sleeping others to frightened to make a noise. By breakfast time that morning we pulled up in front of a huge building that looked very old. In orientation they told us it had stood for thousands of years and had been kept in such nice shape through the brilliant efforts of the historical Restoration society. They pointed out that though some of us may have heard rumors of buildings like this that would have secret halls and rooms, that this one had been thoroughly examined and we would find no such place.
The school had been perfectly divided in half, the left being the girls and the right being the boys. even outside there was a fence surrounded on either side with hedges to prevent us from contacting them.
Once orientation had finished up a stern woman led us to yet another scanning station that would tell them what we were most likely to succeed in, and that is how we were to be put in our dorms. Again we were divided. Arts, Mets, Lans, Hits, Pats, Sics, Meds, or Anas.
Arts- If you were artistic, musical, good at acting, etc. (tend to be free spirited)
Mets- If you were best at Math (rule followers)
Lans- If language or literature were your thing. (persuasive rebels)
Hits- If you were strong and burly (loud)
Pats- If you were to be good at studying the past or history (book worms)
Sics- The science kids. (geeks)
Meds- The ones who were good for medical stuff. (caring)
Anas- If you were good with animals. (soft spoken)
I got put in the Arts. Only one other girl went with me, her name is Cecil. We decided to be friends on the walk to the dorm, and oh are we glad we did. As soon as we walked into the room it was sheer insanity.
