The Ranch

Chapter 1: Arrival

 I woke up at the gates of Resolution Ranch Academy. I had no idea how had gotten there. The last thing I remember is leaving my house for the ranch at four in the morning. I remember my mom saying that she was not going with me to drop me off. Now, as I sit in the car staring up at the gate, I can see why she couldn't do that. Anybody who would see the gate before entering was bound to turn around and second guess the designs that they have just made. Instead, my dad pulled up the driveway to the main building of the ranch.

When we got to the front of the lodge, I could see two men standing there waiting on us. They opened the car door and greeted me

"Hello there, welcome to Resolution Ranch. I am the admissions director Mr. Blake. What is your name, buddy?"

I could see that he was trying to make this place seem fun. Let me just say, he didn't do an excellent job of doing it. I tried very hard to hide my emotions of sorrow and despair. I think I did a pretty good job considering everything that was happening in my life at this moment.

"My name is Dylan..." I said as I tried to choke back the tears.

"Hi Dylan, I'm Mr. John, I'm one of the shift supervisors here at the ranch." The other guy said, "Let's get you checked in. Follow me into the staff office, and we will get started."

I followed him to the door of the lodge. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. As I kept trying to open the door, Mr. John stood there and laughed.

"You can keep trying to open the door but its never going to open without a key card." He said, "we try and keep everyone in the same place and to do that we have to keep all the doors locked, so nobody runs off."

He reached over to the keypad sensor beside the door and held his card up to it. As the door opened, I could smell musty clothing with a hint of bacon from the kitchen. In front of the lodge were large tables. In the back of the lodge, there were seven couches in the shape of a circle. In the back left corner, there was a doorway. They led me through the doorway into the staff office, and as I sat down in the chair in the office, they took my dad through a door which led outside. I thought I would never see my dad again. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I was already starting to hate this place.

"Okay Dylan, I'm going to need to search you, but to do that I'm going to have to ask you to take off your clothes." Mr. John said.

I stripped off my clothes and felt bare on the inside and outside. They searched through my pants and checked every pocket and crevice. If they were looking for something, in particular, they probably weren't going to find it because all I had in there was a picture of my family. Mr. John took out the picture and said, "You won't be allowed to have pictures until you are a level two."

What was this level thing he was talking about? Is it like a popularity contest? I guess I would soon find out. Pretty soon a teenager stepped into the doorway. He wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a red plaid flannel. He looked raggedy and like he hadn't taken a shower lately.

"Dylan, this will be your shadow, Nathaniel." Mr. John said, "You will not be able to leave his side for seven days except to sleep and go to the bathroom."

"Nice to meet you, Dylan," Nathaniel said.

"The next thing we need to do is a drug test, you Dylan." Mr. John said as he brought out a tiny cup. "To take this drug test, you need to pee in a cup."

He escorted me to the bathroom. As I stood at the urinal, all of the residents stood at the bathroom door waiting to get a glimpse of me. It was like my first day of high school all over again. The pressure of everyone watching me was too much, and I waste able to pee.

"Well, you will have to do it later," Mr. John said. "Right now we have our staff meeting so I will show you to your bed and you can get settled in and wait until breakfast."

We walked down a hallway into the dorm. There were 36 bunk beds lined up against the wall. Of course, they gave me a top bunk. It is like they knew I was afraid of heights. I climbed up into the bunk bed and fell asleep...