Illuminate

Chapter 35- Eva

Friday 9:00 AM

I stared out the window of the car as Aunt Hadley drove me to my new high school for the first time. Thank God it was just a tour this time, but the real deal would start on Monday. It was scary, but after my talk with Uncle Josh, I was feeling more confident and ready to try it out. Who knew, maybe this personalized learning with really help me.

"Just go in with an open mind honey, this approach to learning is really unique and I think you will find it extremely helpful," Aunt Hadley explained to me.

"I will," I promised.

"So Mission View does it a little differently than other personalized learning environments. Every other day you have different classes. On A days, the first half of the alphabet studies English and History and an elective credit of your choice and on B days, you work on Math, Science, and Finance. The second half has the opposite. You have a normal, kind of lecture based, class for the 40 minutes and for the second 40 minutes, we have trained tutors giving each student one on one assistance with the subject while assigning homework specific to that student's skill set. So if your struggling, you won't be assigned something that's out of your skill set and your tutors will help you start each one," she explained to me.

"But what about falling behind? If I don't understand," I started.

"We have daily study halls as well and if a teacher feels you are falling behind, they will request to have you during that time frame. It's a really flexible schedule," she added.

"How do you hire so many teachers? That sounds like a lot," I questioned.

"Well, we have tutors assigned to 6-8 students. More advanced students may share tutors as they may not need the extra help. It's also not a free school and due to the success, we receive excessive amounts of donations, grants, and support. It's not extremely large either, as each student must attend an interview before being allowed into the school," she stated.

"Why would someone be declined? Wait, how am I here? Do I have to attend an interview?" I asked.

"No, I consider having you as my niece an interview. We just make sure all of our students are dedicated to their schoolwork. We don't want students that will make a lot of trouble or won't take the program seriously. Few students don't get in, but we can keep it low due to tuition costs," she finished and I took a deep breath. "I know it sounds like a lot, but I think this is going to be really good for you."

"It's just going to be weird, I was finally used to the high school back home and now I have to switch," I let out.

"I get that, I do. And you're going to be able to go back there, but just give this a chance. Today's just the tour, so nothing to worry about," she promised as she pulled in front of an extremely modern looking building. The school was big, way bigger than I would have thought after hearing how she described it, and it intimidated me. Hadley pulled into her staff parking spot and turned the car off.

"I'm not sure which student will be showing you around, but I requested a student in your grade or the grade above who has been doing well here," she told me as we emerged from the car. She led me in through the office.

"Good morning, Mrs. Simone," the secretary greeted. "Is this Eva?"

"Yes, indeed it is," she responded, squeezing my shoulder.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Eva. I'm Mrs. Woodson," she greeted.

"Nice to meet you too," I responded.

"So, I arranged for Noah Micheals to be her tour guide, I think he'll do a good job. I gave him a pass to leave at the end of second hour, so he should be here in about five minutes," Mrs. Woodson explained.

"Oh, I agree. Thank you, we'll just be in my office. Send Noah in as soon as he gets here," Hadley instructed as she started to lead me to her office.

"Of course," she replied as we went into her office.

"I'm happy she picked Noah, I'm surprised I didn't think of him before," Aunt Hadley said as she closed the door behind us. She sat at her desk as I fell into one of the chairs by the door. "He's an exemplary student who should be pretty easy to talk to." I felt myself getting deja vu when I first met Blake.

"What grade is he in?" I asked.

"He's a sophomore. In fact, he used to really struggle in school too, but he worked our program and has been excelling," she explained to me

"Let me guess, he plays basketball too," I guessed.

"What?" she asked.

"This seems identical to when I first met Blake. It seemed too good to be true," I let out.

"Eva, this is nothing like that. Noah's a good kid whose going to show you around the school to get a volunteer hour," Aunt Hadley coaxed and I shook my head. She came to sit down next to me and grabbed my hand. "Eva, he's gay," she whispered. I looked up at her and couldn't help but burst out laughing and she did the same.

"Oh my god," I laughed.

"I probably should not have said anything, but you had to know," she added, still chuckling as well."

"I guess I'm just a bit uneasy, but this helped me loosen up a bit, I'm sorry," I said.

"No need to apologize," she responded with a smile. There was a knock at the door and both of our heads turned immediately.

"Come on in," Aunt Hadley called, and in walked Noah Micheals. He was really tall with curly blonde hair and black glasses. He wore a graphic t-shirt, an oversized jean jacket, some tight ripped black jeans, and a pair of black converse were tied to his feet.

"Hey, Mrs. S! How's a going?" he asked perkily with a big smile from ear to ear.

"Great, how about you?" she asked.

"Just marvelous. This must be your niece, nice to meet you. I'm Noah," he greeted, shaking my hand.

"Eva," I responded.

"So, Noah, do you want to just show her around a bit? Maybe walk her schedule? I have it printed right here," Hadley offered, handing him the sheet of paper.

"Yeah, sounds good. Ready to go, Eva?" he asked me and I nodded.

"Have fun!" she called after us.

"We will," Noah responded as he held the door for me. We headed out of the office and it lead straight to the cafeteria.

"Woah," I blurted out.

"Yeah, I know. It's huge and pretty nice," Noah responded with a snicker.

"Pretty nice? This makes my old school look like a shack," I let out and he laughed.

"Let me take you to your first class, I presume your aunt talked to you about how things work around here right?" he asked and I nodded.

Noah showed me around the daunting building and to be honest, it was pretty incredible. Not only was the school beautiful, but there were so many different resources. Numerous study groups, clubs, office hours, you name it. And Noah was great, he was very informative but the two of us kind of hit it off. By the end of the tour, we were teasing each other and he offered to pick me up for school on Monday. Things were certainly looking up.