Field Investigations

Chapter 38:

My Field Investigating courses were going to start in three days, but in the meantime, I didn't have much to do. Maybe to some people that sounds like it would be a good thing, but to me it definitely wasn't. I just felt lost, aimless, when I woke up the morning after I picked my classes.

I sat up in bed and pushed my tangled mop of wavy, brown hair out of my face. I looked at the time: exactly seven o' clock. Since I was five years old, I woke up at seven every morning. I didn't use an alarm clock anymore; I didn't need one. That schedule was so ingrained in my mind.

There were a few girls with rooms attached to mine, but I hadn't even met them yet. I knew they were all a few years older than me, and they all knew each other really well. I saw them walking together in the hallways sometimes, but I never approached them to talk before.

Today, though, I needed a goal. So I gave myself one: try and have a conversation with them, see what they were like. And later that morning, that's exactly what I did.

I was walking out of the cafeteria after breakfast when I saw them. They were standing side by side, blocking off about half of the hallway. Before I could talk myself out of it, I walked up to them.

"Hi," I greeted. "My name is-"

"Who are you?"

"I was just saying, my name is Isa."

The girl on the right glanced at me for a second before turning to her friends and shrugging as if to say , who is this?

"My room is attached to yours," I explained. "So I thought maybe I'd introduce myself."

I knew I sounded like a complete idiot. I was doing my best, though.

The girl on the right brightened. "Oh, nice to meet you."

Her friend next to her looked at her like she was crazy. She raised her eyebrows at her for a second before turning back to me, resigned.

"Nice to meet you," she said as well.

"Yeah, um, nice to meet you too."

We didn't talk again after that, but at least they didn't feel like complete strangers to me anymore.

Two days later, I found myself in a line of complete strangers waiting to enter the Field Investigations classroom.

The classroom was on a completely different floor than the rest of the AFS: the five-hundred and twenty-fourth floor. The ride up wasn't all that fun, because there were ten other students crammed into the elevator with me and they all seemed to be best friends. They were laughing, chatting, and generally ignoring my existence, something that I was in some ways grateful for. I didn't want to introduce myself to anyone then, not there in that loud, crowded box.

Nobody seemed to even notice me until we got out of the elevator, and even then, I only caught one or two people glancing in my direction. And nobody approached me to talk, not even to tell me their names. I recognized a boy who I'd seen in the cafeteria, but other than that I was pretty sure I'd never seen any of them before.

This floor was different from the other floors I'd been on. Instead of the three-dimensional carpet pattern, the floor, walls and ceiling were all made up of the same black-and-white pattern of tiles. The hallway was a lot like the changing room at the pool a few miles from my house, though it lacked the smell of chlorine.

Finally, the classroom door opened and we all walked in. And the second I looked through the door, my jaw dropped in amazement.

It wasn't a classroom. No, It was a city. And not like some sort of miniature model city. A full-blown city with life-sized skyscrapers and everything.

The door led out onto some sort of observation deck with floor to ceiling windows, my reflection shining from the glare of the city lights shining through it. It was night, but no stars glimmered in the sky. They were replaced by the lights of the city, far less bright but far less distant as well.

Standing in the middle of the room were a man and a woman, both of them clutching bulky tool boxes in their hands. One of the other students, a tall boy with dark skin and green, tinted glasses that blocked his eyes, approached them.

"Hey," he greeted. "So, Mr. Oz, what's up?"

Mr Oz. He must be one of the teachers. I made a mental note of the name.

"Hey, Dan," the teacher - Mr. Oz - replied. "You made any progress on case 103 yet?"

"Nah, not really. Still trying to decode the password to view the case files."

"Yeah, that's a tough one. I got stuck on that case for two months when I was still studying."

"I thought it wasn't too hard," the woman chimed in. "Nah, case 200 was definitely the hardest for me."

"I mean, that makes sense, 'cause it's the last one. They've got to make it hard."

Another guy walked over to join the conversation. "I'm on case 200. It's definitely pretty difficult, but so far it's manageable."

"Hey, Gavin, I mean, everything's manageable for you, man. How long did it take you to finish case 36 again? Fifteen minutes?"

Gavin laughed. "I don't know where you all came up with that. It took me an hour."

I walked over to introduce myself to the teacher. I was probably going to be in this class for a while, so I'd need to get over my shyness at some point. Might as well make it sooner rather than later.

"Um... Hey," I greeted.

Mr. Oz smiled. "You're Isabel, right? I'm Mr. Osan, but everyone here calls me Mr. Oz."

I smiled back. "Nice to meet you. I go by Isa, usually."

"Cool," he said.

"How long have you been here?" Dan asked. "I'm Dan, by the way."

"I got here a few weeks ago," I told him.

"Wow, and you already finished classes? Took me a year and a half."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I just kept my expression neutral.

"You definitely made the right choice," Gavin said.

At first, I wasn't sure what he meant. "Huh?"

"Picking Field Investigations. You definitely made the right choice."

"Oh, yeah, I hope so. I mean, I think so. I don't really know what... what this is all about, I guess."

"Don't worry," Dan said. "It's like that at the start in this place. But once you're here, you get explanations."

"Speaking of, I've got to show you the orientation video."