In inceptum finis est
Monday
Beginning of the school day
It had been a hectic morning.
It was now after the mandatory all-school assembly, and Brenden Aldrin allowed himself a sigh of relief. The Student Council conducted most of the meeting, informing the student body of the rules and expectations, announcements, all that fun stuff. That left the principal with the daunting task of giving the traditional ‘welcome back’ speech. Despite the fact that he met everyone at the picnic, this was the first time he would present himself as a professional. Nerve-wracking again, and he hated speeches. He looked down at the worn piece of paper he had read from. One fleeting glance at it was enough to see how much work he had put into composing it. There were words added in and crossed out, eraser smudges everywhere, and the paper itself wasn’t as crisp and clean as it could be. It was kind of pathetic actually, stressing over a simple speech.
It was over now. In a remarkably child-like gesture, Brenden folded his speech into a paper airplane. With a delicate flick of his wrist, the paper airplane glided gracelessly through the air before it crashed into the wall and fell into the recycling bin. Score! His lips turned up into a wry smile. A grown man in his thirties, tossing paper airplanes around. Yeah, seems about right.
Leaning back into his chair, Brenden grimaced at the work he had to do. It was the finances that scared him the most The large sums of money was simply terrifying and unbelieveable. That’s what he got for working at Caelbury, he supposed. As someone who grew up into the middle class, he had trouble comprehending exactly what was expensive, and what was cheap for these wealthy people. He would have to get Hayden’s help later.
For now, he took a sip of his coffee--black, with absolutely no sugar or milk. First days at school were always stressful in some way, shape or form. He might as well prepare himself.
Despite it being early in the morning, Acacia looked as fresh as a daisy. During the assembly, the Student Council President was bright, chipper, and most of all, awake as she conducted her part. She was probably one of the very few people who was energetic at 7:30 AM. A morning person to the core, Acacia knew it to be one of her strengths.
To a person who doesn’t know Acacia’s sleeping habits, it may seem that she’s roused by the birds that flutter through her window like a Disney princess. The reality is much more boring. Unless she goes to sleep at an extremely unreasonable time, Acacia’s internal clock wakes her up at 5:00 AM. She seldom sleeps in, and is always tip-toeing around by 6:00 AM. It’s really convenient because it gives her ample time to get ready, relax, and do whatever she wants to.
It wasn’t always a good thing though.
As a child, Acacia no doubt annoyed her family members because she would be up at 5:00 AM, dashing through the long hallways of the Hawthorne Manor. Toddler Acacia would burst into the rooms of her older brothers and sisters, climb onto their beds and demand to be entertained while bouncing up and down. This got even worse on the holidays, the anticipation and hype waking her up even earlier. On the mornings of Christmas or her birthday, Acacia would be up at the crack of dawn, enthusiastically shouting, laughing and singing up and down the stairs. This continued until she was old enough to realize that people really like their peace and quiet in the morning.
Acacia wasn’t running around the halls from excitement, but she certainly felt that emotion. The first day of school was always thrilling to the overachiever, and there was a bounce in her step as she entered her first period class.
Her first day of her senior year, the beginning of the end, has begun.
”Don’t fall asleep, don’t fall asleep, don’t fall asleep…”If someone could read minds, they would be overwhelmed by Alli’s sheer attempt to stay awake. It wasn’t that the assembly itself was boring--let’s face it though, assemblies are usually boring no matter what--it was just way too early. She pinched herself, bit down on her lip, stifled yawns, sang screamo songs in her head… Somehow, she managed not to nod off.
Unlike a certain young Hawthorne, Alli Kendrick is not a morning person whatsoever.
Alli is a person who can stay up until the sun rises without any problems. Mornings however, are the bane of her existence, they’re the cruel things that break her away from her soft, comfortable, warm bed. She has her alarm set an hour earlier than she actually has to wake up, setting it to go off every 15 minutes. She periodically attempts to wake up, but she always ends up hitting the snooze button, and rushing to get ready when she really does get out of bed--falling out of bed is the more accurate description here.
It’s also incredibly difficult to rouse her. If you ever have a sleepover with her, you’d better try every trick in the book that you can think of, because she will not be getting up earlier than she has to. Whacking her with a pillow works with about 60% effectiveness, while blaring a trumpet in her ear has so far, had a 99% success rate. Due to this fact, Alli has been a victim of the ‘hand in the lukewarm water’ trick, and the ‘shaving cream and the feather’ trick a multiple of times. And don’t even get me started on when she’s drunk, that’s a whole different story.
And after months of getting up gloriously late, she has to wake up early again? Everyday? This was just plain torture. Sometimes, Alli really has to wonder why she became a teacher, and why she didn’t get a job that allowed her to work at night, and sleep all day. She’s pretty nocturnal, and the school day is messing up her sleep schedule. She’s currently operating on many cups of coffee, and even considered taking 5 hour energy, but that would probably cause her to crash, and that was an absolute no-no.
She really hated the first day of school.
Not only was it a rude wake up call from the warm haze of summer, there was absolutely nothing to do. Awkward introductions, talking about the syllabus, rules, and expectations… Boring, boring, boring. Raking her hand through her long hair, Alli stared down at her mostly blank lesson plans for the day, having no clue what to do besides the standard, boring first day talks. She should really ask some other teachers about that.
Tapping her pencil nervously against her desk, Alli glanced up at the clock. Students would be coming in any minute now, and she had a mental panic for about a second or two. How should she greet them? At her desk? By the door? Hiding in the closet and jumping out at them? In the end, she just remained at her desk, but still, she couldn’t completely quell her nerves.
Ugh. She really wanted alcohol right now.
「ここ、どこ？」
Translation: Where am I?
Yuki was lost. She was hopelessly lost. Why was this building so big? Where were the hallways so long, with a lot of twists and turns? Why were there so many classrooms? Where did that door lead? Why are there so many stairs? Where am I supposed to go?
She stared blankly at the map in her hand, first trying to comprehend where she was. What floor was she on? What wing of the building is she in? Maps were not her strong point apparently, which is ironic because in Japan, she could understand the intricate subway maps in a split second. It doesn’t help that the entire school was something she’s not used to. Well, she’s in a different country, what did she expect?
Gripping the strap of her backpack tightly, Yuki tried again. She walked up to a nearby classroom, and saw the room number. It took her a while to find it on the map, because again, this building was huge! And the maps was really big because of it. Now, apparently she’s on the wrong floor… But she would have to locate the stairs first.
This wasn’t a very good start….
--Classes are all 10 min. shorter than usual because of the assembly in the morning.
--Every student should’ve received their schedules at this point in time.
--Official sports practices and meetings will begin tomorrow, today will just be getting down names for the roster.
--There is a balloon arch thing, and a bunch of streamers in front of the main entrance of the school. Please don’t pop, or pull on anything.
--Questions, comments, concerns? Go to your teachers, or the Student Council!
--Have a wonderful first day!
