Circle Quartet: 15

Chapter 15

“Welcome to the Academy!” Beatrice and Saffron, my vampire cousin, greet me as I arrived with Abbie. We squeal in joy and hug each other.

“Hey, Bet! How are you doing?” I ask, still hugging her tightly.

“I’m doing great and I’m glad that you made it here. I heard from your Mom and Zayne that you and Stefan scored the test and made it to the Elite class,” she rubs my back and smiles at me as I let her go.

“It’s nice to see you guys here,” says Saffron. I haven’t seen her for a long time. And she’s also my senior. “Let us take you to your dorm. I think you can’t wait to see your room!”

“Great!” say Abbie and I in unison.

Both Beatrice and Saffron are in charge to help us to the dorm. They help us pick up our bag and show us to our dorm that is at the North Tower. This Academy has 4 main towers; North, South, East and West. The North are for vampires, South for wizards and witches, East for shape-shifters and West for werewolves.

We enter the North Hallways. The building looks old but with a modern touch with old grey bricks and shiny green tiles floor, just like a museum. Oh, forgot to mention about the hidden CCTV, in case students sneak out or do something nasty – Jeff told me the day before I got here. Pictures of our ancestors hang up on the wall along the hallway. And of course the picture that catches my eyes is the picture of Prince Dracula, the first vampire. He’s so gorgeous with his pale face and sharp eyes. I think he looked like Stefan, a little.

Our dorm is at the top of the tower, well not at the top but near the top, so we have to take an elevator. The floors of the tower represent the status of the students. Lower floor for lower students and highest for the Elite. We go up to the fourth floor. Saffron explains everything about the tower on our way but my mind is wandering somewhere because I can’t wait to know how’s my room is going to look like.

“Here we are. Your room and Abbie,” announces Saffron as we reached there.

At the door way to my room stands a dark brown mahogany door with, hey, our names on it hand-written in the middle, near the top. I smile at Abbie and she nods. She twists the door knob and when the door opens, our jaws drastically drop. This is not a dorm! This is a suite! With two expensive-looking beds, two mega-expensive wardrobes, two exclusive study tables, a flat screen TV, small cupboard for putting our food supplies and a small fridge! I rush to the bathroom. It’s a heart-fluttering bathroom with large tubs – more like a Jacuzzi. I don’t think I’m going home after this! And did I tell you that the room is carpeted?

We squeal in joy – again, as we hysterically saying that we really love this room so much. I love the bed and the small fridge. I open the cupboard and love the smell of the woods. Saffron opens the windows and we can see the tremendous sight of hills. We can see the sunset from here.

“Okay, girls, enough with your hysterics,” says Beatrice by knocking on the table. “There are couples of things you need to know since you are new here. There are cloaks in your cupboards. Make sure you wear them during assembly every Wednesday night. And these,” Beatrice takes out something from her bag, “are D-vice. The schedule, the classes and everything were in there. You don’t need books to go to class,” she hands the D-vice things to both of us.

The D-vice is like an iPad but way cooler. It contains everything inside and yes, it’s a touch-screen. I scream as I take the D-vice from Beatrice. You know that I’m a gadget lover! Few minutes later, Saffron and Beatrice excuses themselves to leave and they remind us to be discipline because the Academy is not like any other academies. And today is the only day that we can linger around the Academy because tomorrow, the classes will start and we won’t have any lingering-time anymore.

I call Mom and tell her about the amazing things in the Academy and the most amazing thing is, of course, my dorm. Mom is very glad to hear that I love the Academy. I also tell her about how cool the D-vice thing. I talk to Dad after that chat with him more than one hour. Dad tells me the whole thing about the Academy since he had been here too, when he was young. But during his time, the Academy is more like a haunted castle. I can understand that.

Before we go to bed, Abbie and I check the schedule for tomorrow in our D-vices. We’re so glad that we will be in the same class and we have decided to sit next to each other. There will be briefing about the Elites and the history class will be held at the different room. I can’t wait to go for the history class.

We have our breakfast at the main hall and the food is really yummy. There are a lot of choices but I still prefer to eat garlic bread stick, pancakes and milk. I can see Stefan eats with his brother, Zayne but I can’t find Beatrice or Saffron around. Maybe they already ate their breakfast and go to their classes. The first bell rings and all of us clear off the dining hall. Abbie and I walk to our class which is not far from the dining hall. I hope I won’t bump into that freaky-spiky-hair wolf.

The first sign that I see when I step in the class:

The Elite – Where The Awesomeness Begins

This class is awesome! I think I’ve been in the future. Everything is touch-screen, even the blackboard. But I’m kind of missing the blackboard back in the high school. Teacher will throw the blackboard duster to those who slept in the class. I take a sit in the front with Abbie and we put our D-vice on the desk.

Stefan walks in and approaches us. He gives his most wonderful smile – well, I think it is wonderful because Abbie can’t stop smiling and blushing. You can take him, Abbie, make him your favourite pet instead of having bunches of hamsters! Stefan sits beside me and asks about our dorm. Abbie answers all his questions. I just nod in agreement.

Then a young lady with silky black medium hairstyle walks in. She smiles at us and introduces herself. Her name is Madam Violet, a werewolf and she’s been teaching in this Academy for 10 years. 10. Years. She looks young but actually she’s the same age as my Mom. The boys are staring at her, admiring her sweet smile. I take a short glance at Stefan whom I think he’ll drool seeing Madam Violet but he’s not. He has no expression on his face. Oh, I forgot. He’s not interested in women, yet.

Madam Violet is very happy to be our homeroom teacher. She warmly welcomes us all and congratulate for making to the Elites. Elites are leaders, according to her. Then, she clasps her hands and announces that today is going to be an ice-breaking session. She distributes a small empty card for each of us, and a pen too. She asks us to write down our name and our favourite colour and animal for 1 minute. Then, we have to submit the cards to her.

I don’t take much time to write my favourite colour which is red and my favourite animal of all time, a dragon. We submit the cards to her and she shuffles them. Then, she takes one card and read what we have written just now and everybody must guess the real person who wrote down his/her favourite colour and animal. She already shows the name list on the modern blackboard. We enjoy guessing names and until my card is being announced. Red Dragon. I can hear my classmates whispering to each other; even Abbie didn’t know that it’s me. Then Stefan raises his hand and guesses my name, which is correct. I can’t believe that he can see through my card! He really can do that?

I slowly turn my head. “How did you know that it’s me?” I hiss.

“You told me once that you like dragon so much,” he whispers.

“Did I?” I still am not satisfied. I didn’t remember saying that to him.

He nods innocently. Don’t think that I’ll fall for that.

Next is introducing ourselves. There are 20 students from different clans. We also need to tell our hope for the future before we can sit. Madam Violet explains briefly about the subjects that we have to take and the activities that we’re going to hold for this year including festivals and prom night. I like the festivals. I don’t think I’m going to like the Prom Night, not with Stefan around. Even if he asked me, I won’t go. Perhaps. It depends on how he’ll ask me.