Chapter One- “A Long Way from Home”

Tessa

The driver gently coasted from the main road onto the pristinely kept grounds of Noxwood Academy. It was such a stark comparison from the abandoned highway laced with a densely wooded forest that we had spent hours driving on. Noxwood Academy was identical to the picture on the gloss-covered brochure I was clenching in my hand; not a single blade of grass was out of place.  The school’s immaculate white marble walls gleamed in the sunlight, which made the finely trimmed bushes in front of it seem that much crisper. It was beautiful, sophisticated, and prestigious, but lacked warmth, which made it feel more like a museum and less like a home.

As the driver came to a gentle stop at the main doors, a well-kept woman briskly opened one of the enormous mahogany doors and gave a refined wave. The driver quickly emerged from the car and swiftly walked around to open my door. I could hear the clacking from the greeter’s heels coming down the steps of the school. As I tried not to let my nerves get the best of me, I smiled at my driver and whispered small thanks. He gave me a slight nod and went to the back of the car to gather my things. As the greeter approached, I quickly smoothed out the wrinkles in my uniform and gently tugged down my burgundy vest.

“Tessa Remming?  My name is Olivia Welsh; I am so pleased to welcome you,” she stated dryly as we shook hands. “Come, we don’t want to be late for orientation,” she said as her arm looped through mine, which caught me off guard. I looked back at the driver, who was unloading the remainder of my belongings. “Oh don’t fret, Tessa,” she said patting my arm as she led me up the stairs. “We will make sure that all of your items are properly collected and put in their rightful place. Come along; we mustn’t be late.”

James

The office receptionist gave me a quick wink before she told me the school counselor was ready to see me. With a wiry smile I stood up and adjusted my tie. I had spent years waiting for this day, and they finally found one, just for me. Adrenaline rushed through me as I opened the door and took my seat in front of Ms. Dean, Noxwood’s counselor. “Feeling smug, are we?” she asked tersely without glancing up from the folder in her hands. A huge grin broke across my face, I couldn’t contain myself. She slowly looked up at me with piercing eyes, before giving me the file. “You will find everything you need in there.”

I nodded my head slowly, as I anxiously opened the file. The outside tab read, ‘Tessa Remming’. I started sifting through all of the papers, in hopes of finding her pictures. As she retrieved a narrow metal box from the side of her desk, Ms. Dean concisely explained, “At the front you will see her initial application, interest inventory, personality results, prior grades, and a year’s worth of pre-enrollment observations.”

My hands quit sifting through Tessa’s folder; I couldn’t help but chuckle as I asked, “Pre-enrollment observations? Is that what we are calling it now?”

Ms. Dean pursed her lips and replied venomously, “Yes.”

Tessa

Ms. Welsh insistently led me through the halls of Noxwood, not giving me a moment to even glance around. “Ah, here we are,” she announced vibrantly. The gymnasium doors moaned as they slowly opened, revealing the daunting interior of the gym. There were only three overhead lights on in the entire gym, and the rest was engulfed in darkness. “Come now, don’t be shy,” Ms. Welsh cooed as she gave me a forceful push through the doors. Four desks were sitting beneath the lit area of the gym with three girls sitting quietly waiting.

The gymnasium doors slammed behind me as I began walking toward the empty desk, which I presumed to be mine. It was unlike any other private school I had been to. My father had explained that it was an exclusive school, but it was hard to believe that there were only four other new students coming in this year. I smiled meekly at the other girls as I took my seat. There was a packet of papers on my desk, the first was ivory paper with the words, ‘Noxwood Academy: Home of the Nobles’ embellished with gold. My fingers traced over the soft paper as the sound of heels against the wooden floor clanked toward us. When I looked up, a tall slender figure emerged from the shadows of the gym. “Welcome, to Noxwood Academy,” she said without a hint of friendliness. “I am Dr. Shira, your Headmistress.”

Her deep black hair was spun in a tightly knitted bun. Her outfit looked like something you would see in a business edition of Vogue magazine. She pierced each of us with her narrowing eyes. I could feel my chest tightening with nerves. My experience at Noxwood wasn’t what I had expected it to be. It only got worse when she began collecting our phones and other electronic devices. It felt wrong to give it up, but it wasn’t until later that I wished I hadn’t. After handing our phones and iPads to someone in the shadows, the Headmistress directed us to the packet of papers on our desks. “Here you will find all of the school’s rules. All of you are adequate readers, so we will not be going over these together. However, I would like to highlight rule number seventy-three. No students off campus without permission from a school administrator.”  

The school rules began on the first page of our packet but spilled over the next several pages. It was unnerving that one place could have so many rules. I wanted to read them all, but the Headmistress began walking around to each desk. I watched cautiously as she laid a small item on each desk; it was our school identification cards. My eyebrows hunched over my eyes; I hadn’t taken a picture for them yet. It didn’t look like my previous school picture, so where had they taken if from? I felt the urge to ask, but couldn’t find the bravery to do so.

The Headmistress cleared her throat and curtly continued, “If you continue past the school rules on page four, you will find several important pieces of information; dining hall hours, grading policy, dorm curfews, so on and so forth.” Her footsteps stopped at the front of the room, her eyes glaring down at us. “We wouldn’t have welcomed you into our school if we didn’t think you were capable of familiarizing yourselves with the rules, policies, or procedures. Do not disappoint us,” she stated with a grimacing smile. “If you are found noncompliant with the rules at any point past today, you will be punished accordingly.”

James

Ms. Dean didn’t seem to be having near as much amusement as I was sorting through Tessa’s file. Past the pre-enrollment observation records, the school stalking her for a year, I found so many more...Continue Reading