Desolation

CrossCroft Academy

March 2018
Minnesota
...

"Hey, Mino! What's good?!" A brown-haired freckled jock held Mino in a feigned choke-hold. They were in the school hallway heading for first period.

Mino freed himself easily, smirking.
"I'm good, Jake."

"What class are we having?" Jake sounded bored as they walked side by side amidst the bustling bodies of students each racing to meet up with the first class of the day before the bell rang. Mino stared at his scientific wristwatch that had all his classes stored-it'd been a present from his mother for his fifteenth birthday.

CrossCroft Academy was a privately owned Institute for the best of the best; the smartest kids. Mino had gotten in on a full scholarship. Both his parents; Agnes and Cage Smith were top research engineers at CrossCroft Corporation, the largest Research Institute in the world.

It was famous for its cutting-edge advancement in technology in the country and even the world for the past decade. The CrossCroft watch he was wearing was designed by his mother; only three existed in the world.

The students which graduated CrossCroft Academy at the top of their class were given scholarships to study at the CrossCroft University(CU) which was the leading University in Massachusetts and in the entire continent.

It wasn't an Ivy League school; it was light years ahead all of them and Mino had his mind set on CrossCroft University. He couldn't mess it up.

He's always had perfect scores ever since he was a kid; every single assessment he was tested with, he's always had perfect scores.

It wasn't farfetched that people didn't call him a genius, they told him he had transcended that level.

Jake wasn't too different from him; he'd also always had perfect scores...except in Biology, but he still aced it.

But in the last Periodic Assessment Test, Mino had had 99.9% in History-that had never happened before.

Mr Cameron had told him he had gotten a punctuation mark wrong; he'd used a colon instead of a semi-colon.
"We're having Calculus." Mino told Jake.

"At least it's not a boring class?" Jake sighed dramatically.
Mino glanced at Jake.

"You should put on your jacket and take off that Jersey, you know Miss Gonzalez won't like you dressing inappropriately in class."

Jake rolled his eyes clearly agitated.
"I'm a Jock, what does she expect me to wear?"

Now it was Mino's turn to raise a brow. "The school uniform?"
Jake scoffed.

"Not everyone can rock it as well as the Class President," he continued referring to Mino.

"Just try to conform to the school rules. It won't break you."

Jake removed his Jersey and put on his uniform jacket which complimented his matching deep blue pants. His white shirt was tucked neatly underneath with the CrossCroft insignia visible on the left side of his jacket.

Mino noticed the tattoo on Jake's neck as he fastened his collar. He's always had it for as long as Mino knew him. It was the tattoo of a green mocking bird with an olive branch in its mouth. He'd asked countless times what it meant and he'd always replied with a shrug.

'I don't know.' 'I just thought it'd look cool.'
And it did look cool, so much that Mino contemplated getting one, maybe not a mocking bird but something that suited him.
Mino took a look at his watch again.

7:58 am

Less than two minutes.
"Jake, hurry."
"I hear ya," Jake said as he tied his red tie. In a few seconds, Jake was all done and he arguably looked as good as Mino. In record time, they got to Calculus class and they both strolled into the class.