Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter Fifteen: Riptide Whitewash

A/N: 800 reads! Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was not the book I thought people would read when I signed up on Wattpad. I think it's getting better as I'm writing it, and I have more enthusiasm now than I did last year when I started it. But thank you, and please continue reading and/or check out my other work.

Riptide Whitewash stepped over the threshold of the door to his new dorm room. To his surprise, there was no signs that anyone was living there. Two of his roommates, Clay and Starflight, should have already been here.

Riptide explored the small apartment. There was one small common room, a reasonably sized bathroom that would be fine for two people but was insanely small for five, and two bedrooms on opposite sides of the common room, one with two beds and the other with three.

Now Riptide saw signs of life. In the room with two beds, there was a bag on the bottom bunk that Riptide recognized as Starflight's. The pillows and blankets were arranged in an orderly, very Starflight fashion. Riptide peeked in the wardrobe across the room, and saw clothes thrown in, as if the owner didn't care very much. Riptide assumed that Clay had claimed the other bed in this room.

He headed across the hall and plunked his bag on the bottom bunk of a bed. This room was the same size as the other room, but as it was arranged so three people could fit, it was more cramped. There was a bunkbed against one wall, and a desk, wardrobe, and another desk between it and the door. The other wall had a regular bed, and then a wardrobe. The third wardrobe was between the two beds, and the third desk was in the corner nearest to the door.

Riptide sighed. It was the standard Jade Preparatory Academy dorm set up - the same as he'd had last year. He turned to the bunkbed, climbing up and putting is bag on the top bunk. He knew Deathbringer would be annoyed later, but right now Riptide didn't care. He wanted that top bunk.

Riptide unpacked his things, claiming the wardrobe and desk closest to his bed. It didn't take long, as he'd only brought enough clothes for two weeks, assuming that they would be doing laundry rather frequently. And his school stuff was already in his backpack, though he did unpack some of the things it would be insane to take from class to class, like tape.

Once he was fully unpacked, he headed out into the boys' common room - which wasn't much of a common room, containing only a table and a washer and dryer - and then through another door into the main, Jade 10 common room. This was a much better common room than the individual boy/girl common rooms. There was a kitchen along one wall - there wasn't a cafeteria at the Academy, and all Winglets were "self-serving", meaning that they were in charge of taking care of themselves. It was a little like college, but with younger kids. Riptide was glad Clay could cook - and even more glad that Glory, Tsunami, and Sunny had access to virtually unlimited supplies of money that they were happy to share.

On the other side of the common room, there was a long couch and a TV set. The couch was only large enough to fit all eleven members of the Jade 10 Winglet if they all squished together, which was a little annoying, but the table was worse. The kitchen table could fit at most eight people - and even that was a stretch.

Riptide crossed the room and opened the door to the girl's common room. "Helllooooo?" he called.

"Riptide!" a familiar voice responded. Tsunami came out from one of the bedrooms. "Took you long enough. We got here, like, hours ago."

"I've been here for a bit," Riptide admitted. "I've unpacked. And Starflight and Clay are here, by the look of their room."

"Peril's here too," Tsunami said. "She went looking for Clay."

"Of course. Is that everyone who's supposed to be here?"

"I think so."

"Good, then. So we can find the others and then meet everyone as they come in."

Tsunami grinned, a beautiful grin that made Riptide's stomach go all fluttery. "Great. C'mon."

A/N: After I do every character once, which characters do you want me to do first? I'll do Winter and Qibli first, because I'm already writing those. But for after that, comment here if you have an opinion on who I should do next.

On those chapters that I do after I do everyone once, I'm going to experiment with character voice. I was going back through and realized that everyone's thoughts sounded the same - and when I compared it to WoF, I'm seriously lacking. (Granted, everyone else in the fanfiction world is too when it comes to this, but I'm going to try to be a better writer by practicing with fanfiction).

I'll be honest: it won't sound like Tui T. Sutherland. She has her style and I have mine, even if I do get up to her level. What I'm going to do is try my best to capture the essence of that character and their personality in my own way. If something I write seems off, please tell me. I might reread the regular books to make sure I know exactly what I'm aiming for, but there are a loooot of books on my to-read list, so I may not get around to it anytime soon. Thank you for bearing with me on my little experiment, and please comment on your preferred perspective above.

- apandask8r