Sorting

            “I’m Lucille!”

            “What? Megan asked. “That’s fabulous!”

            She looked ready to say more, but Max asked, “So, can we call it bending, like avatar?”

            They both laughed, “Actually, most of the kids do call it bending, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was from avatar. You will never hear a professor call it that though. And unfortunately, it didn’t derive from karate. It doesn’t look martial arts at all. Unless you want it to…  bending is whatever feels right for you… there is no specific way to do anything. Any more questions?” she asked, grinning,

            “Why weren’t any of us air īpaš?”

            “Hmm… it’s hard to remember not knowing that. The air īpaš weren’t always in attendance here, Actually, it only started six years ago. The air īpaš would be taken, as infants and exposed to īpašas, trained  and kept away from humans. They were never a part of the īpašas society, until recently, when they started to send kids here at age fourteen. They have a lot of different values.” Megan glanced behind her at the sun. “We should get going. We don’t want them to beat us there. So.. have you guys ever done a water slide before?”

            Max was already halfway down by the time she finished asking. Lucille shrugged, and followed him. She laughed and felt exhilarated, so far above the shallow light blue water between the islands. She couldn’t wait until she could create her own water slides.

            At the bottom, they waited for Megan. All they could see was forest around them, filled with green vines and other creeping plants. “Where do we go now?” max asked Megan as she collapsed the ice slide behind them.

            “Well, the estate location is a secret, so there’s not exactly a path. Follow me, it should only take a few minutes.” They crept up into the trees and soon broke out into a clearing. There was a spring in the middle, and trees making a semicircle around it. At the end, there was a cliff under a tumbling waterfall. Megan jumped into the spring and swam to the waterfall. The bottom must have been shallow there, she was standing up. “Come one guys, I can hear them coming. Just swim through. Trust me- you’ll be fine.”

            Lucille jumped in with Max at her heels. Megan smiled when they got there. “Now hear is the cool secret part.” She ducked behind the waterfall to reveal a large clearing filled with a large manor behind an iron gate. “Welcome, to the water estate.”

            “How appropriately located.” Max muttered.

            Lucille could hear the voices of their īpaš behind them. They ran to the cliff edge that surrounded the manor and waited for the group to pass through before discreetly joining the crowd.

            About fifteen minutes later, in the manor commons, everybody was sitting on a wild array of white furniture, surrounded by blue walls with gray shag rugs below them. “Welcome back to Demesne, and welcome first years, this is years should be your best yet.” A tall, blond haired, blue eyes man said, “I am Trevor, your head of house.”

            Another adult nudged him and whispered something in his ear. “I mean... er Professor Trevor.” He corrected. The other adult hit his own forehead.

            “He looks a little young to be a head of house, doesn’t he?”

            “He’s different than the one we had last year. I don’t know.” Megan told Max.

            “Classes will start in two days. It will be cool. Um… Am I missing anything?” he asked looking around. When nobody responded, he continued, “So… second, third, fourth and fifth years dismissed.” He waited until they were gone and then turned to the remaining students. “So! Welcome. There are four islands in this volcano, they all have names that are very had to pronounce. So, we like to call them, rock, shoe, lock and death. Oh, and there are other smaller unimportant islands. This island is shoe. Welcome to shoe island. Rock is the main island, and you will also go to death a lot. Rock is the island that the sorting whatever was on, and the long one is death. Lock is the other one. On rock, you will have your history and AD classes. On death, you will have battle classes. Hence the name death- don’t worry, it’s mostly a joke. And you should have your skill classes in the lake on Rock, and your RW classes on both Rock and Shoe. The classrooms are numbered, and which classrooms are where should be marked on the schedules I give you at the end of the orientation. There is a courtyard on death which is a good hang out spot, and a lot of students like the Splat- a long sea level herd sandy island right next to rock. The lunchroom is on Rock- you get lunch there, and then you eat it at the pavilion for dinner, and wherever you want for the other meals. There is also a library on rock- “

            “They have maps! Why don’t you tell them the rules.” An old professor said.

            “Right! No going on the islands that are far away, and don’t hurt other kids with your water stuff, and don’t go on islands that earth īpaš make, because that is probably a prank, and even if it’s not, then some fish will be on it. Oh! And no swimming in the volcano- seriously- just don’t. There is some bad stuff down there. And don’t get caught making your own bridges- those professors will do some bad- “

            “This guy is talking like he’s one of us!”

            “This would be painfully boring if I weren’t so curious.”

            Lucille couldn’t help but listen to the comments of the students behind her rather than the long orientation speech.

            “How old do you think he is? Twenty?”

            “Yeah right... he looks like he’s seventeen!”

            “That would make him a fourth year.”

            “Is it just me, or is he staring at the girl in front of us?”

            “Do you mean the one that was sorted first?”

            “Yeah! Her!”

            “Ohmigosh, you’re right.”         

            “Yeah! He’s been doing it the whole time.”

            Lucille looked up alarmed to find his eyes boring into hers. He quickly looked away and paused his list of forbidden places that was being fed to him by the older professor.

            “And the little fat island that you can’t see! And the overgrown castle that you aren’t supposed to k- oops! And the… Help me out here.”

            The other professor sighed. “Ok, get to classes on time, you have heard enough. Pick up your schedules on the way out. Lights out at- “

            “I know this one!” The house head interrupted. “Eleven thirty!”

            “No! Ten!” The professor said. “And don’t be caught out past them, it will result in serious consequences. It can be dangerous, so be sure to follow that rule.”

            “Yeah, but if you didn’t,” Trevor said, “I’m sure you wouldn’t get caught- I mean I did it like a million times when I- never mind. Anyway, the campus is huge and they wouldn’t catch you.”

            “Good night!” The professor hurriedly interjected.