Splinters: Part One

Part One | 3

Before I could think too much about it, we finally reached an office. Melissa spoke to a woman for a moment and then we entered the room.

"You can go to class now, Ursanne." Melissa said.

"Bu-"

"Now."

I could tell Ursanne wanted to reject, but she listened to her mother. I felt blind when she left. For some reason, Ursanne made me feel more comfortable around such a big place. Still, without her, Melissa and I were ushered towards some chairs and we took our seats.

The door closed behind us and Melissa and I sat in a silence. We waited patiently until a very thin woman entered. She wore an all-black attire that reminded me of an outfit that was vaguely similar to one that someone wore to my grandmother's funeral.

"Hello," she said, smiling. She stuck out her hand to me. "I'm Principal Atkinson."

I nodded.

Melissa and Principal Atkinson stared at me. Melissa then nudged my hand. "Your name?"

"Oh, uh... Brayden." I breathed. I shut my eyes in embarrassment.

Principal Atkinson laughed. "Well, I've heard a lot about you, Brayden. Melissa and Greg Pierson are both very active in our school's activities. I'm sure you'll get along great here at Constance High."

I nodded slowly and she clasped her hands together and leaned forward. 

"From my understanding, this is your first time going to a... um... a rather... secular and hands-on institution."

I didn't know what to say by that, so I just stayed quiet. 

"And if you could tell me, what type of math were you doing at your... um..."

"Algebra," I answered quickly. 

"One or two?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but I wasn't sure. I shrugged. "I don't... know..."

She smiled. "That's okay. We've already prepared a placement test for you. We'd have you take it now, but there's a lot information we'd like to go over before that."

She looked through her desk for something and then took out a piece of paper.

"Now, about our uniforms, I'm sure Melissa is well aware of the apparel, but in our school policy, we require a number of rules to be followed by our students. This includes no outrageous shoes. Your hair must not touch the collar which I can see that it doesn't. It cannot be longer than your eyebrows and no piercings or make up which, typically,  is for the girls."

"Okay."

"Other school rules should be rather self-explanatory. No disrespect toward faculty, staff, or other students, and if any disrespect, it will be resulted in detention. No tattoos, drinking, smoking, anything of that sort on school premises. I'm sure these rules sound familiar."

I nodded again.

"Great." She grabbed a pile of papers and sorted them together. "Like I said, I'm sure you'll do great here, Brayden. I really do. We are so happy to have you here."

I looked away. I wondered why she, of all people, was so happy about it.

"We have your schedule set up so I can assume you'll start tomorrow? You'll notice your math class is not listed, that's due to your placement test of course."

Melissa spoke for me. "Um, about attendance. Brayden will start next week. He's just barely setting in and I don't want him to be overwhelmed so quickly."