Chapter One--The Academy

I haven't had much time to write/post this story, but I'm getting on it right now, so don't worry! :) Haha jk I know that most people don't look at my blog anyways. BUT some people do, I guess. Maybe. So here's more.

The Academy was an enormous school.
It taught in the most advanced fashion, my parents had been told before they sent me. They sent me after I turned eight, like most parents did. My mother had cried slightly, but my father had stood strong. I was going to be taught in the most advanced fashion; how could they not be proud that I was going to get an excellent education?
Being only eight, I hadn’t realized much about how I wouldn’t see my family for a long time. I had sobbed and protested, saying that I needed my mom, but I knew that my sister was already at the Academy. My brother, Doren, I was told, would never be able to attend. I wondered why. He had waved wildly at me as they took me away in the black car, yelling that he hoped to see me again soon. I loved him. He was ten when I left.
The Academy was frightening and intimidating to me when I first arrived. My chauffeur had to press a careful code into a keypad before the huge gate would let us in. His fingers moved expertly across the numbers and letters as his shiny sunglasses reflected the midday sun.
Then I had met the principal.
Dr. Strom was a fierce-looking man. He was large and muscular. The corners of his eyes had the tiniest wrinkles, and his hair was a dark brown. He had scared me so incredibly that, at first, I ran from him as soon as I entered his office.
That was when I learned the first lesson of the Academy.
“Never run from Dr. Strom,” Dr. Strom had said into my eight-year-old face. “Because he will always find a way to get you back.” His voice was strangely kind, but piercing at the same time. I obeyed him then, and have always ever since.
As I have said before, the Academy was an enormous school. There were two sections in it: the North campus and the South campus. In each part, there were boys’ dormitories and girls’ dormitories. The women counselors had apartments in the girls’ building, and the men in the boys’. The dormitories were separated by age; youngest at the bottom near the counselors, and oldest at the top.
In between the dormitories was the courtyard: a well laid out cement rectangle with picnic tables, benches, and canopies. The courtyard was used at lunch time and during assemblies in the spring when the air was fresh and warm. The younger students also used it as a play area during any free time. It was surrounded by lush, green grass and several trees.
If you were to stand in the middle of the courtyard and face north, you would be facing the main hall. Here, Dr. Strom resided. It was also where the massive auditorium, frightening principal’s office, and the calling house were located.
The calling house was actually just a single, simple room with one telephone in it. Here, students were allowed to contact their parents and family, with the permission of the principal. It was opened only for emergencies or once or twice when a new student begged to hear their parents’ voices. Otherwise, it was always locked with two steel doors; the only way to open it was to know the code for the keypad beside the doorway.
Once every six or seven months, every student was allowed five minutes to speak to their parents in the calling house under a counselor’s supervision. It was everyone’s favorite part of the year.