The Academy--Chapter 7

Hey everyone! I am getting so psyched about this story! ACHGHGJAKDFJS;ALKFJ! I hope you all love it, in the end.
Well, and now.
Before you begin Chapter 7: I have hereby decided that the age at which children enter the Academy is SIX. S-I-X. For you French speakers, six. :D Novels need to be edited, ya know, and I changed my mind about the age, so, deal. With it.

Chapter 7

It was calling day.
The new year was soon to begin, and all of the tests and tedious exams were done with. If anything, though, my professors pressed us harder. They wouldn’t let us relax for even one week before we began a new grade with several new teachers and more advanced curriculum. I longed for even one moment to rest my fatigued and plagued mind.
I took this day, this opportunity to do so, with relish.
I stood in a long, serpentine line of teenagers, all anxiously awaiting their chance to speak to their parents, siblings, and other family members. Everyone felt that no one could be as excited as themselves.
That is, except for myself.
My stomach had become a large bowl of mush, and the thought of speaking to my family sent a brand new outpouring of hesitation into my gut. I loved my parents. I loved Doren. I loved Eloise, my younger sister who had been born two years after my leaving to the Academy. And I wanted nothing more than to talk to them today, to tell them of my great triumphs that I had experienced throughout the year. But this year, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t sit back and relate to my family all of the amazing things that I had learned. I couldn’t tell them that I was happy that Sawyer would be leaving to the senior high school. I couldn’t tell them that I had met a barely-inducted student who shared all of my feelings about the Academy.
I couldn’t tell them that it was okay to send my six-year-old sister here for the first time next year.
The list of “can’t”’s built up into a dangerously high pile in my brain. It thickened as my train of thought drove on, undeterred by Avery’s incessant questions and smiles or Alastair’s charm and wisdom.
The students around were all people that I knew–and knew well. It was only what was to be expected after spending eight years learning their names, likes, and dislikes. But ever since I had truly learned the depth of the school’s corruption, I had become detached from the normal school population. I stood along the fringes of the crowd with Alastair. Avery stood halfway between us and the crowd, suspicious about my thoughts and theories but cleaving to the mass of kids that she knew and shared similarities with.
I rubbed my forehead with my clammy fingers and sighed, barely noticing someone jogging into my peripheral vision.
“Coqueli,” someone said.
“Huh?” I looked up to see Alastair a few steps away, his eyebrows furrowed. I half-smiled and laughed. “What did you call me?”
“Coqueli . . .” he said slowly, then shook his head and spoke again. “Never mind, I really need to tell you something. Right now.”
“But aren’t you supposed to be in line?” It occurred to me that Alastair was out of place. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the midst of students. “One of the counselors will catch you, no doubt.”
“No, all of the counselors are gone. That’s what I need to talk to you about. They’re all together with Strom on the south campus.”
“Well, what are they doing there?”
“You know Avery’s brother?”
“Of course,” I said, thinking about the boy for the first time in what seemed like forever. Avery’s brother Ace was sixteen, as was Sawyer. He was always just as playful and ostentatious as Avery until he turned fifteen at the Academy; then he became quiet and seemingly always aloof. No one really knew what had happened to him besides his closest friends. The last time even Avery had spoken to him was most likely the last time that I had.
“What about Ace?” I asked.
Alastair eyed the kids around us and shook his head, touching my arm gently. “Never mind. Not here.”
I looked at his blue eyes and pale face closely. Something was gravely wrong.
He closed his eyes, refusing to look at me any longer, and said suddenly, “It’s almost your turn. I’ll tell you later, okay? Bye.”