Lined in Silver and Gold

Chapter 7

I awoke to the morning announcement.

"Good morning my fellow Academy students. Today seems to be a great day! In fact, so great that you will all be surprised! But I won't say a word~. Anyway, the weather seems to be sunny.........."

I covered my head with my blankets and let out a groan. Yet, even then, I could still hear the annoying, artificially peppy voice. Her voice continued for what felt like ten minutes before she finally bid her farewell.

"And gooooooood bye~!"

Silence. I felt a wave of relief rush through my body as I sank deeper into my bed, letting my consciousness drift away. I could once again enjoy the silence and comforts of my bed.

After what seemed to be three minutes, I opened my eyes and looked at the clock on my wall: 8:48. I jumped off my bed, ignoring my perfectly planned morning ritual and ran through the dorm hall, putting on my uniform as I sprinted out the door. How could I have missed the first bell? That thought persisted in my head while I ran. Fortunately, there were only a few cleaners in the hall leaving the corridor free of obstruction. Nearly running into a pillar, I soon arrived at the cleansing hall and rushed towards one of the many vacant shower rooms. Taking off my uniform in the same minute I had put it on, I dashed inside and turned on one of the showers. I took out my toothbrush, cleaning both my body and teeth at the same time.

Adequately refreshed, I toweled myself dry and quickly donned my uniform before I sprinted like a madman towards the dining hall to grab a quick breakfast. Due to the inconvenience of running back to my dorm, I left my bag in the hidden corner between two touching shelves.

Glancing at the clock, on the far side of the dining hall, I realized that I would have roughly ten minutes to eat before I had to head to class.

"Just a slice of toast and milk." I heaved my order to the server, still recovering from my unplanned workout. "Scratch that, also add in two sunny side-up eggs and a sausage please." I was quite famished after all.

Once I got my food, I sat down at my usual table, where, for a flicker of a second, I was reminded of my departed friends. That thought dissipated soon though as I began to work on my food.

Sitting down, squirting some ketchup on my eggs and sausage, I ate my breakfast in silence. The egg's yolk ran down and dribbled on my plate as I dabbed my toast into the creamy and rich, yellow yolk. I cut the sausage with a knife and dipped it in an excessive amount of ketchup before hastily chewing and swallowing. I finished the rest of my meal and downed my entire cup of milk in one go. I picked up my tray and was about to leave when someone sat down next to me. It was the silver haired girl.

"Good morning." She picked up her spoon and started to work on her omelet. On her tray were a ham and cheese omelet paired with a cup of apple juice. She sat down in front of me as if it was the most natural thing for her to do. I could see from her uniform that she had just registered for the Academy. It was sort of strange for a person to move to an Academy since the people here were usually just recruited when they were ten or eleven. I'm guessing she wasn't sure of where to eat since this would have been her first day of school here. Lucky me.

Remaining in my seat, I pretended to look outside through the window behind her seat. In reality, however, I was watching her eat. Never had I thought that watching a person eat could be so entertaining.

Ten minutes later, I was still sitting and pretending to look at the scenery when she walked up and deposited her tray. I think she said some sort of "good bye," but I was too busy analyzing the shrubbery. Yes, it is green. I don't know anything about shrubs. What I did know was that I was twelve minutes late for class.