The House of Izhar

Chapter 4 - School

We alighted twelve hours later at the train station. Twelve hours! It's such an ungodly amount of time to hold one's own pee. I left my suitcase with Rocket and dashed into the nearest bathroom to relieve myself. As I came out relieved that I did not wet myself, it dawned on me that Rocket didn't have the urge to relieve himself like me nor did any one of the other students. Either they have mad skills in holding up pee or I'm missing something.

"Hey Rock, don't you need to pee? How do you even hold it up that long?"

He looked at me weirdly. He gave me the, 'what's wrong with you?' look.

"Why would I have to hold it up?" he answered bluntly.

It was at this point that my mind exploded into a million questions. This man right here doesn't need to hold up his pee? Wait. I stopped. Did he wet himself? I sniffed him thoroughly. He just stared at me with an odd expression. No, he just smells like mashed potatoes. I looked directly up at him. Staring him down. Not breaking eye contact.

"Err... I went to the bathroom on the train?" he added nervously.

"There's a what?!"

Rocket patiently explained to me that there had in fact been a bathroom cubicle in the last carriage of the train. That he went to when I was fast asleep. All this time... I had been... I'm so embarrassed. Rocket awkwardly patted me saying that all weirdness is forgiven but my sufferings of holding up my pee for an ungodly amount of time will never be forgotten.

We followed the flow of students towards four tall men in matching suits. Returning male students were instructed to follow a man named Thomas McDougall. A large bearded man. He seems like the oldest of the bunch. Returning female students were to follow Nigel Cornwall. The youngest looking amongst the four. The remaining students were to follow two men of similar height named, Francis Hollis and Ernest Danson. Ernest has the most earnest and kindest looking face you could ever see on a man whereas Mister Hollis... not so much. Francis Hollis has the total opposite. His face was always wearing a frown, you could see his thick eyebrows through the frame of his rounded spectacles as they furrowed towards each other.

There were around five dozen of us new students following the two suited men towards our bus to school. But just as we were about to leave the station, one of the crew members that had intervened the fight between me and that jerk scuttled towards Mister Francis Hollis. He whispered something in his ear and pointed towards me and Rocket before scurrying off. No one took notice of this exchange as they were all busy talking amongst each other excited to go to their new school. But I did and it seems like Rocket did too because he was all jittery again.

We entered our buses accordingly, being good little children. The returning students wasted no time in scurrying to their respective wings. Leaving the newbies like us alone in front of our massive new school. A tall man that I remembered being Ernest, ushered us all into the school hall.

A large bearded man like Thomas McDougall steps into the hall's stage limelight. "Fellow students I, Magnus Hudson, headmaster of this dutiful school welcomes each and every one of you to St. John's."

The crowd of students cheered and clapped like a messy choir. The headmaster goes on to explain all the rules which I zoned out on. Something about boys and girls not allowed to visit each other's dorms yada, yada, yada. Whatever. It's bad enough I have to be here, I'm not putting up with another West. We were then introduced to the heads (chiefs) of the Houses. 'Houses'. I miss my home. I miss the House of Izhar.

Francis Hollis, head of the Red house. Thomas McDougall, head of the Green house. Nigel Cornwall, head of the Blue house and finally, Ernest Danson, head of the Yellow house. We learnt that we were going to be equally divided into each of these houses.

The house heads were in charge of overseeing the house's events and participations. Such as sports, academics and behaviours. Students' class schedules would also be according to the houses they're in.

"Finally, behind the hall is a pinboard full of your respective names, dorm numbers, houses and schedules. You are all dismissed for the rest of the day." Magnus announced. He said some other things that I don't remember before officially letting all of us go to check our respective houses and dorms.

I scuttled over along with the rest over to the pinboard and began searching for my name. It wasn't hard to find. Not everybody had an exotic name like mine and Rocket's. I traced my hand along my name. I crossed my finger hoping that whatever house I'm in it's not Red. I don't know why. I just don't like Francis Hollis. Something about his aura.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I notice that I'm in Blue but my heart plummeted when I see the look on my crushed uncle's face. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not in the same house as you. I'm in Yellow." He blurted out. "We're not going to be able to spend as much time together anymore."

I heard the pang of hurt in him. I know my uncle like the back of my hand. He could be given all the riches or power in the world but he wouldn't take any of it unless he could do it together with me. "We could still see each other before, in between and after classes," I comforted. He grinned a little at that. "Tell you what," I placed an arm on his shoulder. "We drop off our luggage at our dorms and meet back here to go exploring in half an hour?"

"Deal!" he grinned my favourite grin as we picked up our suitcases with a jig and left for our respective dorms but before we could, Francis Hollis stepped in our way and demanded us to follow him rudely. That grumpy old man. This is going to be a long year.

We followed him into what I think is the headmaster's office. He ordered us sternly to enter before leaving us. We entered a room filled top to bottom with a lifetime of books on antique-looking bookshelves. A large stained-glass window on one of the empty walls overlooking the school's field and quadrangle. The giant of a man sat on his equally large red velvet chair staring quaintly at us.

"Do you know why you're here?" He inquired with his gruff voice so full of bass that I swore I saw his glass of water vibrate on his desk.

"No," I replied plainly. If the man doesn't know then why am I even here? Why even call me?

"Liar!" bellowed a familiar voice. I turned around to see the boy that I wrestled slumped on a chair. I hadn't even notice him. How long had he been in the room?

The headmaster looked at us knowingly waiting patiently for an answer.

"Aah, I remember you." I pointed at the boy with a tone of recognition. He glared at me his eyes narrowing into slits. "Yea, he deserved it."

The boy wanted to yell in retaliation but the headmaster interjected. "As I have just said in today's assembly, we don't tolerate any violence here," he said coolly.

"Ha!" the boy laughed.

"Now, should you both come up with an appropriate punishment for yourselves?" Magnus raised his glass to his lips taking a sip of its contents.

"But... THAT ISN'T FAIR!" a voice boomed. The voice I knew to be from Rocket. "He threw boiling hot mash potatoes at me and called me names! Morgan was only trying to defend me."

Magnus smiled. "I was wondering when someone is going to point that out."

The boy's face paled. "You knew?" he stammered.

"Mr Brooke Connally, do you really think that the train's crew members won't notice an excessive amount of mash potatoes at the boy's seat?"

It suddenly dawned on me. That's why we were moved to the back. They were giving us fresh new seats. Maybe the world's fairer after all.

"Now, since you both are new students I'll let you two off the hook with a warning. Rest assured I won't be so forgiving next time. You two are dismissed."

"What!?" Brooke yelled back and began to rant but his rant slowly faded away as my uncle and I advanced through the hallway smiling at each other. Maybe school's not going to be as bad after all.