Jet Lagged

Chapter 5

The last important few bits of school preparation went by with little to no fuss. All equipment had been bought and set up, the summer uniforms were ready and collected and the school would supply the digital textbooks needed. It was finally time for school to start.

Isaac sat in the self-driving vehicle fidgeting with the horrid piece of material wrapped around his neck on the way to his new school.

'Seriously, who ever thought these things were a necessity?' Isaac thought, making one last attempt at adjusting the tie to a comfortable position.

The car pulled up into the drop off lane and signalled that it had arrived. Isaac got out and took in the sight of the school. The main building was much larger and extravagant up close than it had been when they drove past it to one of the side buildings during the holidays for the language test.

Before him was the main entrance, consisting of four ramps with landings separated by fountains and a garden. The landings were lined with benches that students were sitting on with their friends, catching up after the holidays. To his right he saw a clear roofed bicycle shed. And down the same path but on his left there was an adult out of the way holding a megaphone making announcements.

"ALL FRESHMEN ARE TO GATHER NEAR THE BIKE STAND TO THE RIGHT OF ME! ALL NEW STUDENTS FROM SOPHOMORE AND UP ARE TO GATHER HERE BY ME FOR YOUR ORIENTATION!" came the announcement from the megaphone.

'Okay, no big deal. Except I have no clue what a freshman or a sophomore is.' Isaac thought to himself, looking like a fish out of water.

A student that just arrived via bus saw this and decided to do her good deed of the day. She approached the younger boy and asked, "Are you lost?" While waiting for his response she took stock of him. She noticed that all his equipment was brand new, so most likely a freshman she thought.

"Yeah, I'm new here and I am not really sure where I am supposed to go." Isaac replied.

"Should not be so hard, Freshmens go to the bike shed and sophomores and up stand by Mr. Killingbeck over there." She finished her sentence by pointing at the person holding the megaphone.

"Except I have no clue what those terms mean." Isaac's reply was laced with both frustration and sarcasm.

'Oh.' The girl thought to herself, grasping the whole issue. Thankfully she had already been explained by a old upperclassman/ club member the different ways countries handled the school year system.

"Okay, what year of school are you supposed to start?" She asked, knowing how to make this process as quick as possible before the bell rang.

"This will be my tenth year." came the boy's reply.

"Right then, you wait by Mr. Killingbeck since that makes you a sophomore. I've got to run, I need to see the bulletin and find my homeroom. Bye!" With that the girl ran up the ramp/staircase and disappeared through the crowd of students. Isaac went to the person holding the megaphone, praying that he was where he needed to be.

A few short minutes later the school bell rang out, causing everyone that was not waiting for orientation to grab their gear and head inside. A teacher came out and began heading to the bike shed with a clipboard in her hand.

"Alright everyone, my name is Mr. Killingbeck and I'll be handling your orientation. A few things before I handle roll call, Firstly after roll we will start with the tour of the campus. This will be done with as little disturbance to the other classes as possible. Second, once the tour is complete we will have you all gather in the auditorium where we will go over the school's rules as well as events that will occur during the year and how said events will be handled. After that everyone will receive their class assignments and everything else that is given to all the other students." Mr. Killingbeck said to everyone gathered. He then proceeded to take roll, afterwards the group headed up to the main entrance and the tour of the school started.

"This is the main hallway, these lockers are where you store anything you do not need with you in class such as any food items, laptops when they are not needed and afterschool clubs' equipment and uniforms. Here to our left in the angled portion of the school is the cafeteria that most will eat lunch in unless you spend it in a classroom or outside. These are the restrooms for this portion of the building and this stairwell will take you to the first floor." The tour continued showing the classrooms on the ground level, including the library, the music room, the reception area, the principal's office and the room for the chess club. The tour group went up to the first floor where the more practical subjects were taught and they viewed the enclosed balcony where the students could play GGO matches outside of class hours. The group then went back to the ground floor to view the other parts of the campus. They went out the back exit that led to the two story gymnasium that had a swimming pool on the ground level and gym equipment on the first floor level. Outside had facilities for the students to play basketball, in the centre of the remaining quad was a hexagonal fountain with a towering sculpture rising from it.

Heading down from there was a path that led to an American football field. The path to it branched to the right leading to a small outdoor amphitheatre and the auditorium.

As they lined up to head in, the freshmen group started filing out of the other doorway, ready to start their tour of the grounds. The group eventually went inside and began their assembly. Compared to his old school, this assembly was more interesting to listen to and was nowhere near as long-winded as the 'dean's' assemblies tended to be. Once all the rules were explained as well as the conditions for attendance to certain events were explained in addition to information on the school clubs, everyone received a small school tote bag that was tagged with their names on. Inside it had a map of the school, the evacuation plan, each person's class schedule, a school lanyard for the ID card, a school branded wallet, a usb that had all the textbooks on and a collapsible umbrella. Once assembly was over they were instructed that it was time to head to the cafeteria and then afterwards they were to head to their designated homeroom class to continue the day with the rest of their peers.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully, the time spent setting up the necessary documents for each subject to the teachers desires, learning the teachers names for each subject and being forced to endure constantly standing up and introducing themselves to the teachers and classmates.

When Isaac got home his father was still at work, so he had a look on his world clock app to make sure Karl and Timmy would be awake. Once seeing that it was nearing 7am for them he opened Bubble and made a group call for just those two, not wanting to disturb Cat.

"Hey, guess who just finished their first day of school?" Isaac greeted them once they answered.

"Finally, now we can all compare first days, Mr. I live in the past." Karls cheesy time zone jokes began.

The trio talked as long as they could, catching each other up on their latest news before Karl and Timmy had to head to class.

Isaac finished up his assignments, mostly personalising the word documents for each class before his father came back from work and they discussed his first day over dinner. This was followed by them watching a show before heading to bed.

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Mytherina