Algid (#TronnorAU)

Chapter 2: The first day

On that Monday morning, Connor swore he had never seen a sky that grey. And that was saying something, considering he lived upcountry for the totality of his life and a grey sky is by no means a strange sight.

The slight nakedness of the trees and the colored leaves on the pavement signaled fall, as he watched from the back seat of the car, wearing his same worn out jeans and jacket and allowing his eyes to loose themselves amongst the road. To his right, Alexis sat with a grim expression, studying closely a paper form which had all the courses she would have to take this year written on it, according to what the Estate had established for foster kids.

Today was the first day at their new school, and because there was a lot of paperwork to be done and some other stuff that deemed it an especial occasion, Grace was driving them and Mikey to the school before she left for work. Mikey sat in the front co-pilot seat, listening to some music on his headphones, still half-asleep. Grace took a glance at the other two in the back seat through the rearview mirror.

-"Starting tomorrow, you three will all take the bus, like Mikey has been doing so far."—Grace said with a smile and a tired tone on her voice—"Today I must go with the two of you to the reception so that we can get the final papers signed... and then you'll be good to go! Isn't this exciting?"

Connor could come up with one hundred and one ways in which it was anything but exciting, but as usual he kept them to himself. Alexis on the other hand spoke up, with doubt written on her voice.

-"Eh... why aren't the papers... signed?"—she asked shyly, barely lifting her eyes over the red beanie she always wore.

-"Oh, it's not anything serious"—Grace said—", it's just a formality because Brittany hasn't been able to send her own documents yet."

-"Brittany hasn't contacted the school?"—Connor asked, for once concerned on the subject.

-"Oh, she has—in fact, she's coming to visit us soon! I believe she'll be here next week or so, I bet she'll be happy to see you both."

Ms. Taylor, or Brittany, like how she insisted to be called by Connor and Alexis, was their social worker. She was the one who represented them legally, within the Foster care system and as citizens of the Estate, since they didn't have any parents to do so. It had been quite a while since either of them had seen her, but she kept in touch with them a lot, she really did care. But they weren't her only case, and of course it was troublesome to get kids moved from one foster house to the other. The few times they did see her were when they had to do some legal stuff done or their staying period with their current foster home had expired, and that meant of course moving to a new place yet again. It was as if she were the bearer of bad news.

-"I know you must be worried since the tuition period for your last school almost expired last time"—Grace said, reading Connor's mind—", Brittany told me about it. But nothing of the sort is going to happen this time, I guarantee it."

Connor grunted in frustration. He wasn't angry because of missing the trial periods of the other schools, he was already used to that kind of stuff happening. He was just tired that the same thing had to happen over and over again. The routine was exhausting.

Eventually, they arrived at the parking lot of the school, which was deserted in the visitors' lot, and they were on their way towards the blue building that was the school. Grace's white car looked so tiny and so lonely in the middle of the concrete square that it was almost a sad picture to watch. At the main gate, Grace stopped everyone before they parted ways.

-"Ok, so Connor and Alexis will come with me, and then you'll both be given your schedules."—Grace said—"Classes are over by 3, so you must all come back home together. Mikey will you meet you both at...?"