The Forever Kids

The Academy

       The next few hours are a mess of memories. But I do remember that first night It was nighttime and we were walking around metro Los Angeles, making our way through the crowded streets full of tourists. We walked into this Greek restaurant and made our way through the back door. None of the people in the restaurant seemed to care that a small child was being escorted but a bunch of grown men, but whatever.

      On our way there I kept asking where we were going and the "men-in-black" just said "We're going to the Conductor". Whatever that meant. Soon I got my answer, he was quite literally a conductor a normal train conductor. He gave the guards a ticket and only said "Don't be late."

     From there we made our way to a train station. In our train cart there was me, the four men, and an old Japanese lady who looked scared out of her mind. For the next 12 hours I sat on the cart as the train steamed north. To this day, I'm still not sure where exactly the Academy is, somewhere in Canada I presume. The Conductor made frequent appearances in our cart and would only say a few words "be there soon" "not yet" "please don't scare the lady".

    When we finally arrived no one said much. I grabbed my stuff and made my way towards the train exit. Stepping onto the grounds for the first time is a moment I will never forget. The Academy was set atop a hill, but down below there was a lake, soccer fields, basketball courts, and many other areas where I could see kids playing. There was a huge fence around the bottom of the hill, and there was a hug sign that read: Dr. Reynold's Academy for the Exceptionally Gifted. Pretty intimidating.

While we were making the long trek up, I noticed all the kids stopped what they were doing to stare me down. I told myself to just keep walking. But it was hard when there was 20 teenagers giving you the death glare. Once we got to the front door one of the men knocked in the massive wooden doors, an act that seemed completely unnecessary because everyone knew we were already there. The doors were opened by a man who looked no younger than 40, his hair was just starting to gray, he was tall and slender, and his features were the I assumed he was the infamous Dr. Reynolds. "Hello Jared!" I went to correct the man but I then realized he was talking to the red headed man. I never really thought about my companions being actual people until this moment. They just seemed so professional and impersonal, but they obviously had names.

"And you must be Evan White, welcome to the Academy!" He then took my hand and squeezed it, not really a good handshake. "Yes I'm Evan and I-" was all I could get out of my mouth before he took my hand and led me through the front doors. "I'll give you a personal tour of the grounds, and then later Phoebe will show you around where the kids hang out!" He said this with one of those smiles that makes you only slightly uncomfortable.