Terra's War

Showing and Telling

I woke up with a start, the sun filtering in through the blinds on the window. I could hear laughter coming from outside and birds chirping.

Swinging my legs out of bed, I readied myself. I just put on the clothes from yesterday even though I had already packed my stuff and moved them here.

Yesterday, Juniper and I had went back to my grandparents' house to tell them of my decision.

Grandma Abby had teared up a little while Grandpa Sam thought proud of me. They themselves had went through the teachings of Terra Arbor and had hoped to pass that onto me the year after this year but then decided against it since my mother had called them to bring me to them already.

When Grandma had went over to the Hathaway household, she had talked to Juniper's mother about me being introduced to Terra Arbor. And when they had both approved, telling Juniper it was okay, we made the trip.

I held my hair up in one of the three hair ties on my right wrist and went outside to see Juniper on the porch, waiting for me.

"Morning, Jun," I yawned, stretching.

"Morning, sleepyhead," She smiled.

"What do we do on Sundays?" I asked.

"Same thing we did yesterday. Rest up for Monday," She answered, simply. We walked down the stairs on the porch.

"Idaline!" A familiar little girl's voice rang out. Juniper and I looked to our right to see Izzy and Nico walking toward us from their house.

"Hey," I knelt with a smile as she tackled me with a hug. I looked up at Nico.

"So we're neighbors?"

"Appears so," He raised his hand for a high five and I didn't leave him hanging.

"So, where do we go for breakfast?" We looked at Juniper. And I noticed Izzy perk up at the mention of breakfast.

"The Academy Cafe. That's where everyone gets their food. And, of course, all the food is fresh and hot off the stove or if it's produce, then it's just fresh,"

"Then let's go. I'm starving," Nico sighed with a smile. Izzy, being who she was, jumped for joy.

"Yay!" She threw her hands in the air and jumped around.

"Alright. Come on," I grabbed one of her hands and set it down, quietly laughing at her actions. Juniper guided us back to the Academy. The Academy Cafe was all the way down the hall from the front door. There were a lot of people in line.

"Welcome to the Cafe, guys," Juniper said.

And then my favorite morning smell hit my nose.

"Bacon," Nico and I said, simultaneously. He smirked at me while I just laughed.

We entered the line and got the plates for our food. They were labeled with sections of each food category: produce, grains, protein and dairy. I got watermelon and oranges for produce, brown rice for grains, scrambled eggs and bacon for protein, hard boiled eggs were in the dairy and I got water for my drink.

Once we all got our food, Juniper turned to us.

"The back door-" She pointed to the door at the far corner of the Cafe. "-leads to outside where there's picnic tables and stuff like that. Though most people do stay in here to watch the clock and for the clean feeling to be inside... want to try it?" She suggested.

We all shared a look and nodded.

We found a nice spot under the shade of a juniper tree, which Juniper actually recommended herself, and sat down. Juniper sat next to me while Nico sat across from me with Izzy next to him.