Part 5

Since I missed last week I thought I might as well post twice this week, so here's the next part.

We left the table in twos and threes, I was afraid I would get lost and stuck by Carly. I wondered about her past as we talked and realized if she'd only been tested four times, once a week, she must have stayed here the whole summer. I didn't imagine the Academy let students stay over the summer, but I didn't ask in case the reason she had left home early was a tender subject.

Pat was waiting for us when we got back to our common room. She was tall and about seventeen with red-brown hair and a slightly upturned nose. She waited for all eleven of us to sit down on the revolting yellow sofas before speaking.

"All right everyone," she said sounding tired and frazzled. "I'm Pat and I'm your youth leader. Welcome to the I.M.T.Y or the Academy as we call it. I'm sure The Loop told you the overview of how things go so I'm gunna give you your map of the campus, your books and your packets." She handed them out as she said it. "The planner has a schedule and a calendar in it as well."

She continued, "now everything's gunna be nice and easy this first week, don't worry about anything being above your level. Did you all hand in your forms when you got here?"

We nodded; Andy had left mine on the desk.

"Good, we read those this morning so we have your uniforms now."

She picked up the bundle of clothes sitting on a chair and passed them out, checking us off on her list.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

When no one responded she nodded "good, if you do you can ask me or a teacher, they'll all be in navy blue."

She went off to a door that said Youth Leader in gold letters. We all parted for our separate rooms and tried on our uniforms. We had been given a pair of dark colored Levis, although Carly told us we could wear any kind of dark colored pants, and a kind of gray, lightweight, long-sleeved blouse with no collar. I was glad I didn't have to worry about picking out clothes to wear everyday, Saturdays and Sundays were the only days we allowed to wear whatever we wanted, but it seemed a bit colorless.

A five-minuet bell rang and we quickly finished doing our hair to go to the auditorium. It was in yet another building in between the mess hall and the main building, which Carly called 'the Base'. The auditorium building or study hall, was the largest of any I had been in yet. It held all the classes we would take as well as the auditorium. We filtered in with the other students who were talking loudly, greeting old friends and making jokes. The four of us who shared a room, Jen, Carly, Kelsy and me all sat together in the middle. Carly waved to a few people but seemed a little shy.

The kids in different divisions had much more colorful uniforms. A small diamond insignia of one of the four colors was off to one side of their shirts and that color was also incorporated into a design on the shirt.

Another bell rang signaling everyone to their seats. To my surprise, Collin sat by me asking if I had settled in all right. He seemed as tired as Pat but had an energy that must have stemmed from the five or six kids he was with. We all quieted down as professor Mason took the stage. 

"Welcome everyone," he said smiling broadly. "I'm glad to see old faces and new. This year we have planned more adventures and games, and we might squeeze a little learning in as well."

People chuckled at this.

"I'm sure you'll all be very welcoming to our new students and help them as much as possible."

There were a few cheers. Collin cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, "You know it!"

Professor Mason nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'd like to introduce out youth leaders of this year to you all now," he said. "Please come up when I call you. Patricia Spasky of the yellow division," everyone clapped as Pat climbed onto the stage and waved, smiling tiredly. "Dillon Jones of the Earth division," this time the green clad students all cheered wildly. Dillon was blond and sort of short and stocky. "Isabella Fisher of the Wind division," another blond with pink streaks in her hair and far set eyes. "And Collin Evens of the Fire division." Collin got the most cheers of all. He ran to the stage and waved when he got up. "Of course we do not have a youth leader for the Water division because, as usual, there are not enough students to need one, but let's have a round of applause for Kevin and Trevor Whitmore, if you two could just stand up for a moment." Everyone applauded the two scared looking boys I had seen at the blue table. They couldn't have been more then thirteen-years-old.

"And let's not forget our SCD!" More cheers as Emty took the stage. He and Collin bumped fists. Professor Mason signaled for everyone to settle down.
"We would now would like to introduce our new students if they would please come up now."

We nervously got to our feet and trooped up onto the stage, all eyes on us, the students cheering us on. We lined up in front of the youth leads, or just YLs as I had come to think of them.

"Here we have miss Carly of course, and Jen, Kelsey, Jessica, Ben, Carlos, Jason, Wayne, Hailey, Robin and Mariana."

Everyone cheered for us again.

"Alright you may take your seats. I'd also like our teachers to come up."

We left with the YLs and watched as the teachers took the stage. He didn't introduce them as there were too many but he told us how hard they worked to make it a great school.