22 - First Day

After having spent the Sunday exploring the school and the grounds, map in hand, Jubilee felt somewhat ready to face the week. She had identified all the rooms her classes were in, the shortest routes between rooms, and the shortest routes of escape from almost anywhere in case of a fire. Ignoring the alarmingly long run from the girls' lavatories to any emergency exit, the school was built satisfactorily, and her newly-found knowledge gave Jubilee a little more courage to face the day.

Her tie was choking her. She tugged at it a little, but didn't loosen it. She was going to go through the day in full uniform, looking her best, and a loose tie didn't cut it. Plus, if all the other kids could do it, than so could she.

Her new, black shoes clacked against the floor when she walked. Back at home she'd wear running shoes or boots. Those allowed for stealth, for sneaking around. She felt like a walking alarm in the new shoes. Back at home, she would have preferred walking around barefoot to wearing shoes like those. But there, at Rutherford, she had to put up with them. And with the clacking. And with the blisters that were stubbornly forming, even though she'd put blister tape on her feet before leaving her room.

Damn shoes.

Damn tie.

Damn Rutherford.

She hadn't made much of an effort to be social over the week-end, and her presence was easily overlooked by the other students there, not that there were many students on campus over the week-end anyway, as the lady at the front desk explained. They all returned, driving their fancy cars, on Sunday evening. Jubilee had failed miserably at talking herself into saying hi to her fellow schoolmates and retired to her room, promising herself she'd do a better job in the morning.

'Let's use the term morning liberally,' she had mumbled to herself when she'd skipped breakfast and headed straight to class extra early, in an attempt to avoid running into too many students at once.

The room she had her first class in was almost empty, except for a handful of students who were either chatting among themselves or snoozing on their desks, and a balding teacher who was watching something on a laptop computer, snickering.

'Um, good morning?'

The teacher immediately closed the lid on the laptop, yanked his headphones off, and sat up straight, seeming flustered.

'Ah, miss Hall, is it?'

'Yeah-'

He stood and shook her hand forcefully.

'Welcome to Rutherford!' he exclaimed. 'We're very excited to have you here!'

She wondered how rude she'd seem if she pried her hand out of his.

'Thanks, sir,' she said, hoping he wouldn't dislocate anything of hers. Thankfully, he released her hand in a moment.

'I hope you'll enjoy your time here,' he said. 'Please take a seat wherever you like, and fill out the test in the folder.'

She looked over her shoulder, noticing the folders which were lying on every desk.

'Test?' she asked, confused. 'But I only...'

She turned back to look at the teacher, but he had sat back in his chair, re-opened his laptop, and had put his headphones back on.

'Right,' she mumbled, 'I'll figure it out on my own then...'

Jubilee made her way to a desk at the back of the room, hoping she'd manage to stay invisible for a little while longer.

The folder stared at her ominously.

Who knows what I should have studied for this thing and haven't, she thought as she sat at the desk. Way to start my career here with an F.

Two desks to her right, hunched up over a magazine, sat a redheaded girl. The notebook lying next to the magazine had a star-shaped sticker with the name "Anjuli Porter".

Before asking her for directions, Jubilee looked at all of the options she had. After all, almost every time she'd interrupted Melissa from reading, her friend had shown symptoms similar to anxiety attacks.

A couple of desks in front of her sat three girls, chatting excitedly, and a boy who was sleeping face-down on his desk, snoring softly. It was never good to approach groups, thought Jubilee. Groups were intimidating. And waking the boy from his slumber couldn't possibly be the start of a nice friendship. Apparently, she decided, the redhead was the best person to ask for directions.

'Sorry, Anjuli?'

The redhead sat up and faced her so suddenly, Jubilee nearly fell off her chair in surprise.

'You said my name right!' she said quickly, pointing a thin, long finger at Jubilee.

Jubilee considered running for the nearest fire exit.

'And you're new!' said the redhead, still pointing at her.

'Um,' she stammered, 'yeah, this is my first day here-'

She relaxed and grinned, then grabbed Jubilee's hand and shook it forcefully.

What is it with people shaking your hand like that here?'

'I gotta say, it's nice to have someone say your name properly.

'Tell me about it,' said Jubilee through gritted teeth, attempting to pry her hand out of Anjuli's.

'So you have a weird name too?'

'Yeah.' She managed to free her hand, and wiggled her fingers for them to regain blood circulation. 'It's Jubilee.'

The redhead burst into laughter.

'Marvel heroine? What were your parents thinking?'

'No idea,' replied Jubilee. 'I was adopted.'

Anjuli became serious.

'Oh. I'm sorry.'

''S ok. But I wanted to ask you...'

'You're new.'

Jubilee turned to the source of the voice, to see a blonde leaning over the desk she was occupying, staring at her right hand pinkie finger.

'Yeah, hi, I'm-'

'Hi, Abigail,' said the redhead casually.

'It's Abby,' said the blonde quickly, not sparing her a glance, and grinned at Jubilee in a way that made her want to crawl back to Big Rock, where people were normal.

'I know that scar!' she exclaimed triumphantly, pointing at Jubilee's hand. She looked at it too, then removed both her hands from the tabletop.

'It's just a scar,' she said defensively, 'no reason to get so excited about it.'

'You got it by practicing Biellmanns!' said Abby, seemingly very proud of her deduction. 'You're a figure skater!'

What the hell is wrong with you?

'Um,' she said slowly, wishing she could punch the blonde in the face, 'not anymore. I quit.'

Abby's grin melted from her face.

'Damn.' she huffed. 'It would have been cool to have someone to compete with.'

Before Jubilee had a chance to say something, the blonde left her desk and sat at the front of the room.

'She's nuts,' said Anjuli. 'Don't worry about her.'

'There are figure skaters at this school?' asked Jubilee, feeling some loathing towards the blonde who apparently managed to balance Rutherford and skating.

'Two,' replied the redhead. 'That one and her twin brother.'

'And how do they manage?' she blurted out. 'This is a demanding school, and the nearest rinks are in DC.'

'You don't know anything about this school, do you?' asked Anjuli, leaning back in her chair.

'I've read the brochures and the handbook-'

'Those are the official things,' the redhead cut her off. 'Thing is, you can make almost any kind of deal with this school. For instance, if you're an athlete training for something the school cannot help you with, they reduce the number of classes you need to take. We also have students who only spend several weeks per semester here, and the rest of the time somewhere else. You can work around the curriculum any way you want.'

Jubilee glared at the back of the blonde's head, feeling very jealous.

'You don't like her, do you?' asked Anjuli. 'Can't really blame you there. Typical American blonde. Very shallow and somewhat slutty.'

'Can you be only somewhat slutty?' asked Jubilee, confused.

'Oh, yeah. There are several degrees of slut. This school has all of them gathered here. You seem to be on the lowest level. I'm guessing total nun.'

Jubilee looked around the classroom, and noticed deviations from the uniform in all girls, varying from stilettos, coloured socks and downright creepy hair accessories to uniforms that seemed two sizes too small for the wearers, emphasizing cleaveges that were too pronounced to be naturally grown for seventeen year-old girls.

'I think you might need a new category for me,' she said to the redhead.

'Oh?'

'Weirdo.'

Anjuli laughed.

'We have those too. Ranging from minor harmless to severely deranged. See Jacey over there?' she asked, pointing to a blonde with pink streaks in her hair. 'She's going to therapy every week, and thinks she is seeing the ghost of her goldfish. Don't worry, you're normal.'

'You have no idea what you're talking about,' mumbled Jubilee.

'So you're new here,' said Anjuli, standing from her seat and moving to the desk next to Jubilee's. 'Let me guess, your parents are sick of having you at home, so they shipped you off to this jail to get rid of you?'

'Hardly,' she replied, feeling uncomfortable with the interrogatory. 'It was my decision.'

'Ah,' replied Anjuli. 'Well, suddenly, you're not so normal any more. So, are your parents anyone we know?'

'Have you seen the news on the Helena power plant fire?'

'Yeah. What, they set it on fire?'

Jubilee felt her jaw drop.

'What? Hell no!'

The redhead raised her hands in defense, amused.

'Adam Hall is the general manager,' explained Jubilee, 'and Laura Hall is the public affairs director.'

'And you're their figure skater kid?'

'Their kid who used to be a figure skater.'

'Huh,' said Anjuli. 'It's weird that they didn't try to force you into a business career.'

'Nah, it's not weird at all. They're like Do whatever you like as long as you're happy. Goes for my brother as well.'

Anjuli grinned.

'Brother, eh? Is he here too?'

'No, he graduated college years ago. He's a freelance web designer now.'

'Cool. Is he hot?'

Jubilee stared.

'He's my brother.'

'Ok, fine. Introduce us when he comes by, will you?'

'Whatever,' mumbled Jubilee. 'So what's this thing all about?' she asked, opening the folder.

'You mean they didn't tell you?'

'Tell me what?'

'It's career month.'

'And?'

'And we fill out these tests today, receive results by the end of the week, then the next three weeks will be full of seminars and stuff for the careers we've got aptitudes for. We can also do short internships if we want to, and if we get selected. It's actually pretty neat.'

'Huh,' said Jubilee, picking up a pen. 'It is. Let's see what I get.'