A World Apart

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Chapter 10 - Orientation



The young man opened the glass door and came in," Sorry Ms. Weaver. I almost forgot about this, until Brennan mentioned he had met the \'new guys\' this morning."



"Very well then. I\'m just glad your here. This is Raven, Rhea, Robin, and Ren Baker. They each have a copy of their schedules, if you\'d like to take them around to their classrooms before second hour," She said before going back to her desk to answer a ringing phone.



"Alright," He said, turning towards us happily," I\'ve never done this before, so if you have any questions, just ask."



We nodded and followed him out the door. He seemed pretty nice, actually reminding me of Rhea. A tall, yet wide set of dark brown ears sat upon his head along and he had a long striped brown tail. One of his ears had a rather large white spot on it. He had auburn colored hair and honey colored eyes. I was so grateful that the guys and the girls that went to my school did, indeed, wear the peasant shirt style along with stylish boot cut jeans.



"Well, I guess I\'ll take you to the cafeteria area first. It\'s where a lot of people go in the morning, at lunch, and after school. It\'s also where your lockers are," He explained and lead us across the cool grass into a long, one story building with many windows.



The place was really nice. We were greeted by a large lounge area complete with several sets of couches and tables. I noticed a game table to our left and a few bookshelves to our right. It was very homey and comfortable and decorated with bright colors.



"This is where you can hang out after you eat or if you want to talk with your friends in the morning. There\'s also a smaller room to the other side with a small library in it. It has mostly reference material, for if you\'re writing a paper or something, but I\'d suggest the city library. It\'s much bigger," Logan said.



"Oh, I know. I\'ve been there already. I love it!" Robin piped up and snuck into the little library.



We moved on into another much larger room. Different sized tables and chairs decorated the room and I could see straight outside through the big windows.



"This is the cafeteria. You can go through the line if you like. They have a different kind of food every day and it\'s pretty good and pretty cheap. It\'s usually what I do. Some of my friends bring their own food from home and there are some vending machines out in the lobby by the couches, too. It\'s really up to you," Logan said, "So, what lunches do you all have?"



"I have B lunch. Does that mean anything?" I said, holding onto my paper.



"That means you\'ll have lunch after third hour, and if you have A, then you\'ll have it after your second hour."



"Rave? You have B lunch? We all have A!" Ren said," You\'re going to have to eat by yourself."



I nodded slowly, angry with whoever gave the opposite schedule of my brothers and then suddenly thinking that that was a really immature thought.



"I\'ll be fine," I said.



"I have to show you your lockers, too," Logan said.



So, we walked outside and went to the backside of the building. I noticed little cubby holes in the side of the wall. There was a hole on top and on bottom and tiny numbers etched into them.



"These are the lockers, for if you bring a jacket in winter or if you have books from the library or whatever. Sometimes you can store food in here or whatever you have. You share part of the locker with your locker buddy either on top or on bottom of your own," He said.



I noticed that there wasn\'t much in the lockers at this time, only a few books here and there and some water bottles.



"I actually became really good friends with my locker buddy. Maybe you will too," He said.



"So, when\'s the best time to go to the lockers if we need to?" Rhea asked, and began looking for his own locker.



"Most people come in the morning and pick their stuff up after school."



"How long are the classes? And how long do we have for lunch?" I asked.



We began walking again, towards one of the big yellow buildings that looked like a house.



"Well, the classes are usually about an hour each. There are no bells. We just go by the clock or whenever our professor lets us out. Lunch is an hour too. So, you have plenty of time to eat and hang out. Sometimes people will start softball games or something outside. You might see people reading or doing homework," He said and opened the door for us to go inside the building.



"We have homework?" I asked with a frown.



He smiled a bit, "Yeah. You\'ll have homework. But, the teachers are pretty much aware of when, say in Comp. 1, you have a big paper due. So, the other teachers shouldn\'t give you so much homework at those times. Although the campus seems big, it really isn\'t. You\'ll get used to it pretty quickly. Homework isn\'t that bad either. You\'ll have plenty of opportunities to get it finished, especially since we can\'t get jobs until we graduate."



"What?" Rhea asked in complete shock," We can\'t get jobs?"



He shook his head," No one\'s going to hire a kid still in school."



"But how are we supposed to pay for stuff?" Ren asked.



"Pay for what?"



Good question. They didn\'t drive cars, so that was a big expense out of the way. I had seen in the stores that common electronics weren\'t that expensive. CD\'s were about half the price they were in Everton, which was surprising. I guess that there really wasn\'t much too expensive.



"Umm...I don\'t know. Stuff," Was my little brother\'s intelligent reply.



"Well, right now I\'ve been volunteering in the community. Not only does it look good on a resume for when you do get a job, but my parents pay me an allowance depending on how many hours I volunteer during the week. So I am getting a little money for clothes and CD\'s and stuff. It works for me," Logan said with a shrug.



"I still don\'t get it," I said, thinking out loud," Why do we have to go to school so long?"



"The classes you sign up for will help you get ready to go into whatever your future job will be. I\'m going into business. I\'d like to work for a corporation someday, so right now I\'m taking a lot of business, accounting, and computer classes to help get me ready for that. People around here, in Kingsdale, will hire you mostly depending on your senior transcripts. So, you have to pick out classes that you will benefit from the most, as well as do well in. And, you want to also do a little volunteer work, so you can get some references."



"Where are we going now?" Robin asked.



"This is the arts and humanities building. I just want to show you around here, since we have a little more time. The Advanced Art class is doing sculptures upstairs. They\'re really good, too," Logan said and began climbing up the stairs to the second level.



I was expecting it to look like a classroom upstairs with a hallway and all, but it was just the opposite. A paint colored and clay splattered plastic covering protected and floor. Easels were set up near the windows. Tables were set out with newspaper on them and several sculptures were set to dry. I noticed they were exceptional pieces of art, such as sculptures of people or plants and all sorts of things. The room was empty of people and contained only art on the walls, on tables, everywhere.



"This is amazing!" Robin said, running his hand over an easel," They\'re beautiful. I\'m taking an art class too. I\'m so glad I signed up for one!"



"I took an art class a few years ago, but I suck in art, so I didn\'t do so well," Logan said quite bluntly and made me laugh.



He looked over in my direction and smiled in an amused way.



"Well, the regular classrooms are downstairs, but this is where the real work is done," Logan explained," So what other kind of classes are you guys taking? I could answer any questions you have about them."



Ren took a quick look at his paper he had been carrying around," What about this Plan for the Future class? What\'s that all about? I thought it would be interesting, but it didn\'t have much of a description."



"I\'ve never taken it, but I hear it\'s pretty cool. Your professor and classmates share their ideas about what you think the future will hold in all sorts of different fields, from education to relationships. It deals with technological advancements to the environment. I think you\'ll probably do a lot of online research in that class, but there are also a lot of classroom discussions along with it. What teacher do you have?"



He looked down at the paper," Hine."



"Oh, he\'s good. He teaches a history class here, too."



"This is so strange. I just graduated high school this year, and now I\'m going back!" Robin said.



"I don\'t know much about the other school you went to, but wasn\'t it hard? Being with all those humans?"



Ren, who was currently staring out the window laughed," It\'s all we\'ve ever known. It was never weird being with the humans. It\'s weird being here - with you."



"I like it here...a lot," Robin said softly, looking at me for a second.



"You don\'t need to tell him why," I muttered.



"And why not?" Robin suddenly snapped at me," Do you think I\'m so insecure that I wouldn\'t tell a stranger. I told you, didn\'t I?"



Even Ren turned around suddenly. It wasn\'t everyday you heard that tone of voice from Robin. He was usually had a quiet, modest personality. He was staring at me now, those intense blue eyes focused on my own. They had slanted to a crescent and he looked angry.



"Robin..."



"I thought you were okay with it. I know it was a shock when I first told you, but I thought you had gotten over it! You were fine and didn\'t say a word about it when we went shopping. Why\'d you have to bring it up now?" He said loudly and tilted his head," Don\'t you know how it makes me feel? You\'re my brother. You\'re the one person I was counting on to respect me. You don\'t even have to support it, just respect it-"



"You\'re gay, aren\'t you?" Logan said, through a yawn.



The room was dead silent. No one would have guessed a stranger would have picked up on the fact so easily. He looked at us innocently and shrugged.



"What\'s the problem? Is it some secret no one was supposed to know?"



Robin\'s eyes nearly boggled out of his head," How\'d you know?" He whispered.



Before even giving Logan a chance to speak, he continued," You can\'t tell anybody, okay? Only my family knows it. I don\'t want other people to know it."



"Why not? What\'s the big deal? I\'m gay and no one cares. Is that-"



He must have noticed the shocked expression I gave him and stared at me," Oh, God. Do you have to stare at me like that? Usually people are okay with it. They deal and they\'re usually pretty friendly. Apparently you have no idea how many people like that are in this school. You\'d be surprised how many there actually are. You might not even pick up on some - they can be discreet. However, Robin, you are not very discreet. I have never seen style like that before!"



I scoffed and I did notice Robin blushed.



"Is this one of those family problems? Well, what can I do here?" Logan said, raising an eyebrow.



Suddenly he pushed me closer to my little brother and I heard Robin say "What are you doing?" quickly.



"Okay, this is what we\'re going to do. Tell him that you’re sorry and that you love him for who he is. You shouldn\'t make a person feel bad like this, Raven. I can see it," Logan said with his hand still on my back and he was holding onto Robin\'s arm.



I just stood there and Logan pushed me forward," Just give him a hug. He\'s your brother...not a slimy rat out of the sewer!"



I couldn\'t believe I was in this predicament, but for some reason I just couldn\'t move away. It was either the fact that I didn\'t want any confrontation from Logan or the fact that I didn\'t want to hurt my brother. I finally responded, after just staring at him for a while.



" Robin, I...I do respect you. This has just been hard, you know. It\'s not what I\'ve been taught. I think that in the back of my mind I always knew the truth, but when you came out and said it, It was a total shock - just hearing it. I just...I think it might take some time. I\'m sorry if I hurt you, because I didn\'t mean to," I said softly.



He looked as if he was going to start crying. In one swift motion he had his arms clasped tightly around my neck," Thank you."



Finally I let my arms fall around his shoulders and let him hold me.



"Rave...I always thought...I always thought you hated me. I wish you would have just talked to me about this. I didn\'t know you felt that way. I mean, you’re my big brother and I want your respect more than anything else in the world," He released me after a moment.



"Wow. Family moment," Logan said suddenly.



Rhea was just grinning and suddenly approached us, wrapping his arms around our shoulders," Glad you two finally made up. You okay Robby? I\'m sure you are. Guys, we\'ve got class to go to."



And the day went on.