A World Apart

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Chapter 11



A few minutes later I was on my way to my psych class with my brother, Rhea. He was staring at his map and looking at the yellow and blue buildings as we walked side by side on the sidewalk. Each building had a big letter on it, showing which division of classes it contained. The campus looked like a bunch of fraternity houses with the strange lettering on them.



"I think this is it," He said, pointing to building in front of us with a big H on it," Yeah, I think this is it. You ready?"



"As ready as I\'ll ever be," I said and opened the door to the building.



We walked inside to a tiny lobby with a few seats. I noticed that there were doors leading to classrooms and numbers on the doors. We walked past the doors one at a time 01, 02, 03, 04 and then we began to wonder how long it would take to get to 12. The little house looking structure was only so big.



"It must be upstairs or even on the third level. Do you think?"



He nodded," Let\'s try it."



So I led us upstairs to the second level, but still no luck, so we went up the final set of steps and found the room on the very last story at the end of the hallway.



"12H. This is it. Are you ready for psychology, Rave?" He asked with a grin and then opened the door.



The moment we entered I thought we were in the wrong room. Large pillows were scattered around the floor and there wasn\'t a desk in sight, except for the big one in the corner. A few people were sitting down on the floor chatting and looked up when we entered.



A young woman in her late twenties looked up at us," Are you Raven and Rhea the new guys?"



We nodded and she smiled kindly," Well, you made it to the right place. We\'ve been expecting you."



"Are we late?" I asked, suddenly, realizing that we may have been.



She shook her head," No. Right on time. Why don\'t you go take a seat over there on one of the pillows. I\'m going to take role and then you can introduce yourselves. You\'re brothers, correct?"



We nodded and then found some deserted black and red pillows on the ground. She took role quickly, calling out names of about seventeen kids, including us.



"Okay, Raven and Rhea, my name\'s Charla Neil. I\'ll be your teacher for this class. You can just call me Charla, is fine. Why don\'t you tell us a bit about yourselves?" She said, and adjusted her red glasses and perched off the top of her desk.



"Um, my name\'s Rhea Baker. I\'m twenty. This is my brother Raven, he\'s 22. We\'re from Everton, IL which is just a normal human population. We didn\'t even know that this place existed!"



"What do you mean you didn\'t know it existed?" She asked.



I looked out into the crowd of kids watching us. Most were huddled into groups on the ground.



"We always thought it was some kind of myth, you know? It wasn\'t until Raven got beat up really badly one night and we had to take him to the hospital. We didn\'t want to take him to Everton\'s hospital, because we didn\'t think they\'d accept a cat, so dad wanted to take him here. And, we decided to buy a house here and everything. It was so strange coming into a town full of cats, because we hadn\'t seen any other cats except for our own family before!"



"Is it a lot different here?" One of the girls asked.



"Much different," I replied, glancing in her direction," The people are so different and the buildings look different. It\'s amazing that I\'m still in the same state. It seems more like a new planet, really."



"How did they treat you there? Did they care that you were a cat?" Another girl asked.



"Most people just kind of ignored it, even though they knew we were cats. They were kind of wary of us. And even though humans are bigger than us - taller I mean- some were even scared of us."



"They\'re bigger?"



"Just by a little," Rhea said and leaned back onto the pillow," It feels kind of weird, getting all these questions."



"Well, most of us don\'t know much about the human lifestyle. How is that?" Charla asked.



"They are so used to the hustle and bustle of the world. They aren\'t very patient, always running around. Here it is much more relaxed, not as stressful. Humans don\'t take very good care of themselves either. They eat so much junk food, yet strive on appearance. They think beauty is the only thing matters."



We continued talking for a while about the differences between humans and felines. Our teacher allowed it, only because she said it \'Aided the psychology of our young minds\'. I think she was interested too. School had already been in session for a few months, so we came right in the middle of the year.



I went onto my next class, math, after a while and sailed through it. My teacher said that it might be difficult in the beginning, but if I needed help, I should ask for it. I was thankful for that, because I knew I would need help. I found that most teachers teach the class as a whole, but give out individual assignments, based on where your strengths and weaknesses lie.



On my way to my third class I spotted loads of kids going to lunch and realized those with A lunch were younger than me.



"Rave!" Someone yelled.



I turned when I heard my name and saw Ren hurrying towards me," Hey. How\'s it going?"



"Okay so far. I\'m off to anatomy and I\'m hoping we don\'t have to dissect any cats," I explained.



He waved his hand," Doubt that. My classes have all been pretty good so far. I introduced myself in all my classes and they\'re all so laid back. Have you noticed that? The teachers are all pretty young and nice. I like it here."



"You have lunch this hour, right?" I asked.



"Yeah. I\'m waiting for Robin. What are you going to do about lunch?" He asked and then started digging around in his bag," Oh, mom made you a sandwich. Here you go."



I accepted the sandwich he gave me wrapped in plastic wrap," What is it?"



"Tuna. Duh. Can\'t you smell it? Here\'s some water to go with it," He said, tossing me a cold water bottle.



"Alright. Thanks Ren. I\'d better go to my next class or I\'m going to be late."



"Okay. See ya later. Where are we meeting after school?" He asked.



I shrugged ," I don\'t know. Robin and I have the same last hour class, so look for us. We\'ll be around."



I started walking the other way," But Rave...there\'s like millions of kids in this school, how am I gonna find you guys?"



"Look!" I yelled back, glancing at my watch and hurrying towards the next building.



The science classes were on the other side of the campus, so it took a while to get to the building. I\'m glad I had left when I did. My classroom was on the second floor. When I entered, I didn\'t know where to sit, so I found a comfortable looking chair in the corner. I\'m usually not a shy person, but I do keep to myself. However, I was feeling incredibly out of place among the rest of the rowdy kids my age.



I noticed one person I did know. It wasn\'t any of my brothers, but instead, it was Logan. He had came in with a group of his friends. Two girls had followed him in and he was in a lively conversation with them. I had hoped he wouldn\'t notice me, but of course he did.



"Hey, Raven. You can sit with us if you want," He offered, giving me a warm smile.



I shook my head," No, it\'s okay. I wouldn\'t want to intrude."



And, it was true. I\'d even feel out of place with a group of people who welcomed me.



"Is this because I\'m gay? Cause you\'ve got to get over that. I promise we don\'t bite...or claw or hiss or scratch. Well, usually I don\'t... So get over here!"



I must have looked embarrassed for a moment, because he just laughed, “Seriously, why don\'t you just sit with us? I don\'t think you want to sit by yourself anyway."



So finally I did get up and joined his little circle of "happy people". The class was starting a new chapter, so I had to borrow some paper and a pencil to take notes as the teacher presented the first section over the projector. Coincidentally, we were learning about feline habitats and adaptation.



By the end of the period, my stomach was growling. I didn\'t realize that getting up early would make me hungry earlier too. When 11o\'clock rolled around, we were excused from the class. I was planning on just eating alone, but Logan kind of followed me out the door.



"Hey. You can eat with us too, you know. We don\'t just let you into the group and make you sit by yourself the next hour. I\'m going to go through the line and get some food and then we\'ll probably sit on the couches by the window in the cafeteria, alright?" He said, finally catching up to me as I hurriedly made my way to the cafeteria.