“I still can’t believe he’s your roommate,” Bella said, shaking her head.

“What can I say,” Ethan responded looking over at her. “I’m known for my astonishingly good luck.”

They were seated in cushy seats of the filled theater auditorium waiting for the welcoming ceremony to begin with the rest of the Hinan Academy student body. The theater like everything else at the academy was top notch and could have easily passed for a professional theater. The seats were all red velvet and cushioned in the most comfortable way while the part of the stage they could see had an extremely polished hardwood floor.

After the events in the dining hall Bella went with Ethan while he took his books up to the dormroom where blessedly Alex was absent. Technically she waited outside of Salamander House for him since she wasn’t actually allowed inside but this was good enough for Ethan. He wasn’t quite sure if he could have faced his room alone without her support.

If there was one good thing about coming to Hinan Academy it was meeting Bella. She seemed to be a genuinely good person who was in a similar situation to his and even put his needs before hers. He noticed when he got back out of his dorm that her eyes were red and puffy as if she’d been crying but like the usual idiot he was he couldn’t come up with anything to say to comfort her, so he kept his mouth shut.

From there they’d gone to the theater for the welcoming ceremony where they both found two inconspicuous seats near the back hoping to draw as little attention to themselves as possible.

“Still, I’m really sorry Ethan,” Bella said. “My roommate in Wildcat House was nothing like that when I met her. She’s a pretty blonde girl named Jenny who seemed to be pretty sweet if very busy.”

“When I met Alex he barely stopped playing his video game to look at me,” Ethan muttered sourly. “It’s not right what he said about you, I should have punched him for that.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Bella replied smiling at him. “You’d have been in big trouble for sure if you punched him with all those people around. Still, I appreciate the sentiment, it sounds like something one of my brothers would have done.”

Ethan was just trying to think of a response when the lights around the auditorium dimmed and the stage lit up. A tall middle-aged Japanese man strolled toward the solitary podium set up on the middle of the stage.

“Hinan Academy welcome,” he said. “For those of you who don’t know, I am Joseph Tanaka the principal of this school and it was my grandfather Satoshi Tanaka who founded Hinan Academy back in 1955.”

A couple students in front of Ethan groaned while one of them whispered, “Time for Tanaka’s history lesson.”

“Like we could forget,” Another student shot back. “He tells the same story every year.”

“Back in the late 1940’s when my grandfather and other Japanese-American refugees from the Manzanar internment camp found this beautiful enclave they knew they had found a safe place for them and their families, a refuge if you will and so they settled and created a town called Hinan. My grandfather didn’t want to just create a refuge for people, he also wanted to create a refuge for learning and thus the idea of Hinan Academy was born. It would take him quite a few years and the help of a village to make it happen, but in 1955 the first classes were started.”

“How long did it take him to build?” a giggling student whispered while another answered, “Apparently several years, I had no idea.”

This was met by appreciative laughter from the students around them.

In less than five years the Academy would go from being relatively unknown to being the preeminent secondary school on the west coast,” Tanaka droned on. “This didn’t just happen, but was made possible by the drive to excellent and passion for learning of this community. By 1965 the town was renamed to Misty Oaks and a tunnel was blasted through the mountains to allow for easier commuting to the school by the influx of students coming from all over the country.”

“Hey Matt would you say you have a right to attend Hinan Academy?” a boy in the row ahead of Ethan whispered drawing more laughs from the kids around him.

“I tell you all of these because you don’t have a right to attend Hinan Academy,” Tanka said as if to answer the students question. “Going to school here is a privilege. You have been blessed with the opportunity for one of the finest educations in the world because of the sacrifices of those that came before you. Make sure you make the most of it.”

Polite clapping met these remarks along with a few snickers. Evidently the history lesson was over, though it did explain a few things Ethan had been curious about such as the name of the school.

“With the start of a new school year please remember that you are here first and foremost for your studies,” Tanaka said. “While I am reminding you that clubs will be recruiting this week and tryouts for fall sports are next week you need to maintain at least a three point zero GPA to participate in this extra-curricular activities. So please do you best in the classroom so you can make the most out of your time here. The schedule for both will be posted outside of the dining hall.”

A three point zero GPA to participate in outside activities Ethan thought. That seemed way too high. Surely as long as he wasn’t failing he should be allowed to partake in other things. Apparently Hinan was really serious about its students academic performance.

“Speaking of athletics,” Tanaka continued. “We play Carmel in varsity football at home on October 24th this year and I expect all of you to be there. We need every one of you to cheer on our boys because I don’t think I can stand looking at that principal’s smug face if we lose again. Beat Carmel!”

This drew an eruption of cheers from the audience and a few students even stood up to clap. Tanaka smiled looking pleased with the response he was getting from this compared to his history lesson earlier.

“Most of you are too young to know this,” Tanaka said, “but the rivalry between Caramel and Hinan Academy grew so fierce in the 1970s that several Carmel students came south and threw sticks of dynamite over the mountains just to the north of our school. Of course Hinan students being brighter, lit them and threw them back.”

A round of appreciative laughter and applause followed this joke. Ethan even found himself chuckling a little.

“Alright, I’ve droned on long enough,” Tanaka said quieting the crowd. “Just one more reminder and then I’ll get you out of here so you can all get a good night sleep before your first classes in the morning. Please remember to treat the dining hall employees with the same respect you treat any of the teaching staff with. These are the folks that work hard to keep you all fed. We had several incidents last year of which I won’t go into the details of, but please be respectful. Besides Hinan students are supposed to be smart. The best of the best as we always say and how smart is it to mess with the people preparing your food?”

He paused after he said this in order to give a stern look to the audience causing Ethan to wonder exactly what students did last year to warrant this reprimand.

“Now then have a wonderful term and hit your studies hard starting tomorrow,” Tanaka finished dismissing the crowd.

Students began standing up and filing out of the theater. Ethan and Bella got in line behind some older students that were sitting next to them and made their way slowly to the theater entrance and out on the darkening campus.

They split up once they reached the quad with Ethan going straight towards Salamander House and Bella turning left toward Wildcat House. Ethan was hoping he could beat Alex to the room and fall asleep before the other kid got back but he wasn’t going to hold his breath about it.

The next morning the alarm went off way too early. While Ethan did beat Alex back to the bedroom he didn’t fall asleep before the other boy got back and Alex then proceeded to play videogames loudly on the TV until around one in the morning. Ethan wanted to scream at him but figured that would only give Alex the satisfaction of knowing he was keeping Ethan awake. Instead Ethan only pretended to sleep, not actually falling asleep until sometime between one and two A.M. once Alex finally went to bed.

Exhausted he got out of bed and shut the alarm off before making his way to the bathroom where he took a lukewarm shower trying to bring himself out of the zombie like state he was in. It didn’t work, but he did get ready in time throwing his two biology books, his health book, his gym clothes, and a couple notebooks in his backpack before setting off for his homeroom which was in Hinan hall.

Homeroom, as it turned out, was completely pointless in Ethan’s opinion. The instructor took roll and there were some pointless announcements over the intercom system, but he couldn’t really figure out why they just couldn’t do this in his first class of the day. He spent almost the entirety of the ten minute period using his backpack as a pillow before he then had to get up and walk across the quad to Tanaka Hall.

Biology, which was his first real class was taught by an older teacher named Mr. Thorton. He may have looked old but he more than made up for it with exuberance about the subject matter in which he taught.

When the class didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm he frowned and reminded them that they needed to get a good night sleep before class or they would end up falling behind. A place red haired boy with bangs hanging over his eyebrows asked how they were expected to sleep on those pieces of paper the school called mattresses drawing some laughter.

“And what is your name?” Thorton asked him.

“Gavin, Gavin Lloyd,” the boy replied not looking the least bit concerned.

“Well Gavin, I suppose like all animals that survive you’ll just have to adapt,” Thorton lectured. “As Charles Darwin once said it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.”

“If I’ve got to adapt to that mattress you might as well bury me now,” Gavin muttered drawing a few more laughs.

“That actually is a great example of natural selection,” Thorton went on not letting Gavin dampen his mood in the slightest. “Those Gavins out there who don’t adapt will die off whilst those in the species that do adapt will produce more offspring and pass on stronger genetic traits to them ultimately making the species stronger.”

“If producing offspring is part of the equation, I’d say I picked the better side,” Gavin quipped. “I mean have you met the terrible kids that go to this school? No thank you.”

More laughter followed this statement and even Thorton gave an appreciatory chuckle.

“Now that brings us to tonight’s homework,” Thorton said eying the clock which was already nearing the end of class. “I want you to do the questions on page thirty two all of the odd numbers between one and thirty-nine. We will go over them in class on Saturday.”

“Do I need to do them,” Gavin asked. “I mean if I’m not adapting there’s really no need to do the homework right?”

“You can skip the homework Mr. Lloyd if your failure to adapt has killed you before Saturday,” Mr. Thorton said, “otherwise I expect it to be done even by you.”

With that said, the bell rang and Ethan hurriedly wrote down homework before packing his bag and making for the exit. Next he had P.E. which was the class Ethan was looking forward to the most. Not only was it the easiest class in his opinion but he thought of himself as fairly athletic even if he wasn’t very big in statue.

Reaching the gym, where the class was, He found a group of freshmen, including Bella, standing around waiting for their instructor. Next to bella was a beautiful blonde girl with green eyes and her hair in a ponytail. The girl was thin with a small chest and delicate arms.

“Hey, looks like we’re in the same P.E. class,” Ethan said walking up next to Bella.

“Oh hey Ethan,” Bella said smiling at him. “I was hoping we’d be in some of the same classes. This is Jenny by the way.”

“Hello,” Jenny said smiling a perfect smile at him.

At this moment the world froze and Ethan could feel his heart thumping in his chest. She was way too pretty. Almost perfect in every way.

“Hey,” Ethan said hoping he wasn’t blushing.

“What are you?” Ethan heard a familiar masculine voice ask.

Turning he found Gavin eyeing a tall athletic girl with brown hair, freckles, and a fairly large bust up and down.

“I’m Quincy, Quin for short,” the girl said looking down at Gavin.

“Jesus, I didn’t realize they were letting professional athletes in class with us,” Gavin replied. “Try not to kill me. I don’t really do this whole sportyball thing.”

Quin snorted a small laugh and said, “No promises.”

“Alright, alright enough standing around,” a stern-faced woman with short spiky blonde hair said jogging up to the group. “I’m Miss, not misses, Rockfort and I’ll be your P.E. instructor. From now on when you get here I want you to go straight to the locker rooms in the back and change into your P.E. clothes. For today, I’ll give you a pass since its your first day of classes. Now get a move on.”

She barked the last part of this more than said it causing Ethan and a couple other students to jump. Moving quickly the boys made their way into their locker room where they changed into their athletic attire and stowed their school uniforms and backpacks in empty lockers.

Returning to the main part of the gymnasium, Ethan found Ms. Rockfort bouncing a soccer ball impatiently on the floor. It took a couple more minutes for most of the girls to join them though Quin was exceptional quick.

Bella looked self-conscious in her gym uniform which looked even more undersized for her than her school uniform had, but Jenny on the other hand looked amazing in hers. Ethan gulped and thanked whatever god had decided to bless him by placing him in the same P.E. class has her.

“I think that’s everyone,” Rockfort said. “Today we’re playing the beautiful game of soccer so divide up evenly down the middle there.”

She motioned as if to chop the crowd of students in half as she said this and they split apart with one group forming up around Quin and Ethan’s group forming up around a tall asian boy he didn’t know.

“You lot are red,” she said to Ethan’s group, “and you lot are blue. You’ll find the vests sitting on the bleachers over there. Go grab one and throw one on and then follow me over to the soccer field.”

Doing as they were told, each student picked up a vest and threw it on over their shirts before following Rockfort as she marched them out of the gym, across the quad, past the boys dorms, and to the soccer field.

“I assume all of you know how to play soccer?” Rockfort asked.

Most of the students nodded their assent but Gavin muttered, “Not really.”

For a moment Ethan thought she was going to ignore it but then she went into a very fast and very annoyed explanation of soccer and the rules. Luckily for Ethan he already knew how to play the game, as he played it growing up in Fresno.

When she finished, Gavin who was on Ethan’s team said, “I’ve got dibs on goalie.”

This suited Ethan just fine as everyone knew goalie was the most boring position on the field to play. You hardly got to play at all in that position.

“Now get out there, red you start with the ball,” Ms. Rockfort ordered pointing at the center circle.

Ethan and his teammates as well as Quin and hers walked out onto the field. Quin in particular looked especially calm and confident like she was used to this. She wouldn’t be so confident after he was finished with her. Ethan, after all, had been pretty decent at soccer, and this was the perfect opportunity to show off a little bit for Jenny.

“Are you ready?” the tall asian kid asked to Ethan while standing over the ball.

“Yes,” Ethan answered staring confidently back.

“I’m Li by the way,” he said nodding.

“I’m Ethan, nice to meet you,” Ethan replied smiling.

“What are you doing, start already,” Rockfort barked and then muttered, “Standing around chatting like a bunch of schoolgirls honestly.”

Li kicked the ball to Ethan and they were off. Ethan took it and dribbled around a short boy in a blue vest that was bearing down on him before kicking it out wide to Bella. Unfortunately Bella didn’t seem to have a clue with what she was doing and just stood there looking petrified before Quin snatched the ball away from her like it was nothing.

Quin athletic looks weren’t just for show because she deftly dribbled through three of Ethan’s teammates like they weren’t even their and then slotted the ball into the empty net scoring for her team. The net was empty because Gavin, who was supposed to be keeping goal, was simply leaning up against a post looking like he was above the whole thing.

“Quin, nicely done,” Rockfort called. “Make sure you try out for the women’s soccer team next week. Gavin, if you don’t at least try to stop the ball I’m going to take points away from your grade.”

“Oh I’m supposed to stop the ball?” Gavin asked. “I thought I was just supposed to make sure the goal didn’t fall over.”

“Don’t give me that,” Rockfort said staring daggers at him. “Red lets go again. Chop chop.”

We lined up again and Li kicked the ball to Ethan again where he dribbled around not one but two opposing players before passing it back over to Li this time. As much as Ethan liked Bella, now that he’d seen how she played, he didn’t trust her with the ball. Li used his size to push past another defender before trying to pass the ball back to Ethan but it was intercepted before Ethan go get it.

The boy who intercepted it passed it up the middle to a red-haired girl who looked like she wanted nothing to do with this game. Jenny haphazardly tried to take the ball away from her but without any conviction the red head held onto it passing it back to a hispanic boy.

Inwardly sighing Ethan ran back up the pitch figuring his team was probably going to need his help on defense with the way this was going. Right as he reached midfield the hispanic boy passed it over to Quin.

Oh no you don’t, Ethan thought charging her. This time I’m going to stop you myself. Two of his teammates were lining up to intercept her but sprinting Ethan reached her first. He tried to go shoulder to shoulder with her but as she had a few inches on him he ended up closer to her elbow than her shoulder. Still he tried to push her off of the ball, but she was strong and felt solid, far more solid than he expected.

Without warning she suddenly lowered herself and jerked into him. Ethan found center of gravity suddenly shift from his middle to somewhere over his left leg and he knew he was in trouble. His right leg came up and he fell sideways turning his face at the last moment and catching a face full of grass as he crashed into the ground.

Spitting out grass he looked up just in time to catch Quin scoring her second goal. She walked back over to Ethan and held her out for him to help him up. Ethan stared up at her stupid face gritting his teeth inside his mouth and could just see Jenny over her shoulder with the slighest of smirks on her face.

“Nice try, you almost had me there,” Quin said as Ethan begrudgingly took her hand and allowed her to help him to his feet.

“Ethan you’ve got to trust your teammates, you can’t do everything by yourself,” Rockfort lectured from the sidelines. “Also it’s never a smart idea to try an out muscle someone bigger and stronger than yourself.”

He scowled feeling completely humiliated and decided in that moment that he hated Quin. He didn’t care that she was bigger than he was, she was still a girl and he shouldn’t have lost to a girl. Worse than that she’d made him look like an idiot in front of Jenny and the rest of the students in his class.

The game continued this way for the rest of class. Ethan did manage to score a couple goals and Li got another one, but with the rest of his team being incompetant and Quin on the other team they stood no chance. With the score at 15-3 Rockfort called a stop to it and sent them back to the gym to change.

“Good job out there man,” Li said slapping Ethan on the back.

“Thanks, you too,” Ethan said even though he was still grumbling in his head about how easily Quin managed to outplay him.

After he’d finished changing and came back out into the gym Rockfort pulled him aside for a second and told him that he might want to consider trying out for the men’s soccer team. She said he’d have a real shot at making JV. She also told him not to beat himself up over losing to Quin because that girl was going to be a star. This just irritated Ethan more.

Still he managed to keep his composure long enough to tell her that he would think about trying out for the team before he headed out of the gym for lunch. On his way out the door when no one was looking he punched the door letting out his frustration. This was how he arrived at the dining hall with a very sore left hand.

At lunch he sat with Bella and Jenny mostly not speaking because of his sour mood. When Bella asked him what was wrong he mumbled that he hurt his hand during the soccer game. Bella, being the kind person she was, proceeded to go get some ice wrapped in paper towels for him to put on his sore hand. This more than anything else brought him out of his funk and told him what a dolt he was being.

Jenny, as it turned out, was from San Francisco and spent her whole life going to elite schools. She was rich, but for some reason in her case it didn’t seem to bother Ethan. She also had her entire life path planned out already. She was going to go to medical school and become a world-class surgeon and then marry a doctor or lawyer. Ethan decided that he should probably look into those career paths just in case he might be interested in them.

After lunch Ethan went to his health class where Ethan knew noone except for Alex, much to his annoyance. When he arrived at his classroom he found there was already someone bullying but to his surprise it wasn’t Alex, who was sitting quietly in the back reading his textbook.

Instead a very large boy with curly blonde hair was looming over a smaller boy’s desk.

“Tony, I can’t believe they let you in this school,” the blonde boy said. “How can your parents even afford to pay for it? Did they have to sell their home, or are you now so poor that you’re a shipper?”

“Shut up Stewart,” Tony snapped back at him. “I can’t believe you actually were able to pass St. Catherine’s with good enough grades to get in here.”

Stewart’s face went red in reaction to this and he shoved the desk in front of him back into Tony’s chest causing the other boy to recoil.

“Yeah that’s what I thought,” Stewart said smirking down over a grimacing Tony.

“Leave him alone,” Ethan said loudly from right next to Stewart who was much, much bigger than he was from up close.

Before he’d even realized it, Ethan found his legs carrying over to where this confrontation was going on. There was no way he was going to stand by and watch this, not with the mood he was in today.

Turning and looking Ethan up and down Stewart let out a laugh saying, “Look at this tough guy here. You got yourself a knight in shining armor here Tony.”

“I’m serious,” Ethan said staring up into the other boy’s eyes. “Leave him alone.”

“I’m touched by how much you care about your boyfriend,” Stewart said, “but I don’t think I’m going to listen to a twerp like you.”

“I’ll make you stop if you if you won’t,” Ethan said softly and by this point most of the room around them went quiet with the other students all stopping to watch in case a fight broke out.

“You are going to threaten me?” Stewart said completely turning to face Ethan and pushing his chest out. “First you butt into a conversation that doesn't concern you and then you threaten me. Just who do you think you are?”

“I’m Ethan Russell,” Ethan answered, “and I don’t like people who act like you.”

“Well Ethan, you’ve made a big mistake,” Stewart said rolling his neck like his was stretching it before a fight. “Cause I’m going to kick your…”

He was cut off suddenly by the teacher walking in and asking, “Boys what is this? I hope I’m not going to have to give out some detentions on the first day of school.”

“It’s nothing,” Stewart said smiling over at the teacher. “We were just introducing ourselves to each other. New school and all you know.”

“Indeed,” the teacher said sounding like he didn’t believe it. “Find your seats before I change my mind. “I’m Mr. Flintski and this is Health I. Please open your books up to page three where we will begin today.”

The rest of the class proceeded in the most boring manner imaginable. Ethier health was a really boring subject, which was Ethan’s guess, or Mr. Flintski was not a very interesting teacher. Regardless Ethan spent most of the class staring at Stewart thinking about how he would approach a fight with the other kid. He decided that getting behind him, climbing his back, and putting his neck in a chokehold would probably be the most effective method for fighting someone so much larger than him.

Ethan hardly noticed when the bell rang ending class and got up and left the classroom with his thoughts still on the fight. He was so focused in fact that he didn’t even notice Stweart approach him until the other boy slammed the books out of his hands and hip check him sideways into the wall. Ethan’s healthbook and notebook went flying while Stewart walked away laughing forcefully.

Red anger flashed through Ethan’s eyes and all he wanted to do was tackle and attack the other boy, but before Ethan could act Stewart disappeared into the crowd of students making their way to the final classes of the day.

It took Ethan almost the entire five minutes between classes before he could pick up both of his book and notebook because of the students in his way. He was only halfway across the quad heading for Hinan hall when the bell rang. Great now he was late for drawing and painting on his first day. That wasn’t going to go over well with the instructor.

Moving swiftly he burst into Hinan hall and headed for the basement where he presumed classroom B09 would be. The basement was in worse condition that the rest of the building and desperately in need of some updating. The lighting overhead was particularly poor and made it hard to read the plaques on the doors.

This is B08 he thought standing in front of a doorway at the end of a hall, but where is B09? Walking back down the hallway he noticed a very old-looking double wooden doorway that was unlabeled. There were heavy wooden beams running all over and it split in the middle but there was no discernable handle that he could find. There was also no plaque, but maybe with the age of this it fell off or something.

Shrugging he went over and pushed on the door. It was extremely heavy but he could feel it move just a little bit. Putting his full weight behind his shoulder he shoved as hard as he could until it creaked open. A small amount of orange flickering light came from inside of the room allowing him to see a stone wall inside.

Stepping through the opening Ethan said, “Hello, is this B09? I’m sorry if I’m in the wrong place, I’m looking for Drawing and Painting.”

Suddenly he felt a rush of wind against the front of him and the door slammed shut behind him leaving him with only the dim glow of light coming from the other end of the room. Turning around he tried to pull the door open but it wouldn’t budge an inch. It was as if it somehow locked when the wind blew it shut.

“Ethan Russell,” A deep voice boomed from everywhere around him and Ethan gulped now completely sure he was in the wrong place.