The Academie (7 page)

A map was included on the reverse side
to insure that we would not run into any trouble. Since I had gone
to high school here, you would think that I wouldn’t have any
problem, but with the extensive additions and renovations done to
accommodate the hundreds of additional students, it was almost as
if I had never been there at all. Being directionally impaired and
mostly asleep, I could no longer make sense of the map or the room
numbers around me. I began to wander in the direction I thought
might get me somewhere, bumping against students in the crowded
halls as I went.

In the midst of the bustle, I found a
room tucked beneath a staircase. It was difficult to read the
number with people moving this way and that, but I felt fairly
certain this was the place. With a sigh of relief, I pushed open
the door expecting to see a room already full of students seated
behind computers.

Instead, I was caught off
guard. I squinted in the darkness, trying to get my eyes to
perceive
something…anything.
But it was impossible. There wasn’t anything
there. Just blackness. The deepest, darkest blackness I had ever
seen.

I turned around. The door was missing.
No light spilled in from the hallway. It was like my eyes were
closed, but they weren’t.

I stood there, perplexed, unable to
comprehend what I was experiencing.

I shook my head vigorously, trying to
wake myself, assuming it was the tiredness playing tricks on me.
But for reasons I couldn’t explain, I felt afraid. It was the fear
of a child exploring their house alone at night. Everything looks
different. The friendly things that greet you in the day become
cold, strangers—monsters—in the night. It was not home. It was
somewhere else. And then someone would come and flip on the light
and all would be happy, friendly and familiar again. I needed to
find the light.

“
What are you doing?” A
sharp voice came from behind me, causing me to gasp. I turned to
find a woman with bug eyes and hair pulled so tightly into a knot
that her face was actually drawn back with it, contorting it in an
absurd kind of way.
Sergeant Murk.
I’d met her once before, when I’d come to visit
Matt. I’d hoped to never see her again.

“
I—uh…”

“
Oh,
you.”
She glared down at me. “I
should have known. Are you a student here now?” She rolled her
eyes. “This area,” she pointed “is off limits. Now I realize that
doesn’t seem to matter to you, but as one of our students, if I—or
anyone else for that matter—finds you in a restricted area again,
then you will be reprimanded. And Let Me Tell You”— she spit as she
annunciated each consonant and I backed away—“The Consequences Will
Be
Severe
!”

“
How am I supposed to know
what areas are restricted?”

“
Anywhere you are not
assigned to be, is a restricted area.” She said it like I must be
some kind of an idiot. But seriously, if they wanted an area to be
off limits, then why didn’t they post signs and keep the door
locked? What the hell do they have to hide anyway? Grades? People
really are too touchy.

Her heels made a loud taps as she
walked away.

Somehow I found my way to my exam
room, but it quickly became clear that there was no way I was going
to make it through without sleep. I randomly filled in the radial
dials next each multiple choice question and then hit the submit
button before laying my head down on the desk.

I didn’t even look to see what class
it placed me in. At that point I was so exhausted, I didn’t
care.

10.
fitness testing

“
Time to go,
Miss.”

I woke up to find an empty classroom,
a pool of drool on my desk, and a sergeant hovering over me. He was
a large, middle-aged man, with a short Academie haircut and blubber
that extended from his chin to his chest, completely concealing
where there might ever have been a neck.

I lifted my head, wiped the drool with
my sleeve as nonchalantly as I could, and grabbed my
things.

“
Don’t forget to log off
the computer.”

“
Oh yeah.” It was then
that I noticed my placement: Earth Science. I huffed at the
ridiculousness of it. At this rate, I was going to be on an entire
Basic track.

“
The next exams are about
to begin,” the sergeant said. “You better hurry up.”

I pushed in the desk chair, pulled out
my schedule, and headed out the door.

The room ended up being at the other
end of the building, but luckily, it was easy to find. I opened the
door and took the last seat just as a tall, skinny sergeant who
appeared much younger than any I’d seen so far, stood to address
the class.

“
I’m sure you are used to
the routine by now.” I was still a bit groggy and his voice jarred
me. “You may begin.”

Instead, I reached into my pocket and
pulled out my schedule for the day to see how much more of this had
left.

“
No notes may be used
Miss!” the young sergeant accused.

Where would I have gotten
notes?
I held up my schedule.

He pointed for me to put it
away.

My nap and the walk across the
building gave me just enough alertness to get through the exam, but
since history had always been my worst subject, I found myself
struggling nonetheless.

Who was involved in the battle of
1812?

I don’t know. Is it really
necessary that I know this?

Two and a quarter hours
later, I had my placement: American History.
Great, I’ll be taking classes with a bunch of tenth
graders.

I met Ruby at dinner. “So how’d it
go?” She looked genuinely concerned.

“
Not good.”

She was kind and didn’t push. I was
happy when she didn’t try to make conversation. It was one of the
things I liked about her: we didn’t have to talk.

When I’d finished my meal and cleared
my tray, I pulled back out my schedule. “Oh god, I’d forgotten
about fitness testing.” I laid my head on the table. “Do you think
there’s any chance I could claim illness and get out of
it?”

“
You could try, but I
doubt it. I did fitness testing earlier. It wasn’t bad.”

“
Are you
athletic?”

“
Do I look it?”

“
Yeah.”

She laughed. “You’re too
kind.”

This, my final test of the
day, met in the locker room. I stood, surrounded by potential
future classmates standing or seated on benches around me while a
thin, manly-looking woman paced in front of us. “I’m Sergeant
Fratelli,” she said. Dressed in a white Academie polo and gym
shorts, Fratelli was all skin and muscle. “Fitness testing is
probably new to most of you.” Her eyes moved about the group as she
paced. “Then again,
fitness
may be new to some of you.” Her eyes stopped on
me. I looked away.

“
I’m going to run you
through a series of activities to measure your strength, endurance,
and flexibility. The end result will be the same as every other
exam you’ve had today.” She stopped placing and drew her hands
together. “We’ll know where to place you.” She looked at each of us
again and I could tell she was already sizing us up, placing us
into classes. “The first lesson of fitness is to acquire the proper
clothing for the activity. You didn’t receive fitness attire in
your clothing pack because we don’t expect you to wear these
anywhere but here, and I don’t want your smelly body leaving here
before you shower and change. Is that understood?”

A few nodded.

“
You will answer ‘yes
ma’am’ when I speak to you. Is that understood?”

“
Yes mam,” I answered with
the group.
Yes sir
, I thought.

“
Polos and shorts of
various sizes can be found in the bins along the wall where you
came in. Each bin is marked with a size. The laundry bin is on the
opposite wall.” She pointed over her left shoulder. “It’s community
clothing here ladies. If you don’t like it, you’re going to have to
get used to it.”

The group let out a collective
sigh.

“
Well, if you like that,
you’re going to love the showers. She pointed behind where we were
sitting. “There are no dividers.”

Someone gasped.

“
Sorry ladies, but this is
no time for modesty. You got a job to do when you come into my
class. The first is to get fit. The second is to practice the rules
of personal hygiene. For those who need a reminder, I’ve posted a
copy on the wall in the back. You can’t miss it.”

Rules for hygiene? Did she
think we were animals?

“
Time to suit up. If you
hair is longer than shoulder length, it should already be tied
back. There are extra hair ties on the shelf near the front mirror
if you them. If you’re hair’s shorter than shoulder length, but you
can tie any of it back, I’d recommend you do so. You’re gonna want
to see what you’re doing.

“
The gym is out this
door”—she pointed to her right. “Meet me there in five minutes. If
you’re late, you’ll be doing push-ups for it.”

There was a sudden movement of pushing
as girls flew to the bins to gather their clothing. I stood dazed,
wishing this day could just be over with already. When the crowd
cleared, I found that the size small bins were empty, forcing me to
grab clothes that would certainly be too big. Hopefully it wouldn’t
be a problem.

Five minutes later, we were gathered
in the gymnasium. While the locker room appeared to have been
renovated, the gym was exactly as I remembered it—with one
exception: the bleachers were missing. Guess this meant there
wouldn’t be sporting events to attend. I sighed. It’s not that I
was a sport fanatic, but The Academie seemed hell-bent on removing
any sense of community or normalcy.

Fratelli blew her whistle. “Four
minutes, thirty-eight seconds. Not bad ladies. Please line up now.
I need to see five rows in front of me. Spread out about at least
an arm’s length so you have some room to move. We’re going to start
with some simple stretches to get you warmed up.”

We didn’t even get through stretches
before she started yelling at me. “You—brown pony tail” she pointed
at me. “What’s your name?”

“
Allie
Thompson.”

“
Thompson, is that all you
got? You’re not even moving.”

I tried to reach further, but my body
didn’t budge.

“
Move!”

“
I am.”

She shook her head. “This ought to be
interesting.”

Next she had us jogging the gym
perimeter. “Pick it up Thompson! They’re running laps around
you!”

Fratelli was really getting to me. I
searched the walls for a clock as I continued running, gasping for
air. No clock. This seemed to be my longest exam yet.

The worst tasks of all were the
pull-ups and rope climb. Both were things I’d love to be able to
do. I willed myself to do them. I knew I could. But when it was my
turn and all eyes were on me, my body simply wouldn’t cooperate. I
hung on to the pull up bar, begging my body to go somewhere, yet it
hung there like a pathetic blob. When I got to the rope, I thought
for sure I’d make it to the top. I’d been called a monkey in grade
school for my love of climbing. Here was my chance to redeem
myself. Everyone would see that I was not the loser I now appeared
to be. But no matter how hard I tried, I just swung on the bottom
of the rope, unable to pull myself further than a few feet off the
ground.

“
Pathetic,” Fratelli
said.
As if I needed her to tell
me.

It wouldn’t have been so
bad if others had been struggling too, but that simply wasn’t the
case. Sure some of them could only do one pull-up, but it was one
more than I had done. Only me and Jenny—a quiet, extremely
overweight girl—were unable to offer any visible sign that we were
really trying to accomplish the tasks Fratelli assigned.
Maybe I needed a fitness class after
all?

When it was finally over, Fratelli
released us back to the locker rooms. I hung back, more exhausted
than I’d been all day. Jenny was trailing behind too.

“
She sure doesn’t give you
a break, does she?” Jenny said.

I shook my head. “That’s for sure….
So, what do you think the chances are we’ll get her as an
instructor?”

Jenny laughed. “I have a feeling they
are all like that.”

“
You have ten minutes
before you must report to dinner!” Fratelli yelled from behind us.
I hadn’t realized how close she was. By the blush on her cheeks,
Jenny hadn’t either.

“
And if you’re late,
Thompson, I’m going to build a fire under you and make you climb
that rope.”

I picked up my pace.

11.
paris via time machine