Arthur woke to the sound of his alarm and jumped out of bed, slapping the top button as he rushed to the bathroom.
This was their 19th day in Vincent’s “summer school” and the pace had not dropped in the slightest. Even on their days free of training, Arthur and him still found themselves reading through textbooks and working on practice problems.
Today was Saturday making it their final day of study before cumulative exams on Sunday, with classes starting the following day.
Arthur quickly moved through the paces of brushing his teeth, shaving and showering. Ever since the training had begun, he felt like his every action was being timed. The faster he could finish tasks, the greater chance he could get a break or do something fun.
In ten minutes, he was out in the kitchen drying his hair with a towel and preparing breakfast. Closing the refrigerator door, he could hear the water start as Tom began his shower.
They’d agreed early on during training to swap chef roles in the morning to save time and let the other get a few extra minutes of sleep. Arthur was on duty today and pancakes was the agreed upon menu item. By the time Tom exited his room, Arthur already had the batter prepared and sizzling on a pan in the shape of a gigantic pancake.
“Sleep well?” Arthur asked to which Tom grumbled as he landed heavily in a chair and rested his forehead on the kitchen table.
“We’re almost there. Only today and tomorrow, and then we should be caught up with the rest of the class,” Arthur continued.
“You say that, but I feel like this pace is going to keep up. I bet it’ll be just as rough during classes.”
“Maybe. But I’m having a pretty good time. I feel like we’re both improving too. You just have to look at the bright side sometimes.” Arthur slid a plate fully covered by a huge pancake with a syrup smiley face on it across the table to Tom. The younger boy lifted his head off the table and started digging in.
Between bites, Tom responded, “Maybe you’re on to something here. This pancake totally makes up for all the physical, mental, and emotional pain I’ve suffered over the last three weeks.”
“Complain all you want. This is still better than if you didn’t have a pancake.”
“No comment,” Tom responded as he stuffed another forkful in his mouth.
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“As a reward for your hard work, I think you both deserve to have the day off. Do with it as you will. Looking at some notes could help, but getting rest before your big day is important,” Vincent told them both.
Standing in the grass by the side of the field at the middle of campus, Arthur and Tom shared a glance.
“So you’re telling me you made us wake up for training at 7 am and walk to the middle of campus only to tell us to go home and relax? Why didn’t you send an email or something!?” Tom asked with annoyance dripping from his voice.
Vincent smiled saying, “A bit of fresh air will always do you some good. Don’t forget to be at the main building at 9 am tomorrow. Bring a #2 pencil.”
Vincent turned and walked off with Arthur and Tom left standing by themselves in the field.
“Well. What do we do now?” Arthur asked.
“What do you mean? It’s obvious. I’m going home and sleeping for like five more hours.”
They began walking back to their dorm from the main field, debating their options for the day. Arthur noticed new activity all around Silverleaf's campus which had been vacant for most of their training so far.
During their three weeks at the school and throughout exploring the campus, Arthur and Tom had seen less than ten people total. Usually, it would be another person their age walking between buildings or older people working in the various buildings.
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When they asked Vincent about the lack of people, he’d told them that most students would begin showing up right before classes began in order to move in. The few still on campus were likely students working on special projects or instructors preparing material.
Looking around now, Arthur could see multiple groups of students walking with their parents around campus, wheeling their luggage in large red bins to the dorm rooms. The streams of people filling the space felt fitting to him after seeing the walkways vacant for so long.
Up ahead, he noticed a large mass of boxes bobbling up and down above the crowd of people. As Tom and him got closer, he saw what appeared to be a floating wooden platform carrying boxes and suitcases stacked to around head height. The platform floated roughly half a foot off the ground and appeared to be following a dark-haired girl who was busy talking on the phone.
Interrupting Tom who was still discussing their options for the day, Arthur asked, “Hey do you see that floating platform with the boxes?”
“Yup. Very floaty and suspended. Why?”
“You don’t think there's anything weird about that?”
“Magic campus dude. I’m more surprised that these people don’t have extra limbs or weird eye colors. Floating platforms are probably normal here. Nobody else seems to care at least.”
“I guess you’re right. It still feels like there’s so much we need to learn about. I guess that’s what we’re here to do though.”
As Arthur and Tom passed the girl and her floating platform, Arthur noticed a suitcase beginning to fall from the back of the stack. Arthur spoke out, “Hey you dropped a…” but before he could finish, a brown blur flew from the girl’s hair to the suitcase, which stopped falling and slowly floated back to the top of the stack.
The girl turned to them with a smile, saying, “Thanks for the warning but I’ve got it covered,” as the brown blur flew back to her hair. She turned back to her phone call and kept walking as the stream of people continued to flow unabated.
After they got out of earshot, Tom asked Arthur, “Did you get a good look at the thing that came out her hair.”
“Not really. It looked kind of colorful, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe it was an animal?”
“I don’t think animals move like that. The thing seemed to glide horizontally. I wonder if we’ll be able to do that.”
“We may find out in two days assuming we pass this test tomorrow.”
“Arthur, my friend, If I’ve learned one thing about Vincent in the past three weeks, it’s that he can exaggerate a bit. He’s overprepared us for everything so far. I bet the exam will be easy, and he’s just trying to scare us.”
They kept chattering as they made their way back to the dorm. Entering the doors, the front desk with three workers was swamped with students and parents asking questions. Walking to the side of the throng of people, Arthur and Tom navigated their way back to their room.
They noticed the pile of boxes first, but the open door was the giveaway that their third roommate was likely moving in today. At the door, Arthur almost walked into a large man attempting to grab a box with one arm.
On closer inspection, he noticed the man was missing his left arm at the shoulder with a dangling length of folded up shirt sleeve in the limb’s place.
The man greeted them saying, “Oh hello there. You must be my son’s roommates. My name is Olin and this is my Son Ez.” The man motioned to a tall lanky boy holding a box deeper inside the room.
They exchanged greetings, and Tom and Arthur helped them move the boxes into the no longer vacant third room of the apartment. Once all the boxes were stacked in Ez’s room, everyone moved to the main area where Arthur and Tom gave a tour of the room.
With box moving and the tour finished, Ez gave his dad a hug and told him he’d call once his room was set up. Before he left, Olin turned to Arthur and Tom, asking, “Is it alright if I give you both my number in case you ever need to reach me?”
Arthur responded, “We actually don’t have phones, but I can give you my email. We both keep our laptops nearby most of the time.”
“Sure, that should work,” Olin replied before shaking Arthur's and Tom’s hands and heading out the door with one last hug from Ez.
Once the door closed, Tom asked Ez, “How is he getting out of here? Isn’t this place just a shack up top? Actually, how did you get all this luggage here?”
Ez looked confused, responding, “What do you mean? The plane landed in the big airfield and we took the tunnels to get down here like everyone else. They had the red carts ready for any luggage.”
“Plane? Did Vincent make us come in the back way,” Tom wondered.
“I guess so. He did mention something symbolic about opening those doors," Arthur shrugged.
“I bet he just wanted to see us fail to open them.”
“Probably,” Arthur responded with a smile.
Ez spoke up saying, “I think I’m going to go set up my room and unpack. What are you both up to?”
“We actually have a big placement exam tomorrow to show we’re qualified to be here. Starting at this place is a pretty big change of pace for us. We didn’t even know it existed a month ago.”
“Sounds like quite the story. I’ll leave you guys to studying and hopefully we can talk more tomorrow once your exam is finished.”
Ez headed into to his new room with only Arthur and Tom left in the main area.
“Well,” said Tom, “It’s not even noon yet so there’s plenty of time left today. I know what I said about sleeping the day away, but I feel like I should do something with it.”
“I think I’m just going to study. I still feel kind of shaky on some of the math.”
“What!? This is our chance for a break. We’re going to be exhausted after that exam and then we have class right after.”
“Maybe just one game then I’ll study.”
“Now that's more like it!”