The Academie by Amy Joy Read Free Book Online Page A

now.
    “ Come on, why don’t you
sit down for a few minutes? You should get some food too; it will
help.”
    I floundered, not knowing which
direction to go. Sit or get food?
    My confusion must have been evident.
“You sit. I’ll get you stuff.”
    I sat at an empty table, and Ruby
joined me a few moments later with a tray loaded with a sandwich,
fruit juice, and an apple.
    “ The fruit should help.
The natural sugars aren’t quite as strong as the artificial ones
most of us are used to, but I found during my pregnancy that it did
help to give me a boost when I needed it.”
    I sipped the juice and began to
examine the sandwich. I really wish I wasn’t such a picky eater.
She had been so sweet to get me food.
    “ It’s turkey. It’s all
they had left. I didn’t know what you’d like on it, so I left it
plain.”
    “ Thanks.” Whew, no mustard.
    We ate in silence, since I could do
little else. When the bell rang, I heaved my weary body from the
table and Ruby grabbed up my tray and swept it away.
    “ Thanks,” I said
again.
    “ I guess I’ll see you at
dinner? Man, I wish you felt better.” She shook her head. We both
knew this next test couldn’t go well for me. I only hoped I
couldn’t do worse than placing into a “Basic” class.
    I waved her off as my stomach churned
and pleaded with me to return to bed. I contemplated risking a trip
back to the dorm for a short nap instead of reporting to my next
exam. My good sense got the better of me, and I pulled out my
schedule again. Even though all the new students were taking the
same exams, there were no large testing rooms, so we had been
broken down into class-sized groups. Unfortunately—as we had
discovered over breakfast—Ruby and I did not share any testing
locations.
    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.
    “