It was a cold windy night at Imprimax School, St Petersburg. It wasn't even a day after Ann's arrival. I was standing beside my room window looking out to the plain land lying beside our school. I still remember our dear Janet. She was in our batch. Her pretty eyes are unforgettable. Her rosy lips are never replaceable. She had long brown, blonde hair. She was our roommate. She was a very good person, kind to everybody, a very generous and ambitious girl. She was like my own sister. But today she is no more. Something bad happened to her. Something I don't want to think about. Today morning a new girl had taken admission here, in her place. But, it is really hard to believe that Janet's dead. And I am pretty sure Janet is still alive; she is awake at dead of midnights. I have seen her many times lurking the empty corridors, lying on her bed wearing a milk-white dress. And now I don't understand why Glory has given bed no.27 to Ann. It is in our room, and that is the creepy bed of Janet. Despite all the protest, I made Glory still doesn't believe that Janet still haunts that bed, the room itself. Thinking like this, my thoughts floated over to many other happy things.
This Thursday our vacations are going to start. Its two weeks. And yeah, we are gonna enjoy it.
Suddenly someone opened the door. Ohh, God! I jumped out of my skin but was relieved at seeing Christina at the door.
"Hey, are you ever gonna make it to the AV Hall? We are going to have our House decisions right now. Hurry."- She said, throwing a very horrible, angry look at me. (Well, this was the third time she came to call me!!)
I assured her with a thumbs-up. Christina was my roommate and my classmate. Our relationship was a sort of classmate+roommate friendship.
All of us were assembled in the AV hall (That's our assembly hall). Mrs Lengel (Don't misunderstand, it is pronounced Len-Gel) was already on the podium. She started speaking in her very strict and stern voice.
"Good evening students, I hope the 9th standard students are standing out here, at the side. So, today we will be putting you into your different houses, and it will be according to your house, you people will be participating in the upcoming inter-house competitions. For your kind information, I will call out the house names. House dedicated to Tiger. House dedicated to Pelican. House dedicated to Eagle. House dedicated to Flamingo. I'll be calling out everyone's name and the person would step forth and you see this bowl over here, it contains 80 chits. Each contains one house name in it. That is, 20 chits will have one house's name, the other 20 will have the next house's name and vice- versa. You'll be picking out one chit and reading it out. And you would be placed into your house according to your chit.
First name – Lavinia Willinstong."
She went and took out one chit. She opened it carefully. And said- "Tiger." She went and sat near her house Vice Captain, Gregory. That's when I noticed the thing after we are sorted into different houses, whenever we come here we have to sit in our row, I mean the house rows( Wow, new discovery)
Next name called out was – "Ann Daddrio" (The new girl). She read out hers, it was Eagle.
"Next name"- She said "Sara Alves"
I went forward and put inside my hand into the bowl and something came flying into my hand. It was a chit paper. But how did it come flying into my hands? I hesitated for a moment and came to a final decision. I opened it and readout. In huge bold, stylish letters were written-"Eagle".
I went and sat near Ann. She was very striking and exuberant. She had long straight jet black her which adorned her strawberry-shaped face. She was tall enough for a girl of 14 and had grey eyes. She smelled strongly like jasmine.
"Hi." – I Said. "My name is Sara."
"My name is Ann. Friends?"-She asked me eagerly; wanting an all-of-a-sudden friendship!!
"Okay." – I agreed and shook hands with her, of course, I never had any friends(A fact, indeed) and I was pretty much happy about being friends with her.
Next name – "Christina Arellano". She too joined us. By the way, she too joined us!!
All the 10th, 11th and 12th batches were also there. Our house captain was – Princia.
"Silence students; Let me make you aware of the rules and regulations of this sorting."- said Mr Alaric, our principal.
"20 points will be added in each of your victories and good manners. 20 points will be deducted each time one of your members breaks the rules of Imprimax. At the end of the academic year, the house with the maximum number of points will be awarded the "Rolling Trophy." – He said pointing to a big trophy which glowed like gold.
"Each of the members also will be awarded medals. Now, please help yourselves!"- He smiled oddly and sat on his chair.
And we started eating our fest. We had some fried bacon and some kind of food, which I exactly don't know.
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To be continued. Stay tuned!!
Stay Home, Stay Safe!!