What passed for "night" soon changed to 'day'. A pair of students announced the change of time by walking up and down the outside hall, clacking together pairs of wooden boards and calling out "Wake up! Wake up!". There was no other difference between times but for the parting of the curtains.
Tiger and Youhan, having not slept a wink between them, pretended to rub the sleep out of their eyes and went with their dorm-fellows to wash.
All the water for drinking and bathing in the School was collected from the rain—of which there was plenty. Never let it be said that those in the Tower ever lacked for drink. But the tanks of water—also of unknown size, for nobody on the School floor had ever seen them—ran out rather quickly. Hundreds of students on their floor alone all rushed to bathe at once. Their showers were short, sometimes no more than a half a minute for the unlucky ones, with just enough moisture to scrape the oil and dirt caked on their skin from the previous day.
After washing, Tiger and Youhan joined their classmates at breakfast. Over a hundred students crammed themselves into the dining hall, sitting elbow to elbow on long wooden benches that had become warped and twisted over many years in the water-soaked air. With their seats marked, usually with a pen or some other personal item, students would rush towards the kitchen-queue. There a team of stone-faced cafeteria staff doled out to the students identical metal trays, each piled with a filing (if rushed) meal of hard-boiled eggs, milk, and a sponge-like loaf which could have technically passed as bread. All students waited for the day that they could graduate to Elder Student rank, which enjoyed an early breakfast shift that, usually, promised better food.
But today's breakfast offered only more of the plain, tasteless fare served at the school that did a great job keeping away hunger and a poor job at everything else. Tiger poked at his eggs, which today were suspiciously rubbery. Youhan nudged Tiger's elbow and pointed at the offending egg.
"Don't want your eggs today?" asked Youhan.
Tiger shook his head and moved his tray closer to Youhan, who plucked it happily with a pair of chopsticks.
"Good luck. This one feels more like a rock than an egg."
Sitting across from him, a girl with carefully pleated hair rolled her eyes.
"Ugh, Tiger, don't start today day off with more complaining, OK? It's food, and it's free. Be grateful."
"Why can't Princess Kyrie should keep her eyes on her own eggs?" snapped Tiger.
Kyrie made a face. Tiger made a face back.
After swallowing what remained of his eggs and feeling rather satisfied, Youhan screwed his voice into an approximation of Mr Rose, one of their teachers. "Now, now, Kyrie, don't be so hard on young Tiger!
That got a few snickers from their neighbors. Encouraged by this, Youhan narrowed his eyes down to a paper thin squint, staring off into the distance with acted wisdom: "Eggs are like rubber some days, eggs are like water other days. Each day is a chance for a new form of eggs, you understand. But the loss of an egg for one is another's gain for those who are willing to make strenuous efforts! You understand now, yes?"
That got a solid peal of laughter from the surrounding tables. One student snorted milk out from her nose, which only sent the laughter louder and higher. Kyrie only rolled her eyes and, blowing a puff of hair away from her face, returned to her own rubberized eggs.
"Yes, Mr. Rose, we understand! We understand!" the students said, laughing and clapping at the near perfect reproduction.
Youhan gave a short bow along with a few more 'Yes, very good!', waving his hands in benediction, and not realizing the pair of Teachers standing behind him.
Tiger was the first to notice. Youhan saw the look on his face and turned around to find Mr. Rose looking down and smiling.
"You almost have me down a science, young Youhan," said Mr. Rose with a slow smile.
"Grchheekkk" said Youhan. His eyes swept from Mr. Rose over to the teacher at his right—Ms. Needa.
It was one thing to be put in the spotlight by Mr. Rose—but it was entirely another to be caught by Ms. Needa. She was a smaller woman with a habit of clenching her face, especially when she was agitated. Right now, the muscles in her face were tight enough to snap a chicken bone.
"Is this the kind of behavior that is acceptable during mealtimes?" Ms. Needa's voice could have shredded a chicken. She pulled out a small notebook and wrote down something inside. "One demerit, Mr. Youhan. We will discuss your behavior and disrespect for Teachers another time."
Ms. Needa and Mr Rose made their way to the center of the dining hall. Ms. Needa waved her hands to get the students' attention and, when that failed, she procured a pot and spoon and banged them together until all the students, now deafened, were looking at her. She began:
"Mr. Rose and I have discovered that there have been multiple students peeking behind the curtains during sleeping hours."
Tiger nearly choked on a mouthful of bread.
"We have already spoken to you about this! How many times will we have to have this conversation? Looking Outside during sleeping hours is strictly forbidden and against the policies of the School! This is the kind of behavior we would expect from young children!"
Mr. Rose nodded sagely.
"Both Ms. Needa and I are only looking out for your safety, you understand. The outside can be dangerous—"'
"—INCREDIBLY dangerous!"
"—yes, yes, of course, Ms. Needa is absolutely correct. However we have—"
"We have already told you many, many times that there is no logical reason to look Outside during sleeping hours!" Ms. Needa's voice had taken on a pitch close to screeching and her face began to flush. "There is nothing out there to look at! It is too dangerous! And we will be taking strict measures to ensure that the rules of our School are enforced! We cannot—"
Mr. Rose put his hand gently on Mr. Needa's shoulder. The torrent of words from Ms. Need dried up. Her face screwed into a wounded grimace, as though she had been stabbed, and she folded her arms as Mr. Rose began to speak.
"Now, both Ms. Needa and myself speak for all the Teachers when we say that there are good reasons for these rules, you understand. The Outside is deceptive—while it may appear that there are only fluffy clouds and et cetera, this is often not the case, yes? We have done our best—in the interest of your own safety, you understand—to keep the most dangerous facets of the Outside away from this School, you understand. But this can only work with your cooperation, yes?"
"And students that are putting other students at risk will be severely punished!" Ms. Needa shouted. "For those of you that think that you are going to get away with breaking School policies and inviting things from the Outside into our School, well I'm here to tell you—!"
Tiger, now feeling thoroughly guilty and rather ashamed of himself, focused away from Ms. Needa as her threats and promises of punishment melted together into a drum-beat crescendo of shouting. In the corner of his eye he thought he could see Youhan's face condensing into a scowl. Kyrie was doing her absolute best not to move. A few other students played with the remnants of their rubber eggs.
But he also could not help but wonder…
…how can the Outside both not have anything to look at and be dangerous? That doesn't make sense!
Tiger squinted. Those were not helpful thoughts. At least in part, Tiger was responsible for the torrent of shouting now coming from Ms. Needa and the winding paths of a lecture from Mr. Rose. Did he really have that little self control?
…but if you think about it, it really doesn't make sense. Both of those things can't be true.
"Stop it," Tiger mouthed to himself silently.
The sounds of scolding abruptly stopped. Tiger looked up to find Ms. Needa staring at him with an expression of shock and fury. Her face, already flushed, nearly glowed with anger.
Youhan put his face in his hands.