"Well, this is it," the girl, Soo-jin, said as they walked into the admissions office.
"Thanks again for saving us," Jae-sung said as both siblings gave Xander a big bow that earned them a few odd stares.
"No, no, please, and thank you for telling me a little about the world and leading me here. It would have taken me forever to find a city by myself," Xander said with a smile.
"Anything for the person who saved us from a life of slavery," Jae-sung said as he and his sister bowed once again.
After a little more convincing, the two siblings took their leave without causing any more of a scene.
The three had promised to try and stay in touch and become friends.
Xander was 18, in his first year at the academy, while they were both 17, in their second year at the academy. So, while they wouldn't have many, if any, classes together, they promised to show him around and introduce him to their social circle.
After they left, Xander walked up to one of the empty desks, ready to get enrolled into the academy.
When he got to the desk, he smiled at the old lady who was dressed in work attire, "Hi, I'd like to enroll in the academy."
The lady didn't even give Xander a polite smile. She just handed him a tablet and said, "Fill out this information and come back when you're done."
'Wow, an actual tablet,' Xander had grown up in the outskirts of a poor division, so he had never been able to use any form of technology. This was a big surprise to him.
"Ok," Xander said, a little excited, happy to be able to use a tablet for the first time.
He went over and found a place to sit down and then slowly filled out the form. It asked all kinds of basic information, some that was mandatory to fill out, like full name, date of birth, place of birth, etc., and there were other fields that weren't mandatory, like trait name, rank, and description.
Xander filled out the form as fast as he could, and 15 minutes later, he was back at the front desk.
"Here you go," he handed back the tablet.
The lady looked over the information, sometimes nodding, other times shaking her head, but most of the time, she just had a completely uninterested look on her face.
"Ok, you're a non-native of the tower, so first we need to get you your papers and social security number," the lady said in an annoyed voice, clearly unhappy to have to do extra work.
Thirty minutes later, Xander was standing in front of the desk with a passport with all his info, new and old, on it.
"Now that we've got you your papers, we can get you enrolled," the lady said.
"Ok, here you go," Xander handed over 20,000 dollars, which the twins said they each had to pay.
"Thank you," the lady said as she began to count the money.
"Where's the other half?" she asked.
"Excuse me? I thought it was 20 grand," Xander said.
"It's 20,000 for natives. It's 40,000 for non-natives," the lady said in a tone that spelled out 'you're a dumbass.'
"You've got to be kidding me!" Xander raised his voice a little.
"Do you have that much or not? If you don't, leave. We don't need you hogging up the line," the lady said.
Xander, annoyed, turned around and waved his arms as if to say, 'There's no one else in line.'
The lady just sat there staring at Xander with her hand out.
Xander was pissed because he was supposed to be saving up money to get to the planet Karael, but what could he do; so he went ahead and handed over the money, leaving him with only 10,000 dollars in his pockets.
'Dammit.'
"Thank you," the lady said as she filled out some more paperwork, then took a picture of Xander and gave him his ID card.
"You're lucky; tomorrow is the monthly welcoming ceremony, so you can start class immediately."
"Thank God," Xander said. He couldn't wait to get started so he could finally get an education. He felt like such an idiot since he didn't know even the most common things. He also couldn't wait to create his second core so he could, for one, start practicing with it and, two, get his second trait upgraded from dormant to G-rank.
After a little more back and forth with the lady, Xander found his way to his new dorm room.
'Finally, a place to call my own,' Xander had grown up most of his life living under a bridge, so this was an entirely new experience for him.
He unlocked the door and walked in, and the first thing he saw was a naked dude drying his top half off with a towel, his lower half hanging out for all to see.
"What the f***," the guy yelled as he rushed to cover himself.
Xander quickly looked away and said, "My bad, my bad."
"Who the f*** are you, and how do you have a key to my dorm?" the guy said with a flustered voice.
"I'm new to the academy, and this is my dorm room," Xander said.
"Ahh, so I finally got stuck with a roommate. Well, it was nice while it lasted," the guy said as he walked into the bathroom and put on some clothes.
After the guy walked back out, Xander apologized several times, and before long, they were having a normal conversation like nothing had just happened.
"So, what's your name?" Xander asked. "My name's Xander Stone."
"Name's Nathan Hawthorne, but everybody just calls me Nate," Nate said as he reached out his hand for a handshake.
"Nice to meet you, Xander. Wish the meeting could have gone a little differently, but it's still nice to meet you. I hope we can become good friends," Nate said with a smile and some enthusiasm.
Nate was on the smaller side, like Xander. He was about an inch taller than Xander with short blonde hair and blue eyes.
They talked a little longer, getting to know each other, and Xander found out Nate was also a non-native to the tower, but he wasn't from Earth. He was from another planet the council had taken over in a nearby galaxy.
Nate even had to take out a huge loan just to be able to enter the school.
It was also his first year, and he had been at the school for three months.
He used an axe and had a strength trait and a gravity core.
He also told Xander about a couple of things he would probably need since he was new to the tower.
Things like common house supplies, clothes, and a cell phone.
The clothes and cell phone made Xander pretty happy since he grew up without them.
He, of course, had clothes growing up, but it was mostly a pair or two of hand-me-downs from his older brother Austin, and with Earth in the bad spot it had been in since the council introduced the tower, most people didn't have a cell phone, especially not some random kid from the outskirts.