Upon entering the Assembly Hall, Raef was greeted by the loud screams of teens. Raef knew he shouldn't have expected better, but he still felt a bit underwhelmed at the untidiness of it all.
"Don't know what else I expected," he said to himself, not knowing that another kid overheard him.
"Hey! Yeah, you!" called a voice next to him.
Raef turned around to see a girl and a guy standing next to each other.
"Can I help you?" asked Raef, confused.
The girl seemed irritated at his clueless response.
"I don't know, can you?!" she said, clearly getting frustrated with Raef.
The guy muttered something under his breath, which Raef could not make out.
"Look, I don't know what your problem is, so…" He instantly regretted saying that. He could tell that this girl did not like him for whatever reason, and this wouldn't help.
"Oh my god! You are so mean!" yelled the girl.
"I'm just gonna, like, go now. Bye." Raef wanted no part in whatever dumb game this random person was playing.
The boy had his head down, his long brown hair covering most of his features, but Raef could make out what looked to be a face of agitation and maybe sadness.
Then Raef saw something on their sleeves: House Emblems! Then he noticed Student Council name tags on their chests. He froze. He might have just upset two Student Council members!
"I'm so sorry if I offended you at all, but I got to sit down now."
The girl just stood there with a kind of disgusted look on her face, like a child who had just been given the wrong gift for Christmas.
"Yeah, you go do that," said the girl.
The boy put his wide hand on her shoulder, signaling for her to move on.
"Yeah, yeah, we can go. Just scoping out the newbies," she said before she walked off with the boy following close behind.
Raef sat down next to a tall blond boy with glasses who seemed more interested in the girl next to him than anything else.
"Fresh start," he said to himself again.
Just then, a tall buff man walked out onto the stage holding a black microphone in his hands.
"Hello, First Years of Whitehall Academy! I am your Headmaster, Principal Beacon, and welcome to my school!"
The man sounded like a TV presenter who had a little too much to drink, and yet he had a weird level of joyousness to his voice that had Raef and the entire audience of students captivated as he continued speaking.
"I'm so thrilled to have you all here at my school. Now that you all are here, let's begin!"
Raef knew what came next: the Aptitude Ranking—a test that first years took at the start of their time at the school to determine their house. The house you were placed in shows your physical abilities. Raef was fit and strong, hence how he got into the school, but he knew that he would have to try extra hard to score high in the test so he can be sorted into a strong house.
"Everyone, please stand and make you're way over to the Gym so we can see what you will be sorted in!" Yelled Mr. Beacon.
"Here we go. The most important thing to a first year!" Raef said.
He knew that this was it!