"Rhaë! Thank you so much for helping me! I don't know what I would've done if I had to do this alone..."
"Oh come on, it's not like it would've been the end of the world. You're smart enough to get a full score on your own."
"Thanks but still!" Ran puffed as she was putting on her lab coat.
I chuckled and got myself a lab coat from the hanger as well, having unlimited lab coats right beside the laboratory is pretty practical. But then again, it's to be expected from the elite college that is the Saliya Academy. The profiles going here aren't easy nor of common background, the students here are either complete freaks, extremely rich or pure geniuses.
Simply being smart or a genius isn't enough to get you in. And more than that, only those who come here from generations as a tradition are here willingly, the rest of us have been....forced here.
The moment you attract the eyes of one of the board members, you're doomed to a life of constant fight and wits. They let you graduate peacefully until you finish high school. Even the day before the graduation, you have no idea what will wait for you just a few hours after the graduation ceremony is over.
"Ah! Shit, I forgot one of the papers back in class." said Ran as she ran her fingers through her short orange hair "I'll go get them right now. Sorry I'll be quick!" she announced as she started dashed to the lab door.
"Sure, I'll be waiting." I say while tying up my hair.
"Oh and before I go, please don't touch anything here, I don't know what the students before me made but they're most likely faulty and explosive!" Ran threw at me before bolting in the hallway.
"...." I'm a med student with a chemistry expert and researcher diploma on the side, I'd know what kind of insane freaks come here. Anyway, back to me reminiscing about this damned academy.
After the high school graduation ceremony is over, the principal calls you to their office while your parents are made to wait for you outside the office.
In the office you'll be greeted by your shady principal, an equally shady person presenting themselves as a representative of the board member of an elite academy and two to six bodyguards. There were four bodyguards for me back then.
The representative will start talking to you about the elite academy and how you've been chosen thanks to your prodigious talents and mind. And how you should, no, how you have to follow them to the Academy.
If you refuse, they'll take you by force. And if your parents refuse, they'd forcefully erase their memories of your existence and promise you that if you successfully graduate with honors from their academy, they'll give back their memories.
Which nobody knows whether it's a lie or not.
Because nobody graduated with honors. Yet.