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Opuntia was up with the sun that morning, or she assumed so since it was buried behind a blanket of thick dark clouds that still gave the illusion of nighttime. Her father had to be there early to prepare for the year’s opening ceremony, leaving her no choice but to go at the same time as him. Feeling like a knot of vines was growing in her stomach, Opuntia willed herself to climb out of bed and change into her school uniform.
She was lucky that she didn’t have to wear the same uniform as all the boys since the school board outright refused to have a girl wear pants at the school; a girl at Arison was already bad enough. It was the same style and colour as everyone else: a white-collared shirt and optional forest green pullover brought together with a navy blue tie and skirt. They said the green was for the forest surrounding the school, while the navy blue represented the natural backdrop of their school symbol: the nighthawk. If it was up to Opuntia to decide what colours best described the school, it would be a bleak grey.
She dragged her suitcase down the freshly polished stairs, almost slipping about 3 times while her sister watched with a smirk.
“Some help would’ve been nice,” Opuntia called to her from the entry room. Halle peered her head over the iron railing.
“Well, you didn’t ask for any,” she shrugged indifferently.
“Don’t go in my room when I’m gone,” Opuntia warned her like she always did.
“Oh my God, I won’t!” Halle replied, annoyed.
“I know you always wanted it,” Opuntia said defensively. The argument would’ve continued if it wasn’t for their mother coming out from the kitchen to say goodbye.
“You’ve grown up so much, I can’t believe it,” she beamed at her daughter.
“So have I!” Halle piped up with a hint of desperation.
“Of course, you both have, but Opuntia is almost a lady now,” Adelaide said, putting her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. It only felt like yesterday when Opuntia had to peer up at her mother, but now they were practically on eye level.
“You be good like you always are and write home every weekend,” Adelaide reminded her, while handing her a coat.
Opuntia took it and shrugged it on, while looking over once more at Halle inspectingly since she had wanted the coat for herself.
“and say hello Teddy for me!” her mother called after her as Opuntia walked out of the door, and towards the iron gates guarding their house. Her father waited just outside of them, already in the car, the ignition already roaring: his spiteful sign to hurry up.
It was a 1965 Lincoln Continental, a classy car that showed off just enough to tell everyone how rich you were. Opuntia climbed in as hurriedly as she could after stuffing her luggage in the trunk, her father watching her do so from the rearview mirror. Not a second after she was settled he sped off, leaving the Arison manor house and heading to the Arison Academy.
It only took about 10 minutes to get there and would’ve been even quicker if it wasn’t for the rough gravel roads that looped all the way up Versine hill like the grooves in a corkscrew. It was silent for the first half, Mordred intently focused on driving while Opuntia gazed out the window and pondered her new school year. She was mostly trying to remember everything she had learned the year before, and where exactly her friends had gone that summer.
“What is your schedule this year?” Her father asked out of the blue, before driving passing a stretch of mountain wildflowers.
“Um, well, I have differential and integral calculus, chemistry, literature studies, French and biology” Opuntia replied, counting on her fingers all of the classes she had to take
“Calculus? Why on Earth are you taking calculus?” Mordred replied, his eyebrows furrowing.
“…Because,” she said, trying her best to not sound offended. “All of my possible universities require an understanding of it, and it’s either that or trigonometry which is a lot harder,”
“university,” Mordred mumbled under his breath, before changing to subject to an even worse one,
“And you’re still going to be running around with those boys this year, I suppose?”
“Father,” said Opuntia, nearly rolling her eyes from exasperation, “everyone at the school is a boy, I can’t help making friends with them.”
“Well, you could’ve chosen some better ones, is all.” her father replied, tartly, still looking straight ahead without even a glance in her direction. “You tell Laurier that if he acts up even once this year, it’s a straight expulsion.”
That was not surprising to Opuntia. But it was true that not all of her friends were like that.
“Well, Wilfred is one of the smartest in the entire academy, and I’m friends with him, and you like Teddy, don’t you?”
“Hmm,” Mordred mumbled once more, just before pulling up to the peak of the hill and turning onto St. Ignatius road. There was the school, eerie and still half cast in night shadow, and hazy behind the fog. But it was there, and for now, it was home.
Opuntia was used to seeing hoards of boys walking around the building, that now it looked like a wasteland. She pulled her suitcase out of the tan-coloured trunk and immediately went to find her room, her father leaving with no goodbye, simply reminding her of the ceremony. Her room wouldn’t be hard to find, since it was the same every year. She climbed flights of stairs while lugging her bag, being extra careful since they were freshly polished and very slippery. When she finally reached the third floor, she halted in front of her room, numbered 322. Right next to the principal’s study, of course, since the only girl had to be kept under a watchful eye. She thankfully did not run into principal Redwood and hoped she wouldn’t have to see him until the ceremony.
Redwood was like her father in many ways, that being a grey-haired man who seemed to hate children despite wanting to teach them. But while Mordred was at least subtle, and cold in his views, Redwood had the right to punish and discipline like he was the Roman Emperor. The students of Arison even joked that he once fainted at the sight of untied shoelaces. If Opuntia could count on her fingers everything she despised about this school, Redwood would be behind 90% of them.
After unpacking her things, she had nothing left to do but wait for others to arrive. She wandered around the building for some time and embraced the emptiness of the darkly lit hallways and picture frames housing the graduating classes of the past. black and white faces peered out at her, forever smiling a fabricated smile. That would be her soon, though she wondered if the school would even let her in the photo since she was never allowed in any yearbooks. It was like the school was always trying to cover up her existence and erase her footprints from this place. As long as she attended, then the rule still applied.
The only thing that made Arison academy bearable was the people she found in it. 6 hours after she arrived, she finally spotted figures arriving at the school from her bedroom window. More expensive cars pull up to the front, and uniform-clad boys climb out with sleek umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain that was starting to pour. She watched them and observed who the new students must be, since they looked the youngest and most nervous out of everyone, and tried to look out for her 4 closest friends.
“O.P!” her door flew open as Teddy ran inside, grinning wildly. Now at 17, he had almost doubled in height from his tiny middle school self, and his hair, which was now sopping wet, had reddened to a crisp auburn over the years.
“Long time, no see,” Opuntia replied, standing up from her bed to greet him. “How was Myrtle Beach?”
“Same as every other time,” Teddy shrugged. “Barely had enough time for summer reading, though.”
“Yeah…”
Opuntia, with nothing to do that summer, had finished her summer reading in about 2 days. She wished she could’ve gone somewhere like many of her other friends but she was always stuck in the gloomy town of New Versine.
“Anyways,” Teddy continued, “The guys are just hanging out in my room if you want to come join, I think Cas and Sampson just got here.”
Opuntia agreed and quickly followed Teddy to his own room to meet the rest of her friends. Unlike her, each of them had a roommate to share and had to use communal bathrooms, which was thankfully not something Opuntia had to put up with. Even before they went in, they could hear the loud voice of Sampson Laurier through the door of Teddy’s room.
“I mean it’s my last year for Christ’s sake, can they not give me a break? How am I supposed to do anything?”
“What are you hacked off about already?” Opuntia asked as she and Teddy walked into the room. Sampson was sprawled across Teddy’s bed but shot up at the sight of them.
“There you are! The only Arison I’m happy to see,” he proclaimed. Sampson looked tanned and slightly red from his summer vacation in the Hamptons, but he still had his usual mop of dirty blonde hair matched with a signature grin that showed off his 2 silver teeth.
“Yeah, yeah, good to see you too,” Opuntia replied to him, while he greeted Teddy with a bear hug. “But tell us what you’re mad about.”
“Don’t get him started on it again, I thought we had finally heard the end of it.” Piped up a voice from one of the writing desks. There was Casimir (or Cas) Seki, the glasses-wearing dark-haired cynic of the group. He lazily rest his face on his hand as he looked at them from across the room.
“Hey, this is a real complaint,” defended Sampson, going back to the bed. “The truth is that Redwood must still be holding a grudge from last year’s exam take-up day.”
“…you mean when you told Mr. Drownreef that his wife was probably cheating on him?” Teddy asked with a chuckle.
“Ok, Dodgers it’s not funny when you put it like that… I SAID, ‘With classes like these, I know why your wife lets you live here for 9 months of the year,’ what’s so bad about that?”
Teddy burst out laughing, while Opuntia gave him an exasperated look and Cas rolled his eyes.
“And it didn’t even occur to you that you would have to see him this year?” Cas said, raising an eyebrow.
“It was supposed to be at graduation, but I couldn’t take it anymore! His lectures are like watching telley static for two hours!”
“Oh come on, it’s not that bad.” Opuntia interposed, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Maybe for the rest of you eggheads, but to a moron like me it’s impossible. I wouldn’t have gotten through that class if it wasn’t for Wilfred.
As if on cue, Wilfred Lehoten bustled through the door and looked at all of them, out of breath from walking up 3 flights of stairs.
“The rain is awful, isn’t it?” He remarked.
Wilfred was indeed one of the brightest in the entire school. Born and raised for his first 8 years in Finland, it could be said that he was the sole reason some of them got through their classes. Even Cas, though he would never admit it, borrowed Wilfred’s notes before some harder exams. He had the look of the stereotypical northern-man, with pale wisps of blond hair that fell to his shoulders, bright Tenerife eyes and the height of a giant at six foot three inches. After all greeting him, Sampson finally got back on track to tell his story.
“So long story short, I’m rooming with Jeremy MCCAIN.” He said, burying his face into his friend’s pillow.
“Wait, what? You’re not my roommate?” Teddy said, taken aback. They had always roomed together since the first year, which is how they became so close. The rest of them looked around at each other with wide eyes. Everyone knew Jeremy McCain was the biggest fink in the entire year. If Sampson even whispered ill intentions towards the school, Jeremy would let them know, and Redwood would send him packing his bags.
“Should’ve waited ‘til graduation,” Cas tutted.
“Gee, I bet those glasses give you 20/20 hindsight, Seki.” Sampson shot back, his voice muffled by the pillow.
“My father did say that you’d be expelled if you went out of line again,” Opuntia told him.
“Good. Kick me out, I don’t want to deal with this anymore.”
“But what about college? You made it all this way, just to leave?” Wilfred voiced, concerned. All of them now had the thought of college applications on their mind: where they wanted to go and where they would even get in. Sampson waved his hand to say that it was another day’s problem.
“Ok, this is great and all,” Teddy cut in, “but then who’s my new roommate?” No one else got switched around, did they?”
“New student, that’s what I heard.” Cas shrugged.
Opuntia raised her eyebrows in surprise. “We’ve never had a new student after first year. I didn’t even know that was allowed.”
“Well, why don’t you go up to your attic and check the rules?” Cas suggested sarcastically.
The group spent a long time continuing to chat about their subjects for the year and where they wanted to go after the academy. It was apparently a no-brainer that it had to be ivy league since that was the only thing all of their parents would accept.
“Doctor, lawyer, or banker,” Teddy smiled wearily.
“Don’t forget engineer,” Opuntia added. In truth, she had no idea what she wanted to do or where she would go. While her friend’s parents were all breathing down their necks, Opuntia’s seemed to grow awkward whenever the subject was brought up. The only thing she really seemed to love was poetry, but she doubted she could become the next Emily Dickinson or Elizabeth Barrett Browning since she was trapped in the tower of a dying age, and the romantic (romantic was an era of art not just like love related things) hodgepodge she wrote would already start decaying if she brought it out to the new world. But she didn’t say that, since it wasn’t something her friends even knew.
“What is this racket?” Principal Redwood had swung the door open, his rotund gut entering the room first before he did.
“Good afternoon, Headmaster.” They all mumbled, immediately sitting up straighter and fixing their hair.
“This is a school, not a playground. I expect you all to be on your best behaviour, especially since this is our new students' first impressions of the academy. Now, you will all quiet down at once or I will send you back to your rooms.” He said in a sharp but monotone voice. Everyone uttered words of agreement. Redwood gave one last lingering glance at Opuntia, who was sitting between Teddy and Sampson on the bed. It was a glance of disapproval with a hint of curiosity, but one second later the door was swung shut.
Opuntia scowled at where Redwood had stood. She hated the way everyone at this school looked at her, like she was a fleck of dirt on a shiny medal, or even a specimen to be stared at. She thought that by surrounding herself with a group of friends it would take the eyes off of her, but it only seemed to get worse. It was like every year people assumed that she would finally decide which boy to end up with.
“Oh, you’re not dating Teddy?” Gerard Writhers had questioned her during an end-of-year study session.
“No, why would you even think that?” She attested, just trying to read her chemistry notes.
“Well, you guys spend a lot of time together and I just thought—”
“Because we’re friends?” she said, clearly annoyed.
“So, it’s Laurier then, isn’t it?” He implored.
“Jesus Christ, if we’re not talking Coulomb’s law then you need to stuff it,” Cas exclaimed angrily, having her back for once.
Why was it so hard to believe she wasn’t interested in anyone? Was she not a student, determined like everyone else to succeed and shouldn’t be dumbed down to a girl only studying boy’s faces? Because of this mindset, she never really did give any thought to who she would want to be involved with, which, although unhealthy to bottle feelings, at least made things more simple around her friends, who were only friends, right?
“I’ll be surprised if he could hear a rocket launch, that old—” Sampson started to say, his teeth bared, but then the door opened yet again. Postures were straightened and mouths were shut but instead, a large teetering mountain of textbooks sauntered in.
“Oh jeez, let me help you,” offered Teddy, before leaping up and taking the books from them, revealing the boy behind them. He was as light as limestone, with neat yet fluffy mousy brown hair. He stood in a fresh new uniform, with a crooked tie, and had eyes that shone like moonlight out of his sockets. He looked around and blushed at the 5 pairs of eyes upon him.
“…Am I in the right room?” He said awkwardly, before checking a slip of paper in his hand.
“Of course you are!” Teddy assured him warmly. “You’re the new student, right?”
“…we should probably go,” Opuntia pointed out, not wanting to get in his way unpacking, plus, eyeing Sampson’s scowl at seeing his replacement. Everyone else got up to leave and get ready for the ceremony, bidding Teddy and the new kid farewell. She noticed his eyes follow her all the way to the door, but surprisingly didn’t say anything about how she wasn’t supposed to be there. ‘Good,’ she thought, the first person to show some respect.
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