x
“Are you listening to me?” A shrill voice called out from next to her. She quickly ripped off her headphones and once again found herself in her bedroom, surrounded by a small mountain of various objects sitting on her twin-sized trundle bed. Mary was attempting to get her attention, holding up a bottle of sunscreen.
“Gosh, maybe I made a mistake in getting you that thing,” Mary laughed, as she set her Walkman down next to her pile. She had received the Walkman as a graduation gift and had been almost inseparable from it ever since. It wasn’t just because she loved using it; it was a sentiment to her foster mother, who she knew didn’t have much to spare and spent a hefty amount on it.
“Anyways,” Mary continued, gesturing to the sunscreen bottle. “You should pack this too, I’m sure it will be very sunny in the desert, and I can’t have you burning.”
“Who knows, maybe I’ll tan this time,” she replied with a grin, taking the bottle from her anyway.
“Dearie, you don’t tan, you freckle,” Mary reminded her in a doting way, before turning away to help sort out her belongings.
“Oh, why did you have to wait until the night before to pack everything?”
“I don’t really have much, it won’t take much longer,” She shrugged as she began placing small stacks of folded laundry into a warn green suitcase, the very same one she had been using for most of her life.
Most kids liked to pack for tropical vacations, and trips to a friend or relative’s house, but packing for her always meant a new home. Eight times in her life, she had packed up all she knew and travelled across the states to a different house, still holding out hope that this would be her final destination, and she would never have to pack again. Some places were better than others. Sometimes she felt sad to leave, especially when she had enjoyed her stay and was too young to understand why another family was letting go of her, other times she was slightly relieved to be leaving and she couldn’t pack fast enough. But this was not one of those times. Mary had been her foster mother for the past two and a half years, and she had been the greatest she had ever known. It was just them two, Mary was an older woman who was never able to have children, so when she arrived on her doorstep with her green suitcase at 15 years old, she took her in like a lost daughter who had just been found. In many ways, Mary was like her mother, but unfortunately, she would once again be packing, yet this time she was not in search of a new family.
Mary was looking at her in a knowing way, her wrinkled hands placed over each other and peering at her over her thick glasses.
“Now, you are going to promise to make friends, right?” She asked as she balled up her socks and also placed them in the luggage.
“Uh, yeah, I’ll try,” she said hesitantly. It’s not like she didn’t want friends, she did, it was just that she didn’t have much experience in actually keeping friends. With her constant moving and rather ill-fated living situation, she found that she could never keep friends for long. Even in her last two years of high school, she was left with mostly acquaintances who were nice to talk to, but she didn’t form a lifetime bond with them. None of them had really bothered to keep in touch over the summer, and she knew most were headed off to colleges out of state or across the country, not even close to where she was headed.
“C’mon, show me how you’ll introduce yourself,” Mary prompted her and then changed her stance to appear like a ‘young, cool’ college freshman.
“Groovy, dude! ‘Sup? Would you like to be my pal? What’s your name?”
She shook her head with a grin at her foster mother’s out-of-touch slang. She then sighed and obliged in the imaginary scenario.
“My name is Electa Aster, but you can call me Lainey,” she started.
“You’re still going to go by Lainey?” Mary asked her curiously. “You don’t want to opt for a change? Electa is such a unique name, dearie.”
“I--I think I’m just used to it. It’s…what my mom called me, I think,” Lainey answered, looking away from her momentarily. She then carried on the conversation.
“I’m an astronomy major here and I’m really excited to see where the year takes me!” She winced at the last words, considering them far too enthusiastic to be considered cool.
“That sounds great,” Mary beamed at her. “Make sure you let everyone know how smart you are for doing astronomy, and on a full scholarship,” she winked.
“C’mon, Mary, we don’t know about that,” Lainey said, blushing slightly. She honestly didn’t know anything about this school she was about to venture off to in mere hours, and she honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it all turned out to be a hoax. She applied to it on a whim after a pamphlet showed up in the mail. No one else in her school had even considered it an option, since it was in Arizona, and very small with not many programs to offer. But one of its specialties was Astronomy. And she knew that in some way shape or form, that was what she desired to do. They even listed a full observatory, one of the first in the country, as one of the main selling points. The only other thing that sealed the deal for her was her acceptance, of course, and the promise of a full scholarship based on her ‘academic prowess and background,’ which probably was also referring to her life growing up in foster care. She would be lying if she said she didn’t need this scholarship, but she still wondered if there was a reason why they seemingly gave it out so willy-nilly. She supposed she would find out soon, and deep down inside, she couldn’t wait.
With help from Mary, everything was eventually packed. Even her walkman was now safely tucked away in a pocket of her backpack. Now all she had to do was leave. Leave the comfort and familiarity once again for the unknown. She was like an astronaut about to step out of the ship and into the black void, and that was exactly how she felt the following day when her journey would begin.
They left early in the morning, so early that the sun had not yet risen over the flat horizon of the desert, but once it had, it was scorching as usual. Lainey could feel it even with the AC on blast in the cramped mini-van, her head leaning against the window as Mary cruised along the interstate. It was certainly a long way from New Mexico to Arizona, much longer than Mary was used to driving. Lainey was unusually quiet, deeply lost in thought about the new turn her life was about to take. She was feeling almost everything in the book, from despair at being away from Mary for so long, to nervousness at the uncertainty of what the school was like, to excitement of finally getting a chance to learn something she was passionate about. She figured most people would dread the university workload the most, but for her, it defined the entire reason she was going to this school. She didn’t even think she was going to a post-secondary school, much less for something as fascinating as astronomy. She was desperate to branch out from the small information she had learned from her high school classes and books in the library. As she gazed out the window, she knew that even though the blue sky hid what lay above, the heavens were waiting for her, begging to be studied.
Thirty minutes outside of Phoenix and after several hours on the road, Mary pointed at something in the distance.
“I think that’s it, Lainey!” She exclaimed, making Lainey sit straight up in surprise, brushing curls from her eyes to see what her foster mother was referring to. How could it possibly be out here? They were practically in the middle of nowhere! But something also caught her eye. It was immediately visible as it was the only thing taller than a shrub in sight, but it was a cluster of buildings looming on the horizon, painted black against the white sun.
Lainey and Mary watched it grow larger and larger as they drove down the dusty road, revealing its features bit by bit. Lainey was frankly taken aback by it. For a school so small and unheard of, she expected a couple of plain brick buildings, unassuming and unremarkable, but she was dead wrong. What greeted them was a lush oasis in the middle of the Arizonian desert. An invisible bubble held in a vast meadow with lawns that glistened in the morning light. Trees of all kinds from pine to spruce to acacia were arranged in stunning gardens that stretched across the grounds, and a row of flowering cacti lined the outer circle of the campus, acting as a gateway from the dry outer world to the heaven of the school’s inner world. ‘The water bill must be sky-high,’ Lainey thought.
But the real focal point was the school itself. If Lainey didn’t know any better, she would think it was part of a castle that had been plucked up and put there. Almost every building was carved from the same kind of pale grey stone, and they were each covered with intricate engravings she could barely make out, and were held up by well-groomed baroque columns. There was so much to take in that Lainey almost missed the sign at the front of the campus that read,
“WELCOME TO CEREBRES STATE
mens et materia nos complere”
199Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgU4O4NfoRb
Mary pulled up to the largest building in the middle of the campus, a towering cathedral-type structure with flashy purple and gold writing saying, “WELCOME NEW STUDENTS! INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE HERE”
“This is it,” Mary said to Lainey, who was now wide awake, her eyes flickering around at everything in view. On the front lawn of the main building were other students being given information pamphlets, complimentary T-shirts and other memorabilia. Hesitantly, Lainey climbed out of the car with Mary right behind her. Together they carried her few bags and suitcases over to the queue of students and staff, enveloping themselves in the disarray of noise and motion from parents berating their children and staff trying their best to help.
“Hello! Welcome to Cerebres State!” A woman had caught sight of them and gestured them over to her table. She was very tall and gamine, with a tight black bun on the top of her head and half-moon spectacles perched on her crooked nose. She wore a CSU shirt adorned with several pins advertising all kinds of different awards and clubs at the school.
“Can I just get your name and student number and we can get you sorted into your room.”
Mary gestured for Lainey to speak.
“Uh, yeah, it’s Electa Aster, and my student number is 82413.”
“Electa…oh yes, right here.” The woman quickly scanned her index finger down a list until she found her name. “What a beautiful name, I’ve never heard that one before. Do you happen to be Greek?”
The woman was just trying to be polite but Lainey didn’t know what to say.
“Uhh, I’m not sure, actually,”
“Can I just say you have a lovely campus here,” Mary suddenly cut in, placing a hand on Lainey’s shoulder to save her from an awkward conversation.
Lainey nodded in agreement, particularly looking over at the large glass dome on top of a hill in the distance, having a hunch of what it could be.
“Why, thank you! I see you’re interested in the observatory,” the woman said, following her gaze and smiling with pride.
“I’m Ms. Higgs, the head of the astronomy department here at CSU,” she held out her hand and Mary and Lainey shook it.
“Do I expect to be seeing you in some of my classes?”
Lainey nodded again, the passion and excitement now clear in her eyes. Ms Higgs then gave her a quizzical look, as if she just noticed something about Lainey. She let go of her hand but continued to look at her.
“Sorry,” Ms. Higgs said finally, realizing she was staring. “Something about you is just so familiar. I just can’t put my finger on it. Maybe a past student or something…” she trailed off.
This small comment seemed to spark a curiosity in Lainey. Could it be possible that someone in her family had gone here? In her eyes, anything was possible since she knew absolutely nothing about her family. She was dropped off at the Save Haven Box as an infant by someone she assumed was a relative, and stuck to the sea of the foster care system ever since. She didn’t like thinking about it, but she constantly found herself wondering where she came from. Half the time, she imagined herself just popping into existence somewhere, an enigma crafted by fate. But she knew that wasn’t logical. Somewhere out there, she had a family. Whether dead or alive, they were there.
“I couldn’t help but overhear you were discussing our campus,” another woman had entered the conversation. She looked very overwhelmed with frizzy white hair flying all over the place and walked with a slight limp as she carried over more T-shirts to Ms. Higgs’ table. Despite this, she still managed to smile kindly at her new student.
“There’s more, of course, to CSU than astronomy, even though that’s what we’re most known for. A little fun fact is that the rock you are standing on right now was one of the only remnants of the original structure, built, I’m not mistaken, over two hundred years ago!” She gestured to the ground Mary stood on, and they all looked down to see a large flat stone embedded into the ground, with more carvings on it just like the actual buildings. However, these lines were geometric and sharp, compared to the wall’s smooth and organic-looking lines, like swirls and branching grooves.
“You don’t say,” Mary said in awe, looking up at her foster daughter to see if she was hearing this.
“Yes, the school has a very rich history I definitely encourage you to check out,” she winked at Lainey before bustling off.
“Well, I think we’ve talked your ear off enough,” Ms. Higgs said after a moment. “Let’s get you to your room. I always hate saying this, but due to the small size of our campus and rooms, we highly encourage parents to say their goodbyes here instead of inside.”
“So, I won’t get to see her room?” Mary asked sadly.
“You’re welcome to visit before the Christmas break, just when it’s not as crowded,” Ms. Higgs said sympathetically. Lainey looked up at her foster mother. She frankly didn’t know what to say to her. She hated how this felt like yet another goodbye, even though this time, she knew she would see her again. Suddenly, Lainey felt herself being pulled into a hug that squeezed all the air out of her lungs.
“Promise you’ll write to me,” Mary said in almost a whisper, her already watery eyes filling with tears. “Promise to eat enough, go to every class, and actually make some friends.”
“I promise, Mary,” Lainey assured her, holding onto her stout shoulders. They broke apart and the two slowly drifted away from each other for the first time in two years. They waved and waved until Mary was back in her beat-up car and slowly driving away into the desert, growing smaller and smaller into the distance until Lainey had to squint to see her.
Lainey looked around to see the older lady bustling off again, and Mrs. Higgs once again searching through a stack of welcome packages.
“Well, here you go,” she handed Lainey a room key and her wrapped parcel.
“Your school schedule, a map, a frosh week activity booklet and, oh, can’t forget a school spirit T-shirt are all in there. You’re in room 422 in the Anderson building.” She pointed to the building directly across from the one they stood in front of. It was the widest and stretched the longest out of all of them, and was lined with rows of arched windows, every so often containing panels of mosaic glass coloured purple and red, and blue.
She bid Mrs. Higgs farewell and took a deep breath before walking over to the dormitory building, dragging her battered suitcase behind her.
“Hope to see you at orientation!” Mrs. Higgs called after her, before turning to help another student. She was on her own once again. She was usually so numb to the feeling but this time, the thought of it contained new meaning. She looked around at the campus, at the other students saying goodbye to their families, at the campus full of life and rich history. Finally, she looked up at the blue sky and wondered if she would finally get to know more about it, and maybe even know more about herself.199Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfSxjaEutUE
