It had been three successive weeks into the summer vacation when I received a letter of acceptance from a boarding school I knew nothing about. And even though a nagging voice at the back of my mind deterred me from taking further consideration of the letter, my parents had me enrolled in that school without my permission a few days later.
My thoughts were jumbled as I hauled the suitcase to my parent’s old white minivan. The said vehicle had a few unfixable dents on its side – a product of my father and his habit of driving in a drunken state –but the damage never really mattered. As long as it’s still usable then my parents won’t think about disposing of it. They were extremely thrifty despite having over a million dollars in their bank account.
My feet felt heavy as I pulled the suitcase along the pavement. I sighed in annoyance.
“Don’t forget to send us an e-mail when you get there,” my mother reminded me with a smile.
My mom had ginger hair which flowed past her shoulders. She looked extremely young for her age – 42 – and she had the personality of a teenager. Many of my friends in middle school thought she was my sister, which I found rather offensive for 15-year-old me.
I looked at dad who was pushing the suitcase into the back of the van. He looked young as well. At age 45, he is still as giddy as a high school student. He had the good looks I never inherited – tall, tan-skinned with perfect brown hair and green eyes. My female classmates would swoon in his presence without even knowing that we were related.
I looked at my reflection on the minivan. Albeit distorted, I could make out the disappearing freckles across my nose. My brown hair was disheveled since I never had the habit of combing it. My skin appeared to be very pale – probably because I had just came out of the hospital. I was very sickly, and my parents thought of that as a “disadvantage”.
I gazed at my clothes. My jeans seemed a little tattered even if they were new. My jacket –a memento of my dead uncle— covered most of my upper body. Its zipper opened slightly to reveal the black shirt beneath it.
“Do you have the registration form?” My mom asked me, inspecting me from head to toe. “Remember. You’ll need to have it close to you at all times.”
“It’s in the suitcase,” I told her.
“Honey, our son knows what to do already. He’s growing up and for god’s sake, he’s already in high school. Give him a break,” my dad said as he swung the door of the minivan open.
I got in half-heartedly. My parents were so excited to send me to school. If only they knew how much I was against them. For one thing, I had read the letter the school had sent but it was both stupid and irresponsible of me to have missed the school’s name. The only detail my parents told me about it was that they once attended the same school back in the ‘good old days.’
I grimaced as mom and dad got into the car. They had glowing smiles glued to their youthful faces. I didn’t want to bring them down by telling them how much I hated their decision.
We pulled away from the yard in a brief moment. I took a chance to look at the house. It would take three to four months before I’d get to see its cream-colored walls and rusty rooftop again. I would even miss the street lamp which flickered every now and then because of its faulty wiring.
“It’s going to be a long ride there,” I heard mom say. “You should get some sleep. You need a lot of rest. We’ll be at Doomsday High when you wake up.”
My head raised itself at the name, disbelieving what I just heard. “Doomsday High?”
“Yes,” my mother confirmed her statement. “It’s a weird name for a school, I know. The owner must be some sort of geek.”
I shook my head. “Mom! Dad! You just sent me to a school with a weird name. My friends would think that I’m joking when I get back here for a vacation!”
“Then don’t talk to them about it. That’s what I and your father did when we were students there,” mom said, matter-of-factly.
“I don’t want to go to a school with a name like that. It’s practically screaming my own death!” I yelled.
My mother’s expression changed into a dark one. “Go to sleep. You’re going to have lots of fun when you get there,” she told me, dismissively.
How weird could this get? My mother never gives any person a dark expression like the one she just gave me now. She only gives it to our neighbor’s golden retriever which annoyed her so much to the point that she ripped its head off and threw its remains in a river where it could never be retrieved. I was watching when I saw her do those things, but I remained silent about it. I didn’t want to picture my mother as an insane animal killer.
I sank back into my seat and closed my eyes. Sometimes I just had to forget that I belonged to a very bizarre family. What else could they be hiding from me? What could they possibly get from sending me to a school I’ve never heard about? I shook my head lightly and decided to let my thoughts off for a moment. Some sleep should remedy the thread of questions that had spun in my head.
*****
Waking up was the most unrealistic thing that has ever happened to me. Everything appeared as if I was dreaming. I was lying on stale concrete and my suitcase was right beside me, looking like an abandoned, unmoving puppy. The minivan was gone. My parents had taken off like I was some kind of wild animal they desperately needed to set free.
I got up slowly, and scratched my eyes.
I noticed that everything was far too vague. Pieces of asphalt clung to my skin, making me feel all the more irritated. The dust in the air made me aware of the fact that I wasn't wearing my jacket. I looked down on myself and noticed that I wasn’t in any of my normal clothes at all. I was wearing a white polo shirt with a logo of sorts embossed to its side. In place of my jeans were a pair of black trousers. I looked at my feet. I wasn’t wearing my dirty white sneakers either. I was wearing a pair of clean leather shoes.
What the hell happened during the trip? I mentally asked myself.
I picked up my suitcase and looked ahead. Further on was a huge castle-like structure standing majestically in the middle of nowhere. Clustered at its gate was a small number of students. They were so few that I could easily count them with one look – 17 in total, 8 girls and 9 boys, including me. They were all wearing their prescribed uniforms. Unsurprisingly, the boys were wearing the clothes I had on as well.
The girls were wearing black dresses which ended with a series of white frills a few inches above the knees. Covering the upper part of their dresses were burgundy-colored, long-sleeved blazers endowed with a ribbon around the collar.. Their legs were concealed by a pair of long white socks and their feet were shielded by black shoes. I turned away before I was caught observing.
Before I had completely diverted my attention, one girl spun around and glanced at me. With blond hair and piercing blue eyes, I found her insanely attractive. We locked gazes for a moment. I grabbed my suitcase and walked towards her just as she turned back around.
My presence didn’t seem to capture any of them at all. Their awareness was consumed by the gate which prevented them from entering the premises, or probably what was beyond it. The coffee-colored, castle-like structure loomed over all of us like a stalactite which was going to fall at any moment –even if it was about a hundred meters away from us. I stared at it, mouth slightly agape.
“When are they going to let us in?” One boy with a heavy, Hispanic accent asked. I glanced at him. He had brown hair and his skin was very tan like he'd suffered a lot of torture from the sun.
“Probably never,” a girl answered him.
Their conversation went on longer but I didn’t bother to listen. I was too mesmerized by the breath-taking scene in front of me.
The structure was sitting snuggly behind a really wide school yard which could be briefly described as an expanse of evenly-cut elephant grass. In the middle of the field was a road which could easily accommodate hundreds of people. It stretched to a huge, hollow arch in the castle which appeared to be an opening to the lobby. Lining the side of the road like welcoming soldiers were trees with pink leaves that hung on thin branches that swayed against the wind. The trees were undoubtedly the famous Sakura trees of Japan. My dad had told me stories of how beautiful the trees were when the blossoms bloomed. My life had been spent in America so I never got to see one... Well at least, not until now.
All of a sudden, the gates screeched open, bringing me back to reality. My eyes strained as I watched more students clad in black, burgundy and white spill out of the arch and unto the front of the school building. There were hundreds of them and yet they occupied only about a quarter of the school yard.
One girl marched forward, her skirt bouncing with every step she made. She had red hair which fell to tiny ringlets past her shoulders. She possessed blue eyes and her skin was porcelain. She stopped halfway across the road and curtsied rather gracefully.
“Welcome,” she began, a thick British accent staining her musical voice. “To Doomsday High!”
At that instant, the students behind her began to reveal weapons – some were holding swords, others were holding spears. But what attracted me the most was a small group to the farthest right. Although I couldn’t see most of them due to the sudden showcase of weapons, I could make out one chubby boy holding what seemed to be a gigantic shuriken.
“The exam is about to start,” the girl with the British accent added.
The students with weapons instantly lined up. I focused on the farthest right, where only a few stood. They were holding a bunch of uncanny stuff – things you could only see in video game – and that was more than enough to pique my interest.
“Freshmen!” The girl shouted, bringing my attention back to her. “Here’s the first exam for the semester! You’re going to run to a certain Section. Getting to that Section without getting killed means a hundred points.”
She snapped her fingers and backed away quickly just as the trees lining the pathway sank down. The ground shook for a moment as huge, circumferential blades popped out of the ground in their place, running across the asphalt like pendulums.
“Don’t worry. If you’re bad at this, you’ll only get done in. You’ll be resurrected in a few minutes,” The girl informed us. “I know what you’re thinking. This is sick! Well, welcome to Doomsday! Start running!”
The moment she said that, some kind of impulse propelled me forward and I was forced to run towards the first blade, leaving my suitcase behind in the process. I easily avoided the blade since it zoomed right across me before I could even get to it. The second blade almost had me though. It barely missed the back of my head as I ran past it.
I looked at the third blade. It was as tall as half of my body but it moved extremely fast, which meant I’d
have to jump over it, but the fourth blade was directly in front of it and it popped up and down from the ground in a tentative motion.
I decided to close my eyes and count on my luck. I ran forward and jumped, hearing the third -- or was it the fourth? --blade rip a part of the fabric of my trousers. I collapsed back down and looked ahead. The fifth blade suddenly zoomed before me, missing my nose by a centimeter. I hastily got up.
The fifth blade was just about as tall as me but it was slower than the previous ones. That didn’t mean it was as slow as a turtle though. The sixth blade was easy to avoid since it moved vertically, but if I had been unwary of it, I would be diced very easily. I watched the fifth blade move past me once more before lurching forward toward the seventh blade.
I didn’t want to gloat but I was the first one to make it halfway across the course. Acknowledging that fact didn’t do me any good. I could hear the screams of my former “companions” as they made their way through the dangerous course. They were nearing my location so I had to move.
I breathed a sigh. The eighth, ninth and tenth blades were just ahead of me. The eighth blade moved much faster than its two successors, and each blade was taller than the other. It was hardly escapable. I decided to watch for a moment and think of how to get through them.
My attention darted back to the eighth blade. It was moving too fast. The ninth blade was incredibly slow, but if I walked past it without thorough observation of what was to come, I would definitely get sliced by the tenth –and tallest—blade. I didn’t want that to happen despite knowing that I would be resurrected. The “resurrection” thing was too good to believe.
“Need a little help?” I heard a voice ask me.
I looked at my side and blushed a little. The girl I had taken short notice of earlier was standing beside me. Her left arm was bleeding severely.
“You’re injured,” I told her. It was a stupid thing to say, but I couldn’t think of anything else.
“Ha… I’ve had worse,” She said, looking down at her wound before looking ahead. “The last three blades. We’d better hurry before the others catch up. If that happens we’ll be stuck in this part of the course like helpless sardines.”
I heard someone screaming from behind us and I chose to shut my eyes to block my thoughts from narrating theories of what had happened to that person.
“I’ll go first,” I told her, opening my eyes.
She nodded. “Yep. Definitely not the situation for you to become a gentleman.”
I waited for the ninth blade to zoom past me before closing my eyes once more and running ahead. I opened my eyes instantaneously and doubled over in pain as the tenth blade caught the side of my left foot. I maneuvered it quickly, else it would be sliced off. The blade left a thick gash in its wake. My actions made me fall to the ground with a heavy thud. In a few moments, I felt a certain weight crashing on top of me. I groaned in pain. Blond hair splayed in front of my face like a wavy waterfall.
I shifted myself so that both me and the blond girl would be lying motionless on the asphalt.
“Could you at least manage a better landing?” I asked her.
“I think I broke something,” she said, obviously not interested in answering my question.
We helped each other up and tried to look as normal as possible before limping to the group on the farthest right. I couldn’t help glancing downwards since a lot of blood was escaping my foot.
“We’re going to the same group?” She asked me.
I looked at her and nodded, noticing the smile on her face.
“That’s good. I wanted to join them too. They look nice,” She told me.
The group on the farthest right cheered as the British Girl yelled into the air. “For the first time ever… Section 12 gets the First and Second Placers! Congratulations!”
I looked up as the members of Section 12 surrounded us in a group hug. There were only less than ten people standing in the line to welcome us but my head was spinning too much for me to discern all of them.
The chubby boy from earlier entered my sight and cleared his throat before saying, “There are more of us in the dormitory. The others thought we’ll be getting noobs again this year.”
Another boy – dark haired, round-eyed and sun kiss-skinned—joined him. “We’re not exactly the strong type so we’re proud that you two chose us. Compared to the other sections, we could easily be counted. We’re also different from the others since we fashion our own weapons. We’re a lot friendlier than the others too so I do hope we’d all get along.”
I nodded nonchalantly as black dots clouded my vision.
“What’s your name?” I heard the chubby boy ask.
“Ken,” I told him. “Kenichi Takanashi.”
I managed to hear him tell me that they were going to take both me and the blond girl to the clinic before we head to the dorm for the briefing. I felt relieved. Then my mind darted back to the abandoned suitcase which I had left at the start of the course. They should be able to do something about it. For now… I needed to rest.
