by Amy Joy
“I really don’t know,” she answered, looking around. She pulled out another tissue and wiped a stray tear. “So, why do you hate it so much?”
It was a valid question. Her reason was obvious, but mine couldn’t be. “Well, what’s not to hate? Having my rights taken away, being sent back to this hell-hole I never thought I’d have to step foot in again, being stuck here until I’m twenty-two? I thought graduating meant I was done with high school.” I sighed before adding, “Oh yeah, and they brainwashed my younger brother.”
It was the first time I’d said or even thought it, but as I did, I knew it was how I really felt. The Academie took my wonderful, perfect brother and messed with his head so he didn’t care about anything he used to anymore. He certainly didn’t seem to care about me.
“What do you mean?”
“I came to visit him—months ago already, but it wasn’t that long after he’d been here, and he was a totally different person.” Disgust filled me as I realized the truth: “He was a jerk.”
“Wow. So I guess you’re not excited to see him now then, huh?”
“No. Well—I don’t know. I miss him, but I don’t want to see him like that again.” I was surprised at my own words—not just the revelation they brought me but because I was opening up so much with someone I’d just met. But I felt comfortable with Ruby. Somehow, I felt safe telling her things.
I thought about telling her about Bryan, but it was too complicated to explain, and something I certainly didn’t want to share with all of these people around. If anyone found out, he and his parents could be serious trouble.
Major Dimpled interrupted over the loud speaker again. “The line seems to have died down, so you are welcome to proceed to the medical bay at this time.”
3. streptencoholitis
As expected, the line for the medical bay was still long. “So what were you studying in college?” I asked Ruby as we joined the herd.
“Biology.”
“Really? Oh man, I could have used your help a few months ago.”
She smiled. “What about you?
“Oh, I have no idea. I keep trying things out, but nothing seems right. Maybe I’m too picky. I’d just like to find something I enjoy.”
“No, I agree. If we’re going to be doing it for the rest of our lives, we better like it, right?”
“Exactly!” It was like she was reading my mind. If making friends were always this easy, I’d have a million of them by now.
The line stepped forward, and we moved along with it. I suddenly felt this eerie reminder of my last conversation with my grandma and a show I’d seen once on the History Channel. There were old black and white films showing lines of prisoners moving forward to their death in the gas chambers of concentration camps…
The thought entered my mind, and I quickly brushed it aside. Certainly what I was experiencing was nothing like that. I silently apologized to the deceased and their families.
“So do you have any idea where we are supposed to be going next?” I asked, shifting my mind back to present things.
“Lunch, I think.”
“Great, I’m starving.” I couldn’t believe it given the amount of food I’d eaten at my “last meal” breakfast with my parents and little brother, Andy, but my stomach was now feeling raw and empty.
“You’re not the only one. I thought my appetite would die down after Charlotte was born, but if that’s true, it hasn’t yet. I guess when you are breastfeeding the appetite continues, but I was only able to breastfeed for the first three days. They wanted to get her used to the formula right away, but since I’ve heard that the baby gets most of their immunities through breast milk, I wanted to help Charlotte out as much as I could...” She trailed off, but her eyes didn’t tear up as much this time. I was impressed.
“So, will your parents bring her here to visit you soon?”
“Yeah, my mom said that she’ll get over here with her as soon as she can get them to schedule a visit. Visits aren’t easy to get, as I’m sure you found out with your brother.”
“Oh yeah, they made it as hard on me as possible.”
“Step forward please!” a nurse ordered. I hadn’t been paying attention and suddenly, we were next in line.
There were several stations open with different doctors and nurses. The nurse ushered Ruby and I in different directions.
“Good luck,” I said, stepping forward to meet the nurse frantically waving me in.
“You too. How ‘bout we meet at lunch?”
“Sounds good.” I took a deep breath and followed the nurse into an examining room.
“Here’s your next victim,” the nurse said to a bearded man and a woman with bleach blond hair—both dressed in white coats—as she dropped me off. The drop-off nurse smiled in a not-so-friendly kind of way as she left. Victim. Very funny.
The bearded man and bleach blond both stood, tapping on tablet PCs they held on their arms like doctor’s charts. The room was small, supplied with the usual cabinets, countertop, and sink found in most examining rooms, but unlike most, it had a door on the wall opposite where I came in.
“Where does that go?” I asked as I entered.
“That’s none of your concern,” the bearded man replied without looking up.
“Well, it’s a little creepy when you are about to examine me. Is anyone going to come in through there?”
“No, you have nothing to worry about.” He answered automatically, still looking at his computer rather than at me.
“Your name, Miss,” The woman asked, and I understood then that she was the assistant. Figures, I thought.
“Alathea Thompson.”
I watched as she wrote it in with her stylus. “Yes, I have you here. Age 19? 6437 Park Lane?”
“That’s me.”
“Allergy to penicillin? How do you know that?” She looked up from her computer so that she could peer over her glasses at me.
“My mother is very allergic to it, so we’re guessing that I may be too.”
“Just because your mother is, doesn’t mean that you are,” she said in a know-it-all kind of a tone.
“Well I’d rather not find out the hard way if you don’t mind,” I snapped back.
“Alathea, have a seat,” the doctor said, still without looking up from his tablet.
I looked around the room, chose one of the wheelie chairs, and plopped myself down.
“On the table, please,” he clarified, looking at me at last. His eyes were brown, but much darker than Bryan’s, edged with deep lines and thick brows that seemed bent in a permanent scowl.
Bryan’s eyes could never look so mean….
“Young lady! We are on a tight schedule.”
I hated the stupid table. I had too many bad memories on those things. Why couldn’t they just do what they needed to do with me where I was? Reluctantly, I got up from the chair, took the step over to the table, and hopped up. Even at nineteen, it was too high for me to get on without jumping or using the small step they usually pull out for children.
“Have you been sick or needed to visit a doctor for any reason in the last year?” Dr. Beard asked.
“Nope.”
“When was your last menstrual cycle?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Just answer the question,” Bleach blond snipped.
“I don’t know. A few weeks ago, I guess.”
“Can you be more specific?” Beard asked, looking over his dark-rimmed glasses. Looking over your glasses must be something they teach you in medical classes, I thought.
“No, I can’t. I really don’t keep track.”
“Well, you should,” Blondie said, rolling her eyes.
I rolled mine too.
“Okay,” Beard said. He stepped up to the table and set his tablet down behind me. “Arms up.” I reluctantly raised them. “We need to check your lymph nodes to make sure that you are nice and healthy,” he said, feeling the insides of my armpits. He did the same a littl
e too close to things I didn’t want him near on the inside of my legs, then placed his hands around my throat and up behind my ears.
“Alright, that’s fine. Now I just need to listen to your heart and lungs.” He placed the stethoscope in his ears and the other end inside my shirt, on my chest. It was cold and uncomfortable, and I flinched in response. He looked up at me briefly, then down again.
After a moment of silence, he said, “Sounds good.” Then he moved the cold thing over slightly. “Breathe in.”
I took a deep breath.
“Breathe out.”
I let it all out.
“Again.”
I repeated a few more times and then he moved to my back.
“Breathe in.”
“Hhheeeh” my lungs said as I took another deep breath. I was becoming a pro now.
“Breathe out.”
“Hwooooh” my lungs replied, relaxing.
“Everything checks out. I’ll just have Nurse Edwards take your blood pressure and give your inoculations, and you’ll be on your way.”
“Inoculations? But I just had a bunch for college. Are you sure I need them?”
“Yes, we’ve checked your record. These are different, and ones that everyone needs in order to become a student here.”
I knew this was going to be the case, but I had to at least try to get out of it.
Dr. Beard left and Nurse Blondie pulled the blood pressure cuff from its holder in the wall. A few seconds later, it was wrapped around my arm, giving that uncomfortable sensation that tells you that your hand would really like its blood back.
“A little high,” she said, not a moment too soon. I thought my hand was going to turn blue if she’d gone any longer. Did she say it was high? What did they expect? It was my first day at this place and I was in a medical office being examined. Of course it’s going to be high.
“Okay Alathea,” she said, looking over my chart on her tablet again, “it looks like you just need the one vaccination.”
“What’s it for?”
“It’s a combination of inoculations.”
“What’s it protecting me from?”
“Lots of things.”
“Name one.”
She looked at me harshly, and I could tell that she wasn’t used to getting this kind of resistance. “Streptencoholitis.”
I swear she just made that up. “What?”
“It’s a common, but serious virus that often spreads in closed environments such as this.”
Whatever. Let’s just get this over with. I pulled up my sleeve, thankful it was a short one so that my shirt could stay on. This is one of the few examinations where I’d been able to stay fully clothed, and I was hoping to keep it that way.
She walked out of the office and returned a moment later, syringe in hand. A young man, also in a white coat, followed her, for what I assumed must be insurance purposes.
I turned to look the other way as she prepared to plunge the needle in. A few rooms down, I imagined Ruby looking right at it as they administered her vaccine. She seemed so much braver than me.
I felt the needle hit my skin. And then, the sensation of falling.
4. dorm life
“What happened?” I was groggy, unsure of where I was or how much time had passed. As my eyes focused, I discovered I was lying on the examining table.
“You fainted,” a young woman in a lab coat with light brown hair replied.
“Where’s Nurse Blond—I mean, Edwards?”
“She’s helping other students.”
“Oh…. I fainted?” I closed my eyes again. I’d passed out plenty of times before, but never like this. It had none of the normal signs or signals. And I’d never fainted from a needle before. I didn’t like them, but they didn’t make me lose consciousness.
“Yes, take your time getting up.”
Normally, I’d have grabbed my things and been out of there in an instant. But I still didn’t feel right. I wanted to keep my eyes shut—to rest just a while longer, but strange sensations entered my brain. A feeling of motion, the sound of voices…. Dreaming…I must be dreaming.
“How are you doing, Alathea?”
I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry again, making the room appear different than I remembered. The walls seemed darker and the extra door...“Where’s the handle?” I asked slowly. My brain didn’t seem to be processing as quickly as usual.
“What?”
“How do you get out?”
She looked at me and seemed to follow my gaze. “We don’t need to.”
I met Ruby at the cafeteria for lunch and learned that Bryan was right—the food sucks. Since the student population was now massive, they broke us down into meal times much like high school. As a result, I had yet to catch a glimpse of my brother, Matt. The way things were divided and regulated here, I began to wonder if I ever would. All the better, I told myself.
After lunch I proceeded to the next item on my schedule: Dorm Meeting. What were called dorms were actually huge, separate rooms on the third floor. As I walked into my assigned dorm, I found “living stations—as I’d heard them called—consisting of a bunk bed with desks on either side. There were dozens of these stations spread throughout the room.
Well, at least we’ll have our privacy…
“I’m Sergeant Garret,” a tall woman with a square build announced in a husky voice. Though the room was large and students were bustling about, Garret didn’t need a microphone to bring the crowd to attention.
“I will be your dorm sergeant for the duration of your stay here at The Academie. There will be no reassignments, so I suggest that you decide right now that you’re not going to cause trouble. Part of your education here is to learn how to live in community with others.”
It was the first sensible thing I’d heard said about the program.
“As you are probably noticing, life inside The Academie is not like what you have been used to thus far. You’ll find this goes for dorm life as well. You are NOT permitted in the dorm at any time except in the morning before breakfast and in the evening, after dinner.”
She suddenly turned and addressed a couple of girls who were whispering. “When are you allowed in the dorm?”
The girls shrugged. “When we are not in classes?” one answered.
“WRONG! PAY ATTENTION! You are not permitted in the dorm at any time except before breakfast and after dinner. Remember this! The consequences for disobedience will be SEVERE!”
Way to make us feel at home…
“Each morning, a wake-up bell will go off twice—first at 6:00 a.m. and again at 6:30. After that, if you aren’t up, I will get you up.” She paused to stare us down. “No members of the opposite sex are ever allowed in here for any reason, and in fact, no members of the same sex that don’t belong in this dorm are permitted here either.”
She looked at the girls who had been talking earlier. “Got that?”
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
“The lights are on a timer,” she said, looking above us. They will go off at 11 p.m. and back on at 6 a.m.”
Less than eight hours of sleep. Don’t they know how bad that is for your health?
“Ear plugs and an eye mask will be provided to anyone who wishes to sleep before the lights go out. Any questions?”
No one moved. “Good, then if you haven’t already, you need to claim a living station. You’ll find your personal items lined up on the far wall. If you find anything missing, it’s been confiscated.”
Someone gasped.
“You should have read the rules. Anything not on the permissible list now belongs to The Academie.”
There goes my cell phone….
Apparently, some had already picked beds and living station partners ahead of time. I have no idea how they chose who’d be in which dorm, but I hardly recognized anyone. By the time I’d retrieved my small bag from home, I had trouble even finding an open living station.
Too bad Ruby’s not in my
dorm…. Instead, a frizzy, dark-haired girl with matching skin tones stood by the last remaining bunk. She looked at me skeptically as I walked toward it.
“Hi. I guess this is where I’ll be,” I said, gesturing to the top bunk.
“Guess so,” she said, seeming as thrilled about it as I was.
I threw my bag onto my bunk. “Where’d she say the bedding is?”
The girl pointed to the wall opposite where our personal items had been.
After retrieving my bed roll, I climbed the ladder built into the end of the bunk and unrolled the pack. The blanket was a thin, navy blue flannel piece, and I knew immediately I was going to spend every night freezing. I climbed back down the ladder and went to find Sergeant Garret. She was standing by the door, monitoring our progress.
“Can I get an extra blanket? I freeze at night and usually have a lot more than this.”
Not surprisingly, she looked annoyed. “We have limited supplies. Try it out tonight and if it’s a problem, come back and talk with me.”
I sighed and walked away. I already knew I was going to freeze. What was the point?
Making the bed proved a chore. If I were taller, I suppose I could have done it from the ground. Instead, I had to keep getting up and down off either side of the bed to get it all situated properly. Meanwhile, my bunkmate lay comfortably in her easy-made lower bunk.
Fifteen minutes later, I finally finished. Just as I was about to follow my bunkmate’s lead, a whistle blew and Garret called us back for more instructions.
“Each day this week you will be given a new pack of clothes, culminating in a week’s worth of uniforms. You will also be given a marker. It is your responsibility to clearly mark each clothing item and your bedding with your name. Don’t forget the socks and undergarments or you’ll be going without. The laundry hamper is over here.” She pointed to a large basket by the door. “After they are laundered, they will be placed on this rack over here.” She gestured to a large set of shelves along the wall next to the laundry basket. It’s your job to sort through them and find your own stuff. Anyone caught taking someone else’s will be dealt with accordingly.