Melody stifled a yawn as she looked around at the other students walking along the long brick wall of surrounding the school. “Tired?” Marcus asked.
“Not used to getting up before the sun,” she replied, before glancing the other student once more. “Or being around a lot of people...” she muttered.
“Not surprising,” Jareth commented, not bothering to look up from his phone. “Aurora Academy is one of the best multi-species schools in the country for a reason. Along with a high graduation rate and excellent funding, it has the second highest enrollment of all multi-species schools.”
“Who’s the highest?” Marcus asked.
“The Crystal Empire’s Arcana University, in the northern region of Equestria.”
“Equus.” They both looked over at Melody, who shrugged. “The proper term for the continent is Equus, Equestria is just the primary kingdom of it. The Crystal Empire is considered an independent city-state with it’s own form of government and laws separate from that of Equestria. It’s only really every marked as part of Equestria on certain legal documents used by lazy bureaucrats, most of which are from Earth. On major documents here on Earth, along with with the majority of paperwork in Equus it’s counted as its own kingdom,” she explained, earning confused looks from both of them.
Jareth stared at her silently while Marcus gave a confused look “You know all this how?” he asked.
“My therapist recommend I find something to keep me distracted after… y’know.” Marcus nodded solemnly while Jareth gave a confused look. “She offered to let me borrow one of the spare books she had in her office, ended up going with a book on Equestrian law.
“After the first few months I started to find it all pretty interesting, so I started studying the politics and laws of both worlds in my spare time. When I got accepted to the academy, I decided it might be a good idea to go for a class that would allow me to put this information to good use.” She gave soft sigh. “Not something I really want to do with the rest of my life, but you never know when you might need an understanding of the law.” Marcus gave a nod of understanding as the trio finally reached the front gate of the school. “Whoa,” Melody muttered as she got a look at the campus.
To say the campus was spacious would be an understatement, the entirety of the open landscape scratched on farther than even Melody’s enhanced vision could see. In the distance, she barely make out a large structure she assumed was the main building. On either side, Melody could see a small row of buildings lines up a short walk away from one another.
“Excuse me?” Melody blinked before looking to her side, seeing a pair of older looking students sitting at a table, one a light brown haired caucasian male and the other a dark haired female with tan skin. “Would you mind stepping over here for a moment?” The female said. Melody quickly glanced over at her companions, noting Jareth giving the pair a quizzical look while Marcus held a neutral expression similar to the male. After another second of hesitation, Melody finally stepped over to the table. “New students?” She asked.
“Yup,” Marcus said simply, adjusting the strap of his messenger bag.
“Wonderful!” she exclaimed, earning an mildly confused glance from the male beside her. “My name is Katherine Ramirez, and my friend here is Damien Richter.” Damien raised an eyebrow as the word “friend” but remained silent as Katherine continued speaking. “And we’re part of the student welcoming committee.”
“Melody. A pleasure to meet you,” Melody said as she set one of her bags down and extended a hand to Katherine.
Katherine smiled and gave Melody’s hand a polite shake. “Likewise,” she responded as she released Melody’s hand and picked up the tablet in front of her. Melody glanced over at her friends as they gave their names to Damien, who seemed content to just remain silent while he began typing on his tablet.
“Let’s see… Gonzalez?” Katherine asked, to which Melody nodded.
“I usually go by Sharpe, but yes that would be me,” she said.
“Okay then,” she set the tablet down and pulled out a strip of paper and a key from the box beside her, jotting down several numbers before passing them to Melody. “Here’s your dormitory number: building one, floor four, dorm seven.” She stood up and pointed towards one of the larger buildings Melody had noted before. “Building one is over there, on the right.”
“So I’m guessing two would be the one on the other side?” Marcus asked, pointing to the row behind the table, to which Katherine nodded . Curious, Melody leaned over to glance at the identical strip of paper.
B-2 F-2 D-15
“Looks like we’ve got the same dorm,” Jareth muttered, mimicking Melody’s action.
Katherine quickly cleared her throat to get their attention, offering another polite smile. “Just one last thing we need to do.” She pulled out of a pair of oddly tinted glasses. “Can I see your bags? It’ll just take a second.”
“Um, sure,” Melody said nervously, lifting her suitcases up and placing them on the table. “Though I’d like to know why, I don’t remember reading about needing to present our bags for some kind of inspection in the handbook.”
“It’s just a simple check to make sure you don’t have anything illegal.” Everyone, Katherine included, jumped slightly as Damien spoke up as he began looking over Marcus and Jareth’s bags with his own pair of glasses. “Weapons, drugs, other dangerous items or materials. The school board started requiring these after one too many violent incidents between students in the past. It’s kept out of the handbook because they believe it’ll be easier to catch anyone trying to sneak them in if they don’t entirely know ahead of time.” He gave a silent nod and pushed the bags back to their owners. “Though even if they did know, they also check incoming packages and do surprise inspection on the dorms, these glasses are enchanted to see through normal items and pick up anything that’s been banned on school grounds.”
“Exactly,” Katherine commented as she finished her own check on Melody’s belongings and passed them back. “And the backpack?”
“Oh, right.” Melody quickly shrugged off her pack and dropped it on the table. “There are a few prescription medication bottles in there, though they should be noted either on my file or in some of the paperwork in there.” Katherine nodded and began searching through the contents manually, occasionally tapping at her tablet to check Melody’s information.
“Okay, everything checks out,” she said after a moment, zipping it back up and handing it back to Melody. “The Orientation assembly is in one hour. Thank you for your time Melody, and welcome to Aurora Academy.”
Melody smiled and gave a friendly wave as she followed Marcus and Jareth in the direction of the main building. “Y’know, you don’t need to be so damn enthusiastic when greeting new students,” Damien commented as they got out of earshot, his bored expression never changing.
“How can you say that? How can you not enjoy being allowed to greet them as they take their first few steps onto the campus?” Katherine asked, giving him a confused look.
Damien just rolled his eyes “Simple, I’ve been doing this for the past three years, it gets boring as hell the second time around. Not to mention having to deal with the assholes that you might meet,” he said as he leaned back in his seat, staring up at the cloudy sky. “This is just your first year in the welcoming committee, you’ll see what I’m talking about sooner or later.”
“Were you enthusiastic your first year?” she asked as the next set of students walked over.
Damien paused for a moment, thinking back to the first time he had to take part in the welcoming committee “...No, if anything I was an even bigger jackass than I am now.”
Melody glanced between the two dorm buildings before sighing. “Guess this is where we split up.”
Marcus just smirked and placed a hand on her head. “Not like we’ll be separated that long, we can easily meet up before heading to the assembly.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, her mood brightening. “I just wanted to spend some time to catch up.” Marcus gave a silent nod of agreement as she turned to Jareth. “It was great meeting you Jareth, I hope we can hang out together more often in the future,”.
“Likewise,” he replied, returning the smile and holding out a hand. Melody dropped one of her bags and took his hand with her own, giving it a quick shake before letting go. Giving each other a final nod, the men turned and headed towards their dorm building. Melody stared after them for a moment before picking her bag up and heading towards the other building.
Melody sighed as she scanned the area. Many of the students had spread out throughout the campus, most of them forming small groups with friends, while others simply made their way to the dorm they had been assigned. After a moment, Melody stopped and looked up at the sky, a thin smile forming on her lips.
“First day’s not even done, and I’ve already got one new friend, and one possible friend, guessing I’m off to a good start,” she muttered, dropping her gaze back to the dorm building as she changed her pace to a light jog.