RA Chapter Two: Pictures and Memories

I then continued to roam the halls aimlessly, going around corners, walking through gardens checking if my luggage had arrived yet.

Then in a flash, I remembered that I had to go to the principal's office for my schedule. I went through another series of hallways and stopped at a wooden door that had a gold plaque above that read "Principal's Office''. I opened the door and was greeted by the scent of lemon and orange. The room was considerably large, with a large wooden desk with a small amount of paperwork on it. The desk had a picture of a man and a woman, with a little boy and girl. They were a very normal family by my standards. Behind the desk were large bookshelves with many books, some of the shelves had more family pictures.

There was a picture that had the little boy with gray hair and blue eyes who was looked really happy playing with this toy train. Another picture had the boy standing with a little girl who looked almost exactly like him, except she had mole on her left cheek had short pigtails. She was smiling, but the thing is, he wasn't smiling anymore. A lot of the other pictures were like this, with the boy winning awards, winning races, him in school pictures, school recitals, and even in swimming races, but the boy always managed to keep a cold and neutral look on his face.

On the walls in front of the desk were large paintings, some were abstract, some had people in them, and some were just a mix of dark and bright colors. A big leather chair was set behind the desk but was turned around, facing the bookshelves, while in front of the desk were two chairs. While I was still looking around the room, a voice startled me.

"I'm guessing that you have never seen a room before?" I abruptly turned around and knocked over a picture on the desk.

" I'm so sorry, I'll put it back up right now." I hurriedly got down and picked up the photo. the boy was in it again, but this time with the woman and man, who I assumed were his parents. The woman had beautiful long, gray hair with electrifying blue eyes, while the man had spiky black hair and deep blue eyes. Their two children were smiling happily with them, as if they had all the time in the world. . . they were the perfect family.

"Family. . . " I muttered.

" Does the picture interest you?" I turned to my left and found myself staring into the eyes of the same woman I saw in the picture.

" Um . . well no, but I just saw this picture and thought that you all looked very happy in it."

" Yes, we do look happy don't we. . . well have a seat", she gestured to one of the chairs. I sat in one of the chairs and got a good look at the person who was talking to me. She was tall, had long, pale legs, and she had a nice gray suit with a skirt that was just above the knees. She was well. . . packaged. . and she had an oval-like face with , a small nose, full lips, with her long hair flowing behind her to her tail bone.

We stared at each other until she cleared her throat.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

"My name is Erika Lyon, age 15. I am new at this school so I hope you can take care of me." I got up and bowed for effect, then suddenly I heard laughing and I looked up to see her barely containing her laughing fit.

" HAHAHAHA you don't have to- ! Oh my goodness, you sound so rehearsed ! You're not from Japan by any chance are you ?! " she squealed.

I could feel my face growing hot. Seems I could barely make an introduction without making a fool of myself.

Well done Erika.

She soon stopped laughing and then smiled at me.

" I'm sorry, I was just so overwhelmed! ¨ She quickly cleared her throat and got out some papers for me. "So if you would please just sign these papers for your enrollment please."

I looked at the papers, got a pen from my bag, and started to read the content of the contract. It was simple enough; I was supposed to behave with conduct, and get along with the roommates that I would be living with. Class formally started at 10:00 AM, with the specially requested classes starting at 7, and formally ended at 4:00 PM, except for late night classes which varied. Students could do anything in their spare time as long as it was before school and after school, and that being off campus after 10:00 PM and before 8:00 AM will earn us a detention, unless we had permission from the principal herself.

"So, do you have any questions?" she asked me.

"No..."

She started to smile again.

I wonder if her face was just permanently etched that way.

"Well, I'm Victoria Weston, the principal of this school as you can see." she gestured to the room we were in. "I like to help students with whatever problems they have."

I nodded. " Yeah, thank you for having me here." She looked at me with what seemed like pity. " You know, I've heard about your parents", she said carefully. I looked straight ahead, without showing emotion.

" It was a terrible accident wasn't it? I can't imagine what it must have been like for you."

I forced a blank look to appear on my face. She seemed to notice my uneasiness and stopped talking.

"Well, since you signed the papers already, I guess I can let you go now." I nodded and got up from the chair and was about to open the door when Principal Weston called out to me.

"Oh, and if you see my son, tell him that I need to speak to him please."

"Sure, see you later Mrs.Weston", I opened the door left the room. I let out a sigh of relief. "That wasn't so bad," I thought. I thought she was going to be horrible, but she was really nice. . . like a mother. . .