Ace of Minds

The First Day

After the long walk, Irene met several people, including her roommates. There were seven of them and they all seemed nice, though she wasn't sure if it was because they knew her father or they just were. Her bunkmate, Jeanette, was a year younger than Irene. She was blond and a little slow on things.

Forget that Cecil ever mentioned that Jeanette was nice and quiet. That girl was Cecil 2.0.

There were three Unknowns in her room: Kathryn Broom, Diane Zinger, and Irene. To her relief, only one girl snored, Elba Peter. Her bed was at the other end of the room, far away from Irene’s. The key keeper, who kept the room key at all times, was Irene’s least favorite roommate. Her name was Ruby Harkin and she was tall, beefy, and scary. From their first handshake, she could feel the hatred pouring out of Harkin’s soul. The way she hissed ‘Elswood’ as if it was venom on her tongue … yep, not her favorite roommate.

The clothes Elswood had bought for Irene was enough for her to wear for the entire semester, since she was going to wear uniforms anyway. The styles weren't weird like she had assumed and most of them were long-sleeved. Irene loved long-sleeved shirts. She wondered if Elswood had been keeping tabs on her. But the thought vanished as soon as she tried the clothes on. All of them were too big for her. There was one sweater that practically drowned her.

From her tour, she had learned that there was a laundry room on the fourth floor. It was the busiest at weekends.

Everything had gone pretty well until she heard Harkin yelling at the top of her lungs the next morning. Her voice was louder than Irene's alarm clock. It was a good thing Irene got the lower bunk or she would have dove head-first onto the floor. She pulled the thin, white blanket up and covered her face.

“Wake up! Everyone up! Get up now or I’ll lock you in!” threatened Harkin. Although Irene couldn’t see her, she could hear the sound of the dangling keys.

Irene gave up sleeping when she heard another voice which belonged to her bunkmate. The girl tapped her shoulder lightly. “Hey, wake up. You wouldn’t want to be late on your first day. Come on,” she said in a hush.

“Hmm,” groaned Irene with a blanket still covering her face.

“Wake up, Newbie!” That was Harkin, her voice sounded like the Hulk when he turned green—hard to miss. “Do you think just because you’re Elswood’s daughter you can wake up anytime you please? The answer is no!”

It was official. Ruby Harkin hated Julius Elswood and every one of his kin.

With a low groan, Irene lifted up the blanket. She went to the cupboard beside her bed that she shared with Jeanette. They had agreed that the upper section would be Jeanette's while the lower one would be Irene's.

There weren't many things in Irene's section, only her uniform, books, a pair of black cute flats from Elswood, high socks, and clothes Elswood had bought for her. She didn't want to stress about how Elswood managed to buy her underwear. Jeanette's side was all yellow: yellow dolls, yellow bandanas, and even more yellow clothes. She might as well have lemons there.

There was only one clock in the room, but Irene suspected that Ruby Harkin might have one of her own. The hour hand was on the number six while the longer one hovered somewhere between five and six. It was freaking half past six.

Usually, her maids woke her up at seven. Even then, she still used the five minutes excuse.

“Where are we going?” she asked Broom, whose bed was next to hers and Jeanette’s.

“Huh?” The girl turned around after getting her uniform from her cupboard. “To clean up, of course. We're having breakfast at eight. Wouldn't want to study with an empty belly, right? Ugh, bet there's going to be a long line. I’d hurry up if I were you.” She dashed out of the room.

Almost everyone was out of the room, except Harkin. “Hurry!” shouted the girl.

Irene scrambled out of the room with her towel and uniform. Once she was out, Harkin slammed the door closed and locked it. She strolled away from Irene like she was a plague. When Irene called out her name, she ignored Irene and went downstairs even faster. She followed her to the stairs but Harkin was gone.

Great, thought Irene. No one was in the hall. Not even goblins. She had to find the bathroom herself.

By instinct, she went to the south wing. It was the quietest wing and didn’t have many classes. It has to be there! she thought, sure of herself.

But of course, it was not in there. The world wouldn’t allow that kind of luck. Instead, she bumped into a guy who looked like he had woken up only seconds ago.

His jet-black hair was messier than hers and his eyes were droopy. He was already wearing the uniform, but not properly. She could see his shirt sticking out and he wasn’t wearing the sweater. He simply tossed it over his shoulder. The guy looked a lot like the one in the greenhouse, but she couldn’t really tell because she had only seen his back then.

The guy scowled. “Watch where you’re going,” he muttered. His voice was low and deep—a little hoarse too, like he had just swallowed lemons. Then he walked past her.

It took her a second to realize that she had just met someone and he could tell her where the bathroom was!

She spun around and ran after him. How could he walk so fast? Darn these short legs, she cursed herself. As she was about to tap his shoulder, he turned around, making it their official second bump in a mere two minutes. “What?” he demanded.

“Um … I’m just wondering if you know where the girl’s bath—”

“You don't know?” His eyes scanned Irene from head to toe, then he looked back at her face, raising his eyebrow.

“I’m new,” she quickly explained.

“East wing, second floor.” And he left, entering one of the many rooms in the south wing.

Irene ran back to the east wing and went two levels down. She didn't know how long it took her, but when she got there, the line was already as long as the Nile River. There were at least twenty big cubicles there with female students lining up behind the doors. There were sinks and mirrors on either side of the room. Irene couldn't get a good look at them because the bathroom was packed. She had a good guess that she still looked like a bum.

So now she waited. She didn't have her phone with her as she had left it in her room on her birthday. She probably should think about her mother but she just did not feel like it. She didn’t have many sob-worthy memories of the actress. Ms. Clarington only threw big events here and there on her birthday. She didn’t know many relatives either. Her mom had only taken her to some events at Christmas and Thanksgiving, so she never really met her big family.

Her thoughts drifted to her newly found father but that only made her question a lot of things, like “Am I dreaming?” She did not want to consider the possibility of going insane.

After shuffling and shuffling in the line, little by little, it was finally her turn in the bathroom. The only ones left to use the facilities were a short brunette girl, a tall red-head and her. She didn't know what time it was because there were no clocks.

When she was done, she changed into the school uniform. Once she stepped out of the cubicle, nobody was there anymore.

Despite thinking that the whole ‘talent’ and ‘Ace’ ordeal were absurd—and she would totally run away if only she could—she found herself running upstairs to her room, not wanting to be late. She hated getting stares when she walked in somewhere late, although she was just going to the eatery.

Thankfully, her room was unlocked. On the door, there was a yellow post-it note saying: Locking the room after breakfast –R.H.

She scurried to her bed and dumped her pajamas on it. The thought of having to clean her own clothes and stuff irked her. She had always had maids at home. It wasn't that she didn't want to do house chores, she just didn't know how. Surely if Harkin saw her struggling with a laundry machine, she’d never hear the end of it.

I’ll deal with it later, she told herself. She rinsed her hair with her towel. Due to the lack of time and equipment, she couldn’t style or take proper care of it. So, she just dashed off to the eatery.

What would the students say about her? Would they even care about a newbie? From her past experiences, newbies were usually ignored. Well, unless you fell into a certain criteria—ruler or loser.

She got to the eatery ten minutes before class started. Everyone was already eating at their respective tables when she arrived. When the students noticed her arrival, everyone turned their heads to get a good look at her, examining the new girl under the surname ‘Elswood.’ Not long, everyone started whispering from ear to ear.

Irene went to grab her meal. She scanned the eatery as she held her tray. She didn’t know where to sit. Some students were stealing glances at her, others snickering.

She swallowed a big lump in her throat.

“Hey!” Her attention flew to the owner of the familiar, high-pitched voice, Cecil Sherwood. The girl was sitting with her brother and a bunch of other students. “Over here!” She gestured Irene to come to her table.

Now’s not the time to be picky, she reminded herself. And with a forced smile, she headed to their table.

“Everyone, this is Irene Elswood. Irene, they're going to be your friends. They're all in the student council. But since we don't have much time, I'll introduce you to them later.”

No, thought Irene, she didn’t want to be introduced to people who scrutinized her like an unknown species. No pun intended.

She ate in silence while Cecil and Hank were talking about how they should make more fun programs, etcetera, etcetera.

One by one, the students left the eatery until it was just Cecil and Irene. Just then, Cecil apologized because she had to leave as well. She said she couldn’t be late for the sake of her title.

Irene just nodded. She didn’t mind eating alone. When the bell rang, she had no choice but left her meal unfinished.

She studied her timetable and found that her first class was Law with Sir Alec. All she needed to do now was find out where N2-11 was. She wondered if there were any rules about being late to class.

Z was huge. The halls were probably as wide as the main roads in Beverly Hills. There were many rooms located on every floor in every wing. It was hard to differentiate the rooms. The room numbers were carved on the upper corner of the wooden doors. Maybe they had run out of time to put up metal plates.

She remembered the Sherwoods once said that the lecture rooms were mostly in the north wing, so with that lead, she went over there.

N2-11, she chanted in her head. North two? Does it stand for second floor? she pondered. She decided to give it a go and went downstairs to start looking for room eleven. There would be no other relation between N2 and 11 if not for the room number.

Irene found some rooms with numbers made of steel on the doors, but most of them still had numbers carved on them, which made it rather difficult for her to see. Moreover, the rooms seemed to be numbered in no particular order. She had just passed room nine, and beside it was room six and room twelve.

She felt like going back to Hawthorne already.

A few doors away from her, someone came out of a room. Tall, pale-skinned, blond, and with a weird aura around her. Yep, Sherwood.

“Cecil!” Irene hissed loud enough for Cecil to hear it.

Cecil turned around. Her eyes widened at the sight of Irene. She jogged lightly toward her. “What are you doing here?” She didn’t sound pleased to meet Irene.

“I’m lost. I don’t know where my law class is,” Irene confessed. “It says N2-11. I’m guessing it’s room eleven.”

Cecil sighed, then pointed at the door in front of her, located behind Irene. When Irene didn’t turn to look, Cecil glared at her.

Irene got the message and glanced at the door. 11 was carved onto it. She gave a small, apologetic smile to Cecil. “I won’t be late again next time, promise,” she said. She didn’t want to get on the nerves of the student body vice president.

She slipped into the room. Before noticing anything else, she noticed how ordinary the class was. The room was pretty small. There were only about twenty students. Each student was seated with a chairmate. Some of them were copying notes from the chalkboard, some were just pretending to pay attention. In other words, the class was fairly normal. Well, except for maybe what they were learning wasn’t normal.

She felt stares from several students and a man in his early 40s. His hair was white and he was wearing ridiculously big glasses. She assumed he was the teacher.

As she froze at her spot looking like a complete i***t, she could guess what the students were thinking. Oh, there she is, the new student coming late to her first class. What a great first impression, indeed.

“I'm so sorry, I … I got a bit lost earlier.” She spreaded a guilty smile on her face.

“You’re new, right?” asked Sir Alec.

Irene nodded.

“Go introduce yourself, then you can sit beside Mr. Alvarez.” He pointed at a guy sitting at the back of the class.

The guy's head was buried in his arm, using it as a comfy-looking pillow. From Irene's point of view, she could only see his disheveled, caramel brown hair poking out from his sweater.

“Mr. Alvarez,” called Sir Alec.

The guy remained still.

“Mr. Alvarez,” Sir Alec called in deeper, louder voice.

The Alvarez guy must be having a really nice dream.

“Mr. Denzel Alvarez! Detention after dinner!” Now that woke the guy up. Sir Alec continued with a barely audible murmur, “No wonder he never passed my class. How am I going to stand him any longer?” He added a few more rants under his breath before turning back to Irene. “Please introduce yourself.”

“My name is Irene Cla— I mean, I’m Irene Elswood, yeah.”

An amused smile formed on Sir Alec’s face. “Elswood? He’s a good friend of mine. Great both in and out of school. Not sure if he ever mentioned having a daughter before… must have missed it.”

How nice to know my father hasn't acknowledged me in front of his fellas, thought Irene. After getting over her bitterness, she realized that she was standing awkwardly in front of the class. “Um …”

“You can go to your seat,” ushered Sir Alec.

Irene walked past several students, their eyes were glued onto her. She should’ve been used to people staring at her, yet she still felt uncomfortable. She didn’t have her mom to introduce her to anyone anymore.

She quietly made her way to the back of the class. As she settled into her seat, Alvarez, who was now wide-awake, snatched her timetable.

“Hey!” she whisper-yelled.

Alvarez grinned with his eyes on her timetable. “I see … you're an Unknown. Everyone's been making a fuss about an Elswood girl at the eatery earlier.”

As if she hadn’t noticed the loud whispers back at the eatery.

“And I was sitting there thinking, who the hell is Elswood? I mean, I've never been interested in the whole Ace thing so I don't know many people. I'm a half-Ace, after all. I have my fair share of living in the normal world. I like it there much better.”

Finally, someone human. “That makes the two of us,” said Irene, not really focusing on getting her timetable back. She figured she must be a half-Ace too. Her mom couldn’t be an Ace. She was the most normal human ever. Well, aside those times she was more kickass than her stuntwoman.

What had gotten into Amanda Clarington the day she married Julius Elswood? Maybe she was drunk. Her mom couldn’t handle her liquor very well.

Maybe they were both drunk. It didn't seem like they had gone anywhere near the lovey-dovey stage.

“Really?” Alvarez sounded genuinely happy. “Well, the good thing is there's no discrimination here. And even if you're a half, you still get cool talents.” He threw the timetable onto Irene's desk. “It's actually nice here, you know? But I just like my hometown more.” He stopped for a second, “I'm Denzel.”

“Irene.”

She noticed that Denzel couldn't be older than her. His eyes were just like his hair which reminded her of melted chocolate mixed with caramel. He was a little tanned and his body was somewhere between skinny and flabby.

“You surf?” she asked. She stole a quick glance at Sir Alec. The teacher looked like he was talking to the board rather than the students.

“Nah.” Denzel shook his head. “I’m in a band, a guitarist. I just got here, like, two years ago? I’ve been delaying it for as long as I could.”

“Cool.” Maybe one day, she could introduce him to her mother and he would get tons of connections to become a popular guitarist. “Do you, like, ever want to go back to your … normal life?” she asked.

“Haven’t you been listening?” Denzel cracked a grin. “That’s all I’ve been waiting for! I’m going to be a well-known guitarist, not some guy with a talent.” He rolled his eyes when he said the last word. “I’m here because I have to know about this thing in my blood.” He leaned closer and squinted his eyes. “My mom said that I’d go insane if I don’t let it out somehow.” After two seconds, he cracked into a grin and leaned back in his chair.

Irene remembered Elswood saying the same.

“How about you? Any dreams of the future? Or are you going to rot here?”

She didn’t know if her dream matched Denzel’s. The acting gene from her mother didn’t seem to have passed on to her. She couldn’t sing (obviously), and she had a fear of guitars ever since she had gotten a bloody finger when one of the guitar strings suddenly snapped. Maybe that was why knowing Denzel was a guitarist didn’t really impress her.

Irene shrugged. “I think I’ll stay here for a while. Just until I get my senses back. It’s still pretty hazy now.” Until I figured out about the whole Ace thing and Julius Elswood, she thought to herself.

“I know, right? Like, whoa, am I freaking dreaming or is someone pulling an awesome prank on me? I was like that, too, but then I noticed that maybe getting pranked is better than this reality.”

They were too immersed in their conversation that they weren't aware that everyone was looking at them, including Sir Alec.

“Mr. Alvarez and Ms. Elswood, I would appreciate it if you two pay more attention in my class,” said Sir Alec in a bored tone as if he had said it countless time. “Detention after dinner for Ms. Elswood and double detention for Mr. Alvarez.”

Great, she thought. Detention on the first day was just what she needed. She turned to Denzel when Sir Alec was back on the board. “Is there such a thing as double detention?” she raised a brow.

“He even threatened me with triple detention once. Never happened. He just forgets about the detentions. I’ve gone through this so many times I lost count.”

“Mr. Alvarez!”

He grinned at Sir Alec, locking his mouth with an invisible key and threw the key away.

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