“Hello?” A kind sounding voice, kind of the voice a cartoon would give a beloved grandma if that makes sense, that warbling, sugar sweet voice that just makes you feel like someone is hugging you.
“Hi…I um…I got a letter from Paradise Academy this morning and I was calling for some more information.”
“Alright, one second…let me transfer you to advising.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I get your name to find who would be your advisor?”
“Oh, right…Kain Shepherd” I said,
“Alright…let’s see, here we are, her name is Andrea Maxwell, transferring you as we speak.”
“Thank you again.”
“I hope we get to see you here, Mister Shepherd.”
“I hope so too.”
Honestly, I never had college or anything of that sort in my thoughts or dreams. I was a real middle of the road student, never anything that stood out, as much of a wall flower as someone could possibly be, plus the fact I was often gone for extensive amounts of time because of the two jobs I worked during high school, both of which led to me having very…middle of the road grades. I always thought that the moment I got done with high school I’d be just working myself to the bone from the day after graduation to whenever my body decided to quit or Dad gets better, but the latter is not going to happen anytime soon. I was just waiting out the days till Dad finally broke…or I did. I only graduated about a month or so back, I’ve spent every day sense working fourteen hour shifts at three different jobs throughout the week and barely scraping enough money together that Dad and I don’t have to worry about if we’ll have food at home or that the city won’t cut off our electricity or water, though we’re cutting it close for the power or gas. We didn’t have heating all of last winter, I got sick a few times, but…please, what money did I have for the doctor and I’ve not had insurance for years, should probably see a dentist more than any other type of doctor…been a long while sense I’ve been. I used to huddle in the corner of my room wrapped in all the blankets and things I could find after Dad was comfortable so that I would spend the next handful of hours: shivering, wrapped in a cocoon of bedding studying for some exam I’m only going to get a 70% or something. I remember a couple of days when I was a kid that I would have to ask one of our neighbors for water or Dad would say that we’re having a camp-out in the living room and would put candles around the room so we could pretend to be camping, even though I fully knew what was happening: we didn’t have heating or power so he was just…trying to make it not seem as bad, I humored him because…it put a smile on his face…even if it was fleeting, for that time…there was honest happiness on my father’s face in…years. We’d stay up for hours, him telling me stories about him and Mom, it would be one of the few times I got to see him smile. I think he’s forgotten how to.
“Hello?” A voice said, a female voice with a heavy handed Welsh accent.
“Hi, I’m Kain Shepherd, I was transferred to you for advising for entrance to Paradise Academy.”
“Let’s see…Kain Shepherd, let’s see, here is your profile we have: you have…phenomenal letters of recommendation”
“Who…sent those in by the way? I didn’t ask anyone to send them?”
“Well, one is by your mother, Padma, she wrote it in advance to use for you, according to the date listed, you would have been about five when we received it. There is also the principal of your high school and someone named Leonardo White.”
“Our neighbor?” I asked myself quietly, Mister Leo is an extremely ancient man that lives in the apartment above us, you know those people in your neighborhood that sense you were kid appeared ancient and seemed to only get even more ancient, but somehow still kept living, he was that guy in our area.
“All glowing reviews for you. Is there a problem with you coming here?” she asked, I sighed,
“Ever sense Mom…died…My father has been extremely paranoid about anything and everything around us, he’s…worried that the letter was sent by someone that was out to get me.”
“Out to get you?”
“He says that people were always trying to get Mom, that they would be…violent towards them because the two were together and that someone didn’t support them, Dad always thought it was Mom’s family back home in India, but he convinced himself that there were people who had planned what happened and her death wasn’t an accident, but murder.” I just…vented, I don’t know why I started venting to a complete strange, but…just knowing that someone was listening.
“I…see.” She said, her voice full of concern and understanding, “Well, I can assure you and you can assure your father that our academy is the safest in the world, we take pride in the fact we have never had any kind of problems with our campus not even a case of someone suspicious on the grounds.”
“That is impressive, the letter didn’t say, but what kind of school if Paradise Academy?”
“Oh, it is a special college, full ride of course because of your Mom, we here help all sorts of young adults like yourself as well as the…very specially and specifically…sought after and curated students that attend here and teach you to be the people that the world needs you to be. We help you find the perfect occupation for you, how to go about getting it and how to be yourself.” She said,
“So…it’s a college and…like a self-help class at the same time?” I asked confused, she laughed softly,
“To some maybe, all of us faculty much rather prefer saying that we just take our students mental health as seriously as we do our studies, so as much work you do in your classes, learning all the things you need to learn, you spend just as much time bettering yourself through various classes that everyone loves, we have a remarkable on campus therapist that also is free to all of the students along with our own on campus doctor and dentist, meditation classes, yoga, pool, at least a dozen or so various more…fun classes that are not for grades: things like Zumba, pottery, various crafting, cooking, painting along with…lots of others. There is also a fully fashioned gym, we don’t start classes until about nine in the morning so that all of our students and faculty can get adequate amounts of sleep, we forbade taking more classes than what you can handle; that truly depends on the person, but we never let you take more than about four-five classes across the week, but separated so that you don’t have them overlapping or are in a fashion so that you always have at least one free day every single school week aside from the week-end: all of that amongst all sorts of things to keep you happy and healthy so you can focus on your classes as much as possible. We greatly enjoy boasting about our ability to ride that finite balance between work and play: so that you never feel overwhelmed, stressed out or anything. We want to teach you just as much about your profession as you will learn about how to be a properly functioning adult.”
“Wow” I said quietly as I looked down towards the pale gray carpet, feeling a fair bit self-conscious about the idea of…someone like me being somewhere like she was explaining, I have no idea how I could find myself fitting in there, “Must be a super…prestigious school.”
“Only the best are alumni of here. We’re beyond Ivy League in our level of selection of our students.”
“But…my grade’s aren’t the best.”
“We don’t care about your past grades, all we care about if the future you will write for yourself here.”
“Quite the sales pitch.” I said quietly as I folded my arms tightly, still quietly pacing around my room, it doesn’t take long to walk from wall to wall. The room is barely wider than my arm’s span which is not saying much if you knew how short I am.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, Mister Shepherd, if I didn’t love my job, I wouldn’t do it. Being here to help all of the kids here is the pride and joy of my life and I am very confident that all of us here would love to have you in our ranks. Padma was a model student and an incredible person, I am…so sorry about what happened to her.”
“Why…why wouldn’t my Mother have spoken of the school?”
“It was…a while when I knew your mother, but even when I did know her, she liked to keep things to herself, she probably knew that a lot of people would not have…liked hearing that she was here. People often say that telling others they attend here is extremely pretentious sounding and are worried about coming off as egotistical or narcissistic to others.”
“I see. But…the scholarship you are offering me is…full ride correct?”
“Fully and completely” she assured, “Do you wish to attend here, Mister Shepherd?”
“I…I never thought that college would be something in my future: I never was someone special.”
“A lot of people aren’t before they come here, the…American school system has a very, very pervasive ability to suck the life and soul out of the students, so often our students find the way we do our classes as the first time they are able to be themselves, do what they wish and have the ability to learn who they are.”
“You are right about the school system thing, though.”
“I’ve seen more than enough kids who say that they nearly killed themselves while in high school, I never want to hear that from a student here.” She was very, very serious sounding as she said that. I smiled softly,
“What if my father doesn’t want me going there?”
“Well, you are an adult, legally speaking, so you technically don’t need his permission to attend, however if you explained that your mother went here and that it is safe, I’m sure with some time, you can make him understand.”
“When is the move in time?” I asked, she laughed softly,
“We have some time to convince your father, Mister Shepherd, move in is two weeks before the school year starts. I’m sure that your father will not be the most…difficult parent I’ve ever had to work with: there are parents out there who have seriously made me question my profession here.”
“Thank you.”
“Anytime, we are always here to assist those who need us. I’m sure all of us here would be greatly honored to have you attend our classes. I can hear…a bit of apprehension in your voice: I can easily assure you that you were be completely and entirely safe and comfortable in our school and that if you join us, there will be no sense of second thoughts about you coming here.”
“I hope I get to attend.”
“As do us, have a nice day, Mister Shepherd.” She said,
“Thank you, good bye.” I said before hanging up, I walked over to the calendar on the wall that was currently covering a patch on the wall of missing drywall from where I had to carve out a chunk of plaster that looked a bit…furry and wet from the dark line caused by rain soaking through that you could trace up the wall to the ceiling where the leak spot was visible. I sighed softly as I saw the water damage before looking back to the calendar in front of me as I opened a pen with my teeth while I flipped through the page as I counted back the days before circling the day that move in started and wrote that on the day before writing First Day on August 1st like the letter said, I slowly traced a line back through the two weeks prior and wrote Move In Days across the days with the line through it…I never expected something like this ever happening to me like this. The dank coldness of the ruined apartment seemed to be…alleviated a touch as I looked towards the marked dates: a warm heavy comfortable feeling settled in my chest. I sighed deeply as I smiled looking at it as I closed my pen, for the first time in a long…long time I felt something that maybe someone could describe as…hopeful?
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