Boarding School Read Online Free Page B

help you get your things inside before we go,” my dad offered once he had the car parked and the trunk open. Mr. Stuart had told us that in order to get into the lower hall where my room was, we would have to go through a door on either side of the building (left, east or right, west) which were each located at the bottom of a set of cement steps. He had suggested that we take the steps on the left as we faced the dorm because the door on that side was closer to my room. Also, he had cautioned that we could not get to my room by entering the door in front of us on the main level because apparently the main floor was completely cut off from the downstairs, which struck me as a strange way to build a dormitory.
    Once my dad had my suitcases pulled out of the trunk, we all took a moment to acquaint ourselves with this area of the campus next to the lake. Right off we could see that we were standing at the top of a hill and that my dorm was sitting on a small plateau which had been dug into the side of this hill. The steps on the right terminated at the door downstairs, but the steps on the left stopped briefly at a landing next to the door on that side, and then made a ninety-degree-angle turn to the left and continued on down steeply past another dormitory until they ended at a parking lot in a lower area of the campus. This other dormitory, I later learned, was known as “the Annex,” and we could see that it was possible to enter the west end of this building by continuing on down a few steps past the landing and then jumping off to the left and following a short path in the dirt over flagstones to a door. When the three of us reached the landing, we could see further that the other end of the Annex was attached to the second floor of a small two-story building which had been built in a spot where the lower campus parking lot lay in front of it and the lake lay behind it.
    The three of us then focused our attention on the large black wooden door which was all now that separated us from the knowledge of what my room was going to look like. And like everything else around this place, this door too had gone too long since its last painting.
    “Well, shall we go in?” My dad then pulled open the door which immediately caused it to let out a sort of spring-loaded, mid-range groan.
    “Charming,” my mother responded as she led the way inside.
    We found that there was adequate lighting when we entered the stark and narrow hallway. Immediately to our right, once we were inside, was a bathroom. For an instant, I peered in through the door and found one sink, one toilet, one urinal, one shower and a window with translucent glass along the east wall. The entire room seemed barely bigger than my parents’ walk-in closet back home. The four bedrooms on this floor were all off to our left and in four or five steps we were standing in front of the second door on this side of the hall.
    “You’ve got the key don’t you, Clint?” my dad puffed as he set one of my heavy suitcases down.
    “Yeah, I do,” I answered as I pulled it out from my pocket and slid it into the lock. And when I turned the lock and pushed open the door, I encountered a boy my age with a thick head of straight black hair who looked back at me with an expression of surprise. “Oh sorry,” I reacted quickly. “I didn’t know anyone was in here. I think we’re supposed to be roommates.”
    The boy then smiled and put out his hand. “Oh, I didn’t want to go to the concert tonight. Hi, I’m Matt Ramsey.”
    Immediately, I put down my suitcase and shook the kid’s hand. “I’m Clint Adams. Nice to meet ya.” I then introduced Matt to my parents and we all spent a few minutes after that in conversation.
    Matt turned out to be a fairly chatty fellow. “I hope you don’t mind, but I went ahead and took the bed next to the window.”
    “No, that’s fine,” I replied.
    As the four of us talked, my parents and I learned, among other things, that this