The Academie Read Online Free Page B

they were going to starve us. Since most young
people were overweight, students here would drop weight and the
tactic would make it appear that The Academie was doing great. I
had it all figured out. That is, until I looked around and saw
everyone else enjoying themselves. What’s
with this place?
    After dinner, we returned to our dorm
for the evening. “Ladies, the rest of the evening is yours to get
yourself settled in,” Garret said, “—but keep it the noise to a
minimum. If it gets too loud, we’ll spend the rest of the evening
in silence. Also, because you have a full day of testing tomorrow,
the lights will go out an hour early, at 10:00. This should give
you plenty of time to prepare yourself and get a good night’s sleep
before your exams. Any questions?”
    No one moved.
    “ Alright then. Goodnight
ladies.” Garrett turned her back and waved as she exited, but
perched herself right outside the door. I wondered if she intended
to spend the entire evening there.
    I looked at the clock. Seven-thirty.
What was I going to do for two and a half hours? Around me people
began to shuffle softly, but it seemed they all may have been
thinking the same thing, for there was very little
conversation.
    That’s when I realized
there was no television. In my college dorm there was a common area
with a T.V. and a couple of couches, where we could hang out when
we had nothing to do or just needed to relax. Here there appeared
to be no such thing. Three years with no T.V.? I wasn’t a huge T.V.
viewer, but the thought of living without it completely seemed a
bit extreme. Just another way to cut us
off from the rest of the world…
    I decided to use the time to set up my
desk and get the rest of my things situated. My bunk mate lay on
her bed again.
    “ I was going to take this
desk, if you don’t mind,” I told her, gesturing to a desk on the
right side of our bunk.
    “ Fine by me,” she
said.
    I pulled the stack of school supplies
down from where I had placed them on my bed and began to find homes
for them inside the desk. Next I brought down the laptop and opened
it up to see what it could do. Just like the outside suggested, the
software was very basic: a word processor, calculator, spreadsheet
and database program and a couple others that appeared to be
specific to different types of classes I imagined I might take
during my time here.
    I knew I wouldn’t find it, but I
searched for any program that might get me onto the
internet.
    It was to no avail.
    Somehow this made the fact that I
wasn’t going to talk to Bryan again all the more real.

 
     
     
     
    5. stupidness
     
     
    How did my life come to
this?
    I shut the computer, climbed up into
my bed, and stared at the bright industrial lights above
me.
    A week after I graduated high school,
construction began to turn this place into an Academie facility. In
fact, the final days of my high school years were primarily a
looting party. Teachers didn’t even attempt to hold proper classes.
Things disappeared from everywhere as people took them home as
souvenirs. First it was little stuff: things off bulletin boards,
staplers, pencil sharpeners, lab goggles, a tambourine from the
band room. But then there were big things: microscopes, printers,
tuba—yes, I saw a guy walk off with a school tuba. One guy even
pried the front off his locker and took it with him.
    Teachers looked the other way. Some
said nobody cared because they heard it was all going to be trashed
anyway. Another rumor claimed that the teachers were encouraging it
because they were losing their jobs.
    I didn’t believe that at
the time. Where would the government get
so many new teachers in so little time? I
remember asking someone. But I couldn’t help but notice that Mr.
Waters brought a larger than usual bag to school on the last day.
And I swore I saw him shove a school laptop inside of it on his way
out…
    The day The Academie opened was
practically a holiday. Most businesses either closed