Brownies and Golden keys

Chapter One: Brownies and Golden Keys

                September 30^th,

I’m outside the walls of Master Academy. It’s still early so I’ve decided to make an entry.

                My friends from my old school are still worried that I won’t fit in. I’m actually starting to believe them. Most of the people who here come from families that have at least twice the amount of money that my family has. Whether their kind or not, who’s to know. Now I’m alone knowing no one, but myself. Can’t wait.

 

Alice peered up at the towering walls of her soon to be school. Sighing she put her right foot forward and began walking up the steps, a blue and yellow pamphlet was in her hand. On the front it spelled “Master Academy, where students learn to become the adults of tomorrow”. Out of all the schools, public and private her parents had to leave her here, a place that’s clearly not as famous as the other schools. The only thing good about this school was its rather famous chorus and orchestra. Like that was going to help.

            “Hello, I’m Alice, Alice Pharo.” She said as she stepped into a large office in the front of the massive building. “Yes, you’re the boarder. Come with me.” A thin lady in her seemingly in her 50’s said as she started walking towards a door near the back of the office.

            Following she noticed that there was no one else in the room besides her and the lady whom was patiently waiting by an opened door. Had she come late? Shrugging to herself, she walking swiftly into the room where a rather young man was leaning against a large cushioned chair. Mr. Teller she guessed as he was the headmaster of the school.

            “Hello Mrs. Pharo, I’m Mr. Teller” I knew it, she thought as he introduced himself, not that he needed to. “I understand you boarding, no?” he questioned calmly.

            “Yes I’m boarding” she replied with equal calmness. What kind of question was that? Shouldn’t he already know? She ignored the questions rambling off in her head and simply held a still gazed at the headmaster.

            He just smiled and handed Alice her schedule. “Here’s your schedule and on top you’ll see your house name. I’m sure you can find it on your own.” If you knew how bad with maps and finding my way around you wouldn’t say that, she thought as she nodded and took the paper from his hand. “Oh and here’s your map, we wouldn’t want you to get lost” he chuckled trying to get her to laugh, or at least happy. Maybe my sadness of leaving my friends is showing too much, and so she smiled, and took the map.

            “Alright, that’s it. Alice you can sit outside on one of the chairs and look over your map and schedule. Seeing as it’s nearly the end of school I suggest for you to go to your house.” The lady said as the awkwardly short conversation ended.

            After staring at her schedule for the 10^th time trying to see if she could memorize the locations and such she gave up and decided that she would memorize them in her dorm. Time to find out what my house is. Hope it’s a good house she thought. Maybe if I have a good house with some entertaining people in it going here wouldn’t be too bad.

            Templer, odd name, but that wasn’t the point. She’d get passed the name eventually. Supposedly her stuff would already be in the common room, or so she was told.

            “Time to say hello to hopefully my new friends.” She grumbled and started to walk towards Templar House.

            Upon leaving the lady, whom apparently was named Mrs. Turner wished her good luck in her studies and getting used to her new dorm.

            It was rather windy outside causing her to have a glorious time chasing her map and schedule like a crazy lady. She heard some snickers from a little ways away where a group of students were walking towards their respective houses.

            

“Need help?” a voice asked from behind her. Turning she gazed silently at the boy standing there, an almost childish yet sweet smile on his face. Still not saying anything she nodded. His smile widened as he said “You get your map, I’ll get the schedule.”

            

At that they took off, Alice after her map and the boy after her schedule. Even with her not being very athletic she was still a rather fast runner, but clearly not fast enough to catch her map that was already half way up a tall oak with no intent of coming down anytime soon.

            

“Great” she muttered kicking the tree trunk angrily, and of course she mumbled a curse as it stubbed her toe. Glancing around she spotted the boy, and his wavy blonde hair in the wind making and bright blue eyes him look like some famous actor, and with what she knew he could very well be some famous male model. Her on the other hand looked like a mess with her naturally unruly spiky hair cut short and her plain brown and light blue jacket. The only good thing about her looks is her pretty sea green eyes.

            

“Here, I can give you another map” he smiled, then upon suddenly forgetting to introduce himself he offered her his hand, she gladly took it and shook it. “I’m James” he said. “Alice, nice to meet you” she replied with a smile.

            

“What house are you in?” he wondered, mind obviously set on something else, although it was also clear that he was trying to make her at home. Hopefully everyone is this nice, she thought. “Templer” she said and laughed as he gave her a playful smile. “I’m in that house too, I’m the prefect. Come on I’ll take you” grinning he grabbed by the wrist and charged her towards the direction of Templer House.

            

Usually she would have second thoughts, but with James and her wonderful stumble when he started to run she thought nothing of it and just followed him. Slowly he let go leaving her with a faint red mark around her wrist.

            

Templer seemed to be the farthest from the school since they passed three other houses, and even she knew that there were four houses. Templer, Kindsrom, Steward and Hamnik were the four houses of Master Academy, apparently the school seemed to like strange names because none of the house names were anywhere near normal.

            

Slowly the image of Templer House came into view and they slowed down to a calm jog. The house on the outside didn’t look too different from the school, except for the size of course. Other than the size the house looked much like the school, rather large and had an old type vibe. Hopefully the inside would be a bit more interesting that the outside.

            

“Ready to meet your soon to be friends?” he asked giving her another one of his playful smiles. Well with your smile no, she thought, but she said “Yeah” anyway. This of course only made him grin even more, he looked ridiculous, but Alice supposed that was normal.

             

Holding out her hand, gripping her schedule in her free hand so her chase wouldn’t do a repeat she opened the door and stepped inside. The inside wasn’t exactly what she expected, but it wasn’t too far off. Sure it had a tall ceiling and marble floor, but it didn’t give off much of an old vibe like the outside. She wondered if the other houses looked the same.

            

“Time to fi----” James was cut off by the hollering of other students not too far away from where she stood. “Find your dorm” he ended, face in palm like the random outbursts were normal and expected.

            

She nodded and followed as he led him to the dorms. “Yes I win!” a boy shouted and dived into a tray full of brownies while a girl around her age simply glared at him with what looked like an x-box control in her hand. “It was just luck” the girl smirked and through a pillow at him. “Oh hey James.” She grinned as a brownie was tossed at her cheek and slid down leaving a trail of crumbs in its path.

            

“You finally got beaten Sami?” he replied, no ‘hi’ or ‘what’s up?’ needed here. Sami on the other hand tossed the brownie at him, which he caught and tried to toss back. “Eat” she ordered at the prefect. “How about no.” he grinned and handed the now squashed brownie to Alice. “Fine, you eat it then. I’m not eating that and we don’t want it to go to waste.” Sami laughed as she looked at the new boarder with the same classic playful smile.

            

“No thanks” Alice said, but Sami clearly wasn’t going to give up. “Eat the brownie or I’ll annoy you until you do” Sami said with a devilish glint in her eye.

            

“Come on before Sami gets weird” James whispered in her ear as he guided her to the dorms. Looking over her shoulder Sami was still giving her a smile that translated into ‘eat the brownie or war’.

            

“It’s pretty simple. Girl dorms on the right side of the hall way and boys on the right.” He explain, a boy in pajamas leaping out of a dorm on the left side with confetti and a girl on the other side coming out and slapping him with a text book proving his point. “Play nice you two” he reminded them and immediately the girl dropped her textbook and the boy sprayed her with his last bit of confetti on her and dashed into his room.

“Beware of Sean and Lily, they aren’t… friendly with each other and Lily gets easily annoyed.” He warned Alice before leading her to an empty dorm. “I got Sami to bring your stuff here before her battle with Zack” he nodded and handed her a gold key. “You’re going to want this” he advised and started to walk off to his own dorm towards the end of the house.

She gave up on following to ask him why and stepped into her dorm, although it seemed more like a suite them a dorm. “Rich school” she muttered under her breath and closed the door. She looked at the gold key that James gave her and set it on a night table next to her bed. Or one of the beds in the room as the room had two. “A room to myself” maybe this isn’t gonna be too bad.

James was right. All of her stuff was put by the wall, except for the clothes that were kindly in the closet, not neat, but they were there. At least people here are nice, she thought. With what she’s been witnessing Templer House shouldn’t be too boring, that is hoping that this was the everyday thing.

5pm. Still early, maybe she would explore a bit, make some new friends at least. There was bound to be at least one or two people that were mildly sane if not nice. So Alice went off to find someone, or something to do. Apparently House’s didn’t have maps so she didn’t plan to go too far.

Of course she didn’t plan what she was going to witness next. Little did she know Templer house was big on welcoming new boarders, even if their welcoming system was a little odd.

First stop, Sami. She wasn’t planning to eat the brownie and neither was Alice.

Smirking in thought of what might she or Sami do she raced off to find Sami’s room, or Sami herself. She of course was prepared to run and lock the door,  Sami didn’t look like the type who gave up on a good fight.

“Come on Sami go easy!” Zack shouted and Alice could hear what must have been another edible object being pounded at one of the two. Well I found Sami she thought. The mushed up brownie was still in her hand. She hoped that her improvisational plan would work.

Looking up she saw Zack being the target of a cupcake and so she gave him the option, cupcake or brownie. Quickly she tossed it at the boy who thought nothing of the already destroyed brownie and hit Sami with.

My hands, she looked down and saw the trace of the crumbs still on her hand. Luckily she managed to memorize the root back to her dorm. War has been declared and Alice was going to win.

Now she was racing back to her dorm. Little did she know at the same time two figures made off with her golden key, their minds filled with what glorious things they could do to their new house member.

Good, she made it, from what she knew Sami still didn’t know where the brownie was or what Alice was doing. Shutting the door Alice made a bee-line for the sink and began to wash her hands erasing all traces of her little expedition.

Now I’m gonna really explore. What she was going to do wasn’t really planned, but that was okay something was bound to happen. She could always get lost, that was always an option with her terrible sense of direction. So she set out.

Near the end of the house the two figures talked to a group of other house members, all grinning from ear to ear. In one of the figure’s hand was a golden key.

Step one, get lost. Done, might as well get to the fun part.

Apparently the hallways of Templer looked the same except for a thin strip of wallpaper that was different colors in each hallway, but who would look there? Being Alice she of course didn’t even think of looking at the wallpaper.

I’ve been alone

Surrounded by darkness

I’ve seen how heartless the world can be…

A voice sounded from what seemed to be a second common room. Good singer, she thought and followed the voice through the hallways of the house.

I’ve seen you crying

You’ve felt like it’s hopeless

I’ll always do my best to make you see

That baby you’re not alone

Cause you’re here with me.

It was a boy play. He had curly shaggy brown hair that bounced when he moved. He sings with great emotion I’ll give with that. He was better than a lot of people she heard before, even a few professional singers.

And things ever going to bring us down

Cause nothing can keep me from loving you

And you know it’s true

It don’t matter what’ll come to be

Our love is all we need to make it through.

Sensing her presence he turned, blue eyes almost frightened, that maybe she’ll hit him or something. Was he afraid to sing in public? She hoped not, he was talented and that talent shouldn’t be one to waste.

He shut the piano cover and raced off to what probably was his dorm. “Wait!” Alice shouted and tried to run after him, maybe she could ask him why he seemed afraid. He was faced though, not quite as fast as James, but definitely faster than her. Maybe he has some classes with me, she hoped, maybe he’d at least be in the Harmony Hawks, the school’s chorus.

With the boy gone and off to who knows where she was yet again lost and ready to give up all hope of finding her way back to somewhere she actually knew.

“Lost?” a cheesy voice asked from behind her causing her to jump in surprise.  Turning to face who said it she saw not one person, but two. They seemed to be twins, but yet they seemed so different. The only thing they really had in common is their lean form and cheesy expressions.

“I’ll show you the way back to the main common room” one said. “No I will!” the other argued and shoved his brother away. “Don’t mind Jordan. I’ll take you, he’ll just get you even more lost. My name is Freddy.” Once more she was offered with a friendly hand, although she was a bit more hesitant to take it, but she shook it anyway.

“Yay!” Freddy grinned and jogged to the main common room, Alice in toe, of course she didn’t have a choice with his vice like grip. Jordan skipped playfully down the hallways right after him. If Jordan hadn’t been obviously athletic as nearly every boy and she encountered was he would have looked like a five year old with is playful demeanor.

Maybe I shouldn’t have accepted his hand shake Alice wondered as she was led at a brisk walk through what must have previously been a maze of hallways that were dotted with mini common rooms.

“Next time accept my hand shake, he’ll just yank your hand off” Jordan grinned and glared at his brother who was beaming with happiness at his deed obviously proud of himself.

“Anyway I’d better get to my dorm” she said and started to walk away, either just wanting to get somewhere she knew she couldn’t get lost in or just getting away from two crazy brothers.

“Okay see you tomorrow!!” they hollered as she shut the door to her dorm.

7pm. She had spent two hours chucking a brownie at Zack, watching a random boy sing and getting lost only to be found by two crazy boys. Great. At least she was right about finding something mildly fun to do to pass the time.

Grabbing her cell phone she decided to call her best friend Dalton and update her on her new life at Master Academy. Back at her old school Roosevelt High it was rather boring, nothing much went on except for chorus and lunch with Dalton and the exception of a few rather nice teachers.

“Hello, Alice?” Dalton asked from the other end of the phone line.

“Yeah, hey Dalton, did everything go well without me, Steven didn’t try to take off his shirt again in class?” she wondered, although she knew the answer anyway, but no one could blame her for wanting to know what was happening in her old school.

“Of course he did, this time though he actually succeeded.” Her friend laughed at what must have been a very interesting class. “Anyway I wanna know how your new school is like. Your house?” Dalton wondered.

“Well big, obviously. Confusing too, I got lost in the mass of hallways in my house, Templer.” Alice began, Dalton was hushed, clearly curious as to what Master Academy was like. “Crazy too. I already have started on my first war… over a brownie” she reported, having to stop to laugh. “They are all nice though, even if they are a little bit weird.” Gladly for her Steven has partly prepared her for the weird.

“Seems interesting.” Dalton commented, though from her voice wasn’t quite finished interrogating her friend, and neither was Alice.

They spent a good 30 minutes sharing info about their days journey until Dalton’s dad demanded her to stop talking to Alice. Once again she was left with a long time left to wander around the house.

“A-Alice can I come in?!” Sami sounded worried as she knocked heavily from behind the door. Even though Alice was sure that their little war was still going she opened the door and caused Sami to fall flat on her face and stumble to her feet. “Well shut the door!” she hissed, but closed the door herself.

“If a girl with blonde hair or a boy with black hair walk in don’t tell them where I am” she told her before diving into a closet.

“Umm, why?” she wondered and walked over to the closet where Sami was curled up in a ball, a Frisbee in her hand.

“I kinda interrupted a Damian and Sadie, a brother and sister who are known to be obsessed with the army and all things having to do with war.” She muttered and slammed the closet door closed.

Another pair of crazy siblings she thought and stared at the door getting ready to see them.

Suddenly the door shot open and standing there was a brother and sister pair both armed with nerf guns and had red bandanas on their heads. “Have you seen Sami?” they asked in unison, near black eyes searching out Alice’s dorm for any movement, nerf guns poised to strike.

“No sorry I haven’t seen her for a while” she replied, hoping that they would believe her.

“Okay” Sadie gave a friendly smile and the duo raced off in search of their victim.

“Their gone” she announced and soon after heard a relieved sigh.

“Thanks” Sami said coming out of the small closet, although when she came out she was still gripping her Frisbee.

“What did you do anyway?” she wondered, the siblings looked nice enough.

“I kinda broke their barricade.” Sami admitted. “Anyway can I stay here for a while, they always come back just to check anyways.” She asked, eyes pleading like the two students were the most fearsome people ever.

“Yeah” Alice nodded and with that Sami plopped onto one of the beds and took out an ipod. “Very important to have one.” She commented and offered Alice an earphone. Being as she didn’t have anything else to do she accepted it.

Soon the two were singing along with the songs.

You think I'm pretty 
Without any makeup on 
You think I'm funny 
When I tell the punchline wrong 
I know you get me 
So I let my walls come down, down 

There was a sudden quietness in the hallway as people started to listen to the two singing, not caring if anyone heard them or not.

Before you met me 
I was a wreck but things 
Were kinda heavy 
You brought me to life 
Now every February 
You'll be my Valentine, Valentine 

Even Sadie and Damian came to listen, going as far as to dropping their prized nerf guns. Who knew, their new boarder could sing, and sing well at that.

Let's go all the way tonight 
No regrets, just love 
We can dance, until we die 
You and I, will be young forever 

You make me feel 
Like I'm livin' a 
Teenage dream 
The way you turn me on 
I can't sleep 
Let's run away and 
Don't ever look back, 
Don't ever look back 

There was a huge spray of golden and blue confetti from Sean, this time no one cared enough to shut him up, rather they just went with it and poked at Sean until he gave them some confetti.

My heart stops 
When you look at me 
Just one touch 
Now baby I believe 
This is real 
So take a chance and 
Don't ever look back, 
Don't ever look back 

We drove to Cali 
And got drunk on the beach 
Got a motel and 
Built a fort out of sheets 
I finally found you 
My missing puzzle piece 
I'm complete 

Now most of the front half of the was gathered around inside of Alice’s dorm, if not surrounding the outside of the door.

Let's go all the way tonight 
No regrets, just love 
We can dance, until we die 
You and I, will be young forever 

You make me feel 
Like I'm livin' a 
Teenage dream 
The way you turn me on 
I can't sleep 
Let's run away and 
Don't ever look back, 
Don't ever look back 

My heart stops 
When you look at me 
Just one touch 
Now baby I believe 
This is real 
So take a chance and 
Don't ever look back, 
Don't ever look back 

Now people were starting to sing along, even if they weren’t good singers, much less in the chorus.

I'mma get your heart racing 
In my skin tights jeans 
Be your teenage dream tonight 
Let you put your hands on me 
In my skin tight jeans 
Be your teenage dream tonight 

Yoooouuu 
You make me feel 
Like I'm livin' a 
Teenage dream 
The way you turn me on 
I can't sleep 
Let's run away and 
Don't ever look back, 
Don't ever look back 
No 

 

Now that Sean was out of confetti or feathers, those were there too, everyone just started singing, partly cause Jordan and Freddy went around making people and partly because no one wanted to be left out.

My heart stops 
When you look at me 
Just one touch 
Now baby I believe 
This is real 
So take a chance and 
Don't ever look back, 
Don't ever look back 

I'mma get your heart racing 
In my skin tights jeans 
Be your teenage dream tonight 
Let you put your hands on me 
In my skin tight jeans 
Be your teenage dream tonight

As the song ended there was an uproar of laughter and applause from the people who were gathered around them either with small amounts of confetti or just there to listen if they managed to get out of singing.

“I hope you guys plan to clean this up. Not you two” James looked at Alice and Sami who were just now finally realizing that they brought most of the house to their singing. “But everyone else better clean this up. Unless you want Mrs. Humor to hear about this.” He warned them before returning to his dorm.

Worried about Mrs. Humor whom Alice had never heard of before they all raced to clean up the mess that they had created, both in and out of her dorm.

“At least we don’t have to clean up” Sami commented, her face looked relieved, of course so was Alice, who wanted to clean up a bunch of confetti and feathers anyway?

“Yeah” she nodded in agreement.

            Apparently Templer House is used to cleaning up after themselves as they were quite the team, but due to their obvious disgust and lack of enthusiasm it took a long time to clean up. Alice and Sami of course spent the time watching music videos on Sami’s ipod touch and laughing at the crazy lot of students cleaning up as they relaxed.

            8:30pm. It was getting later in the evening, but of course no one was tired, although they all seemed a little jumpy, even Sami, but no matter how hard she tried Alice couldn’t pry any information out of her new friend.

            “Seems like their finally done” Alice noticed as she searched around the now quiet room.

            “Finally aye? Took them forever” Sami agreed and wandered over to the door. “Yep, all gone. Even they know to stay away from the dreaded Mrs. Humor.”

            “Who’s Mrs. Humor?” she wondered, maybe that question will finally be answered.

            “She’s the teacher who watches over Templer house” her friend explained. Then gazing over her shoulder to face Alice she gave a sweet yet devilish smile. “Wanna see if Sadie and Damian have forgotten about me?”

            “As long as you don’t leave me to get lost, I got stuck with Jordan and Freddy last time that happened.” Alice strode over to stand by Sami.

Without another word the duo silently slipped into the oddly quiet hallways. Sadie and Damian’s dorm wasn’t too far away, but the floor was rather hard and it was hard to walk and not make a sound.

            “There it is” Sami whispered and pointed to a room whose door said ‘Keep Out’ in bold black letters.

            

“Wait how do we know whether they forgot or not? They could just get angry at you again” she commented.

            

“Not if I have you, they go easy on newbies” she explained and dragged Alice to her feet and walked calmly to the door, knocked and waited impatiently for them to open the door.

            

After a while the door creaked open. “What are you doing here, don’t you read, it says keep out” Sadie said, but didn’t make a move to use her nerf gun just yet.

        

“Did you meet our new boarder Alice?” Sami asked her as with her right hand she guided Alice to the door.

        

“Yeah I saw her when we were looking for you” smiling as she remembered her mission and brought out her paint ball gun and started shooting Sami.

  

“I think they remember” Alice reported. Sami gave a thumbs up as she attempted to shield her face with the now two people shooting paint balls at her.

            

“Uh, gu---“ Alice was cut off as now Damian aimed his paint 

ball gun at her. “Leave or I’ll shoot you”.

            

“Sami….sorry?” she said looking over to her friend who nodded with an apologetic smile.

            

“That’s it” Sadie sighed and shot Alice was, just missing her by a hair and chasing after Sami who was charging away from them.

Not wanting to stick around too much Alice dove back into her room.

                 

Somewhere near the back of the house two figures smiled as they checked the time. 9:30pm. Time for students to go back into their respective dorms. Tonight however they stayed in the back mini common room plotting. One of them held a golden Key.

        "Ready?” one of them asked.

     

     “Ready.” The other replied with a cheesy grin.

Author's Note

I passed this over from Microsoft Word so things may be a little weird