Chapter 1

I woke up and my hair was soaked I had been sweating all night. Not that you could blame me today is the day of the Giving. I sat up and looked over at my roommate’s bed. He wasn’t there, not that I was surprised, and he even managed to forget to close the door. Just like him. Slowly I got up, rubbing the drowsiness from my eyes and crossed the room. Checking the hall yielded no signs of students, except for some mutters coming from downstairs. That meant I was late. I stepped out into the hall and peered over the balcony.  There were only four people down in the lobby.  Everyone else must have already gone down to the cafeteria. Guess I’d overslept just a tad.

I ran back into the room and got in the shower. Great, it was absolutely freezing all the hot water had been used. Nothing like a morning dip in an iceberg. I quickly rub myself down with the awfully rough soap. I rinsed off and grabbed a towel, drying myself as I dripped water all over the floor. I gave my hair a quick rub and threw on the mandatory Giving clothes.

I hit the stairs hard, running down them fast as I could, nearly tripping once or twice. Still made it to the cafeteria in one piece though, and grabbed the tray of food, normally we get toast but we have a great breakfast for the day of the Giving, which contained three pancakes with a side of bacon and eggs, I scanned the room looking for my friend Kanada. There he was, standing on a table shouting,

           "Hey! Alain over here! I’m right here" shouts Kanada.

"I see you" I say aggregately to him. He always acts ridiculous.

            I made my way over to him, stepping on some toes along the. I sat down next to him and he immediately reached over and grabbed some of my bacon. Normally I would have done something about it but I didn’t really mind today anyways. I was way too nervous to be hungry.

            I sat quietly the whole meal, not paying much attention to anyone’s attempt to ask questions about what I was going to choose. I was too far deep into my own thoughts to listen. As soon as Kanada was done eating I stood and me and him made our way back out into the lobby to wait for Headmistress Mary Jewess to arrive and begin the Giving ceremony. I was defiantly not ready but the sooner the better.