Shard Academy Monologue

September fourth: the start of a new school year and the start of my first year at Shard Academy.
Shard Academy was one the the three biggest schools in Pramm and it was almost a sanctuary to Bent users like myself.
I stood on the subway platform with a few other kids my age to wait for the train. The butterflies in my stomach were flying like crazy, this was the most suspenseful thing that ever happened then. Might as well forgot if it was real, if weren’t the robotic announcements on the train arrival.
"Almost time, almost time. Just be cool, Cadence." I muttered myself, gripping my bags tightly.
The excitement was making my heart pound wildly and I felt lightheaded. Was this really what it was like to be nervous?
The subway train slid
slowly, stopped, and opened its sliding metal doors. I stepped inside with several other children. The chattery small voices really ease me a little.
On board, I quickly set eyes on an empty seat near the front. I slide my bags underneath before sitting down, and not a minute wasted, a boy took a seat beside me, his hoodie hanging low over his face.
"Hi." I greeted him cheerfully. No response but I think he acknowledged that I was speaking to him.
OK, maybe he's shy... Not everyone can be a social butterfly, right? But, this was kinda awkward now.
"I'm Cadence Briar. And you are...?" Just as I thought that he wouldn't reply, he surprised me.
"Artemis. Artemis Steel." he told me in a low voice.
"Artemis? I like that name, It's nice to meet you." I replied with a smile.
Artemis simply nodded back.
"So... Why'd you choose to go to Shard?" I asked.
Back to silence.... I decided it'd be better to just leave him be and read a book while I waited for our stop, which was hours away. Slowly, due boredom and tiredness, I fell fast asleep.
Next thing I know, I'm suddenly awoken by someone shaking my shoulder. I jolted up into a sitting position and stretched. How long had I been asleep?
Glancing to Artemis' seat, I saw that he was missing and I had been woken up by a friendly looking girl. She smiled when I responded to her shaking,
"Sorry to interrupt your beauty rest but this is our stop." she told me, helping me to my feet.
"Thanks, uh..." I trailed off awkwardly, having no idea what her name was. But she didn't seem bothered; instead being negative about it, she introduced herself. "Ophelia Love, but everyone calls me Phi."
"Thanks Phi," I was grateful that her looks weren't just not looks, she really was friendly. "I'm Cadence Briar."
I grabbed my bags and followed my new acquaintance off of the train. We talked on our way up the concrete steps to the surface. It wasn't really anything special, we just talked about our hobbies, our families, and showed off our weapons.
Well, one thing's for sure, those light swords are the coolest thing I've ever seen. "So, what do you think? Pretty cool, right?" Ophelia grinned, showing me one of her two swords.
"Yeah, it looks amazing. I can't believe you made it yourself."
"Thanks." she said, flicking a button that retracted the blade.
While we walked, something shiny blinded me, which forced me to look turn away, but when I looked back.... My jaw just dropped at the scene.
The light that flooded my vision for a second before changed into something amazing. The blinding magnificent building that stood just a few feet away: Shard Academy.
Ophelia saw the look on my face and it made her chuckle. "You look like a little kid who just got the best present ever for their birthday." she remarked.
"I feel like it too." I agreed. "This place is huge! No wonder everyone loves it." I spun around, taking in all the sights around me.

Goodbye Sery, hello Kria.

Being a town, as well as a campus, there was people of all ages and lots of shops, apartments, and other assorted buildings. But where we were, that wasn't even half of what there was to see.
As we go up the stairs of the school, I see lots more people, teenagers and other kids around my age, who were wearing what looked to be the school uniform.
At the top of the stairs, Ophelia and I looked at each other excitedly. This was it; we were just feet away from entering one of the most famous academies in the world.
"Well, let's have a good year." she said.
I nodded and we both marched confidently through the entrance. And I thought the outside was impressive. Wait, until the inside. We stood in a great hallway that was packed with students. At the end of the hall was a table where the students were giving their seals to a woman.
"Next." she called and the line moved forward.
Then again: seal, check, next, repeat; seal, check, next, repeat.
Eventually, I was at the front of the line.
I handed my seal to the woman and she scanned it on a scanner, which beeped and glowed green. I was given back my seal and given a key card with a number printed on the side: 12-3.
"That's for your dorm; it's the room number and the floor number." the woman told me.
"You can find the dorms with your school map on the Shard application on your note."
I nodded and left the line.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see who my roommate was. To be honest, I was hoping it would be Ophelia, considering she's the nicest person in this place, but then again, give the others a chance!
Anyway, might as well go there right away. I take out my note and open the school's app. Convenient right? Okay, west wing. Got it. I walked to the other side of the school and went through the entrance that said "Female Dormitories" and I climbed two sets of stairs to my dorm. Easier said than done. I needed to dodge other female students who crowded the stairs. Didn't they know how to move? Standing in the middle of the stairs was a really bad idea considering what day it was.
I carried my bags to my dorm room that matched the numbers on my key card. I slid my key card on the scanner, which glowed green, then I stepped into the room. As I half expected, there was already a girl there. She looked really grumpy and somewhat hostile.
Okay, deep breath. Be confident. Bright. And action!
"Uh, hi! I'm Cadence Briar. What's your name?" I chirped.
Like Artemis, she said nothing but I'm sure he never glared at me like that. I think she was judging me. My chest went tight, but I tried to shake it off.
Okay, maybe she needed some time to get used to me.
I tried to ignore that glare and unpack my bags and make myself at home. It was a nice room, very spacious and comfortable. If only my roommate would stop eagle eyeing me and watching my every move…
One minute.
Three minutes...
Six minutes....
OK. This was getting a little annoying.
"Excuse me for a few minutes." I said quickly before walking back to the table in the hall.
I handed my key card back to the woman working at the table and said, "I think you made a mistake, I was told I'd get a roommate who I'd get along with but my roommate doesn't seem to like me at all."
The woman glanced at her note then back at me, shaking her head.
"No mistake here, Ren Ogura was your assigned roommate."

She returned my key before getting back to her job. I wanted to protest, but instead I hung my head and went back to my dorm.
Guess I had to take it up with the headmaster himself…

As soon as everyone had finished unpacking their things, we were all called to the grand hall for an announcement from the headmaster himself.
Ren and I had walked there together but I decided to find Ophelia rather than stick around with her. Lucky for me, I found her standing at the edge of the crowd.
"Hey, Ophelia!" I called and ran to her side.
"Hey Cadence, you found me fast." Ophelia chuckled.
We both turned to the stage set up at the other end of the room to see the headmaster, Augustus VonGericht. The students went dead silent when he spoke.

"Thank you all for coming here, and thank you new students for coming to Shard Academy. We hope that you will learn many things in these next six years." he started. "You are all shards that make up something big; no one is more or less important than others. Now, for the first order of business. On your notes, if you see the Shard Academy application, then you will see that you have a schedule, a map, and a curfew. New students will all get a week to familiarize themselves with these things and will be forgiven for any accidents that happen, but once the week was up, we'll expect no more accidents. was that clear?"
There were scattered responses but the only understandable one was a really loud, "Yes sir!"
Someone's enthusiastic... I thought. I glanced at Ophelia and our eyes met, seems like we had the same thought. We both snickered.
"Now then, there's not much that I can explain that your notes can't, so I'll let Marisol explain clubs and classes and then you can get to know each
other."
The headmaster left the stage and a slender woman took his place.
"Greetings, my name was Marisol Summers, but you will refer to me as Miss Summers. I am Headmaster VonGericht's assistant and supervisor for the weekly chosen special class." she introduced herself. "Let me start by introducing you all to the weekly chosen special class, or WCSC for short. This class was changed weekly and was randomly chosen. The class was chosen from these four classes: simulation room, team bonding, self defense, and bent training."
Marisol went on to explain electives and clubs but I didn't pay much attention as I was looking around the crowd for Artemis.I really wanted to talked to him since he seemed lonely...
"Ophelia, have you seen Artemis?" I whispered.
Ophelia nearly jumped because she was into Miss Summers’ speech, then shrugged. Oh well, I could always search for him when I got the chance. There was plenty of time anyway. Just gotta be positive and look for him, in this crowd.
Marisol continued her long explanation and introduced our teachers.
After that, we were left to speak with each other.
"I guess I'll leave you to find Artemis. There's someone else I wanted to talk to anyway." Ophelia told me before leaving me to find him.
There was guilt when she left me, as I wanted to spend time with her. Just about to look for him, someone tapped my shoulder. It was him, Artemis! I didn't expect it, but he seems guilty about something.
"I apologize for my rather rude behavior on the train. As you know already, I'm Artemis Steel. As for why I'm here at Shard..." He took a short pause. "That's not something I want to talk about." I nodded in understanding.
"It's alright, I was the one being rude, you clearly didn't wanna be bothered. But let's agree to disagree." I comfort him.
"As you wish, Cadence. Would you mind if we walked and talked?" he asked.
"Sure, let's do that." I agreed.

Then we left the grand hall. We talked a bit about our hobbies as we went through the outer corridors. Well, mostly I did, but Artemis listened happily. Like he didn't mind my chatter. I'm sure I would've gotten annoyed if I were him.
"Cadence, tell me this," We stopped. "Why did you want to talk to me?" he finally asked, not looking me in the eye. "I heard you talking to Ophelia about me."
"That's because you looked lonely before." I replied, a little awkward. "I just couldn't ignore it, it would be against my moral code."
"...I understand but no one has ever wanted to talk to me before." Artemis kept his eyes plastered on the wall but I could sense his sadness.
"I'm sorry, I can leave you alone if you'd like."
"No, no, it's fine. I'm actually a little.. happy..." He turned to me and smiled. "I'll actually be the one leaving, I just remembered something I had to do. Goodbye."
And just like that, he vanished. Literally.
"I'll uh, see you later then!" I called after him.

I went back to the grand hall, but was immediately stopped by Ren. She still had that same look as before, but it didn't feel as hostile.
"Uhh, did you want something, Ren?" I asked her.
"Cadence, was it? We need to set some ground rules if we're going to be roommates."
"Oh, is that all? I'm cool with that." I smiled happily.

Ren grabbed my arm and led me in the direction of the dorms. Once there, she swiped her key card on the scanner and stepped inside.
She released me and said, "Sit down and take notes." I nodded and did as she said, sitting crisscross on my bed and pulling out my note.
"First of all, do not step into my side of the room unless you have to. Second, don't touch my stuff unless I say you can. Third,...."
As she went on stating her rules, I jotted them all down in my note. It was a bit hard to keep up with her talking but I tried my best.
"Any questions?" Ren asked, looking at me.
"Uh, yes, about rules five: 'don't keep the room too tidy'. Why?"
"Because it reminds me too much of home and my normal family."
I furrowed my brows in confusion. Her normal family? Did she mean that they didn't have Bents? Was that what making her like this?
"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked politely. Curiosity got the best of me.
"No." she answered, there was slight hostility in her voice.
"O..kay...?"
There was an awkward silence for a bit before Ren broke it by throwing some clothes at me, hitting me right in the face.
"Ouf!"
"That's your uniform, they were handing them out near the entrance. I'm gonna go and speak with the headmaster." she said before leaving the room.
"Well, thanks, Ren! I appreciate it!" I called after her. What a wonderful start to a wonderful year...