By: Inuki **Ookami**

 

1

"Excuse me Mr. Sugimori, but I would like to remind you that you are the student here, and I am the teacher. You are here to learn from me, not mock this learning institute!" said the stern and angered man. He was tall, and thin, with short cut black hair. He wore a pair of glasses, which sat on the edge of his nose, making him look very intelligent.
"Is that what you call it? A learning institute? Is it no longer "politically correct" to say school anymore? You think someone will get offended? Do you really think that we will think that you respect us because you use some fancy word? Why should we, when you treat us like children anyway? Everyone can still learn something new, you can't know everybody, you don't have their experiences!" the boy also had jet black hair, his was longer, it reached down to his shoulders, and the front hung over his face. His name was Mitsuhiro Sugimori, and he was at Level Nine. His classes bored him, and he could have easily skipped a few Levels but he had more fun frustrating the Instructors, as they were called. Levels were the equivalent to grades in this Learning Institute. He jumped from his desk, his char emitting a rather loud squeaking as it rubbed against the plastic-like floor of the classroom. The boy crossed his arms when he had finished speaking, and merely glared at the teacher.

"Well, what reason do you have to for this outburst Mr. Sugimori?" the Instructor tried to keep calm, but wasn't able. Mitsuhiro loved the reactions he got. He just stood there, his arms crossed, a stubborn look on his face. In the back of the class, in the far corner, deep in thought, was another boy. He was an American, with hair so blond it seemed to shimmer white in the sun light that flowed in from the window which sat about three feet from his desk. His full name was Kaleb Allister Brentwood, but nobody talked to him much, since he was a quiet type, so not many people in the class knew his name. He sat bored, holding his pencil, loosely letting it slide in a circular motion. Half down in a circle, the backwards, back up again. He didn't want to go to this science class. He didn't care about astronomy, a bunch of boring old planets that had been there for millions and millions of years. Sure, he wanted to be an outer-space pilot, but he didn't want to learn the entire history of space, he wanted to see it, discover it, learn it himself! All these stars, and constellations, who was he kidding? His adoptive parents were extremely wealthy, but were unable to have a child, and so they adopted him. Since he was so wealthy he could do whatever he wanted, and go to whatever school he wanted. Public school wasn't his thing, so he went to this private school- this Learning Institute, rather. He had always felt that he never fit in. Not anywhere, it was like he was in the wrong place, or at the wrong time. But this class room, it was the one thing that seemed to make him feel at home, or maybe it wasn't the room itself? Perhaps it was something in it, he felt that he had a grasp on what or who or where it was, but then it vanished without a trace.

"I want you to go back to your room then, and think up an apology, and when you have it ready I want you to present it to me and this class." Mitsuhiro walked past the Instructor, and gave everyone and anyone that was looking a dirty face, his tongue sticking out, imitating the teacher. He then exited the room, and walked down the hall. Down the white hall-way, and out the white doors. Why was this building all white? All it needed were padded cells, and it could be an insane asylum! The sun shone down on Mitsuhiro as he walked out of the hot building. He raised his arms, and felt a warm breeze blow past him, the sleeves of his shirt flapped in the wind like tiny sails of a hundred boats. Then a small pink bubble floated down, it landed on his nose, and he gave a confused grin. It rested there for a moment, and then popped. He puts his arms on his neck, so that they were curved slightly, forming almost upside-down V's from his arm to the back of his shoulder blades, and admired the world around him for what it was. He walked towards a small tree that reminded him of home- whatever that was. He supposed that it was Japan, although he hadn't been there in so very long. He put an arm out to reach for the tree, and clung to it, swinging his body around it, and pulled himself up it. The tree swayed slightly, and as it shook some of the pink petals fell softly to the ground, into the lush green grass below. He jumped off the tree, landing just past the grass, and down, from the raised surface, to some stairs. He walked down the stairs, and headed for building D. Building A was the head building, it was rather small, and it only had a few offices and the auditorium in which they viewed presentations from high-schools and educational films. Guest speakers also used that same building. Then of course there was Building B. It was massive, and rather hospital-looking. That was the one he had exited. It was all white, as were the other three buildings. Finally building C and D were the rooms, where they slept. Most of them were a long way from home, only the best were put here. People were from all over the world; Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa. They all had two things in common, they were all in-between the ages of twelve to seventeen, and they all were either very skilled in various sciences, mechanics, or something to do with space. He walked down a path, past Building C and entered Building D.

He went up three flights of stairs, since there was no elevator in this building, and then went to room D 312. The twelve to fifteen year olds lived in their own rooms, once they were past that it was thought that they would be mature enough not to quarrel with their roommates, so they were put two in a room double the size of their old ones. Building D contained the single rooms, Building C had the doubles. The students were placed by status. Everyone was put under one of two classes, engineer/scientist, or pilot. One from each of the two categories were to share a room, so that they could help and teach each other. The scientists gained a basic knowledge of piloting in case of emergency in their younger years when they were in the single rooms, this was discontinued once they were sharing rooms with a pilot. Similar methods were used for the pilots. They were taught basic knowledge by Instructors in younger years, this was then discontinued, and instead of doing half of each a day they spent all time on piloting. Mitsuhiro closed the door behind him, walked to his tiny bedroom, and jumped onto his bed, he lay down on it, and immediately drifted off.

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