The Academy Read Free Page B

path. I did trip, and nearly fell, only managing to save myself at the last minute with a quick jump to the next step.
     
    “Hey!” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice as I looked up at the bully’s face. He was big and bulky inside the navy blue uniform and his coarse brown hair was clipped very short, showing a pinkish scalp beneath. The small, piggy eyes glaring back into mine were the color of mud.
     
    “ Hey,” he mimicked, making his voice high and mocking. “You sound just like a girl, freshie. What’s the matter—your balls never dropped?”
     
    His comment left me shaken, even more than his attempt to trip me. “Leave me alone,” I muttered and pushed past him, entering the Administration building quickly. I was half afraid he would follow me but once the door swung silently shut behind me, I found myself alone in a deserted office.
     
    “Hello?” I walked up to the front counter which bisected the room, surveying the empty desks on the other side of it. “Is anyone here?” I called. “I’m a new student, here to register.”
     
    “Coming!” trilled a high voice. “Just a moment!” A young man who looked to be a few years older than me bustled in, his arms filled with info tablets. “Just dealing with these,” he said as he put them down with a clatter on one of the empty desks. “Freshman essays—always such a bother. But anything to help the teachers, I always say. Now then.” He dusted long, slender hands together and stepped forward to look at me. “What’s your name?”
     
    “Kristine—I mean Kristopher. Kristopher Jameson.” I tried to make my voice manly and deep to cover my blunder. “My father, Admiral Jameson, told me to report here today.”
     
    “Ah, yes, the Admiral’s son. Well, we’re delighted to have you. Just delighted.” He smiled and nodded at me. “I’m Lewiston Hinks, Headmaster Chauser’s administrative assistant. Let me just tell him you’re here—he likes to say a word to all the new students when they arrive.”
     
    He bustled away again and then reappeared a moment later. “He’ll see you,” he said, nodding to a long hallway to the right of the counter. “Last door on the right at the very end is his office. You might have to wait a minute while he deals with something else but he’ll be with you soon. Oh, and I’ll get your class schedule and uniforms ready to go in the meantime. Let’s see…” He frowned at me. “I think you’ll be an extra small. What size boots do you wear?”
     
    I told him and he nodded briskly. “Good, all right I think I have some of those in stock. Go on, then. Just have a seat and make yourself comfortable in the headmaster’s office.”
     
    Feeling awkward, I did as he said. I hoped I wouldn’t have to wait for too long—I wanted to get this entrance interview over with as soon as possible and get away from the Administration building. With some luck, I would get out without running into the pack of upperclassmen and their bully leader with his mud-colored eyes again.
     
    The office was lined with old fashioned bookcases and dominated by a huge desk made of burnished, dark brown wood. I took a seat in the hard-backed wooden chair sitting directly in front of it and looked around. Holo-pics of a man with a thick walrus mustache and thinning brown hair were displayed everywhere—Headmaster Chauser, I assumed. In every pic he was shaking hands with a visiting dignitary or celebrity. Some I recognized and some weren’t familiar at all—maybe local authorities from Ares? I wanted to get up and take a closer look but I was afraid I might get into trouble if the Headmaster came in and saw me examining his things.
     
    I waited for a long time, the wooden chair getting harder and harder under my backside. When was he going to come in? I had been sitting all morning on the shuttle and I wanted to stretch my legs. I was just about to get up anyway and start reading the spines of the old fashioned,