“Just in time,” he said as we boarded, marking our names off on his tablet. Hershey immediately pulled out her Gemini to post a status update. I knew Beck would be waiting for mine, but my thoughts were too jumbled to formulate a pithy post. I looked around at my new classmates. Nothing about them screamed gifted. They were just a bunch of sixteen-year-olds on their handhelds. I felt a wave of disappointment. I’d been so worried about feeling out of my league that I hadn’t considered that the alternative might be worse.
Hershey was on Forum for most of the two-hour ride to campus. I put my earbuds in and stared out the window, watching as the buildings got farther and farther apart until there was nothing but trees and rock. Giant slabs of granite lined the roads as we cut through mountain, the sunlight a deeper gold than I’d ever seen it. Apart from the network towers—made to look like trees, but much too perfect-looking to fool anyone—there were none of the trappings of modernity that Seattle’s nature parks were known for. No assisted sidewalks. No solar-powered trolleys. It was as if time had given up on these woods or accepted its own inconsequence. My cheek pressed against the window, I let my eyes unfocus and blur. By the time we descended into the Connecticut River valley, I was asleep.
“Rory.” Hershey nudged me with her elbow. “We’re here.”
My eyes sprung open just as the bus passed through the campus gates. I spun in my seat, watching as the wrought-iron rungs moved back into place behind us, sealing us off from the rest of the world. It was more for show than security; the stone wall stopped just a few feet from the gate. Still, it was imposing, the smooth stone columns, the iron gate, the high arch with ornamental scrolls. And in the center of the archway, the tree-shaped Theden seal, identical to the design on the lapel pin clasped to the tongue of my sneaker.
The driveway was long and paved with something smooth and gray that definitely wasn’t asphalt. Towering elms, evenly staggered along the sides of the road, formed a high canopy of green above us. Beyond them, the ground sloped up and the light disappeared into thick, overcrowded woods.
The driveway curved to the left and there it was: Theden Academy. A dozen redbrick buildings enclosing an interior courtyard that was still out of sight. I knew from Panopticon that these were the original structures built by Theden’s founders in 1781, and that the academy’s architecture was considered one of the best examples of the Federal style. What I didn’t know was the effect the whole would have on me when we rounded that corner, the Appalachian Mountains coming into view just as the buildings did, the forest like a cocoon around them.
“Wow,” Hershey whispered, uncharacteristically un-blasé.
We were silent as the bus pulled into the large parking lot marked FACULTY and double-parked behind a row of BMWs. The spaces were labeled with engraved bronze placards on thick wrought-iron posts.
“That’s Dean Atwater,” Hershey said, pointing at the tall, silver-haired man striding across the lawn, his hands loosely in the pockets of his pressed khaki pants. “I recognize him from my dad’s photos.”
Our driver cut the engine as Dean Atwater boarded the bus. He had a kindly, grandfatherly quality, with the commanding presence of a prep school dean. He smiled broadly in greeting as he surveyed our faces. His eyes hung on mine for a few seconds, something like recognition flashing there. My heart sped up. Had he known my mom? I knew how much I resembled her. Our coloring was different, but we had the same wavy hair, the same smattering of freckles across our cheeks, the same heart-shaped face and almond-shaped eyes. My dad said I was taller than she’d been, but you couldn’t tell that from pictures. I looked so little like him that my stepmom once joked that Mom had just cloned herself, but my dad snapped at her for being insensitive and she never said it again.
“You’re here!” Dean Atwater declared, pumping his fist in the air. The seats around me erupted into cheers and whistles. The old man laughed. “Time has no doubt been crawling for each of you since the day you received your acceptance letters. I can assure you, it will speed up now. Before you know it, you will be graduating and wondering where the last two years went.” He smiled. “Or, in my case, the last twenty-five.”
Twenty-five years. He had to have known my mom. I touched my mom’s pendant, feeling the engraving under my fingertips.
“The upperclassmen returned to campus last week,” the dean continued. “So we’ll all gather at six this evening in the rotunda for an opening assembly, followed by our annual welcome dinner. Until then, you’re on your own. You’ll find your dormitory assignments under the ‘housing’ tab in your Theden app. That’s also where you’ll find a list of important campus phone numbers—the registrar, my office, the psych line. . . .” The psych line. I swallowed hard. “And your campus key. Our locks are tied to your handhelds,” he explained. “Your key will get you through the main door of each academic building and into your assigned rooms.” Around me, people scrambled for their phones. “I suggest you spend the next few hours getting acquainted with one another and our campus. I’ll see you all again at six.” He gave us a little wave and stepped back down off the bus.
“My dad told me it was like this,” Hershey whispered, closing out of Forum and tapping the little Theden icon on her screen. Around us, kids were checking their housing assignments and talking excitedly. No one had gotten up yet.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Totally free. A super-late curfew, no dorm check-ins, no dress code. Basically, no rules. You can pretty much do whatever you want.”
“Really?” Prep schools were notorious for their rules. I’d figured Theden would be even stricter than most.
“Uh-huh. A ‘privilege of prudence’ or some crap.” She leaned against me and held her Gemini up for a selfie. “Perf,” she said when she saw it, then promptly uploaded it to Forum. My Gemini buzzed.
The photo “roomie BFFs!” has been added to your timeline by @HersheyClements.
The photo was horrendous. My forehead was shining and my bangs were split down the middle and my smile looked more like a grimace. But there was no way to delete it now that she’d posted it, and no way to untag myself either.
“Lovely,” I muttered, gathering my things. My handheld buzzed again.
@BeckAmbrose: had a nightmare u moved 3,000 miles away and became “roomie BFFs” w HC.
Hershey heard me laugh. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I lied, dropping my handheld into my bag. “Come on, roomie,” I said, nudging her forward. “Let’s find our room.”
Theden’s two hundred and eighty-eight students all lived in the same building, Athenian Hall, a V-shaped structure on the north end of campus. Our room was on the second floor of the girls’ wing and looked more like a fancy hotel room than a dorm. There were two double beds, matching mahogany desks and dressers, two walk-in closets, and an electronic fireplace. But no light fixtures. When I didn’t see any in the ceiling, I looked around for lamps. The brightness in the room had to be coming from somewhere, and there weren’t any windows. But there wasn’t a single light source that I could see.
Hershey had picked up the small black remote sitting on the bed she’d claimed as hers. There was an identical remote on my bed, with three rows of buttons on the front and the distinctive Gnosis logo on the back. Hershey started at the top and worked her way down, pressing every button. First the room got brighter, then dimmer, until it was completely dark save for the wall connected to the door, which glowed a warm amber. Hershey’s face lit up. “PHOLED wallpaper!” She pressed another button and the wall became a TV screen. Another, and we were looking at the dashboard of her Gemini. Another, and the screen split into two screens. “Turn your side on,” she told me, pointing at the remote on my bed. “The button labeled LINK.” When I pressed it, my Gemini dashboard popped up next to hers.