“Greetings! Welcome to the Grant Academy!” by the time the dark purple SUV landed on the plaza beside a tall and well-trimmed tree, a girl in a green robe and wearing a golden and green brooch was waiting on the ground for them: “Can I have your enrollment letter or badge?”
“Here.” Garret handed two small scrolls to the girl: “I am just bringing them here and helping them with their enrollment. ”
“Thank you!” the girl opened the two scrolls and her face lit up even more: “So you’re audit students, and recommended by Ms. Josephine Wong no less! Welcome! Welcome!”
“Thank you!” Caroline and Jason pulled their luggage out: “So um, what should we do next?”
“I will be your campus guide, so I will walk you through the process, and I will be your point of contact if you have any questions regarding any questions or issues you have regarding your life at the academy, including housing, food, entertainment, so on and so forth.” the girl smiled and shook hands with Caroline and Jason: “My name is Tonya, Tonya Evergreen. May I know your name?”
“My name’s Caroline, this is Jason.” Caroline nodded at Jason: “Thank you Tonya. And thank you Garret for bringing us here. It’s safe to say we’ll be very lost without you.”
“No problem. And if you’ll excuse me, I need to run to do my next errand. ” Garret waved at Caroline and Jason before he got back into the SUV: “You know how to reach me, please don’t hesitate to call.”
“No problem. Thanks again Garret.” Jason also waved Garret goodbye.
“Okay, Caroline, Jason, let me first bring you to the place you’ll be staying at during the audit program.” Tonya smiled and extended her arm at the direction of the four buildings.
“So Tonya, how long have you been in the Grant Academy?” while walking alongside Tonya, Caroline asked: “And how’s the life here?”
“Well, I am still a student here, and this is my fourth year, so two more years to go on a regular schedule.” Tonya answered while waving at some other students with similar brooches on their clothes walking over to the plaza: “Life here can be pretty fun if you choose the right thing to focus on. And it could be a bit stressful if you cannot make up your mind, so be careful and clear your head. I am a member of the Martin House, and that’s the place I am staying at.” Then she pointed at a tall castle-like building floating in not too far away from the ground: “That’s our floating castle, rooms are a bit small because it’s kinda old. But at least we’ve got good artistic hallways and places for theater.”
“So I heard there are three houses? What’s each house like?” Jason asked: “And how do you get into a house? Do you have some sort of magical hat that dictates it?”
“Hahaha, no. ” Tonya laughed and said: “We actually need to apply separately, and have interviews with all three of the houses - each house has its specific set of requirements on top of the basics. And you can only become a student if one or more houses are willing to recruit you. I applied to all three and got the offers from the Martin House and Anderson House. Hellbruck House has always been a long shot.”
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“What’s the difference between the houses?” Jason followed up with his question.
“Yeah, sorry.” Tonya cleared her throat: “Forgive me, we shouldn’t really bad mouth other houses, so let me just give you the neutral version. Let’s start with my house: the Martin House is known for its magical theoreticians and especially arrays, we have more of those intellectual types and we have the best research facilities and library collections. Andersen House is more about the application of magic, they like to build stuff, and we actually collaborate a lot. They have a lot of testing facilities for various gadgets. And the Hellbruck House was more about fighting and combat, they’re the… what’s a better word for it? Aggressive? Passionate type?”
“Bullies?” Caroline asked.
“Yeah, you said it, not mine.” Tonya chuckled.
“And what about us audit students? I don’t remember submitting any applications to any of the houses.” Jason asked: “Or do we get to learn a little bit from all three houses?”
“Good question! And the answer is yes.” Tonya smiled: “For the first three weeks, you will spend time listening to the public classes and lectures of all three houses as well as the required classes. Then you will need to choose the curriculum provided by at least one house as your focus. To finish with honor, you will need to successfully complete all of your completion requirements from all of your focuses. And my advice is, choose wisely, don’t choose more than one unless you’re really sure of yourself.”
“Thank you!” Jason looked at one giant building that seemed like it was a hollowed-out red rock mountain with orange shining windows: “And that? I assume it’s the place for Hellbruck House?”
“Indeed, it was a whole piece of volcano, dug out by the founder of Hellbruck House from the mountain of Brimms, and the founder of Anderson House helped fashion it into a castle, containing both the living spaces and training grounds for the students of his house.” then Tonya pointed at a building that looked like an observatory with three telescopes: “And that is the place for the Anderson House, it’s the only place that constantly changes its exterior shape constantly - they have contacts in the civilian world that learn about technological advancements and combine those technologies to reshape the exterior every five years.”
“Okay, those are very impressive, Tonya, what about the place we’ll be staying at?” Caroline pointed at the building at the center, which looked like a citadel with three domes: “Is this it? Looks way too big and formal for us.”
“No, that is the main building, where we have our general courses and training. The place for audit students to stay at is behind it. It’s a little small, hope you don’t mind.” Tonya smiled and led them to a giant round piece of marble on the ground: “Now, stand here. It’d be faster. And it’s usually frowned upon to fly over the main building, so...”
“Okay?” Jason stood on the marble with Caroline in front of Tonya.
“Mica, take us to the audit student quarters.” Tonya stomped her feet on the marble and said.
With a gentle chirping sound, the piece of round marble tablet under their feet rose from its place, then started flying in low air and carrying three of them through a route plotted on the ground.