Chapter 3: New rules

"These are the most important rules," Edit says in her usual, sombre voice and then places a paper in front of me with bullet points listing the rules. I pick it up and start reading.

• Clean your room

• Respect the teacher

• Feed your bat(s)

The moment I read that I laughed so hard. "What bats?" I ask after recovering from my laughing fit. I continue eating my scrambled eggs as Edith explains. "Well, when the school first started they had a mango farm to import, to support the costs of the academy."

She started but Anna interrupted her by saying, "She's madly obsessed with the history of this place." Edith rolls her eyes at this and says, "I am not madly obsessed, it's just interesting." she says, giving special attention to the word madly.

"Why are you even here in the first place? Aren't just the people with special talents accepted in this place?" I ask Anna, not in a rude way, more just in a curious way. I get Edith's really smart, her genius is probably why she's here.

She shrugs and says, "I'm an activist, started such a big riot in my town that the second in command came down to our little town and fixed the problem." She said with a proud smirk.

"What was the problem?" I ask her, almost hesitant to find out. She simply shrugs and says, "Didn't like the flowers." I chuckle and ask, "What do you mean you 'didn't like the flowers'?" Before she could reply Edith started talking again.

"Anyways, fruit bats really like the mangos and wouldn't leave. So, they kept them and for some odd reason, each bat clings to a different person." They then promised to take me to the bats once our classes were all done.

I nodded excitedly and continued reading.

• Do your homework

• Don't bother the King

That one creeps me out. I mean is common sense not to bother the person with the highest authority in all of the land, but the thing is, over the last few weeks I haven't seen or heard the King at all.

And the curiosity is scratching at me to try and find him. See what he looks like, smells like, talks like. Like something is pulling me to him, nagging me to find him. When I ask the girls about them they just say, "Nobody has ever seen him. He has his younger brother to be his spokesperson but all we know is that one time, somebody got a glimpse of him and was expelled immediately."

This is fascinating for me. Where does he live? What does he do? Why does he hide away? When did he decide to hide away? How does he manage without talking to anybody? How has nobody seen him? So many questions swirling around in my mind like a whirlwind shaking my head, making it spin with curiosity.

Anna quickly changed the subject to the rest of the rules, not wanting to get philosophical this early in the morning, and luckily for her, the bell rang. Signifying that breakfast is over, Edith and I go get our bags and head to our first class.

I have an off period and decided to go back to my room to do some homework. I am sitting down at my desk when there's a knock on my door. When I open the door it the same old lady as this morning.

She smiles at me and asks, "Miss Fisherman?" She smiles at me. I nod at her, rolling my eyes as she already knows who I am. She hands me a bracelet. "You have to wear this at all times, except, of course when you're in the water. When working with water you have to press this button" she says, showing me the button. " If you do break the rules, it will alert a teacher. Got it?"

"Why do we have to wear this? Isn't that a bit close to say, a prison system?" I question, not willing to accept this so easily. She seems to shift her feet. "It's for dissipline mostly." Her explanation seems acceptable. "How did they make it?" I ask, wondered by the detailed engineering. "I'm not sure. They don't tell me any of this. You should ask these types of questions to the principle." She commands, still her voice is unsure.

I say my thanks and close the door. I then put it on, I wonder how they made this thing? It's obviously before it's time. I wouldn't be surprised if it was made with magic. I chuckle at how ridiculous that is and continue with my work.

Later when our classes were over Edith and Anna came by to help me get a bat. They took me to these, huge, glass doors. It is inside this greenhouse dome, I can see several bats swarm the plantation. The dome is huge, there are small rooms everywhere that have one mango tree and water buckets.

"Now all you have to do is stand there and wait for a bat to come to you," Anna said padding me on my shoulder. With that, they leave, standing outside the doors, as not to compromise the right bat choosing me.

The moment my two new friends exited the room all the bats flew away from me. Not a single bat even came close to me. The fluttering of their wings, gone. The dome fell completely silent, I stood there for so long and nothing.

With a happy sigh, I left. I really didn't want to deal with a bat, the thing is nasty anyway. My friends were really stunned by that but I ignored them and went on with my day.

  The rest of my day went on as normal, well as normal as it could have been. That night I didn't struggle to sleep at all.