Room 83 Chronicles

September 5th, 2007

So if you weren’t from Canada, chances are you might think that Toronto was the capital of Canada.

And why not?

Toronto always gets everything: the tall buildings, the gigantic malls with underground walkways, the major sports teams to essentially represent Canada, ignoring Hockey because the NHL was founded in Montreal. Heck, it was only 2 years ago…almost, that Toronto got a Soccer (British term by the way) team for the MLS.

Speaking of Montreal, it would be a bit of a stretch to think the capital of the country was Montreal, maybe not by a lot, but it’s also a likely contender to be mistaken as the capital of this country.

And anyone who thinks Calgary, of all places, has a chance of being mistaken as the capital of Canada needs a reality check.

Instead, the Capital of Canada is in a little-known place called…

Ottawa.

Annoyingly, Ottawa is located in Ontario, so it all loops back to the Toronto problem.

And for anyone reading this outside of Canada, Ontario is one of the provinces of the country.

Because Ontario gets everything, that also means Canada’s most elite school, Fox Academy, resides in the province in the Capital city of Canada.

Where else would it be located?

Funnily enough, there was a time when Fox Academy was just its own little plot of land since the land used to belong to some nobles from faraway UK (which rhymes), and for some reason, no one in power really ever gave it any attention.

But as the years went on, eventually in the 80s, it just moved into Ottawa, and no one has had a problem with it since.

Anyway, Fox Academy was as fancy and elite as it got, besides getting away with having its own independent land for so long since the place was built in early 1899. It had asserted itself as the elite school of Canada.

The uber-exclusive private school that had a bunch of cool stuff inside of it that other private schools didn’t even have. With the only catch being: they chose you.

Aaron J. Hayate, for example, was one of the fortunate students who had made it onto the Grade 9 list, one of 5000 of them to be exact. And in that Grade 9 List were students who exemplified extraordinary abilities in their field.

He sat with his Grade 9 classmates inside the Fox Academy auditorium, which housed more than a measly 5000 students, that was for sure. Even with all of them, there was still a bit of an echo in the room.

Each of the Grade 9s had been notified that they had to wear the school’s official uniform for this orientation.

Formal wear consisting of a dark red blazer and black slacks.

Aaron tugged on his collar a few times; to say he was nervous was an understatement.

He was absolutely terrified to be here…

As it was, he had a preconceived notion that Private Schools were contained in these big, intimidating-looking buildings where the teachers meant business and the upperclassmen would eat them up.

So far, only the building looked intimidating, but he was sure it was only downhill from here.

It probably didn’t help that his older sister also fed him the information that for every new Grade 9, the Grade 12s were plotting to make their first year at High School a living nightmare.

“Good Morning and welcome to Fox Academy Orientation day…” Per tradition, the Class Prime Minister had to get the show on the road.

Kane Roderick was one of the Grade 12s, bespectacled and as snobby-sounding as anyone could get. He didn’t really wanna be doing this, but if he didn’t, he’d get an earful from the School administration, so here he was.

He ran his fingers through his hair to keep it from his glasses and sighed with irritation behind his breath.

“All of you here today have been chosen by our school for exemplifying extraordinary talent that sets you apart from everyone else…” He groaned, “For being the top of your class and showing signs of being the leaders of your generation—man who writes this stuff?—and all of you should feel honoured to be handed this privilege.”

Kane wrapped up his opening monologue and gave way to the Dormitory Administrator, Ms. Boucher.

She was as no-nonsense as they came, her hair tied into a bun to show how she meant business. Bespectacled just like that effing politician who gave the opening monologue. She was wearing a Black blazer and a pencil skirt to differentiate herself from the students while holding a clipboard for aesthetic purposes.

“Good Morning, Grade 9s. And welcome to your first year in High School,” She began, “albeit this isn’t the most regular beginning to your final 4 years in mandatory schooling, but for that I have one message: pull yourselves up and face it with resilience!”

With her opening monologue out of the way, she clicked on the button of a remote nearby and pulled down a SMART board screen, which displayed some information about resident etiquette.

“Make no mistake, from here all the way to June, you will be living a communal lifestyle during your time at Fox Academy.” She stated, “With that comes rules you all must adhere to.”

The first image she showed on the screen was of a boy and a girl sitting next to each other, reading magazines inside a dorm room.

“Rule #1: Boys and Girls must stay in separate dorms, especially during the night. I understand that many of you will become friends over the course of these 4 years, and some of you may end up dating one another. But nevertheless, when it comes to living arrangements here at this school, boys and girls must ALWAYS stay in separate dorms in separate buildings. This school has plenty of places for everyone to gather up and hang out, but never inside the dorm rooms themselves.”

The next image showed a panoramic photograph of the two Grade 9 Dorm rooms, which goes from day to night.

“Rule #2: The curfew. You’ll find that at this school, we grant our students a bit of autonomy to explore the campus and the many different amenities. Many different buildings besides dorm rooms are publicly accessible through your ID Cards while more general-use buildings like the mess hall and the Shopping District are free for anyone to use within the appropriate business hours. However, all students must return to their dorms by 12 AM at the maximum. Failing to do so will result in detention and harsh punishment.”

She cycled to the next image, which delved into more specific etiquette of roommates within dorm rooms. Showing a picture of two Fox Academy students shaking hands.

“Rule #3: Roommate etiquette. One thing is for sure: whoever you end up with, you’ll have them for the entire school year. So get used to it and do your best to not kill each other by the end of the year, because I guarantee, at least one room will have 1000 and 1 problems.”

She ended her presentation with one final rule, which showed a photo of the lobby of the girls’ dorm rooms.

“Rule #4 curfews for visitors: While boys are not allowed to visit the girls’ dorm and vice versa, you all are allowed to see each other in the dorm building you share. However, in order to ensure you all show up to class on time every day, a stricter curfew is in place that up until 9 PM you are all allowed to visit each other’s dorm rooms and hang out.”

It was just then that one of the students raised their hands, a bespectacled gal who, like Kane, also seemed a bit snobbish and unbothered to be in the crowd.

Lynn Durham from Winnipeg, that was.

“How would you know if we stayed out too late or are returning past our curfews?”

“Your ID Cards,” Ms. Boucher responded, “While I’m not personally in charge of them, they are connected to a school-wide system that detects your activity; i.e., which buildings you visit using it. Since your dorm rooms need the ID card to be accessed, we’ll know what time you’ve entered your dorm room.”

There were a few more questions asked regarding her presentation. Once she had thoroughly answered everyone, she passed on the microphone to her colleague.

Mr. Belanger.

He was the complete opposite of his sterner colleague. A bright, beaming man wearing the same getup as her, albeit breaking the dress code by having colourful dress pants that kind of looked like a floor or a niche cafe.

“Good morning, students!” He beamed with a wide grin, “My name is Mr. Belanger, and I am the head of the Students’ Parks and Services Office. Now that you’re acquainted with your dorm rooms, I’d like to talk to you all about common areas during lunch, Recess, and Intermission before Nighttime.”

His part of the slideshow was a lot more friendly and cartoonish, a clear contrast to Ms. Boucher’s simpler and ‘to the point’ approach.

“You all begin your Morning classes at 7:30 AM and wrap them up at 11:00!” His first slide on the SMART board showed a textbook riding on a crab with wiggling arms, “Your afternoon classes will begin at 12:30 and end at 2:30. In between 11:00 and 12:30, you’ll have intermission!”

His next slide showed a friendly piece of toast circling to a friendly burger to a fancy-looking lobster.

“Before you begin classes, all of you are expected to pile in at 6:00 AM to the mess hall to get breakfast, and you’ll have an hour and a half to eat breakfast. After morning classes, you’ll have an intermission to walk around for an hour and 30 minutes, where you’re expected to have lunch within that time. After classes have ended, Dinner is served around 6:30 PM and will be served until 12 AM.”

His slideshow was significantly shorter and less wordy than what Ms. Boucher presented.

“Oh, and one more thing about your ID Cards. Per each Grade, they are locked to specific areas, besides the Teachers Lounge and stuff, because obviously we can’t have all of you running around in there.” He giggled, “But regarding that, Grade 9s cant use their ID card to enter Grade 10, 11 or 12 buildings like their Dorm rooms or their section of the school, and vice versa for all of them and by the end of the year, before you leave you have to hand in your ID card so they can be updated for when you return to a new Grade.”

While that seemed cool and all, none of the students were mumbling about it or even fathomed going to the Grade 12 side of the school. As far as they and Aaron knew, the Grade 12s were EVIL!

But Aaron himself shuddered in fear at the thought of accidentally wandering near any of the upperclassmen’s side of the school, imagining getting destroyed by a nuke on site for doing such a thing.