Treehouse
Is this place a parallel universe or am I high on something?
“I know you probably didn’t want to go to a boarding school in your last year of high school, but I feel like this is best for you,” my mom says as she drives into the school gates.
“I understand mom, I’m not angry, it’s not like I’m going to miss anybody either than you of course “I mumble in response.
“Aw honey”
“What the fuck even this place,” I say looking at the building, I don’t even know if I can call it that, in front of us.
The “building” was on a giant tree and had multiple Windows and what looks like three floors
My mother brought me to a hippie school?!?!
“Language young lady,” she says in a stern voice.
“You have brought me to a hippie school?” I question.
“You can be so dramatic sometimes, let’s go, ” she demands walking out of the car.
I get out of the car slowly observing this weird “building” and walk towards the reception?!?!? But to me looks like the bark of a tree.
We walk into the reception which surprisingly has a very modern interior and a warm homey feel with plain white walls decorated with a few abstract art pieces, a nice lounge area with white leather seats, and a glass coffee table with a fake plant as the centerpiece. At the corner of the room to the side of the lounge area, there are metal doors that lead to what I assume is an elevator, in a tree house? How interesting. Across from the lounge area is a long white desk with a black and red logo written Mountain Forest High.
My mother and I walk towards the desk where there’s a young woman with a black pantsuit on and a pair of brown glasses with matching heels, not the ideal outfit for a woman in her 20s but I’m no fashion expert or anything so who am I to judge.
The receptionist quickly feels the presence of my mother and me and looks up, greeting us with a warm smile.
“Good Morning, Welcome to Mountain Forest High how may help you,” she says facing my mother.
“Morning, I’m here to check my daughter in, may I please see Mr. Cantrell”
“Right through there” she responds pointing at a door to the left of her with a gold metal plate marked ‘principle’ on it.
“Thank you very much”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We walk into the office where I see a young man who looks to be in his early 20′s is around 6ft tall and has black hair that stops right above his eyebrows and slightly frames his glasses.
This is the principal? Wow.
He gets up from his seat to greet us and then guides us to sit on the two chairs in front of his large old fashioned desk.
“You must be Mrs. Lirvana,” he says looking back and forth between my mother and the papers on his desk.“andddd........you must be Calcy,” he says adding on this time looking at me and I nod in response.
My mother and Mr. Cantrell continue to talk about boring stuff such as school fees, graduation, and ways that I will be allowed to get in touch with her as I wasn’t going to be allowed to use my phone.
“.... since Calcy has passed the entry exam and has a wonderful academic record she will be progressing to the senior year with no courses” Mr. Cantrell states and I quickly snap out of my daydream.
“No courses? What does that I mean” I question confused.
“It means that you do not need any extra academic credits to graduate” he states, “however you will need to join 3 extra curricular to meet our graduation requirements”
“Oh okay,” I reply trying to mask my overwhelming excitement for the fact that I don’t need to do any more schoolwork. What kind of school is this?
“You will also need to be wearing your uniform throughout the school day and you’ll be allowed to have it off after school and during weekends” he continues. “And that’s about it. Your new roommate is waiting for you outside, she’ll show you around and you can pick up your uniform later at the uniform shop” Mr. Cantrell says ending our conversation.
My mother and I walk out of the office where I see a tall black-haired teen girl with long eyelashes and perfectly shaped eyebrows, small heart-shaped pink lips, and a perfect jawline, waiting in the lounge area. She quickly notices my mother and me when the door to the office shuts behind us.
“Hi, My name is Kayla”
“Hi, my name is Calcy and this is my mom”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After an hour or so of my mom, Kayla, and I got my stuff from the car and into our dorm which is located in another tree house building but this one was much smaller than the main one where we had our classes.
“I’m going to miss you so much,” my mom says pulling me into a tight bear hug squeezing all the life out of me.
“I’m going to miss you too, mom, but would like for you to let me go before you kill me and can never see me again,” I say out breathless
She lets go of me and gets into her car and begins to drive off, I am going to miss that crazy woman.
“Well we better go get your uniform and get ready for our first class it’s about to start soon,” Kayla says dragging me back in the direction of the main building to go pick up my uniform.
It feels like I’ve been here for hours, but it’s still morning and I still have classes today.
" I didn’t get a timetable for when I will be having my classes,” I say to Kayla as we walk back so I can change into my uniform.
“Seniors don’t have timetables, we don’t have ‘classes’ either,” she says putting the word classes in air quotes.
“What do you mean?” I look at her questioningly
“Well, how the Mountain Forest high curriculum works is that from your freshman to junior year you take courses and study to meet the credit requirements to get into year 4 or senior year once you have met these credits you have also met the credit requirements to graduate so there is no longer a need to take more courses or academic classes. Then senior year is spent exploring and experiencing different options before university, our classes are self-picked which means that you get to choose who you get to be in class with and there are no teachers, it’s just hanging out with your friends for a couple of hours every day while in uniform” Kayla explains to me.
By the time she has finished explaining we are already back in our room and I quickly change into my uniform.
The uniform was very cute, a red skirt with a white shirt, a black tie, and a black blazer. I decided not to wear my blazer since it is not that cold outside.
As I walk out of the bathroom I look over at Kayla observing the fact that we were now matching however she wasn’t wearing a tie and had the top three buttons of her shirt undone showing a little cleavage with her blazer on even though it did seem a little bit too big to be hers because it was even longer than her skirt.
She looks me up and down before saying something.
“Damn Calcy you look hot and you got a rack,” she says looking at my chest causing me to chuckle.
“Thanks, but think I can speak for both of us when I say they are a blessing and a curse”
“I know that’s right” she responds while looking down at her chest. “Come on let’s get to class those guys don’t like it when I’m late”
We leave the dorm building and walk toward the main building and it doesn’t take long for us to get to class. Kayla walks in and before she gets the chance to introduce me, she’s interrupted by a voice.
“Well well well look who decided to finally show up,” the male voice said as I walked in behind Kayla and stood beside her.
“Who is this?” The brown-headed curly boy said looking me up and down as I was now able to get a clear vision of him.
