~Slop~

Chapter 3
Backwards

Chapter Description: Jack meets a new friend who seems to know some things he doesn't.

Jack

I woke up to the smell of waffles.

It had been the first time in years i’d woken up to the smell of food, actually. My parents always just woke up and left and sort of pretended I wasn’t there. Awesome childhood, I had.

Logan was already gone. I figured he would be, he doesn’t seem like the type to sit around and wait much.

I made my way downstairs to the common room. It was really nice actually, it had wooden little barred chairs and a nice big round table, and place mats. There was a little kitchen surrounding it, with pots and pans hanging from the walls. I guess it was supposed to emulate the usual Americana kitchen that was in most homes. Maybe to make the freshmen feel less homesick or something.

I sat down amongst some of the other people in my building. There were a few girls there too from the bottom floor. The door opened and a pudgy looking woman with red cheeks and blonde hair came out holding a tray of steaming golden waffles. She placed it in the center of the table and smiled. "Hello!" She said. "I’m Mary. I’ll be cooking for you here in building A."

"Wow!" said the guy across from me. "That’s awesome. Meals made for us!"

I was pretty happy to be getting waffles, but a bit annoyed at the same time. We were college students, not toddlers. We were adults, so why can’t we make our own food? Why does this woman dressed like everyone’s mother making us eat her food?

I noticed a little bit of yesterday’s slop on the plate as well. I took a little bit, since it actually didn’t taste too bad.

I dug into my waffle, and happyily ate it until someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Wat" I said, my mouth full of doughy goodness.

It was the girl next to me. "Let me see your schedule." She said.

"Why?" I replied, finishing my food.

"Just let me see it." she said. "I’ll give it back, I promise."

I wearily pulled out the blue paper and handed it to her. I remembered the weird occurrence yesterday afternoon with the receptionist and the pink paper. I decided to not think of it more, since it disturbed me a bit.

"Yea, it’s just like I thought." said the girl.

"What?" I said, syrup dripping out of my mouth.

"Look at these classes. They don’t make sense. Pre-calculus, Biology, Intro to Lit, Latin I, US History."

"Yea?" I said. "So?"

"So, these are High School courses. We took these two or three years ago. It doesn’t make sense"

"Maybe they’re just the college versions." I said.

"No." She said. "At least I don’t think so... I should go talk to headmaster...." She glanced at me. "Oh geeze, I’m sorry. I’m Alex. I’ve been involving you in my conspiracy theories. I’m sort of insane."

I laughed. "I think everyone here is insane."

She smiled. "How did someone as smart as you end up in this place?" I said.

"Well, I got decent grades, actually." She replied. "But my parents have zero money. This is the only thing I could afford to go to. So here I am."

"Interesting." I said. I looked at my watch. My first class was soon. "I have to go" I said, putting my plate on the counter. "But I’ll see you around. Maybe we’ll share a few classes."

"Yea." said Alex.

"Oh, and if you want to book a meeting with the Headmaster, just go through the front desk. There’s this lady, Wendy? Yea Wendy. She’ll get you an appointment." I said.

"Thanks" replied Alex. "I’ll do that."

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Alex

There was something up with this school, no doubt about it.

Oh, sorry! I haven’t introduced myself. I literally always forget to do that. I’m Alexandria, but usually I have people call me Alex. I know, unisex name, whatever.

Anywayyyyyy

After that guy (I think I heard someone call him Jack) told me to go to the front office, I took his advice. There’s no way I’m going to go through High School classes again.

I got to the front desk and there was an older lady with black hair there.

"Are you Wendy?" I said.

"Oh, no, I’m sorry. Wendy isn’t here anymore." said the woman.

"Not here?" I said. "She was here yesterday, my friend talked with her."

"Yes." said the woman. "Here yesterday, gone today. It’s a rough economy you know. I’m Amber. May I help you?"

I blinked. "Uh Yea. Can I make an appointment with the Headmaster?"

"Well, no he doesn’t have any free openings for the rest of the day, I’m afraid." said Amber. "But I believe you can see him right now for a few minutes if you don’t mind being a few minutes late to your first class."

"Sure." I said.

The man himself walked out. He was very tall and imposing. He wore a black shirt and a tie, and had on some pretty big loafers. His hair seemed to be graying a little bit, but not too much.

"Hello, Alexandria." He said, "How may I be of service to you this morning?"

"I... I.... sorry I was looking at this schedule and it doesn’t make any sense to me. These are High School classes."

The Headmaster smiled. "Of course they are. You see, here at Slopes, we have a sort of... Upside-down curriculum. A lot of the students here didn’t do well at their schools, and they NEED to take those classes again. But don’t worry, we’ve know there are people like you, too, who got good grades, but whose parents may have spent your college money on gambling... or of the sort"

"How did you know--"

"Those students" he continued, "Who excel at these courses, can easily move up to the more advanced courses we offer here. Quickly too, in the matter of days if you like. It’s all about you, here. You."

That seemed to make a bit more sense, I guess. "Thank you." I said.

I left the office, and headed to my class on the other side of campus. I was a bit more at ease now, it made a bit more sense. I was pretty confident I could fly through these review classes and get to the mysterious ’advanced classes’ quickly. I was excited about that.

I did sort of wonder what happened to Wendy. Maybe she had to leave for personal reasons. Maybe she was fired. I din’t actually see her, maybe that kid Jack is just high on something and thought he saw a Wendy. Either way, she’s gone now.

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