The Color Yellow: Part Two

     Faerieland Central.

     The private academy was bustling with neopets and owners there for the preview weekend. Students from the school glanced curiously at the newcomers, but otherwise continued with their Friday afternoons.

     Yellow, the Island Aisha, stood with his luggage next to his owner, Lina. An Elephante at the reception desk was checking the potential students in.

     "Come on, Yellow," Lina said, walking forward. He started after her.

     "Welcome to Faerieland Central School," the Elephante greeted them. "Full name please?"

     "Yellow_Cheese_Burger," Yellow answered. "My owner is Lina."

     "Yes, here you are." The Elephante handed him a folder with his name on it. "Please head to the auditorium; after the welcome ceremony, you will be meeting your host student." The Elephante turned to Lina. "Will you be staying for the owners' information session?"

     "No, unfortunately I need to get back home. I'll still take the session packet, though."

     The Elephante handed it to her; Yellow watched her, suddenly nervous.

     "Are you going to be okay?" Lina asked him.

     He took a breath and smiled. "Yeah, I think so."

     "Good." Lina hugged him. "I love you, Yellow. I'll see you on Sunday, okay?"

     "Okay. Love you too."

     "Be sure to have fun!" She waved goodbye and headed back to the Eyrie-pulled carriage. Yellow watched it until it was just a dot in the sky, before turning back towards the school building.

     Two young Faeries suddenly floated past him; he watched, startled, as they headed for the entrance.

     "I didn't know Faeries went here too," came a voice to his right. Yellow turned and saw a green Acara.

     "Me neither. There wasn't anything about it in the pamphlet."

     "It makes sense, though, since we're right outside Faerie City. I wonder if we'll have any classes with them. Oh, my name is Zani, by the way."

     "Yellow."

     "Yellow? Like the color?" Zani asked.

     "Yeah. It's a nickname." Yellow shrugged.

     "Huh. Cool." Zani opened his folder and scanned the agenda inside. "I guess the welcome-ceremony thing is going to be starting soon. Wanna go inside?"

     "Okay."

     Zani and Yellow found seats near the middle; other prospective students gazed timidly around. Yellow wondered how many of them were going to be his new classmates.

     "Do you already know if you're going to Faerieland Central?" Zani asked.

     "No, I'm not sure, but I think I'd really like to go. I haven't even sent in an application yet."

     "Me neither. I don't even know if we can afford it, really. But hey," Zani shrugged. "I figured, why not?"

     A hush fell over the crowd; at the podium, a Faerie was standing.

     "Isn't she a Dark Faerie?" Zani murmured. "What's she doing here?"

     "Hello, prospective students, and welcome to Faerieland Central School," the Dark Faerie said. "My name is Miss. Safelila, and I am the headmistress at this school."

     Whispering broke out in the crowd. Next to him, Zani protested, "A Dark Faerie is the head mistress?! Why wasn't that in the brochure?" He crossed his arms. "I'm definitely not going here now. Even if I wanted to, my owner wouldn't let me." He seemed to ponder for a minute. "I wonder if I should neomail him and ask him to pick me up?"

     Yellow didn't see what the big deal was; he knew how it was to be judged solely based on your appearance. Not all Dark Faeries were bad; he knew that from the Faerie Festival.

     Headmistress Safelila waited patiently until the whispering subsided, smiling understandingly. Yellow thought that she had kind eyes.

     "All of you," she said, finally speaking over the last of the talking; the crowd went silent. "All of you are here today because you want an education. Maybe you've heard about our stellar graduation rate, or maybe you heard about our dedication to the arts. Nevertheless, today you are taking a step towards the right direction. You, young Neopians, are the future's greatest resource. Over the weekend I hope..."

     Yellow let his mind wander during the rest of her speech; behind the headmistress stood some other teachers, a few Neopets and a few more Faeries. Near the very edge of the crowd, a Grey Faerie stood, her thin arms huddled over her raggedy dress. Yellow thought she looked familiar, even though he had never met a Grey Faerie before. He was surprised that she was a teacher.

     "And so, future Lawyers, Shop Owners, Artists, and Fashion Models, I welcome you to our school. May it be a place of great learning for you." Headmistress Safelila smiled and opened her arms. "In your welcome packets you will find a piece of paper with your host student's name on it. Please go find them and they will escort you to your next activity."

     Yellow opened his packet and found the paper; his host student's name was Forest_Fire7, a Fire Blumaroo. He scanned the crowd of host students until he spotted a Fire Blumaroo.

     "Hi," he said. "My name is Yellow. Are you Forest_Fire7?"

     The Blumaroo smiled. "Oh, no, I'm his twin, Wild_Fire7. You can call me Willy. Forest is over there somewhere." He pointed to a father area of the crowd.

     "Wild_Fire7?" someone called; behind them, Zani was standing. "I'm Zaninski. I think you're my host student." He looked at the Aisha. "Oh, hi Yellow!"

     "Hello!" Willy said. "Since I've got my preview student, I'll bring you to Forest." Zani and Yellow followed him through the crowd.

     "Isn't it cool our host students are twins? We'll be able to spend the whole weekend together!" Zani exclaimed.

     Another Fire Blumaroo, nearly identical to Willy except for a ring in one of his ears, approached them.

     "Hi, I'm Forest," he said, smiling.

     "Yellow," he introduced myself.

     "Come on," Forest said, "Let's drop off your stuff in our room."

     "You two are roommates?" Zani asked.

     Willy smiled. "Yeah. We already share a room at home, so we knew we would get along here."

     "Don't people mistake you two for each other, though? Wouldn't sharing a room just confuse them further?" Yellow asked.

     This time Forest responded. "That's why I got the earring. I have one, and Willy doesn't. That way others can tell us apart."

     Zani and Yellow left their bags in the twin's room, then scanned their schedule: they both had example classes to get a feel of some of the teachers.

     "It looks like I have Moltaran History with some guy named Edelstein," Zani said.

     "Not me," Yellow said. "I have Critical Thinking with Ms. Rofay."

     "Oh, yeah, Ms. Rofay," Forest said. "I don't like her too much. She's so depressing, and I can never figure out how to do her homework. I've nearly failed that class several times now."

     "She's nice enough as long as you behave," Willy argued. "She is depressing, though. And her class is hard."

     The group left the dorms and started walking back to the school building. "What do you have to do after your class?" Willy asked.

     "It looks like we have a welcome dinner, and then after that you're supposed to show us around campus."

     "Awesome! We'll show you the abandoned pool!" Forest said.

     "You have an abandoned pool?" Zani asked.

     "Under the building. Apparently it's haunted," Willy explained. "Nobody's supposed to go down there, but almost everyone does. It's nothing, really."

     Willy and Zani left for the upper wing of the school where Mr. Edelstein's classroom was, while Yellow followed Forest. They were heading for the lower part of the school; the windows here were long and narrow, and threw cold, glaring light into the hallway.

     "The only things in this section are Ms. Rofay's office and classroom and the head mistresses' office. Except for there," Forest pointed to a small wooden door. "That leads to the basement, where the abandoned pool is. They keep it locked, but it's pretty easy to pick. The most dangerous thing is making sure that the headmistress isn't in her office when you do go in or come out."

     They reached an open classroom; a few preview students were sitting very nervously in their seats. "Here you are," Forest said. "It looks like Ms. Rofay isn't here yet. That's probably a good thing; I didn't turn in my homework for her class today. I'm going to leave before she comes back. See you after class!"

     Yellow watched as Forest left him alone; he took his place in the first row, next to one other brave student. All the others were huddled in the back.

     The room had a particularly gloomy feel; it was painted with faded purple hues that looked grey. The windows were shrouded with darker grey curtains; the light that was in the room peeked in from around them and came from several lamps around the room.

     "What are we supposed to learn in a Critical Thinking class anyway?" He heard someone murmur from behind him.

     "Well, duh! How to think critically?!"

     "I could have figured that out myself, moron. I mean, what type of subject matter are we going to learn?"

     "Supposedly we're gonna look at puzzles and riddles and stuff."

     "There's a whole class about that? Cool!"

     "Who's the teacher, anyway? Anybody meet her yet?"

     As if on cue, the door opened again. Her light grey hair seemed to match the paint, so that she seemed to fade into the background. There were large, ragged holes in the back of her dress, and a few pitiful feathers struggled feebly from them, seemingly of their own accord. Her eyes seemed determined to look sharp and forceful, but Yellow could sense the deep sadness that lie in them.

     "Hello, class," the Grey Faerie said, her voice ringing out with an authority Yellow couldn't believe she had. "My name is Ms. Rofay."

To be continued...