Chapter 7: A Substitute (2)
She pulled me into another room. There I saw a walk-in closet that was full of clothes and other expensive things. There was a full-length mirror, personal products on the long table, and above all, there’s a white bath tub. The bath was in the middle of the room for Pete’s sake!
“Remove your clothes. Hurry please.” Miss Aura said while facing a cabinet as if she was looking for suitable clothes for me to wear.
“It’s good that we have the same size. You are a bit taller but this will do,” she said while taking undergarments out and throwing it on the cream-colored sofa in the corner.
After that, she went to her own shoe rack whose height reached until the ceiling, there she looked for shoes in the section where the word ‘black’ was written. “I don’t know if it fits you but it seems that your feet are small,” she said and she still haven’t notice that I was just standing there.
She went to the telephone and dialed. “Bring a senior’s uniform, size B. Complete.” She said to the other line, when she finished she turned to me. Her small forehead frowned when she saw me still on my clothes.
“Dear, we need to hurry. Go ahead and strip down. We still have a lot—”
She stopped when she saw the expression on my face. “Oh,” she said. “You aren’t accustomed to have someone with you bathing?”
What kind of question is that? Of course, I’m not used to it. Who would want to take a bath in an open area like this spacious walk in closet with a woman that looked like a member of a royal family?
“But your hair won’t be properly washed and your body won’t be thoroughly cleaned if you don’t have someone with you?” She said with a thoughtful expression. Is it like this here? Is it a must to have someone with you when bathing? Is it a must for someone to wash your hair and body?
“Don’t worry this won’t happen every day,” she said as if reading my thought.
She looked at my muddy coat and pants and even my shoes that was disrupting the view of the marbled floor.
“It’s only now because Principal Bins wants you to be presentable to the other students.”
So, it’s all for the other student’s sake. They are right. I’m a distraction to the perfect atmosphere of this school, the me who came from the town.
“Okay,” was my only answer. I began to strip my clothes until only the undergarments were left. Miss Aura set the tub and placed something with a nice fragrance on the water. It smells like fresh flowers. A moment later the water starts to bubble and I entered.
“Here’s the scrub, shampoo…” She said while taking out some things from a small drawer next to the tub. “Body wash, soap, conditioner…” She’s so hyper considering its four o’clock in the morning. While I felt like sleeping.
I immersed myself in the water and I came to lose my drowsiness. When I came out there were already two new people in the room looking at me. They were wearing navy blue and white uniform. They were maids.
“Here is the complete uniform, Miss Aura,” the taller one announced. They looked towards Miss Aura’s direction.
She smiled. “Thank you.” Then she faced me. “Go ahead. You can start.”
The two servants carefully put down the uniform next to the things on the sofa. I noticed that it wasn’t only a single pair of uniform, there were three pairs. There is a regular uniform that is a pleated navy blue skirt and white long sleeve blouse, a jogging pants and t-shirt, and a coat and boots. The two servants came to me and I was stunned. One of them went for my head and the other on my feet. What the hell do they think they’re doing?
I felt bubbles on my hair because of the shampoo. One of them was applying shampoo on me. The other one grabbed my foot and began to scrub.
“Your skin looks rough. What soap and lotion are you using?” Asked Miss Aura while looking at me.
“I don’t use anything,” I answered while trying not to notice what they are doing to my body.
“Oh,” Miss Aura said as if she heard a trivia. Did she only found out now that there can be a person who was not as clean and as pretty as her?
“Well then, you need these things.” She went to a cabinet and looked up. She couldn’t reach it. She slightly frowned and its doors suddenly opened and then the objects there started floating down. She has the ability to move objects at her own will.
She took a paper bag and the objects went into it. “Sorry, it’s one of the exceptions in this room,” she said to the two servants.
This time I frowned. “Exceptions?”
She raised her brows. “Oh, right. Rules. You need to know the rules here.”
She sat on the smaller sofa. She crossed her legs in a very elegant way. “Because you won’t stay that long, you only need to know the basics. One, you never use your ability unless you are required to do so in class, in training, and when you needed it on extraordinary instances. Those extraordinary instances should be registered to the Principal. Every student has the logo of Titan on their garments, even pajamas or simply clothes you wear at home. That way, the school can monitor if someone uses their abilities that shouldn’t be. There are also Head students to monitor what happens inside and outside the class.”
“How about my ability? I can’t prevent it if I can feel danger around me.”
“Those are the extraordinary circumstances, don’t worry you are registered by the Principal. You can use it all you want,” she replied with a smile. They continued washing me. It took almost an hour to scrub the hell out of me. I felt like a raw chicken. When they finished, they dried my hair and fixed it. There were also some instances where they used a pair of scissors to fix my uneven hair. They even made me put something oily on my skin. They trimmed my eyebrows and nails and all those things that they do in a salon. When they finished, I wore the uniform that they offered and looked at the mirror. Whoa. Who is this girl?
I looked at myself in the mirror. The perfect hair, the olive skin, the almost perfectly smooth face. I just touched myself to be sure it’s my body. This is so much worse than what I expected.
“You happy?” Miss Aura asked happily. Even the two servants smiled when they saw my reaction. In their eyes, I’m very happy to the point that I couldn’t believe it. I’m not happy. I look fake. I look like a freaking manufactured person. Shia Sheridan of Hesperia is gone.
ED: Barbie?
“You will get used to it, don’t worry. As for now, I will show you to your room. You just need to continue these routines so you will be presentable,” she said as she gestured to what they did to me earlier.
“Let’s go. It’s almost 6:00. The breakfast is at 6:30.” We went out of her room. The two servants were left there to clean up the things.
What is this place? Is there really such a place that exist in Hesperia? Do they even know that the people in the town barely have food to fill their stomachs? Do they even know that the price of their things is enough to feed a family for a month? I doubt that. They know nothing. Being in this place makes them ignorant from the real world. Being in this place makes me hate it even more.
Author’s Note:
Shia is a substitute for Corrine. Well tough luck, isn’t it?
Next update will be the first day of Shia as an official student of Titan
Academy and as a member of Gin’s group.
Hmm. Gin and Corrine? What’s up with those two? I look forward to reading your comments below.
Til next update!