NOVEL WEB Chapter 1: Future for the Present
"Access... Gilded Feathers"...
In the dry deserts of the western border of India resides the Spiral City of Nixtom. In this district, one could find the most prestigious school in the entire country: High School Kolar.
After being closed for over a year, HS Kolar finally opened its gates once again as the war had finally ended. With the start of a new Academic year, the winds brought a fresh batch of new students. One of them being… Abhi.
"Big Ahh School." Said Abhi while he observed the vast establishment of Kolar. The enormous and illuminating marble-crafted work of art school building might even be mistaken for the Taj Mahal, well at least without its spherical dome on the top. The outdoor campus was as vibrant and green as grass could be; covering the main building from all four sides, with the beautiful shrubbery wonders of topiaries; acting as dividers between the grass panels and the main marble tile pathway leading towards the building's entrance. It would be an understatement to call this scenery beautiful.
While walking towards the school, Abhi stopped and noticed a dog near a telephone pole on the streetwalk outside the school gate, he went there to pet it. While playing with the dog, Abhi noticed some mushrooms nearby and picked them up. After some time, Abhi looked around and held his gaze at some peculiar-looking people in black suits and black goggles for an extended time. Abhi then got up and walked inside the campus, these people in black suits were even seen inside the school. Abhi ignored them and walked through the main entrance.
Ding! Tring! Tring! The first day of Abhi's High School life began as the school bell rang in the light of a new millennium.
Abhi jogged towards the school building after he heard the bell. Upon getting inside he looked around, displaying wonder in his eyes. He stood in the middle of a giant hall, but the enormous hall wasn't the only wonderful thing, there was also the interior of the school building which was noticeably different from the exterior. The interior resembled modern architecture.
Unlike the exterior, the inside walls were made of cement with white overpaint, whereas the outside was built from marble, and the railings, poles, and benches all around the place were made from exquisite-looking wood. The hall even had a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling and two curved staircases leading up to the second floor which was for the school's officials such as the principal. Even though the interior looked different from the exterior, it was still elegant and harmonized well with the school's marble exterior. One of the walls was covered with pictures of the school's special events, and achievements, and even celebrities from all over the world visiting and even studying in the school were visible. A particular wall though, just had a lot of writing on it, not only that but it was written on a brass plate.
"Man, I gotta hurry up," Said Abhi in a rush. Many hallways were branching out from the main. Abhi seemed perplexed, perhaps he wasn't confident enough in his navigation skills to find his classroom. Yet suddenly, Abhi closed his eyes and softly mumbled something. After he opened his eyes, his expression had completely changed, he looked and acted far more confidently, he soon chose a way and started walking towards it.
The hallways were long and the staircases were wide. After a few minutes of walking up to the third floor, Abhi finally reached his classroom '1C'. He went inside, the classroom was large, but not enormous compared to the rest of Kolar's Gigantic architecture. The classroom had not one, not two but three class boards. Two of them were at the front, one being a whiteboard, the second being a blackboard and the third was another whiteboard placed at the back of the classroom.
Every student including Abhi entered the classroom and occupied the two-person benches at random. While walking in, he looked up and noticed a black cuboid-shaped box attached to the ceiling. He seemed curious about this object but chose to ignore it and took a seat in the front of the last column alongside a guy with peculiar-looking orange hair. The benches were made of wood, yet seemed quite comfy, and as with everything else in this school, the benches were large too, Abhi looked towards his left and found a window beside him.
He looked around some more and then looked at himself as if he was comparing himself to his fellow students. When compared to the attire Abhi was wearing, the students of HS Kolar were of unique appearance. Once everyone was seated there was a moment of awkward silence in the room. In that instance, the guy who sat next to Abhi suddenly stood up and asserted:
"Good morning everyone, my name is Veer. I'm delighted to be here amongst you all. From what I can tell we all are students from different places far and wide all across our nation. With the presence of such diversity, I'm sure we all want to get to know each other. So, I was thinking why don't we introduce ourselves to the class as a starting ceremony for our first day at school".
Students gave Veer a peculiar look and in a few seconds another student from the back replied to Veer: "That's a good idea Veer but how about we wait till our Class Teacher comes in, so she can get to know us as well." Said a pretty girl with thin eyes and brownish-dark hair. "Good point Dep, let's wait for the teacher." Replied Veer. The rest of the students in the class nodded with approval.
Creak! Bam! The classroom door smacked open. A Beautiful, fair, curvy, and well-dressed lady in a saree with long black hair; a pair of specs, and a giant smile on her face walked into the class and stood in front of the class cabinet.
"Good Mornin' homies, welcome to class 'C' of 11th grade, I'm going to be your homeroom teacher for this year. You may call me Ms Oxlong''.
The class greets back the teacher in unison. "Did she just call us homies?" Some of the students whispered among themselves.
"From what I heard while walking in, you guys wanted to have an introduction session in my presence, right? I'd love that, but before we do it, I have to inform you guys about some important information first. To start, I'd like to give an insight into the schedule and schematics of our academic lives. And also, I have to present a special message to you guys".
The Class nods following teacher Oxlong's words.
"Hmm, I Wonder what the special message would be," said Abhi in a subtle tone. "Probably some boring informational video or the principal saying hello." Said Veer while looking at Abhi. "Ha ha, probably." Replied Abhi.
"Get your notes ready and write down all the information necessary." Said Oxlong.
The students followed the teacher's words and wrote down all the necessary information….
a few minutes of info dump later the teacher got close to her final announcement:
"Finally, by this week's end, y'all have to give a Merit Test. This test won't be counted in your overall grade, but do not make the mistake of taking this lightly, as this test will determine your fate as a student of Kolar".
The entire class stopped writing down the instructions. They looked up at the teacher and displayed an uncanny look on their faces with flared eyebrows, and wide-open mouths, all of them said at once: "What! A test in the first week?"
"Now…now y'all don't need to worry; there isn't anything to worry about. This Merit Test is just to evaluate all of your individual and overall class limits which would provide data for our team to maximize the growth of all you pokie-bears." The teacher noticing this reaction reassured the students:
Students, relieved to hear this, relaxed their eyebrows and faces to nod towards the teacher with approval. Wait but what in the hell is a pokie-bear? Some of the students thought, as they weren't familiar with the modern lingo.
"Now as for the last announcement; we have a special informational video for y'all."
"See! Told ya, it was gonna be just another boring informational video nothing new." Said Veer with a smug grind while looking at Abhi. "You called it for real." Said Abhi while softly chuckling.
Tap! The teacher flicks on a switch placed next to the blackboard.
The black cuboid box above started to zrrr! Vibrate and illuminate green lights. Abhi was paying utmost attention to this, with his face looking like he just witnessed a dark angel descend down from heaven.
Some of the students looked at this happening with intrigue: "Wow, I have seen projectors being used in special halls before but Kolar has them in every class?"
Some were looking up with blank faces: "I didn't notice that projector before."
The teacher held a remote in her hand and clicked a button. Immediately the cuboid box projected and displayed a computer interface. She then went to her desk and opened up a silvery device with "Soni" imprinted on its back; this device seemed to be connected to the black cuboid above.
"Damn! They even got laptops in every class huh?" Said Veer referencing the device. "Isn't that like a… computer?" Said Abhi. "Well, a laptop is pretty much just a portable computer so you are half correct" Replied Veer.
Abhi looked amazed after hearing this, he exuded curiosity, his eyes glistening with intrigue. He almost seemed like he had never even heard about such technology. Seeing this, Veer lets out a friendly smile towards Abhi's excited expression.
The teacher then pulled down a white curtain from a large white cylinder placed on top of the main blackboard. This was used as a screen for the projector.
"Alright before we start, I'd just like to inform y'all that this special informational video comes straight from the core of the education department in the Capital, and is a mandatory watch for everyone. This will only be played once among all classes simultaneously, so pay attention".
CLICK! A video started playing on the white screen.
A man maybe in his thirties pops up on the screen. He has long white hair, deep brown eyes, and a darker brown skin complexion. He greets the camera by saying "Namaste" while joining his hands.
As soon as he appears on the screen every student, including Abhi, goes wide-eyed, being in disbelief, their jaw drops to the floor and their eyebrows hit the ceiling.
The person in the video starts to speak:
"Good morning students of Kolar. My name is Vishva Pratap Raghavan but you may know me as the… 'President of India' ".
...….