Monday, September 4th, 2017
Blake Holsey High School
Seattle, King County, Washington, United States
The sun is shining on a warm and clear day on the first day of school for Blake Holsey High School and the other schools in the Seattle Public Schools district, and the start of the new 2017-2018 school year. The trickle of students, both new and old, are starting to arrive at the BHHS school grounds, either via buses arriving by the bus station operated by the King County Metro, being dropped off by cars arriving in the school car park, or just by walking in from the numerous houses surrounding the area, since the school was also a public school. Students meet and greeted with each other, with some students talking in regards to various subjects, including what everyone did on the holidays, what schools the Seawolves going to play during the regular football season, and any events that were happening on the weekend or not. Today is the day that most of the boarding students would probably settle in, and due to the boarding students circumstances, the day would only have two classes after a welcome assembly later in the day, after lunch. It was an unusual arrangement for the students to deal with, but then again, the schedule here is always unusual when BHHS is one of the few hybrid public/boarding school schools in Seattle, let alone the entire state of Washington. Until the assembly, the students and boarders of BHHS can just relax in the school grounds, settle in at their dorm rooms/lockers and just generally take it easy until that time of the day, which meant the cliques meeting up for the first time, teachers organising their schedules and classes and other staff trying to get the things ready before school started for the year.
Logan Cavanaugh and Julianna Létourneau (Juliet Cavanaugh)
The first boarders to arrive at Blake Holsey were Logan and Julie. The car that they were driving was already approaching the school, and things were quiet as you might expect for your first day of school. Logan was wearing a light blue and white checkered plaid shirt, with beige slacks and some good pair of walking shoes, alongside his old baseball team jacket that he recently received from his good friends back at West Vancouver Secondary School, which was a good 20 minute drive from his house in North Vancouver. He had ordered his Blake Holsey basketball jacket a while back since he got on the team during the summer tryout season, so he is just waiting for it to arrive at the school.
Julie, in the meanwhile, was wearing a dress that was conservative due to her stringent commitment to her Roman Catholic faith, had some proper slip on shoes on her feet, and was wearing her Christian cross on her necklace, her most prised and important possession to her, alongside her French language bible of course. She always wore it when she was back in Vancouver, and it wasn’t going to change now, not at least she was now in the United States of America and starting her high school education as a freshman, while her brother was a sophomore and much more familiar with a high school setting.
It has been a hectic few days for the Cavanaugh family. Their two children were finally going to be starting their mainstream high school education in the United States, and it was also close to home as well. Nathan had driven Logan and Julie down to Seattle from Vancouver via Interstate I-5 the previous day, has spent the night in a okayish motel to recuperate their energy, before going off to Blake Holsey High grounds to drop Logan and Julie off. Logan was just listening to some music on his phone, while Julie was intensely reading her Quebecois French language bible, of course. Logan always questioned why she kept reading it when there was other stuff that she would read, but Julie wouldn’t hear of it. She was that sort of sister, who kept stating that she would be independent and didn’t need random people dictating her movements. Logan didn’t really understand this, but he let it slide.
As the car came to a stop alongside the drop off zone of the school, Logan and Julie got out and started to get their luggage, boxes, bags and other stuff from the car and put them on the pavement. After the last luggage and box had managed to leave the confines of the car, Nathan hugged both of his kids goodbye (both blood and step) in a big embrace, and waved goodbye as he got in the car. Both siblings waved back as the car went off the school grounds and headed back to Vancouver.
It was a new start in America, and the two Canadians were new to the whole American high school place. It was going to be interesting, indeed.
Robert Kerstetter
Rob came second, but he didn’t really arrive in a car per say. More like he just arrived in a Seattle Taxicab that he hailed down at the border bus station and paid a large taxi fare. It was not much, considering he just paid about $24 to get a cross border bus from Vancouver to Seattle, and taking a taxi from the bus terminal to the school itself, a place he would probably stay in for the next two years. It wasn't the most classy or even remotely high schoolish of entrances, but what could he do? He didn't have a car anyway, and his dad wasn't about to drive him all the way from Alberta to Washington State just get him to school and drive that same distance just to return the truck. He had already paid around $135 Canadian dollars to get a Air Canada flight from Calgary to Vancouver, and a couple dozen more to stay in hotel for the night before his cross border bus early in the morning, so it was sort of worth it in the end. He still wore a polo shirt with some regular denim jeans that he wore the night before, with some new farmers boots that were cleaned and scrubbed from the farm work that he did a few weeks prior to coming over to Seattle. It reeked of wet mud and Albertan dirt before he cleaned it, so it was nessecary.
He brought most of his personal belongings along when he searched his room back at the farm. His books, clothes, that kind of thing. His most prized possession, however was his acoustic guitar that he bought online. He played it almost every chance that had some free time, and combined with his love of music, a good path to starting out in the music program at BHHS, provided some stupid football jock don't break it the first chance they get. He admitted to himself wasn’t used to city life, and it will take a long time for him to grasp having to deal with rows of buildings, cars and people every day and not just miles worth of fields, one or two cars and the occasional walker on the provincial roads.
After he had paid the taxi driver the fare and the taxi had drove off the school grounds and onto its next destination somewhere in the city (alongside his luggage of clothes, his old backpack from back in Claresholm and his guitar hase), he looked up at the school buildings and began to carry his stuff to his dorm room, which was somewhere. The map didn't give him any good ideas, or did the massive student crowds of every clique imaginable. This was going to give him trouble indeed, as he walked to where the dorm rooms were.
Casey O’Doherty
Casey also arrived at Blake Holsey High after Rob’s taxi had left the carpark and he walked into the school, but she also didn’t arrive by family car, or by the bus, or by walking the distance for that matter, either. She was currently hitching a ride in one of the cars, or more accurately a truck, that one of the football players on the BHHS Seawolves team owned and driven to school and football practice on a daily basis. She had taken the same bus that Rob took to come over to Seattle from Vancouver (after taking a long domestic flight from Toronto), but about three weeks earlier, due to the football team having their pre season warmups and the cheer squad also having their practice sessions at the same time. She had been bunking with Jamie Barragan (one of her cheer teammates) for that time, bunking at the former’s house before school started. Jamie also had a brother that was on the Seawolves football team, Alonzo, and he had met him a few times at practice. He seemed cute enough, to Casey anyway. As school started, Jamie had offered her the chance to get a lift with another football player named Joseph, who had a big truck, and since walking would be worrisome, she accepted, since Jamie and Alonzo were also hitching a ride with Joseph all the same.
She was currently wearing her Blake Holsey Seawolves cheerleading uniform, with some athletic running shoes that she had recently bought from a sports store back in Toronto. Jamie was also wearing the same outfit as her, and Alonzo had his letterman jacket, polo shirt and tracksuit pants all sorted as well. The teachers wouldn’t really look a side glance at what Casey also had her Blake Holsey gym bag with her spare gear, and also the school backpack that most of the cheerleaders had gotten when they joined the squad, and that bag contained of her books, writing stuff and notebooks that she would need when class eventually started. Her luggage, which contained her clothes and other stuff that she needed, was also in the back of Joseph’s truck since she was now moving to the dorm facilities at Blake Holsey, but Casey was still welcome to stay at Jamie’s place at any time she liked. The room that she had bunked in was still unused, so that remained free.
Eventually, the truck had reached Blake Holsey High School, and had parked alongside the drop off area. After everything, including her luggage from the back of truck had been unloaded by Alonzo, the group had split up. Casey was going to meet up with Jamie in a few hours the rest of the squad in the cafeteria once she got her dorm room set up, to talk about various things, as well as some boys they liked. Alonzo would probably meet up with the other jocks quite later, since there is so much free time around due to the messed up schedule.
Although the map was…. let say badly made, she had managed to scramble to the dorm block with her stuff, with her backpack, gym bag and luggage in tow. She wonders who she will meet as her roommate…..
