Chapter 2: The Woman Who Whispered
This story does not start with a bang nor a scream rather a whisper
The woman who whispered was very old-83,000 years old to be specific. A sickly appearance too. Her skin was stone gray-the same color as her eyes, her dress, her headscarf, and face mask. She was on the plane with me to Albany.
I could have sworn she said my name seven times. And she stared at me the whole way too-as if I was in "grave danger" or something. More danger than I was already in. Traveling a plane. In twenty-twenty.
Kind of freaky.
I ignored it because I thought maybe just maybe there is another person named Isla Jaykripa Kalaiarasan.
On the plane, not in the whole world.
I tried to ignore her. I held a conversation with Sam and Jackie who were sitting next to me.
I should probably explain why I am on a plane to Albany
A few months ago I applied to a prestigious school in Albany, New York called Eutychia Academy. I got my acceptance email last week. Ever since then two things have been following me. One was a Carmen Sandiago-like black silhouette and the other was the old lady who has been staring at me. Sam and Jackie (my best friends) also got accepted. Sam is in the biochemistry study and Jackie is in the graphic design study. And I am in journalism. The "studies" are basically majors but for teenagers.
I as you can guess am a writer. You could say I'm an aspiring writer but then you could also say I'm a bit accomplished as a writer. I have published two books. One was my writings on society, another was my writings on creativity. I aspire to start an activism journalism company while writing on the side. The monthly journal would talk about important things-activism.
After all, we only have so much of what we have. I plan to preserve it by writing- actually by educating people on the problems and what we can do to fix them. That was my life goal.
I did end up doing something like that. But that's beside the point.
We still have the old lady to talk about. I was able to ignore her for the rest of the plane ride. But when we landed and everyone but the two of us got off board well she decided to talk to me. And the conversation she had with me was the definition of freaky.
Let me show you.
She walked up to me and then pulled on my shoulder and then she got me down on the floor with a simple pull. A shot of pain flew through me.
It hurt. She has a very strong grip for an old lady.
I glared at her. She slapped me.
Then she spoke-her voice as sickly as her appearance.
"Isla Jaykripa Kalaiarasan you are in danger the worse type of danger." she froze. I was tempted to say to make a snarky comment but I was able to keep my mouth shut.``The unavoidable typ -"
I interrupted before she could finish her sentence.
"Whoever you are I think you got the wrong person or year. Maybe you're looking for twenty-nineteen Isla or a different Isla but-"
"No, I am to be talking to you"
"Please it's August of twenty-twenty. What more danger could I be in?"
"Lots"
"Mhm" at this point I was up on my feet. My shoulder was a bit sore from her grip but then a shot of relief-similar to the one of pain flew through it.
"You're welcome, Isla dear." she said, and then she ran. I wanted to yell something like "What's your name. I am not your Prince Charming to look for you and your name with your lost shoe. Which you didn't even give me"
I had to control myself. Again.
I realized that I was the only one on the plane, I grabbed my duffle carry-on and walked out of the airplane door. My family, best friends, and their families were waiting outside of the airplane. They were tapping their feet nervously as if they were looking for something of someone. Then it hit me. They were looking for me.
I walked to them-and was immediately engulfed in a hug by my mother and father. Everyone else told me that they were worried.
We walked out of the airport. They had already gone to baggage claim before they realized I was gone so they had the bags. My father called a few taxis to get us to a rental car garage. Once we got there we rented out three Honda SUVs.
As we drove around, I looked around.
Albany was definitely different than Tampa.
Both were big cities but Albany had this weird New York stamp on its envelope. Tampa was peaceful-not bustling even with its big-city nature. Sam (one of my best friends) must have noticed it.
"Isla, this place is-" she said
"Different? I noticed it too." I replied
"Albany is way better than Tampa"
"Say what now," I said while swallowing my sudden urge to strangle Sam "Sam what do you mean 'better'. This place is crazy. It's as chaotic as chaos itself."
"Whatever Isla"
"Whatever yourself"
I still "play-smacked" her and she did the same to me. I spent the rest of the car drive finishing the book "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell.
By the way. If you're wondering, "Lath" (what I call Levi and Cath) is one of my favorite ships since "Percabeth" (Percy and Annabeth if you know you know. I mean he fell into Tartarus for her. She took a knife for him.)
As we got out of the car, Josephine (one of my best friends) held a conversation about "My Hero Academia" (which is one of my favorite animes, and yes I would recommend it). We passed a perfectly cut lawn and then a sign which in large letters spelled out "WELCOME TO EUTYCHIA ACADEMY".
I gasped.
I knew we had gotten there but my disbelief was in the school itself. It was a massive plot with twelve large buildings in a circle (around the gate)-supposedly a different building for each study. In between all the buildings was a courtyard where you could lay down and read a novel or even work on your novel.
My mother walked up to me-she must have been staring at the building too.
"Can't believe you-my daughter is going to school here," she said
"She can't either," I replied
"I can't you're gonna live here."
"Yeah, I can't either"
"Where are the dorms anyway?"
"You see, there's a bus which we can take. Or. Or we can walk."
"How far is it?"
"A five-mile walk. I think. Maybe longer."
"Let's take the bus."
" 'Kay"
"When's the next bus coming?"
"Five minutes"
We walked to the bus stop and tapped our feet awkwardly until the bus came.
When it did we loaded all of our luggage and sat down. The seats were comfy and pushed up-a refresh from those horrid airplane seats. We sat patiently for five minutes. (I continued my conversation with Josie).
We got to the dorm unit's front office to get our dorm assignments.
I should probably explain the dorms. The dorms were basically houses that you share with seven other people-usually in different studies than you. I was hoping to share a dorm with Josie and Sam but the dorm choosing method makes it random and you can't exactly switch. In fact, you don't even know who is in your unit until you get to your unit.
But there was the slightest chance that we would get placed in the same dorm.
Slightest.
We got to the front office to find a friendly-looking blonde woman typing away at a keyboard and chewing furiously at a piece of chewing gum. Her eyes were a pale blue and her hair was curled. She wore those glasses that you wear as a necklace if you know what I mean.
She must have been the receptionist.
We walked up to her to find that we were correct and she was the receptionist. It was late afternoon-around three so we were pretty early since we only had to get there by five
p.m. (because someone thought it would be funny to have a flight from Tampa to Albany at five freakin' a.m. it is not funny)
She blinked and then made conversation with us.
"How may I help you, sweethearts?" she said, still chewing furiously at her chewing gum.
"Well, I need my dorm room assignments so..."
"Names."
"Isla Jaykripa Kalaiarasan, Josephine Bernstine, and Samudra Akula."I replied. She typed furiously on her keyboard.
"All of you. Unit one o' eight." "All of us in the same dorm unit "I know. Hard to believe." she replied. She was right, it was hard to believe. We walked out to get to our dorm unit. After a while, we found unit 108. We opened the door to find something a bit...…...unexpected.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
island_of_iha
island_of_iha
Creation is hard, cheer me up!