We arrived in France, at the Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport, early on Wednesday morning, there, we were to meet a school representative that would take us to our final destination. I said we were because the representative came late, we probably had been waiting for 2 hours when she finally came. Her name was Marie-Lune Pissard and she told us she had been late due to a strike that had prevented her from taking the train.

After loading our things in her expensive looking car we were on our way.

“We don’t often get transfers at our school and even then it’s unheard of anyone transferring so soon after the start of the school year did, something happen?” Asked us Ms. Pissard.

Lexi answered for us. “Our parents thought it would be best if we changed school, our old one being inadequate.”

“And they sent you across the pond?” She said not really believing us.

“Well, they thought a change might be welcomed,” I answered this time.

“Look, I can tell when people are lying to me so there is no point in it. If you don’t want to talk about it, say so. Honesty is a primordial value.”

“Sorry, Madame,” We said at the same time.

A few awkward minutes passed.

“So, have you heard of your school before?”

I wanted to go for the polite answer but remembering what she had said minutes before I decided to go for the honest answer. “Not really.”

“Oh, were you invited then? Is that why you didn’t want to talk about the transfer. Did you get your invitation late? ”

“Invited?”

While we couldn’t see her face, we clearly knew that that what we had just said bothered her, like if what we had just said had been completely unbelievable.

“You are Alex Tremblay and Lexi Tremblay right, nieces of Robin Valois and Éleonora Lafronde. I haven’t mistaken your identity, right? ”

“Yes, why?” we both said at the same time.

“Why, well what you just said sounds hard to believe, normally students either hear about the school and their parents are rich enough to pay their way into it or either you get your tuition paid by the school and are invited join . What you just said doesn’t fit.”

A rich girl’s school, great, I am going to be the odd one out in more ways than one. Not only that, the only people that could come from the same socioeconomic background as me probably all great athletes our geniuses. My school year is going to be great.

“Well our aunts are quite opulent,” Said Lexi.

“And you aren’t?”

“We pretty much are orphans and they are adopting us.”

“And they are sending you to the dorms?”

“Only until Christmas, our aunt Éleonora isn’t feeling well enough to travel.”

“Oh, booger, I hope then you find your stay at our little village agreeable.”

“Village?” My twin and I inquired both at the same time.

Madame Pissard laughed. “It’s what we call the space occupied by the Louise Larivière School for girls, the St Simmons School for boys, our coed sister institution La Nova Academia and the University were all our students go: The university of Château Perdu. Together we form a community of about 100 000 souls’, parents and staff included. Most of our students come from rich families and/or powerful families who can't go to other institutions due to security problems or fear of not being able to live a normal life. Our school only being know by few we don’t have to deal with the Paparazzi or noisy journalists. We also of course have greatly talented individuals invited on scholarships . A particularity of schools thought, is that a third of our students are randomly invited individuals from different backgrounds and all of them have greatly variant degrees of academic skill, we invite them for them to form a network, to avoid elitism in our school and for them to obtain quite valuable diplomas. ”

“How can your diplomas be valuable if nobody ever hears about your schools?” Asked Lexi.

“People in academia tend to know about us and so do the people at most enterprises our alumni end up at.”

“You sound like the kind of institutions that would secretly serve as training ground for spies or that would be in cahoots with some kind of secret organization,” I said with hopeful eyes.

“You read too much fiction sweetie, this isn’t that kind of story,” She said while laughing.

“Well, you can never be too hopeful.”

“No, you can’t,” She said while laughing again.

Lexi and I started talking about everything and nothing and eventually just started sleeping.

We woke up to a quite large lake surrounded by trees and overlooked by a building on a hill who seemed to be the university. All around the lake you could see houses who looked like they belonged on the other side of the border in Switzerland. On the waterfront stood a quite majestic building who looked like quite Parisian.

“Welcome to the community of Sainte Marine des Lacs, as you can see having rich benefactors has helped up us maintain quite lavish looking facilities. Your school, which is the building you just saw has a community pool, a theatre and multiple multimedia rooms. Physical activity is done in the communal centre which is just out of view. There you can practice any sport you want. At the back of our school there is a farm where all our meals are prepared. If you want to get out there are special cabs that can take you to Annecy or Geneva. As minors you can only take them on weekends, mind you. ”

We didn’t hear most of what she said afterwards because we were dazzled by the amazing sights that composed our school and the community.

Madam Pissard drove us to the dorms a three story old Swiss home and she showed our rooms.

“Welcome to my dorm, sweeties. It’s 3pm now and while school is finished most students are doing club activities which for your school, is mandatory. ”

“You said our school, aren’t you associated with them?” I asked.

“No, the dorms are only separated by gender not by institution. We have girls from Louise Larivière and La Nova Academia. The girls outnumber to boys 2 to 1 in this community so we unlike the boys have to share. ”

“What were the buildings on the lakefront? They didn’t seem to be big enough to be dorms,” I asked.

“Staff, parents and alumni houses, some people really love it around here.”

“I can understand why,” Said Lexi.

“Your room is the 207, you can take your time to organize your things as your roommates will take quite some time before coming back here. Your uniforms will be on your beds.”

“What do you think?” Asked Lexi while we were going up the stairs.

“Of what?”

“What do you think of the dorms, the school, the community, everything we have seen until now, what do you think of it?”
I answered honestly: “Until I’ve met the people I don’t want to say anything. The people make or break an institution for me.”

We opened the door to our room. There were four beds on each side of the room and a bike window at the end of it. I was a little bit worried didn’t Aunt Robin say that we were only be three in our room? On the left side beds there were a few red blazers, some blouses, a few black bow-ties and some plaited red skirts.

We put our things in the closet that was on our side and then started charging our new cellphones, given to us by Aunt Robin before boarding our plane. It was 4pm, so I decided to call her.

“Hi, Aunt Robin?”

“Alex, how is it going?”

“For now, well. Did you know about the true nature of the institution you sent us to?”

“Well, seeing as my wifie and I are both graduates from the university of Château Perdu I have to say that yes.”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

“We aren’t legally allowed to speak about the community in public places.”

“Isn’t that what you doing right now?”

“No, I’m at home right now. I couldn’t stay much longer without taking a shower.”

“Are we all going to live near here, when you adopt us?”

“We were planning to live in Annecy, but now that you mention it wouldn’t be that of an idea. There is a hospital and a heliport in the community so it would be quite safe for your auntie to be moved here when the time comes. I will discuss it with your auntie when she feels better, Bye sweetie. ”

“Bye, Auntie Robin,” Said Lexi joining in on our call at the last minute.

We both decided to take a nap, as we were still tired from our trip across the Atlantic.

Our door opened and there stood two girls, one was wearing the red uniform of our new school and the other was wearing a blue variation of it with a blue tartan skirt. The girl with the red uniform seemed quite frightened at my sight and for some reason she seemed to remind me of someone. Blue uniform girl had her hair strawberry blond hair braided in a bun and red uniform girl had her black long hair in a high ponytail. She had some very intense blue eyes, they reminded me of a bully I had two years prior, a Russian lad who was quite overweight, not like the fit girl who stood in front of me. Misha, the Russian bully disappeared two summers ago and no one ever heard from him again. Maybe the girl standing in front of me was his sister? I mean, it’s a small world it wouldn’t be that unlikely.

The girl with the blue uniform, who I could already tell was quite bubbly, started talking. “Hi! The tall one must be Lexi and the short one Alex. Happy to meet you I am Aishling McFlann, from Ireland, one of your new roommates. I have never heard of anyone transferring in early October so I might ask you some questions about it later. The girl beside me, is my Russian-Canadian stepsister. ”

The black-haired girl couldn’t stop looking at me like she wanted to say something. Could she be?
Aishling restarted talking before I had time to clarify my thoughts.

“What’s up Misha, you aren’t that shy usually. Are you intimidated by the number of redheads in the room?” She said while laughing.