T
the8bitMoon
Guest
Original poster
Ambrose Academy for Students with Special Needs
The dark grey sky looms over Ambrose Academy as the new students begin to arrive at last... Or are they new? Miss Knight wondered just how long some of these students had been here. It felt like decades... The campus itself was very old. It felt ageless. The Residence Hall, which Miss Knight now gazed at from the Medical Research Facility, was three stories high and arranged according the the Kirkbride Plan. Staggered wings spread from the four story central tower. On top of the tower was a belfry housing a tarnished bell used to ring out the hour. By now, several small cracks had developed along the edge. But these were dwarfed by the huge split, shaped like a bolt of lightning, that she could see now.
Glancing downward, she studied the quad below. Tufts of withered grass stuck up between the paving stones of the central plaza. A fountain that at one point may have been quite beautiful lay empty in the center. Paved pathways reached in each of the four compass directions. One led back south to Miss Knight, in the Medical Research Facility. The northern path to the back entrance of the Resident Hall. And on either side were the classrooms. Two mirror-image buildings, two stories each with a Victorian style mansard roof. The western building housed maths and sciences. The eastern held language and arts.
The large bell tolled the hour. Its discordant twang echoed throughout the campus. Miss Knight jumped a little, just like she always did, and quickly turned around to check if the Hospital Director had seen her. He hadn't. He was still buried in his paperwork, thank God. If he was ever to see her startled...
In any case, it was time for a new school year to begin. She was sure of that much, at least. She sighed, a common occurrence, thinking about the challenge of educating the students and caring for the multitude of ailments and afflictions said students carried. It was quite a burden. She just hoped that no mysterious incidents would happen this year.