Atlas Academy: Secrets Uncovered

How long has it been?” she asked, letting go of him and smiling broadly.

“A long time.” he said.

“Too long.” she added.

He nodded, looking her over and said, “You look great! How’ve you been holding up? How’s Alan?”

“Thank you, and we’re doing great. I was just dropping off my daughter, Rylee.” she said and beckoned to me. I obliged and came to her side, welcoming the arm she put around my shoulders because I was getting nervous under this guy, Graham’s, children’s odd stares. “Rylee, this is Graham Cooper. We went to school together.” she said, motioning between me and him.

Graham looked down at me with a warm smile and said, “Hi, Rylee. The last time I saw you, you were just a baby.”

He extended a friendly hand and I took it, smiling and saying, “Hi, nice to meet you.”

He nodded and then looked from me to Mom, saying, “You look just like your mother when we were in school. Except for the eyes.”

“My dad’s.” I said and he grinned, nodding.

Then he turned to his children, who were standing silently beside him, and said, “These are my kids, though my two oldest have already graduated.” Then he went on to introduce them. “Sydney here is planning on the agent field, and my youngest pair of twins Mckayla and Morgan. Morgan’s a pure scientist like his dad, and Mckayla’s going after both the agent and science field.”

“We like to have the best of both worlds in this family.” said Sydney, shaking our hands and smiling. He was really cute, I thought, with his wavy dark blonde hair around his ears, his dad’s forest green eyes, and a deep tan. They all wore the same deep read uniform as me, but Sydney’s insignia was different than mine and the twins’. Instead of gold scrollwork behind a black ‘A’ like ours, his ‘A’ was white and the scrollwork was black.

“Novice 3rd Class.” he said with another smile when he saw me looking. I nodded, smiled back and quickly looked away, feeling embarrassed as I felt a burning in my cheeks.

“You know, last time I saw you, I think it was Sydney’s 3rd birthday and the twins had just turned two. Mckayla, you look so much like your mother did at your age.” Mom said, directing attention thankfully away from my blush.

She was taller than me, and lean with a little curve, with wavy dark brown hair down to her shoulders and light blue eyes. Morgan was just as slender, if not more, than his twin sister. He looked a lot like their dad in the face but had his mother’s dark brown hair cut short, and her light blue eyes behind glasses. Mckayla smiled and said, “Thank you, Mrs. Damien, but just call me Mickey. Everyone does.”

“That’s right.” said Graham, “You know, Graham Jr. and Tony just graduated a couple years ago? Tony’ in the CIA now and Graham is actually working with me on the same project.”

“Really? Wow, that’s great Graham! Where’s Joan?” she asked.

“Oh, well she’s had an assignment and won’t be back for some time now. Haven’t heard from her in a couple days, but she was upset that she wasn’t able to be here for the twins’ first day.” he said and both wore sympathetic expressions.

“Oh, I miss the old days, Graham.” she said.

“Me too. It hasn’t been the same without out you around, Sarah.” Then he turned to us, both of them finally remembering us, their offspring. “Kids, you don’t have to listen to this. Go on and get ready, it should be starting soon.” Mom gave me one last hug before turning back to Graham just as he flipped open his wallet and a trail of pictures unraveled all the way down to the ground.

So, leaving the adults to reminisce, I followed the Coopers heading towards the front doors of the academy building, which had been opened wide where kids of every rank were coming in and out. “So, you’re a Novice 1st Class like us? You nervous?” asked Morgan.

“A little, I guess.” I said, and he looked at me like he was comforted he wasn’t the only one.

“I’m not.” said Mickey, “I can’t wait to get started. And besides, you’re nervous about everything.”

“Am not!” he shot back, giving her a look.

Mickey was just about to say something back when we stepped through the front doors and into the biggest and most beautiful room I’d ever seen. Just the inside of this room was bigger than my entire house and all four of us stopped dead in our tracks to stare. We were standing the large walkway between two huge circular spaces.

Its walls were a forest green with brown molding running on top and bottom and its ceiling was vaulted thirty feet above us. Large blood red tapestries with gold fringe, baring all three Novice insignias, were fastened to the base of a colossal chandelier and the walls’ crown molding causing them to droop in slightly around the chandelier to create a brilliant effect.

The floors were white granite, and in the middle of the open walkway at our feet between us and a huge hall across the room was a big letter ‘A’ in black granite. The hall across from us was as wide as the walkway, looked about ten feet tall, and was bordered on each side by skinny Grecian pillars that were built into platforms holding another pillar above it.

“Wow.” I breathed. It was almost too much to take in.

Sydney glanced over at me and smiled. “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing here.”

“Yeah.” Ty agreed in an awed breath and then continued in an excited voice just as Sydney was about to say something else. “This is the entrance hall, where the Novice tunnels are, and this is where the stairs are.” He walked a little into the space on our right, the bay window that looked out on the front lawn reaching all the way up to the ceiling and shedding light into the room, but there were no stairs or tunnels. Whatever those were.

“What are tunnels?” I asked, voicing my thoughts.

“It’s what we call halls here.” Sydney explained as Morgan walked around in circles and held his hands in front of him like he was going to run into something.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Mickey asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“I’m looking for the stairs. They’re invisible.” he said, not looking at her. She looked at me and shook her head like she was embarrassed to have shared the same womb with him. “There are supposed to be three ways to get to the school tunnels. The elevators are over there,” he pointed to the wall opposite the window, “a set of stairs that go in a spiral against the wall starting over there”, he pointed to the pair of pillars to Mickey’s right. “right, Sydney?”

Sydney nodded. “Right, and then there’s another set –”

But Morgan wasn’t listening and said, “Then there’s another set that’s in the middle here somewh– Ow!” He stopped abruptly and put a hand to his forehead, wincing in pain. “Found it.” he said, glancing at us as Sydney smiled and tried not to laugh, while Mickey just laughed outright.

“You alright, bud?” Sydney asked and Morgan nodded, giving Mickey an evil glare. Then Sydney lifted his foot in front of me and my eyes widened when I heard it land on something. Sydney smiled at me, and then stepped on the invisible stair step, now floating in mid-air in front of me a foot off the ground.

After I got over my shock I said, “Where’s the hall-er-tunnel?” He pointed towards the ceiling and I sucked in a breath when I saw a hall built into the wall a foot below the vaulted ceiling and feet from another chandelier. I looked into the other space and saw the same thing, and when I looked back at the twins to see if they were really seeing this too, they both smiled.

“Going here is gonna to be fun.” said Mickey, and then she spun around and jumped onto the first step of the stairs against the wall. She began walking along the wall, growing steadily higher as she passed in front of the window, and as Morgan went over to the wall and started searching for the elevators, Sydney held his hand out to me.

“Here, these are kind of tough the first few times.” he said. I took his hand and gingerly stepped onto the first step. It was a very odd sight to see my feet off the ground but at the same time feeling something solid under me. “Just don’t look down too much, okay?” he added, and I nodded. We all started making our way slowly up to the top.

“How do you know where to step?” I asked Sydney as we ascended.

“Well, I’m used to it already, since I went here last year. But in the beginning I was mostly just guessing.” he said with a shrug.

“But if you miss a step, they have something that’ll stop you from falling, right?” I asked as we came within a few more steps from the tunnel entrance.

“Nope.” he said, stepping down beside me. “If I miss, I hit the floor. But luckily, they have very advanced medical facilities here.” At that, my stomach clenched even tighter, which I thought was impossible, and my grip on his hand increased.

“Yeah, that’s comforting.” Mickey said as she took her last step and then finally into the mouth of the tunnel.

“At least you won’t die.” Morgan added on a positive note.

“Yeah, but I’d rather not go through the pain this kind of fall would bring either.” she said, looking down to the ground as Sydney and I stepped into the tunnel, finally releasing my iron grip on his hand.

“Alright guys, we’re all here, and I gotta get to my own tunnel, so I’ll see you later okay? Don’t forget to step over this laser right here.” he said, pointing to the floor a little bit in front of him. Then he smiled at me and added, “It was nice meeting you, Rylee.”

“You too.” I said, trying not to blush again.

“See ya.” The twins said in unison and with that, Sydney descended the steps.

“Where’s he going?” I asked.

“The Novice 3rd Class tunnels are in the other tunnel. 2nd Class tunnels open when you hit the laser.” Morgan stated. They then started down the tunnel, Morgan in the lead as he continued, “Almost every pillar you see here has a purpose, and you can activate them by either tripping a laser like the last two, touching them, or sliding them open to reveal an opening you step into that takes you where you want to go.”

As Morgan talked about this and all other kinds of stuff, sounding like a tour guide at a museum, Mickey leaned over to me and whispered, “He’s a geek, but you get used to it.”

I smiled and was about to whisper back that I thought it was sweet when he called my name like he was a teacher getting onto us. “What’s your first class?” he asked and I dug for my schedule.

“Uh,” I said, looking over it and seeing directions on how to get to the tunnel we were already in. I slid my eyes passed that and to my class list, “Science Intro 1.”

“Cool, ours too!” Mickey said, and then we stopped at the fifth classroom door that stood open.

There were already a group of kids inside, some grouped together and others by themselves, so we took the seats right in front of the door. The room was quiet, and the teacher was nowhere in sight, so we had a chance to take in the room. There were two cabinets on either side of the door that held microscopes and tubes, vials, and beakers while the rest of the room was covered in posters. They depicted the Periodic Table, our DNA, the structure of an atom, and other things I had no idea what they were.

“You know Pib made most of the stuff in this school? He was the leading scientist involved when they were making this place into a school.” Morgan whispered excitedly as he turned in his desk to look at me and Mickey behind me.

“Who’s Pib?” I asked, confused.

“He’s the teacher.” he said and pointed to the front of the room where a desk littered with paper was sitting in front of two blackboards on runners that slid over one another with the name “Dr. Fredrick Pib” in white chalk with “-or-” below it and “Pib” below that.

Then Morgan looked behind us and suddenly said, “Oh!” He jumped up and ran to the back of the room where a single sheet of metal took up the entire wall. “This is where our cubbyholes are that hold our notebooks and stuff. C’mon.” he said and started walking across the room with his hand held just inches away from the wall.

We got up and followed him until he came to an abrupt halt, making us almost run into him. “What?” asked Mickey.

“This one’s mine.” he said, pointing to a spot of the wall that was suddenly glowing red in the shape of a medium sized oval. He pressed his thumb into the oval and a square shaped area of the steel beside his thumb dissolved into thin air, revealing a steal cubbyhole with a notebook and the science book in it.

“Cool.” she said as he took his stuff out and then she started copying what he’d done.

I was just about to start doing it too when he pointed to my side, smiling, and when I looked down I saw a glowing red oval beside my hand. We smiled and then after I got my stuff we sat back down. The rest of the kids in the class had been watching us and now got up and started copying us. I smiled, opening my notebook when a thought suddenly hit me. “Wait,” I said, now confused, “I packed these in my luggage yesterday. How did they get in here?”