Heartbeat 7

He awoke again, he felt as though he’d been out for hours. ‘Ivan: Physical, Ren, Mental’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Ren thought to himself and went to sit down. The ‘ceremony’ continued for at least another hour before all new students had been done. ‘Thank you for waiting patiently,’ said the headmaster. ‘Now tomorrow will be the end of the school festival, this room will be the dance floor and I hope all of you will attend. Good day.’ He then walked off the podium and walked out the door. Everyone began talking and they all got up to leave. ‘What was that about!?’ Ren blurted out as he had held in the question for an hour. ‘That’s you main attribute, you’re a mental person, which means that’s what you will be graded on. There are three groups, Physical, Mental and Multi, although there are very few Multis. Physical means you excel in sports and exercise, therefore the lessons will be taught in that way. Mental, mean that a person excels in academic and emotional values and will be taught appropriately. Multi is a person that excels in everything. If you look closely at the patterns of your clothes you will see that it’s changed to Mental. That was the pin.’
‘What was that thing?’ he asked trying to look at his arm grader. This time Hana spoke. ‘A small device that electronically looks at the wave patterns of your brain and senses what style of learning you are suited to and then changed your clothing to that style. The patterns on you grader have changed to the mental pattern which is good.’
‘Ok this is all very confusing, but I think I get it.’ He said trying to make his way out of the door without being crushed.
‘Now the dance is tomorrow,’ started Hana.
‘What do I need to do for that?’ interjected Ren. This time Airi spoke.
‘Well tonight your housemaster will size you and get you some nice clothing, you can choose if you want but usually the guys wear the same kind of thing.’
‘And the girls?
‘Oh you’ll see.’ Airi said as they both giggled.

Ren had learned that lessons don’t actually start until the festival is over and spent the rest of the day walking around the school site with Airi. The sun was just setting over the tree line. It was still summer so the climate was still warm even in the evening. They lay on the small hill with the pond at the bottom. The evening sun reflecting gently over its watery surface. ‘Have you ever thought about what you’re going to do with your life?’ she asked him as she stared into the sky.
‘Yeah once or twice but I don’t really think that far ahead. You?’
‘No, not at all.’ She laughed. ‘It’s weird, I’ve only known you for… what twelve hours and I already fell as if I’ve known you all my life. God how corny does that sound.’
‘No, its not, I know what you mean. I feel it too.’
‘Now “that” was corny.’ They laughed and continued talking in the same manner.

Eventually the sun went down and the star came out. The half moon rising slowly into the sky. ‘So tell me Ren, was there anyone…’
‘Anyone in my lasts school?’ he said, she nodded. ‘No, never.’
‘Well let’s hope you have more luck here. Anyway, it’s been good talking for…’
‘Five hours.’ He laughed as he realised.
‘Wow, really that long? Oh well I’m sure your getting sick of my ranting.’
‘No anytime,’ she stood up when he’d finished.
‘Ok,’ she said still looking into the sky. ‘We’ll do it again.’
‘I’d like that.’ He stood up to walk her back to her boarding house.

After the short walk to the boarding house, they said goodnight and went their separate ways. ‘Oh my god!’ he shouted as he got out of earshot from the girls house. He went into a sprint jumping around as he did, yelling at the top of his voice. He did this all the way back to his boarding house. When he got in he ran all the way up the stairs and into his bed room then jumped so he landed on his bed, then lay there looking at the ceiling with a huge smile on his face. Eventually after much thinking, jumping and cheering he fell asleep.