Alexander Tesla: The Academy

THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER

The sun rose slowly over the small town of Muse, located in the isolated area of the state of New York. The population of Muse was roughly 13,000, but no one knew for sure, as the town officials had never actually bothered to do an accurate reading, as they thought it would take too long. Muse was divided into three sections, the industrial district; where all the shops and factories were, the sporting and schooling district; where all the sports grounds and schools were, and finally the suburbs, were most of the population of Muse lived.

The sun’s light shone brightly like a new light bulb over Beau Street, a long street filled with closely placed houses. The orange rays of the sun penetrated the thin white blind of the second floor bedroom of 56 Beau Street, illuminating the room, forcing the young boy who lay in bed under his blue covers to wake up. The boy sighed and turned to his bedside table.

It was just like any other day for sixteen year old Alexander Tesla. Waking up at 7:00am, he would lay in bed for the next hour saying to himself “Just one more minute, just one more minute.” After finally dragging himself out of bed, he’d pull on his school uniform, one that Alex found to be one of the worst designed things he’d ever seen; an ugly button-up brown shirt with tiny brown shorts that looked like they belonged on someone attending Mardi Gras.

Alex got over the sheer dreadfulness of the uniform by customizing it in his own unique way. Hats and caps were not allowed with the school uniform, so Alex wore one. Sunglasses were not to be worn in school grounds as it made you look like a hoodlum to the outsiders, so Alex wore a sleek black pair. Rolling up his sleeves, wearing board shorts instead of the short-shorts and pulling on a black beanie with a small emblem of a flame on its top, Alex was ready for school.

Alex looked at himself in the mirror. He had the same characteristics as any other 16 year-old boy; tall, just shorter than six foot with short, brown spiky hair and dark brown eyes to match. White teeth and a charming smile, Alex was quite the handsome young man. He only asked for one thing in life; for his parents to overlook every bad thing he ever did as long as he brought home straight A’s. Also, for some unknown reason to his parents, he hated the name Alexander, but rather liked the small abbreviation of Alex, which he made sure his parents used.

Checking his digital watch and seeing it was time for school, Alex rushed downstairs where his parents sat at the breakfast table. His father, Paul, sat with a piece of toast near his mouth, looking as though he was about to bite into it, but he wouldn’t for another few minutes as he was too distracted with the morning paper. Paul was small man, a couple of inches shorter than his son, with large brown eyes with his hair the exact same colour, besides the small area at the top of his head which was going gray, and much to Paul’s extreme disliking, molting away. Paul worked as an accountant for a local bank in Muse, wearing his usual suit with a black tie, as he did every morning.

“Bloody soccer, I say, no one plays like they did fifty years ago. They were the pros,” Paul snarled as he tossed the paper to the side.

Alex peered down at the paper. His fathers soccer team had just lost a very important match, the semi-finals, his dad’s team had lost by a big margin; 5-0. Alex’s mother, Alice, was quietly sipping from a large mug of coffee, her eyes barely open. She was not a morning person. Taller than her husband and about the same height as her son, Alice had long blonde hair that was never brushed and pale blue eyes. Alice was currently in between jobs, previously working as a hairdresser, she was forced to quit when a hair curler set fire to a young woman’s hair. Even though the curler had been faulty, Alice still got the blame and decided to quit before being fired. She was currently buying and selling random items on eBay, which actually brought in half of Paul’s weekly pay, which seemed to delight Alice.

“See you later, guys,” said Alex walking out the front door.

“Bye, mate,” said Paul with a wave, not looking up from his morning paper.

“Have a good day at work, honey,” moaned Alice wearily.

Alex re-appeared at the front door. “School, mum.”

Alice nodded as she realised her mistake. “Right…school.”

Alex just shook his head and bounded off down the path towards his school. On the way, he met up with his best friend, Timothy James Kyle, or simply TJ. TJ did the same as Alex, wearing all the things with his uniform that he shouldn’t have been. Just shorter than Alex, TJ had messy fair hair with hazel eyes and a square jaw.

“So how are we this morning?” asked TJ as he sipped from a foam cup of coffee.

“Just like my mum,” chuckled Alex.

TJ laughed. Alex and TJ had been friends since they were five years old, and they’d always stuck together, also getting into trouble together. For example, in year 3, the boys thought it would be a good idea to race around the school grounds…on ride-on lawnmowers. It had taken the teachers an hour to catch the boys once they crashed the mowers into a large oak tree. The pair had been on detention for a month.

“So, you hear about Brian?” asked TJ curiously.

Alex thought for the moment. TJ was referring to Brian McGarb. Brian was in year 10 with Alex and TJ. Last week he looked the wrong way at someone’s girlfriend and was now in hospital with a broken jaw, arm and two cracked ribs. Everyone knew who did it too, but with no evidence, the school bully went free. The bully, David Post, had beaten the absolute crap out of poor Brian, and now the word was out that Alex was next and all because Alex loaned David’s girlfriend a pen in math a week ago.

“Yeah, that’s pretty harsh. His parents were freaking apparently,” replied Alex.

“You do know he’s going to try and fight you today? Everybody knows it. Hell, I’ve heard of a pool going of around ninety bucks that you’re gonna lose,” said TJ.

Alex frowned. “Who started that up?”

“Well…I wanted to make some money…but I think you’ll do just…actually no, you’re going to lose if you fight him,” said TJ.

“If he does want to fight, he is going to lose,” countered Alex confidently.

TJ burst out laughing. “How are you going to do that?”

“You just need to know how to beat your opponent. David is five foot nine. He weighs a hell of a lot more than me, so punching his torso is going to do nothing, his fat cushions him. I’ve just got to find his weakness and I’ll be able to beat him with one strike.”

“Care to put money on that?” asked TJ with a sly grin.

“I’ve only got a twenty.”

TJ smiled. “Done.”

The pair continued on to school, arriving just as the bell went. As names were marked off the role in the different rooms, Alex received a Uniform Detention. After roles were marked, first period began: math. Alex sat himself down in his normal seat. TJ came in and sat down next to him. The lesson began with teaching algebraic equations. Alex then noticed something in front of him, More precisely, someone in front of him. It was Tasha Jenkins, David’s girlfriend. Alex and TJ could never figure out how someone as beautiful as Tasha, a medium sized girl with long and dark hair and dark brown eyes and a show stopping smile, ended up going out with someone as vile, and large, as David Post. TJ suggested David forced her into going out with him, threatening to beat her up or something.

“I feel like having some fun,” whispered Alex to TJ.

Alex leaned forward out of his chair and tapped Tasha on the shoulder. She turned around and looked at Alex with her dark brown eyes.

“Can I help you?” she asked politely.

“Yeah, can I please borrow a pen? Mine has run out,” said Alex innocently, but it was clear he was being an idiot about it.

Tasha tossed him one of her spare pens and turned back to her work.

“Thank you, sugar!” he said loudly as he picked up the pen, making sure the whole class could hear.

On the other side of the room, glaring menacingly at Alex was David clenching his fists; his knuckles were as white as snow. TJ leaned over to Alex and gave him a pat on the back.

“You do realise you just signed your death wish?” asked TJ nervously.

“Yep,” replied Alex with a smile, not taking his eyes off David.

For the rest of the period, David didn’t break his stare at Alex. Alex spent the entire period trying not to laugh. The bell rang and the class streamed out into the playground. A large circle was formed in the quadrangle of the school already. David entered the center and flexed his arms, showing off his muscles to the girls. Alex casually strolled up to the circle, TJ talking to him from behind.

“Don’t do this, this guy’s going to kill you,” said TJ, trying to get Alex to not fight.

Alex didn’t pay any attention to TJ and stepped into the circle. David turned and faced him, cracking his knuckles as he did. Alex could hear the crowd talking. He heard comments like “Alex is dead” and “Five bucks on David.” Alex ignored them and waited for David to make a move. A student walked out to the center of the circle.
”Ding, round one!” he said, quickly exiting the circle.

David didn’t waste any time. He came at Alex from the front, arms up ready to strike. One punch was let loose, Alex casually leaning out of its path. Despite his obvious size and strength, David was pretty slow. A second punch came hurtling towards Alex, a lot faster than the first punch, but he easily dodged the assault. David started swinging furiously at Alex, but Alex knew how to dodge each and every punch David sent flying his way. After a minute, Alex noticed a pattern that David moved in and worked in his own movements around that. David was starting to tire, his punches becoming even slower than usual, Alex even yawned while dodging one of David’s lazy assaults.

The crowd was cheering for David and booing for Alex who hadn’t even attempted a punch. Alex thought he give them something to cheer about. David let his guard down for a split moment. Alex moved towards him and in a split second, raised his knee up forcefully…right into David’s crotch. David yelped in pain and fell backwards, landing hard on the ground, his eyes tearing. The girls in the crowd laughed while the boys moaned, feeling his pain. Several of David’s friends rushed to his side and helped him too his feet. Alex just smiled and walked out of the circle and over to TJ, who stood with his mouth open, completely shocked.

“Y-you won…” stammered TJ, surprised at Alex’s victory.

“You owe me twenty,” said Alex cheerfully as he casually patted him on the back and walked off.

TJ turned and hurried off after Alex. “You do realise you just lost me forty-five bucks! I worked hard to con all those people!”

“What’d you mean, con?” asked Alex curiously.

“What? You didn’t think I was actually going to award the money in the pool to anyone, did you?” asked TJ with a smile. “Here’s your share.”

TJ pulled a bunch of notes out of his pocket and passed them to Alex.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” said Alex with a smile.

“Anytime,” replied TJ.

* * * * *

Afternoons in Muse were cold no matter what the season was. Today, Alex and TJ had to wear thick jumpers against the wind and the cold, but their legs were freezing, as the board shorts the pair wore wasn’t doing much against the icy cold wind. The pair was fairly proud from the day’s events; both were richer from the ninety dollars that TJ had raised from the pool and Alex was also heavy one suspension note. Apparently a teacher had been watching the whole thing from across the quad and decided to blow the whistle on Alex. The pair finally came to Alex’s house, Alex walking up to the front door, waving TJ off.

“See you later, dude,” said TJ as he continued walking.

Alex nodded and walked inside. Alice was sitting at the kitchen table working on taxes by the look of it. Alex pushed his suspension note in front of her. She picked it up and read it to herself.

“Oh…Alexander,” said Alice as she read.

“Mum!” Alex yelled.

“Sorry, I know you don’t like it, Alex,” she replied with a smile. “It says you’ve only got a five day suspension this time. That’s an improvement off the last one.”

The last time Alex had been suspended.

“Yeah, the school system must be getting slack,” joked Alex as he ran upstairs to his room.

Alex was happy that his mum didn’t hit the roof like she did when he brought home his first suspension note. She’d been so mad she went out driving for an hour and a half and came home with a speeding ticket. Alex had laughed so hard he thought he’d pass out. His mother had a good laugh also and said if she couldn’t keep out of trouble, what hope did he have?

Alex went into his room, jumped into his bed and clicked on the TV and started watching. Then he heard his mother calling out once again.

“Alex, something came in the mail for you!” she called out.

That was odd, though Alex. He never received mail. He’d once got a letter from the local bank that his father worked at saying that if he opened an account now he could earn interest, but that was the extent of the mail that Alex received.

Alex trotted down the stairs and saw his mother holding an A4 sized yellow envelope. In big black letters on the front was marked ALEXANDER TESLA. That was all, no address or sender, nor did the large envelope have any postage stamps.

“This was in the mail?” asked Alex curiously.

“Just came through the slot,” said Alice pointing to the mail slot in the door.

Alex went to the door and looked out, but saw no one. Alex didn’t think about it and took the envelope up to his room and tossed it on his desk. He’d open it later; he had more important things to do, such as getting a new high score on Dungeon Master on the computer.

Alex played hours of competitive gaming on his computer, exchanged quick curious glances at the envelope that lay next to him. Finally, curiosity got the better the better of Alex, snatching the envelope and ripping it open…only to find it was empty. Looking closer, Alex saw it wasn’t empty; a small green post-it note lay inside. Alex quickly picked it up and read it.

A RELECTION CAN REVEAL MORE THAN YOU

Alex frowned at the post-it with the seemingly pointless message. “A reflection can reveal more than you.” These words repeated themselves over and over in Alex’s mind. The only thing that Alex could think of was the reflection of a mirror. Moving over to the mirror, Alex held up the post-it note to the mirror and looked at the reflection. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes as he looked at the mirror. The words on the post-it note were moving about simultaneously on the post-it! It was like watching a TV show on a piece of paper. The letters twisted and re-formed into different letters, others disappearing completely. A new message was suddenly formed after a few seconds.

CHECK THE ENVELOPE

Alex could not believe what was happening. A mysterious envelope shows up with nothing but a post-it note that has shape-shifting words on it. If Alex said that to anybody he’d be in an asylum. Remembering what the card said, Alex turned and looked for the envelope. He found it back on his desk…only it wasn’t empty anymore. Something was now inside of it, making a small mound in the envelope. Looking inside, Alex found a small brown, wooden box. It was actually a nice looking box; cleaning carved and brightly polished with golden lining. A large gold ‘S’ sat on the lid of the box, which Alex carefully opened. Inside was a collection of papers. Alex picked up the first one. It was a letter, addressed to Alex.

“What is going on?”

Alex could not describe what was happening. First he gets mail, that was weird enough for Alex, and then the words on a normal post-it note move around and reform into a new message whilst looking through a mirror, and now he had a letter along with a mysterious box appear out of nowhere inside of an envelope.

Looking down at the letter, Alex decided to read it with the hope of finding out what the hell was going on.

To Mr. Alexander Tesla,

I, Headmaster Jepp Falcon, have been watching you with some great delight over the past few days. I have noticed you to be quick thinking and smart when put into dangerous situations, such as your encounter earlier today. You are exactly the type of person we need for our training programs here at Slate Academy.

Therefore, you are being recruited to join our Academy at the start of this school year, which commences on the 15th February. You should be told that Slate Academy is a boarding school and that under no circumstances can you tell anyone that you are attending this particular school, not your parents, not your friends, anyone. Some brochures of other boarding schools in your world have been included in the box for you to give to your parents as a cover.

If, which I hope you do, choose to accept this generous invitation, go to 1234 Boarding Street on the 14th of February. Wear the bracelet.

Yours Sincerely,

Headmaster Jepp Falcon

Alex had no idea of what to think of this strange letter. Several things plagued him about it, such as how did this Headmaster know of the fight at school? Something even stranger than that was a few words used in the letter; “in your world.” What was that supposed to mean?

Alex looked inside the box and saw the boarding school brochures that the letter had indicated. Beneath those was a small silver bracelet with another ‘S’ on it, just like the one of the box. Alex guessed it must’ve stood for Slate, the name of the academy mentioned in the letter.

Alex thought about the letter. It said to go to Boarding Street on the 14th; tomorrow. Alex thought more and more about this opportunity. For some, they would’ve been scared to death by the sight of the words on the post-it changing and shifting. Some would never have even considered going away to some strange academy with absolutely no knowledge. But for some, the unknown was just too great to resist.

Alex picked up one of the boarding school brochures and went downstairs to where Alice and Paul sat eating their dinner. Alex slid the brochure in between the pair.

“I’m changing schools.”

Alice and Paul looked up from their dinners of roast beef with baked potatoes and vegetables smothered in gravy and looked at the brochure that read ‘Milton Military School for Boys’. Alice’s mouth dropped open when she saw the brochure, while Paul seemed to nod slightly, thinking it might be good for Alex.

“What’s this, exactly?” asked Alice curiously, looking up at Alex coldly.

“The school I’m transferring to, I’ve always wanted to go to military school, you know that,” explained Alex.

Alice looked strangely at Alex, knowing that not once Alex had said he’d wanted to go away to a military school; Alex always complained about school in general.

“I don’t think you’d like military school,” said Alice, returning to eating her dinner. “Besides, it’s too expensive; I’m not paying fifty grand a year to have you trained to be a killer.”

Paul picked up the brochure and flicked through it, looking at the different classes and skills that one learnt whilst attending the school.

“It might be good for him, Alice,” said Paul. “It might keep him out of trouble for a bit.”

Paul held up Alex’s recent suspension note and fluttered it in front of Alice’s nose. Alice shot Paul an icy stare, Paul withdrawing the paper immediately from her face. Not wanting to get on her bad side, Paul cowered down and resumed eating his dinner.

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” said Paul.

Alex sighed. It seemed like he would have to do a lot of convincing to be allowed to go to the mysterious Slate Academy. Alex suddenly remembered something the letter said, that school would start on the 14th of February – that was in two days time! Alex thought for the moment about what to say to convince his parents. Then it hit him; his mum and dad did not want to pay money for him to go away to a school, so Alex eliminated the cost from the equation.

“It’s free, I got a scholarship,” said Alex with a smile.

Alice and Paul both looked up with odd frowns upon their faces. Paul looked over at Alice, who had her eyebrows raised looking directly at Alex. Alice, Paul and Alex all smiled as Alice spoke. “Okay.”