"Herin, dear, there is a letter for you!" Mrs. Booshmay shouted from downstairs, waking Herin. He got up and trudged down the stairs, tiredness evident in his eyes. Mrs. Booshmay was standing by the front door, silver envelope in hand. She handed him the letter. He opened it carefully, not to ruin the beautiful envelope. He read out loud what it said:

Dear Herin,

We would be thrilled to have you come to the ODDS. We already have your room and roommate picked out and waiting. Your fellow students and your teachers are also thrilled to have a new student. Come to the park in the middle of town at 1:00 to get picked up. Take care until then.

Principal of ODDS, Mr. Raipan

   "Oh my, they are coming to pick you up in 15 minutes! You better hurry up and get ready!" Herin the sprinted up the stairs to his room, quickly brushing his hair and teeth, before grabbing his bag and running down stairs, saying bye to Ronald and Mrs. Booshmay, and running out the door to the car, in which Mr. Booshmay was sitting in the driver's seat. He drove in utter silence to the park. Herin then thanked him, for everything and then stood in the middle in the park, waiting for this person to show up. And show up they did. Herin was just sitting there, drawing a bird sitting in the tree he was leaning his back on. He then heard a flurry on wing beats, and looked up to see the bird still sitting there. He shrugged it off, until he made eye contact with a very tall person in a purple cloak. He could also see big hawk wings protruding from their back. Herin shot up and stood, staring at the figure

   "I am guessing you are Herin, aren't you?" The figure said, with a surprisingly silky voice. 

   "Er, uh yes, sir, I am Herin." Herin replied, fidgeting with the end of his scarf.

   The figure let out a chuckle, with seemed to calm Herin down a bit. "Child, no need to be scared. I am just here to bring you to the ODDS. My name is Mr. Icken, but you can call me Henro. Come child, we have a school waiting for you."

   Henro then held out his hand. Herin grabbed his bag and took his hand. Henro then placed a circular disc on the ground and a portal seemed to open above the disk. Herin watched in awe as Henro stepped through the portal and disappeared. Herin stood there, hesitant on stepping through the portal. Henro then stepped out and gave him a concerned look.

   "What's wrong, child? I can tell it is something by your face."

   "it's just, where does that portal go? I would just feel better knowing. Sorry, I am being such a wimp." Herin hung his head in shame, but looked up in surprise as Henro as he just chuckled.

   "Don't worry, child, you are no wimp. I can see that in your eyes. You are actually the fastest student to agree on taking my hand. You are no wimp." He turned back towards the portal, looking at it's swirling vortex. "For the portal, it goes to the school's front lawn. Now Herin, you want to go in or would you like to wait? We have all day."

 Herin took a deep breath and took Henro's hand again. "I am ready, sir."

    "Sounds good. And there is no reason to be so formal. I am a part of your new family. The ODDS will be you family." He gently patted Herin's shoulder and stepped into the portal, this time with Herin right behind him. He stepped out into a huge grassy lawn, in which the lawn belonged to a big building, in which was bustling with people. People of all different religions and genders, all of them were chatting with the others, and the all were different. Some had wing sprouting from their back, others had some sort of elements making up a part of their body, others he couldn't tell just by looking at them, but all looked very happy. Someone flew right over Herin's head and kicked a ball that was floating in the air mind you, back to other people flying around. One in particular caught his eye. It was a boy with beautiful brown bird wings, a orange-brown beanie, dark grey jeans, and a yellow turtleneck with sleeves that were way too long. He also had purple hair that was short but long enough to see under the beanie, and he had no mouth, and no irises, just white where the eyes should be. Henro let out a chuckle at the people playing the game. 

  "Welcome Herin, to the ODDS." He said, before turning to all the people flying around. "Save me a game when I get back!"

   A girl with blue and purple butterfly wings flew down to land in front of Herin and Henro. 

   "Hey Henro, this a new student?" She asked, pointing at Herin.

   "Yes, Sharie, this is Herin. Herin, Sharie. Sharie, Herin." Henro answered, patting Herin's shoulder.

   Sharie's face lit up at the answer and she whipped around and called to the others, who were still playing in the air. "Guys! It's a new student!"

  And before he knew it, Herin was surrounded by the people in the air, all of them introducing themselves. He started to become overwhelmed by all the attention, Henro must have noticed.

  "Ok, ok, calm down, calm down, give him some room." He said pushing them back a bit. "Let's introduce ourselves one by one, ok?"

   They all started introducing themselves one by one. The boy with the yellow turtleneck's name is Ian, and apparently they all played this game called Skyball and they were on the same team called the Arrowheads. After all the introductions, they all got back to playing their little game of Skyball and Henro started walking towards the building.

   "Mr. Raipan and all the other teachers are thrilled to have you here, they are actually waiting for you." Henro said while walking to the front door.

   "All of them are waiting for me?" Herin asked, shocked at the thought of so many people waiting for him. Henro just let out the soft chuckle and shook his head.

   "No, not all of them, just Mr. Raipan and your dorm mate." He said, opening the huge doors of what Herin could only guess as the common room. It was a big open area with a wide spiral staircase in the middle of the room and in the middle of the staircase stood a tree with beautiful blue leaves. Along the wall there are hallways branching off in six different directions. Above all of them, there is a banner. Red, orange, green, blue, and purple, the colors of which the banners individually sported.

   "The banners are of all the Skyball teams at the school. You have the Soaring Stones which are the blue banner, Leaping Lilies for purple, Flying Foxes for orange, Bouncing Bengals for yellow, Tumbling Tortoises for green, and the Airborne Arrowheads for red. The same colors are use for other games, but different names depending on the sport" Henro explained, pointing at the different banners while naming them off. "Come now child, we have much more to see before we get to Mr. Raipen's office."

   "Question, why do you keep calling me child? Not that I have anything against it, just am curious." Herin asked, as Henro led him up the stairs. 

   "I call everyone child so don't fret it. Anyway, welcome to the garden. Here is where you should go if you need some fresh air, but you can't go outside. Feel free to climb anything, but don't damage the plants on purpose." Henro said, while pausing in his stride to stroke a vine that seemed to have a mind of its own. "Moving on."

  He then walked through another hallway which led to an enormous stairway, with stairs going every which way. There was also a cylinder in the middle, which Herin could only assume was an elevator leading up multiple stories, connecting to many bridges that spanned across the room, assuming those are floors. Herin could already tell he would need a map.

   "Excuse me, Henro," Herin asked, gesturing to all the stairs. "Why is this place so big?"

   "Well, we accept students from all around the world. Oh, speaking of, in every room there is a translator machine that you can use to talk to someone from another language." He said, while pointing at a box hanging on the wall on the other side of the room where two students were talking with each other. "Come on now, we shouldn't leave the others waiting any longer, shall we?"

   Before Herin could reply Henro, with a beat of his wings, had taken off and was gliding down a hall. 

  "Come on, Herin!" Henro called behind him. "Keep up!"

   Herin couldn't help but break into a smile as he ran after Henro. Herin noticed that when someone had to go in the same direction, they would join in on the chase. He saw the other students who hadn't joined the chase couldn't help but smile as well. After a while, they turned a corner in which Henro landed, right in front of a door that said, "Mr. Raipan's office".

   "Here we are." Stated Henro, knocking on the door.

  "Come in!" Was answered and Henro stepped into the room, followed by Herin. The room had a desk to the back of the room, a bench on the left as you walked in, and a wall of photos on the right. Sitting at the desk was a man with red hair, yellow catlike eyes, brown horns protruding for within his red hair, and a red black button up shirt with a blue cape. 

   There was also a kid sitting on the bench. He had light brown hair that was buzzed on the side and the rest was pulled up in a ponytail, sky blue eyes while the right eye was like the eyes of the person sitting behind the desk, and his right hand had crystals growing from his elbow down. He also had a red shirt with a yellow book bag sitting next to him. He also looked like he was really interested in the book he was reading.

   "Mr. Raipan, Herin is here." Henro said, pointing at Herin.

   "Who?" Mr. Raipen looked up confused. When Henro gave him a look, he looked at Herin and it seemed to click. "Oh, yes, that is right! Welcome, Herin! I do hope you enjoy it here. Names Mr. Raipan, as you probably have guessed." He said holding out his hand, which Herin shook. "Nice grip you got there, boy. Ire, come over here. Meet your dorm mate."

   The boy that was sitting on the bench looked up from his book and smiled as he walked over to where the others were standing and held out his hand.

   "My name is Ire, what is yours?" He asked as Herin shook his hand.

   "Herin, nice to meet you."

   "Herin, Ire here is going to be your roommate. Ire, please take Herin to your room, will you?" Mr. Raipan said, gesturing towards the door.

   "Yes, sir. Come one Herin, let's go!" Ire said, walking out the door.

   "Now, try and remember your way, because I won't always be here to show you the way." 

   They walked together down the different halls, Ire pointing at landmarks that could help Herin if he ever gets lost. They also just talked about different things. Well, Ire did most of the talking while Herin just stated something every once and awhile. Herin couldn't help but look at all the different students, all of them looking very happy to be here. After a bit they came back to the one room with all the different hallways and banners. Ire took a pause in his walking, looking at the banner that represented the Airborne Arrowheads.

   "Hey, Herin, what is your favorite Skyball team?" He asked, still staring at the banner.

   "I never really knew about Skyball until not too long ago, so I'll say the Arrowheads." Herin said, pointing to said team banner.

   Ire smiled at that and patted his shoulder, turning down the hallway with the Leaping Lilies banner above it. After a few more turns they stopped in front of a door with the number "412" engraved on it. Ire took out a key and opened the door for Herin, and then locked the door behind them. Ire showed his which bed was his and then left, saying that he is going to get them lunch while Herin unpacked. Herin already likes the new life he is living.

~~~~~~~~~~

Woah, that is a lot of words. 2164 to be exact. This is the biggest chapter I have written now. Anyways, I really enjoy writing this little story of mine (and I hope you enjoy reading it) so you will probably maybe see me writing more for here then in any of the other books of mine.

Have a good day/night/morning/evening!!!

-your one and only Ramen