Chapter 43: Past and present collide...
Charis
The induction ceremony at Ravenshore Academy was the quickest I’d ever witnessed.
It lacked the grandeur I had imagined.
Students from Ebonvale had arrived—graceful, regal, poised and had come in identical robes as us, with each of them wearing the same hairstyles. They looked pampered.
We had assembled on a raised platform in the academy’s central courtyard, which had been constructed specifically for the induction. We stood in perfect rows, our left hands placed solemnly on our chests while our right hands were raised toward the sky.
The admission specialist had walked past each of us, pinning new name tags onto our robes. Each tag bore our name, our class designation and our pack symbol. After that, we recited an oath of loyalty to our respective academies, displayed on a white screen in front of us, and that was it.
Just like that, I became officially a first-year student at Ravenshore Academy.
Parents sat in neat rows of folding chairs close to the stage, recording with their phones, taking pictures, and clapping at intervals.
The pride radiating from the parents’ eyes was out of this world. Broad smiles, tears of joy — it was evident that every parent present here today was proud of their child.
For a fleeting second, I found myself wondering about my parents.
Would my father have been as enthusiastic as these parents if I’d been able to attend a ceremony like this legitimately? Would he have taken pictures of me, made videos, shown even a fraction of the pride I saw on these strangers’ faces?