
ne of the best things about visiting Fairweather Street on the way to school was the shortcut through Collins Park to get to the campus. Fortunately, Tree Shores High School was very close to Jessica’s junior high school, so she could use the exact same route. The back fence of Tree Shores’ immense athletic complex bordered the northern edge of Collins Park only a few blocks from the lake. Jessica ran to the end of Fairweather Street past the huge plaza fountain and topiary and turned to follow the tree-lined bike path that led to the far edge of the park.
Jessica had only paid scarce attention to the high school until now. She was aware of the grassy field and the buildings behind the chain link fence that bordered Collins Park, but today they had a bit more meaning for her. This was her school now, and the sight of it caused her to be just a little nervous. Compared to her junior high school, Tree Shores was enormous! There was a building for everything. Even the buildings had their own seperate buildings!
Then there was the clock tower. It was visible for blocks and a reminder of just how big the high school really was.
The people who go to Tree Shores are big and important and so much older than me, Jessica thought as the athletic field came into view. Sure enough, there was the clock tower. It was practically the symbol of the whole school. That and the huge painting of a lion’s face on the back wall of the gymnasium. It was the proud mascot of some 4,000 students and it was visible almost all the way to the fountain in the nearby park.
My school.
Just then, Jessica heard the clock chimes ring! It was eight o’clock!
She started running again, trailing her jacket behind her, and holding her saxophone case with both arms. She really didn’t want to be late to the first day of summer band rehearsals. It was the first day of her whole life in band!
She kept running towards the open gate near the end of the fence, hoping the closest building was the 100 building where her orientation paper said the band room was.
Jessica ran through the open gate along the fence into the large grassy athletic field. Across the field on the opposite side was a group of buildings, but Jessica couldn’t see any numbers on them. She ran across the field and hurried along one of the buildings until she reached a breezeway between two of them. She looked up and saw a huge metal number 400 on the wall above her. She was relieved she had found a number, but she wasn’t sure if that was going to help her much. She passed under several very large leafy green trees in the large planter that divided the breezeway into two sides.
Other than a few scattered cars, the parking lot visible at the other end of the breezeway was mostly empty. As she walked quickly, Jessica saw she was approaching a large concrete sign along the sidewalk.
Maybe it has the building numbers! Jessica thought. She hurried up to the sign to see. The sign was a very large block of chalk-colored stone set in a base of deep grayish-colored bricks and surrounded by low, well-tended plants and two small lights set in the ground in front of it. The sign read
TREE SHORES HIGH SCHOOL
Home of the Lions
Next to the sign was a path leading into another breezeway. There was another building a few yards away, but the side facing the sidewalk was covered by a very tall rectangular wall of leafy plants. Jessica hurried into the breezeway and saw that the building was facing away from the sidewalk and that the plants were covering its back wall.
On the opposite side of the path was a very large tree. Jessica glanced up and saw a white bird sitting on one of the branches for just a moment before it flew away, causing the leaves to rustle. Past the tree was what looked like the side of a large single-story building. Jessica ran along the wall of the building towards the front.
She still couldn’t see any numbers, but she did see a row of glass doors across the front of the building, at the top of a set of very wide cement stairs. On the side of the stairs closest to Jessica was a large cement planter containing several small and very well groomed trees. It was still early, and it was just a bit chilly for August, but Jessica knew it would get much hotter later that day.
Jessica noticed one of the glass doors. The one at the far end of the row was open just slightly. Jessica trotted up the stairs and walked towards the opening. She was a little apprehensive. It was dark inside. A small sign was taped to the inside of the glass to the left of the open door.
Summer Band Rehearsals Room 74
Underneath the block letters someone had written “Go Lions” with a green marker. Jessica looked around for a number on the building but couldn’t find one. She wished high school was more like junior high school.
I used to know where everything was, she thought. Now she wasn’t sure which building was which!
Author: Scribe on June 24th 2009
Categories: The Ajan Warriors Series, The Dreamspeaker




























