Kya
Archer and I had discussed how to make the first introduction, and agreed on letting the children meet on neutral ground and walk back to the school together.
When Archer texted me that they were ready, Boulder, Pearl, Christina, and I led the Motlander children back toward the school knowing that we would meet Archer, Marco, Magni, and the Nboys halfway there.
“I wish Khan could have been here to witness it,” said Pearl and gave me an excited smile.
I nodded, but was happy the board had voted for him to stay away. It was overwhelming enough for the Nboys to meet females for the first time. If they were to meet their ruler on the same day too, it would have been too much.
Raven walked up front, chatting happily with Christina and Shelly. She had been like a fish in water ever since we arrived in the Northlands. Being too young to have heard scary rumors about the Nmen, she didn’t know they were supposed to be dangerous barbarians, so she’d met Boulder and the other men with absolute trust. It was touching to see the way the men, and in particular Boulder, had welcomed her. Most adults would have found Raven clingy with her constant need for adult attention, but Boulder welcomed it and gave her what she had missed out on for years with her mother.
Two nights ago, I’d come back to Christina’s and Boulder’s house to find Raven cuddled up like a baby in Boulder’s arms, fast asleep.
“She had a nightmare,” he had explained with a soft smile before carrying her to bed.
“I hear them,” Raven excitedly called back to me after five minutes of walking.
My heart beat like a war drum. This was it. The moment we’d been waiting for.
“Wait, Raven,” Christina called out but the girl had already started running ahead and four of the other children followed her lead.
When we caught up to them, Raven, Willow, Sky, and Nieall stood opposite the group of Nmen and Nboys, who had stopped.
“I found them,” Raven called to me proudly and I gave her a smile.
Mila and Paysey, who had already become best friends, were holding hands and staying behind Pearl and me. I noticed the smallest boy in the group of Nboys looked shy too while the older boys took in every member of our party. I’d never met a child in the Northlands before but I shouldn’t have been surprised that the boys were big for their age. From their profiles, I knew they ranged in age from eleven to fourteen, and my eyes homed in on Solomon, the oldest and tallest of the boys. He had a sleeveless t-shirt on, and it shouldn’t be possible for a child, but he was already toned with muscles and reached Archer’s chin in height.
“Boys,” Archer said and stepped into the middle. “Allow me to introduce you to Kya, who will do the introductions.”
“Thank you,” I said and walked toward him.
“I’m very excited about being your new teacher and I promise we’re going to have a lot of fun together.”
None of the boys were smiling but they listened attentively. “This is Pearl, who founded the school together with your ruler, Lord Khan.” Pearl waved at them. “And Christina.” Christina greeted them happily too.
“Both Pearl and Christina will be helping out from time to time, but my daily assistant will be Shelly.”
Shelly Summers took a small step forward. She was fifteen and the daughter of Sheana Rene, an esteemed member of the Council who had volunteered to let her youngest daughter, Rochelle, participate with the condition that Shelly would be there to look out for her little sister. I had been deeply grateful because many of the Motlander children had some sort of trauma behind them. They were mostly children without parents, except Rochelle, who was a healthy happy kid.
“Hello,” Shelly said and held her head high, which couldn’t be easy for a self-aware teenager with a bad condition of acne and big bushy eyebrows. “I look forward to getting to know you all.” Her eyes fell on Marco, the other assistant, before she quickly looked down.
“Thank you, Shelly,” I said and spread my hands out in a gesture of openness. “This is your new family. We are going to live together, learn together, grow together, and hopefully laugh together a whole lot.
“But the first step is to get to know each other so we’re going to play a little game called boxes. Do you know it?”
The Nboys shook their heads.
“It’s very easy to put people in boxes when we first meet them,” I said. “But sometimes we don’t put them in the right box because people are not just one thing. They are many things.”
“We’re going to build two big boxes, symbolized by squares on the ground,” Archer explained. “Use sticks to form them. Go!”
The two groups of children hurried to do his bidding and soon two large squares had been formed.
“I want all Northlanders to stand in that box.” I pointed and went to place myself in the other square. “And all Motlanders join me over here.
There we were, three women, a teenager, and ten children gazing at four men and ten boys.
“All right,” I said. “But now I want it to be boys and men on that side and girls and women on this side.”
Tommy and Nieall nervously moved closer to each other but didn’t move out of the Motlander square.
“Come on,” Archer called. “We won’t bite, and it’s boys on this side.” When they finally walked to the other box, Marco, Magni, Boulder, and Archer all welcomed them enthusiastically. “This is Nieall and Tommy,” Archer said to the other boys, who made room for them.
“All right, let’s try something different,” I announced. “Let’s split it into grownups over here and kids over there.”
Again, Raven was the first to run ahead and with her she brought laughter and the seven other girls. Shelly stayed with us and shot me an insecure look. “Stay here. To them you’re an adult,” I whispered to her.
The twenty children were cramped in the square, and it was interesting to see how the shy children made sure to stay as far away from the new group of children as possible.
“Okay, now box one is for the people who like to get up early and box two is for those of us who like to sleep in.” This time the children mixed: the younger leaning toward getting up early with Archer and Marco, while Magni, Boulder, and some of the older boys joined us in box one.
From then on we mixed around according to breakfast versus dinner, running versus walking, movies versus books, and we also made boxes for the talkative, the shy, the funny, and then I asked: “Get into box one if you’re excited about getting to know your new family and get into box two if you’re not.”
Everyone walked toward box one except Solomon, who sauntered to box two and stood for a second enjoying being in the spotlight, before he broke into a wide grin and joined us.
“Now that we’ve decided to be a family, we need to learn each other’s names,” I said. “We’re going to learn while we walk back to the school.” I did a quick round of pairing them up and had them stand in a line of two. “Okay, you only have a minute with the person next to you before we switch. There will be a quiz when we get back to the school and whoever can remember most names wins, so pay attention.”
Archer and I walked behind the line of children, who all chatted away as we moved in the direction of the school.
“That went pretty well,” he said and smiled.
“Yes, so far so good.”
“Switch,” I called out and Solomon, who was in the lead with Willow, moved to the back while the other kids in his line moved forward.
“When are you gonna tell them?” Archer nodded ahead to Hunter and Willow, who were now walking side by side, introducing themselves to each other.
At first I didn’t reply. I was too fascinated with the sight of the twins, who were shyly talking and exchanging names with each other.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “I’ll tell them tomorrow.”
“Why not today?”
“For the same reason I didn’t want Khan to be here. Children can only handle so much at a time.”
After making sure the children had spent a minute with each of their new classmates, we had them sit by the long table in the dining room, naming each student in a quiz.
There were a few laughs at some of the wrong guesses of names but overall the children had a good memory and Paysey, Rochelle, and Sultan scored a hundred percent correct answers.
I held up a hand and looked at the three winners. “You get to pick the person you want to work with for the next assignment. However, you can’t pick one from your own country.”
Archer spoke up. “Paysey, why don’t you pick one of the boys to be your partner?”
Paysey’s cheeks turned tomato red with everyone staring at her and I was afraid she would start crying, so I walked over to take her hand, but before I got there, Nathan, who sat closest to her, spoke up. “You can pick me.”
I instantly liked him for the genuine smile he shot her. The boy had two sisters and a bit more experience with females than the rest.
Sultan picked Mila, and Rochelle picked Hunter, and we took all the children outside.
“We’re going to play a game,” Archer explained and directed the children.
Pearl came over to stand next to me, leaning against me so our shoulders touched. “I smell foul play,” she whispered.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Don’t you find it suspicious that none of these boys is the slightest bit ugly? I mean, one handsome boy would make sense, but this…” Pearl narrowed her eyes. “What criteria did Archer use when he chose them? Was good looks one of them?”
“They are very nice-looking,” I admitted. “But so are our children.”
“Our children are normal kids. Maybe Mila and Willow are prettier than the average, but the Nboys…” Pearl trailed off. “I think Khan is up to something.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure but I’m going to figure it out,” she said with a solemn expression in her eyes. “But let’s not talk about that now.” Pearl snaked her hand under my arm and gave me a smile. “Today is such a great day and we’re not going to let anything spoil it.”
I smiled back at her. “You’re right! It is a good day. And tomorrow will be the children’s first real school day – That’s going to be interesting.”
For a while we stood quietly watching Archer and Marco guiding the children in some sort of game that made little sense to us. The box game had been my suggestion; this one was Archer’s introduction game.
“Should we get involved?” Pearl asked when two boys got into a loud discussion. But before we had a chance to do anything about it, Marco was master of the situation, grabbing each boy with a strong hand and pulling them apart. He shoved them in front of him, leading them away from the group.
“What do you think he’s telling them?” I asked Pearl, not liking the way the two young boys stood with their heads down.
“He’s probably threatening them with a painful death or something.” Pearl’s tone was sarcastic, but the look we exchanged said that none of us would be surprised if it really was the case.
“It’s going to take a while to get used to their ways.”
We both frowned when the two young boys dropped to the ground and started doing push-ups. Marco was counting and some of the Motlander children stopped to watch.
“What are they doing?” Tommy, who stood closest to us, asked.
Hunter turned back and answered: “They’re taking their punishment.”
“But it looks like fun,” Tommy exclaimed. “I wanna see if I can do that.” A second later, Tommy was on the ground imitating what he saw the two boys doing with Marco. Nicki and Raven quickly followed suit, and I couldn’t hide a smile when a small group of the Motlander children were doing push-ups for fun, undermining the punishment that Marco had given the two boys.
“What the fuck are you guys doing?” Archer called out, his hands on his hips and his face scrunched in annoyance.
Raven got up, brushed her hands off, and walked toward him. “It’s not fair that they get to have all the fun, and you shouldn’t call us guys when some of us are girls.”
“Push-ups aren’t supposed to be fun,” Archer explained. “Marco was teaching the boys a lesson because they couldn’t stop fighting. It’s a punishment.”
Raven furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Why would you punish them? Don’t you know that the moment we need love the most is when we’re most unlovable?”
Archer shook his head and sighed. “That’s not exactly how we do things here.”
“So you don’t do love circles?” Raven asked innocently.
“What the hell is a love circle?” Storm asked with a small snicker.
“We can show you,” Willow said and gave a sweet smile to Storm.
I took a step forward but Pearl placed a hand on my arm. “Kya, don’t,” she said softly.
“Archer.” Willow turned to face the large man. “Can we show what a love circle is?”
“You have to address me as Mr. Archer,” he corrected her and crossed his arms.
“Okay, Mr. Archer,” Willow said. “So can we?”
She took his small nod as a yes and called all the Motlander children together in a circle. “Oscar and Nikola, the two boys who had been fighting, were walking back to the group with Marco.
“Oscar and Nikola, you two have to stand in the middle,” Raven called out to them.
Archer and Marco took a position outside the circle with the other Northland children, and it was clear to see that they found the whole thing ridiculous.
“Now what?” Storm asked.
“Now we shower them with love,” Willow explained and since this was something the children from the Motherlands had all done since early childhood, they needed no further instructions. Holding hands, they walked closer, making the circle smaller until they were shoulder to shoulder surrounding the two boys.
Oscar and Nikola didn’t look too comfortable when the children all placed a hand on them and started singing. It was the traditional love song, using simple words.
Take my love and fill your heart.
That’s all you need for a fresh start.
No need to fight, no need to scare.
You are loved and we all care.
The children had reached the part of the song where they made funny faces to cheer up the person in the middle. Oscar and Nikola made funny faces back at them and standing back to back they started circling slowly, guided by the Motlander children, who knew the importance of looking everyone in the eye.
It was hard not to laugh when the children collectively gave a group hug, squeezing Oscar and Nikola together in the middle.
Archer clapped his hands to get their attention back. “Thank you for the demonstration, that looks… ehhm… fun, but I think it’s time to play some more games.” He pointed to Marco and Shelly. “You got this?”
Marco nodded and whistled loudly while gesturing for the children to follow him. Like a pack of wolves, twenty children followed the young man with Shelly taking up the tail end.
“Kya, can I talk to you?” Archer asked in a serious tone.
“Sure,” I said and was relieved when Pearl took her leave with a quick explanation that she needed to get back to Khan, who would be curious about how the first day had gone. I didn’t want her to see us have another argument.
“Just so we’re clear, if any of the students need punishment, I’ll make sure they get it. And it won’t be in some fucking love circle,” Archer said.
“I know, you told me so already.”
“And what happened to that no-hands policy that I insisted on?”
“As long as there’s no groping or hitting, I really don’t see the problem with them touching.” I tilted my head. “I told you a million times, touching is healthy, and besides, they will be touching when they massage each other tomorrow morning.”
Archer made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. “How about I take the Nboys running while you do the massage thing with your kids?”
“No! We’re not having two schools in one school.” I crossed my arms. “First they will do massage and then they will go running with you.”
Archer got that stubborn expression on his face that I had come to know so well. “They will go running in the morning as the first thing when they wake up. After that, you can lull them back to sleep with your meditation and massage, but not before my running.”
“You’re a stubborn mule.”
“I thought you said calling each other names was immature,” he pointed out in reference to an earlier discussion we’d had.
“Yes, I apologize,” I said politely. “But you drive me crazy.”
“I’m sorry, honey, but you were crazy way before you even came here.” He turned his back on me and walked away with a shaking head, muttering: “A fucking love circle.”