Yousef hurried towards Badr. Badr greeted him. "Hey!"

Yousef's mouth twisted to a smile. "Sorry for taking long in the bathroom," he apologized as they both climbed up the stairs that were linked to the plane. Badr noticed that Yahya was behind them.

"Hey," Badr whispered. "Remember that guy?"

Yousef turned around and nodded. "Why?"

"His name is Yahya, he was in my bus. I forgave him and asked him to be my friend and he rejected."

Yousef narrowed his eyes again at Yahya, and muttered, "Whatever, good for him."

Yousef gave the boarding pass to the nearby attendant to check. Badr did the same and they walked together further inside the airplane.

Badr remembered. "Wait, what's your seat?"

"13E"

"Mine is 13D."

Yousef smiled a little and exclaimed, "You are next to me!"

"YAY!"

Badr and Yousef skipped to their seats but stopped short when they gawped at who was sitting on the third chair.

A girl with straight, messy, honey blonde hair that reached her neck was sitting next to the window. She had rosy cheeks and very light eyebrows. Her outfit consisted of a knee-length shabby, plaid brown dress, old ankle socks and pine green flats; she seemed very old-fashioned which indicated that she came from one of the poor families in Rimor. She was scribbling something on a piece of paper.

"Are you sure this is our seat?" Yousef whispered with a tone of uncertainty.

"Yes, I think so."

"You sit down next to her."

"Why? You sit there! It's your place, look," Badr pointed at the card Yousef was holding.

"But I don't wanna-"

"It's your seat!" Badr insisted a little too loudly. The girl peeked up. Her aqua blue eyes stared at them for a while. Yousef sighed and dropped down next to her. Badr took the seat furthest from the window.

The girl watched them as they started to argue about the seats again. She rolled her eyes and resumed sketching. Yousef saw the paper that she was sketching on. She was drawing a picture of a forest!

"Look," he told Badr, who was gazing around. "She's drawing."

"Wow, nice!" Badr complimented the girl.

"Oh, um, my drawing? Thank you," her voice was clear but very high-pitched.

"Do you like drawing?" Badr asked.

"Yes," she replied uneasily.

"You're really good at it! Right?" he turned to Yousef.

"Oh...ya," Yousef agreed nervously, staring at the picture.

"I'm Badr by the way," Badr introduced. "He's Yousef-"

"Hey! What if I don't want her to know my name?!" Yousef crossed his arms. "Hmph."

"My name is Malak. Nice to meet you Badr," she paused indignantly at Yousef, who shrugged. "And Yousef."

Badr grinned. "Can I see your drawing?"

"Oh, sure," she handed him a whole folder full of drawings. She watched as Badr and Yousef scanned each drawing. They were colored drawings of birds, houses, streets, the sea, people, dresses, and many more. Malak smiled a little to herself.

Badr and Yousef were so absorbed in examining the drawings that they had not noticed the plane take off. Malak watched the view from the window as they left Rimor.

"What are your hobbies?" Malak conversed when Badr handed her back her old dark green folder.

"I like to explore! You know, adventures and stuff," Badr told her and Malak nodded; she glanced at Yousef waiting for an answer.

"Football and er-reading," Yousef replied awkwardly.

"Really? I didn't know!" Badr exclaimed.

"I thought you guys were from the same school," Malak assumed.

"No, we just met today!" Badr explained.

"Oh."

Silence fell upon them for a few minutes. "How many hours does this flight take?" Malak questioned.

"Forty-five minutes," Yousef replied.

The rest of the journey was quiet. Malak was drawing while Yousef was reading some 'hard book', as Badr called it. The book was still a bit damp from the river, but Yousef nevertheless flipped through the now yellow pages. Badr was asking for water and playing with the seat belt of the chair he was sitting on.

Near the end of the flight, Malak watched Yousef return the thick book into his dripping bag.

"Oh my God!" Malak exclaimed. "Your bag is wet! Are you okay?"

Yousef glanced at her from the corner of his eyes then ignored her and slid his bag around his back to get ready to leave. Malak quickly took out a tissue she had with her and attempted to dry his bag off while saying: "Do you need help drying your bag? Are your stuff also wet?"

She was taken aback by Yousef, who faced her with a glare on his small face. "No."

Malak sunk into her window seat in dismay. It was her first time on a giant vehicle seeing the vast clear landscape beneath her.

Finally, the speaker announced the arrival to Nuport. The kids ran out of the airplane, excited to finally land.

Badr, Yousef and Malak gathered all their things and exited the airplane.

"Well then, bye!" Malak left hastily.

Badr waved. Then, he and Yousef approached the crowd of students and again into the airport transport buses. When the students reached the Nuport airport, most of them just stood there, stunned by how shiny, clean and high-tech the airport was.

It was spacious with all its round ceilings, new comfortable leather benches, touch ad screens, large digital clocks, and diverse shopping malls. No matter how many people were there it didn't feel as crowded as the Rimor airport. All the stairways were electric and along with many elevators to support easy transport, unlike Rimor where there were only a few broken escalators!

The lighting and atmosphere were different than that of Rimor; it was much brighter and there was no smell of smoke. Even the airport staff seemed friendlier; they all had kind smiles on their faces and were always willing to help.

After ten minutes of amazement, the lottery students were greeted by a friendly and refreshing young man with a neat haircut who introduced himself as Mr. Salem. He led them to the carousels to collect their luggage. Badr and Yousef collected their bags and were guided through the checking-out exit.

The students entered a large bus that left the airport and took them for a ride around Nuport city. Nuport was very different from the city they came from, Rimor. It was cleaner and had vast amounts of new technology devices. The sidewalks and streets were clear of trash and filled with cars, buses and metros. The buildings all resembled modern towers and there were many indoor shopping malls. The atmosphere was less dull than Rimor. Even though Rimor is the capital city of Albasea, it was considered underdeveloped compared to Nuport.

The students were enthralled during that ride. Shortly after, the bus arrived mid-afternoon at the metro station; the students were advised to wait fifteen minutes until the metro arrived.

"I've never rode a metro before! Nor even seen it in my whole life!" Badr excitedly exclaimed.

"I think it's like a modern train," explained Yousef.

Badr grinned. "Exciting! Can't wait to see the school!"

"Ya, me too."

A while later, the metro arrived and the students took their seats inside. They sat beside each other on the bench seats while some were standing in the middle, holding on to the poles. Yousef gazed outside the window and noticed that they had a clear view of Nuport city and its interesting sights. Someone stood next to him and he turned around to see who it was. It was a girl who had a cold expression on her face and silky dark hair that fell just below her shoulders. She gave Yousef the may-I-sit-here look. Yousef nodded and mumbled "Hey."

"Hello." Her voice, surprisingly, was shrill, which was very different from her facial expression. She lowered her head and sat down next to him.

He fixed his attention back to the view again, while Badr was closing his eyes every now and then, about to sleep. After what seemed like an hour, the metro finally stopped. The doors opened and all the students filed out of the bus.

Yousef nudged Badr from his sleep. Badr yawned sleepily.

"Mm? We arrived?" he asked stupidly. Yousef sighed, took his bags and left the metro, and Badr followed lazily behind.

The students were then introduced to two teachers, Ms. Nasma and Mr. Fady, who led them for a tour around Evenlane grounds. Evenlane Academy was a massive and high-class boarding school with many different areas; the school campus was surrounded by two different dorm compounds, where the students' rooms are located, along with a colossal collection of shops, restaurants and other entertaining places nearby the dorm compound on the right. The whole place was surrounded by a long sidewalk decorated with small implanted trees. The main gate of the school campus was the biggest and its posts was detailed with curly decorations and patterned diamonds. Two lamps were stuck to two columns that were standing on each side of the gate. Behind the whole school, there seemed to be a beautiful view of white, icy mountains far away.

Evenlane Academy was not only a school, it was a whole world! It provided education, shelter, food, clothes, and everything that its students needed. However, there was something queer about it. Why would forty poor but lucky students chosen from a random lottery have this golden opportunity without paying anything? Well, for sure most of their families couldn't afford to pay for at most one year. So when would they have to pay all the debt they owed the school?

"The middle area is where the main school building is. The one with the widest gates. And I don't know if you can see, but there is a road leading to the fountain inside," resounded the high heeled Ms. Nasma. She was very sophisticated wearing formal attire that was very modern. She fixed her side bow tie and resumed explaining in detail about the school.

"Since you all came from Rimor, today we are only going to show you through the dorms and the, the general school tour will begin tomorrow morning," she continued.

"As many of you may know, you will not be living in the official and high-class dorms of this school. That is of course because your parents are not paying tuition fees. So, we will show you where you will be going to stay," added Mr. Fady, who was a casual middle-aged man with no hair.

"You'll be staying in the dorm compound on the left, which is the lower class one that is designed for students like you," announced Mr. Fady, in a welcoming tone, though looking very disappointed.

From the right of the school building, there were the high-class dorms, which only permitted Nuport paying students. Its gates appeared highly designed and full of elegance. A few guards stood by its gates. The other dorms, which were on the left of the main building, contrasted it with a more basic and simple design. It was notably smaller in size but it didn't matter because it suited the lottery students just fine.

Mr. Fady and Ms. Nasma opened the gates and allowed them inside. The compound had a neat rectangular-shaped arena; there were twelve arranged beige buildings with long roofs and each one of the houses had a big front door, windows, stairs, and a balcony on the second floor. In the middle of the compound, there was a playground encircled with beautiful green grass and two big trees. Several other trees were situated along the road, making the dorms seem very nature friendly.

They resumed the journey along the bricked road till they reached the house that they were going to stay in. It was already dusk because the sun was setting and the view from afar looked stunning.

"I will be in charge of the girls, you lead the boys to their dormitory," said Ms. Nasma and she took the girls to the house that was right next to the boys' one.

"Okay! Let's go boys!" Mr. Fady shouted as he signaled them to follow him.

They climbed up the front stairs and Mr. Fady opened the big wooden door. The boys entered the dorms and observed the polished furniture. There was a kitchen and it was open to the common room, which also had a huge dining table. The kids were fascinated with the new home arrangement. Along the wooden-floored corridor from the front door stood two staircases, one facing the door and one facing backward from the other side, leading to the second floor.

Mr. Fady explained about the living room which had six leather sofas and a big modern television with a channel receiver, DVD and PlayStation, which excited the boys a lot.

"You boys will be invited to some food gatherings, but just for this year eh? We're not going to provide you with food after this year. You should know how to make food and buy proper food to store in the fridge. We already have the plates and kitchenware inside here, so don't complain," added Mr. Fady while they were in the kitchen.

Then, they climbed the stairs and Mr. Fady showed them around the big bathrooms. After a while, he opened a door to reveal the spacious bedroom. There were twenty identical beds stuck next to each other with a wooden trunk, having the same width as the bed, in front of each one of them. Each bed had a closet facing it and there was a single window with a simple curtain at the end of the room.

"As you can probably tell, each of you has his name written on the bed. It goes by alphabetical order," Mr. Fady said.

"What if we didn't like our place and we wanna switch?" someone named Hamza challenged.

"You will be punished! Why, don't you like your place?" Mr. Fady asked.

Hamza smirked and rolled his eyes as his cousin, Ziad, snickered from behind him.

"This is where you will be sleeping for the rest of the school year. In second year and onward, things will start to change of course. You won't be crammed in one room, that's for sure. Now, goodnight, and see ya at nine tomorrow!" Mr. Fady closed the door.

The boys dropped the heavy bags all over the place and some of them went to sleep right away without taking off their shoes!

"Where do we change?" Yousef hesitated as he watched Badr take his faded shirt off.

"Here! It's okay!" Badr yelled loudly. Everyone stared at them.

"Badr, shh you are so loud! Fine, I'll change here!" Yousef stomped to the end of the room.

"Goodnight!" Badr shouted as he kicked off his shoes and got ready for sleep. Badr placed his head on the pillow and immediately dropped off to sleep.

On the other side of the room, Yousef waved his hand and finally rested on his bed.

Author's note: Yo guys, did you like this chapter? Please give it a vote if you liked it, it means a lot, and don't forget to comment if you have anything to say. Thank you for reading!