CHAPTER ONE: Travis' Journey: Arrival

[Laraqua]

The tea boils rather admirably and he gets settled down to a nice cup of tea, surrounded by towering boxes. If he doesn't unpack the things in the kitchen, at least, he'll need to eat out but he doesn't know anyplace that'd be open. Of course, it's tourist season so there should be several places open. Just as he's feeling settled, he hears the voices of the neighbours rise up in angry agitation. He can't hear much of what they're saying but what he can hear is rather disturbing. Apparently, the woman is heading off with her friends because her husband is such a lazy bum and the man's angry because she's never around, anyway, always down the pub, so what can she expect from him? Other than that, the voices are just an angry burble.

[Laine]

Travis pours his tea rather quickly and heads towards the window and attempts to peer out the window from behind the curtains to get a visual on the situation.

I haven't been here a day, but here I am already being a nosey neighbor(I've heard fights like this before). I suppose the tea and dinner can wait for now.

[Laraqua]

The woman marches out onto the front stoop, wooden floorboards clearly squeaking underfoot, when a man's hand grabs her by the wrist and shakes her a bit. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" grunts the man's voice. "Where you going? Back to Annie's Bar, huh? Bet you'd like that! Think I ain't heard?" The man comes out on the front stoop behind her. He's a big man, arms bulging with muscle from unused aggression. There's an implied threat just in those muscles, but he hasn't done anything. He gives her arm a little shake and growls something that you just make out the words: "Some bloke from Annie's Bar, that right?"

She scoffs at him and pulls her hand free. "What is with husbands blaming bartenders for everything? I mean, that's like ... gah! Y'know, I really thought you would have a bit more respect for the-"

"Yeah, you're right." The man slumps. "Look, let's not fight out here, all right? Let's just go inside and talk about our problems. Heaven knows we have enough of them. Besides, we've a new neighbour and the last thing we want is for him to get a bad impression of us. Tomorrow you were going to take him a pudding, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I was." She draws in a deep breath. "Can't have him confuse a little fight for Silent Hill inhospitality, right?"

"Right. Now c'mon inside." He puts a hand on her shoulder and leads her inside. "Gotta hand it to that Jack. He made a mean cocktail."

[Laine]

At least they're able to talk things through, but then my parents always talked, exploded, and talked again..No matter where you go there is a family or a couple going through these problems. It's important not to judge, god knows I've had my own difficulties..

He leaves the window and decides to unpack his kitchen supplies, but he has little left in him to use much more than a can opener and a pot. After he has completed his dinner he will get ready for bed.

I have a long day tomorrow. I have to meet with the school district team and I am sure they are going to want to focus on academic readiness, self regulation and other various forms of killing off our children's ability to think critically. If only we could all be as divergent with our thinking as 4 year old is.

[Laraqua]

It's at least simple to unpack the bedroom blankets and pillows and set up his bed. It's still feels pretty early (even at 9 pm) so it takes him awhile to finally feel the last dregs of sleep coming over him. The combat the warmth of the room (it's oddly warm, considering the rest of the house), the last thing he does before falling asleep is turn on the ceiling fan. He dreams of shadows flitting across wallpaper and someone scratching against the bricks behind his headboard from the other side. It's a strangely terrifying dream that seems to last for hours before finally he awakens, not with a scream but with a dull moan. The alarm on his mobile phone is singing at him to get up. Looks like its 7 AM. He has the meeting at 9 AM and it's not far away but he still needs to unpack his clothes to get everything ready.

[Laine]

OOC,Travis wouldn't own a cell phone. Rather generally speaking he's pretty much into a natural rythm of going to bed and waking up by 6:00. However, perhaps someone important to him gave it to him before he moved to Silent Hill

It wasn't a good night to have nightmares..Too much to do today and can't afford to not be prepared. I don't even know where to begin with this mess of a place. I hate that god damn cell phone, but then I guess perhaps Calvin did want to know how to get a hold of me. Why should he still care about me after all we've put eachother through.

While contemplating, Travis moves through his boxes and looks for those labeled with his clothes and teaching portfolio over various crafts, nature activities and documentation of children's activities.

After he has eaten he will atempt to paint a representation of his nightmare and will attempt to recall anything he can from it. However, his painting comes off as contrived and dull.

It seems like a girl in highschool going through her goth phaze would have painted this..I guess I really am not at my greatest creative capacity.

Painting Roll,http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3308768/

After drinking his morning tea and grabbing his bag he will head out the door.

[Laraqua]

OOC,That's cool. Perhaps give me a list of his little quirks that might come up? Oh, and you never named your family members. Could you add that to your history? At present, I don't know who Calvin is. :)

To make matters worse, Calvin did give him a fairly expensive cell phone which is therefore trickier to sort out. Hence why it went off at 7 AM when Calvin likely set it rather than at 6 AM when he normally wakes up. Normally it wouldn't matter since he'd wake up before the cell phone, but today he slept past his normal hour, likely because of the nightmares. Perhaps it was a good gift, after all, because Travis feels tired enough that he might have slept through the meeting if he'd been given the chance. Time passes and it quickly nears the time to get ready and head down to Midwich Elementary School. Outside, the skies are clear and sunny. It looks to be another warm day in sunny Silent Hill (which is what the radio broadcaster says from the loud radio in next door's shed when he finally heads out).

[Laine]

With everything in hand he takes a quick stroll to the front entrance of Midwich. He notes the rather traditional play equipment.

Can't we get these children some climbing logs or anything less one dimensonal than these out dated play ground pieces? If I had the chance to play I would have been in the woods everyday.

He walks up to the front desk to sign in with the school receptionist. He tries to look as motivated and untired as possible.

"Good morning, I am Mr. Jates and I am here for my appointment with the coordinator of the Pre-K program.

[Laraqua]

Midwich Elementary School has no visible playground equipment from the front and with its high two-storey menacing stone walls and little windows it appears to be somewhat of a fortree. But for the school bus parked out front in the parking bay and the big stone sign saying: Midwich Elementary School that is surrounded by hedgerows and trees, you wouldn't think it was a school at all. Oh well, hopefully the lanscaped hedgerows pass for a fence here. That would be nice. You're pretty sure the hedge rows define some sort of an oval.



You come up the steps beneath its imposing stone front entryway that would look less out place in an older town. By all accounts, Silent Hill is relatively young, having sprung into being in the late 17th or early 18th century (or so said the eager receptionist, Ms. Latham, when you first spoke to her) and pull open one of the heavy wooden doors to step inside the lobby.



A ceiling fan whooshes by overhead, moving the stale warm air around in lazy circles as you step across the brown linoleum floor that does little to dampen the echoes of your footfalls as you head for the next set of double doors that give way to the actual entry area.



To the left is the Reception desk where a young woman sits, jotting down an attendance record as an obviously late child meekly offers up a letter of explanation from his mother. She accepts the letter and sends him off with a casual shake of her hand, before turning back to her attendance record. There's obviously no sign of a computer for the receptionist here. "Just a minute," she says, as she copies some details from the letter into her ledger in a painstakingly careful handwriting. It looks like her hands have a slight case of the shakes.

[Laine]

"It's quite alright, I am probably early anyway."

He'll let her complete her tasks and will look around the lobby for any displays of artwork, a newsletter or documentation of class projects, pictures of the staff or any other such displays.

[Laraqua]

She looks up after a few moments, not giving you any time to really take in the rather sterile (in a grimy sorta way) atmosphere. The bleak walls and old brown linoleum really compete to give this place a slightly decrepit vibe. They obviously don't pay as much attention to their schools as they do to their well-painted and beautiful storefronts. You can see that there's a calender behind her and a sign about how children should all show up to the receptionist before going to their classes and before leaving the school to go get picked up. It seems like a strange custom.

"Early?" she asks. "Oh, you're Mr. Yates, I presume? You're here to meet Principal Ross."

[Laine]

When I wrote my thesis on how the public school hasn't changed since the Missionary Schools, I should have come to Silent Hill to support my arguement. I can't let that get in the way though, perhaps a fresh perspective will make a difference here where it needed.

"Yes, Ms. Latham, I am here to meet with Principal Ross to discuss the Pre-K program. Was hoping to get a good start to ur program here, as I am sure the parents of our community will appreciate the new program and I want everything ready to go when the children start to attend."

He attempts to look excited(but not over eager) and doesn't want her to notice any look of dissapointment in regards to the priorities(or lack of) of the Silent Hill community.

[Laraqua]

Ms. Latham flashes him a bright smile. "Oh, good, good! We can't wait to see what sort of plans you have here. It's a small school. We've only got a few classrooms and we only have around 100 students here at the moment. That's our capacity. But we're hoping to expand. What sort of plans do you have, by the way? Oh, if you don't mind my asking."

[Laine]

"Well, we've just received funding from the State Deparment of Education and federal stimulus funds to open up a Pre-K classroom here. I do believe Principal Ross advocated quite admirably for the Silent Hill School District. Anyway, my approach is very Reggio inspired, we take the interests of the children and guide them through long term projects that meet our Early Learning Standards in all the required areas from Literacy and Math throught Social-Emotional development."

[Laraqua]

"Oh," she said, her smile faltering slightly. "It's the weirdest thing, really. Teaching pre-schoolers how to read, write, and additions and subtractions always seemed a bit weird for me. I mean, three and four-year-olds aren't really equipped for that, are they? Won't they just get frustrated and come to hate school? I thought it'd be more about finger painting and getting used to school and coming to love it?" She frowns. "I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? I'm sorry."

[Laine]

" I understand what you are saying, certainly. My classrooms are for from route learning and chanting the ABCs. Infact my approach is just the opposite. There are developmentally apporpriate ways to teach all these subjects to children. Our children should think in a critical manner. Seems like we agree in most areas. You'd be suprised of the capabilites of some children; their focus can be amazing if you give them something they are interested in."

Travis looks towards the door the hallways of the school.

"I appreciate you view points very much, Ms. Latham. I suppose we should let Principal Ross know I am here?

I really didn't mean for her to misunderstand me like that. If I can't even get my relate my teaching philosophy to the receptionist than how are bad are things with Mr. Ross going to be? God, this place freaks me out. It's not even just a sterile environment, it's a depressing one.

[Laraqua]

Ms. Latham cheers up somewhat with a friendly smile. "Then I think you'll like Principal Ross. He's trying to inculcate a bit more of a safe, learning environment for our children. I mean, if you can't feel good as a child, then when can you feel good?" She goes over to the telephone and lifts it to her ear, tapping in three numbers. "Principal Ross? Yes, I have a Mr. Yates here to see you. Yes, of course. The staff lounge? Certainly." She hangs up the telephone. "Please, come right this way." She waves you through the doorway into the reception room and then opens a door into what is presumably to be the staff lounge. There's a wide landscape painting hanging off the back wall and a couple of old yellow couches facing each other over a coffee table. "If you'll just wait in here please."

[Laine]

"Thank you for showing me hear Ms. Latham.

Travis will sit at one of the chairs and will pull out his portofilio and flip through the pages of photographs of various class projects over the last couple years.

[Laraqua]

There is very little else in the room other than a folded up newspaper with some sort of paper sticking out of it and a clock on the wall. Ms. Latham excuses herself and leaves him, reassuring him that the principal just needs to tidy up a few things and should be down in a couple minutes. The couch itself is one of those vinyl-covered overstuffed couches that you just can't get comfortable on.

[Laine]

Travis finishes flipping through his portfolio and places it on the coffee table.

Everyone has their own cultural concept of time, but I guess I regret that my parents always told me to arrive earlly.

He eyes the newspaper and decideds to pick it up and read in order to pass the time.

I guess I should get to know this place a bit better..