First night at Society High

Jim had to wait in a fairly long line in front of the elevators. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he got into the elevator and shortly thereafter he was on the eighth floor.

Jim wondered why the entire floor was abandoned; he had at least expected a few guys milling around.

Soon afterwards he found his door and entered.

"Hold the door", a deep girl's voice said - just as the door shut behind him.

The girl was breathtaking - raven hair, deep blue eyes, almost as tall as Jim, slender yet athletic build. From a quick glance, she also appeared perfectly tanned and stylishly dressed.

Jim looked curiously at her and said, "You must be at the wrong place. You are in my room."

The girl looked slightly angry at him and said, "Hey mister, this is room E08-215, my room, so you must be wrong."

Jim looked baffled at her, "Well, that is my room-number too... there must have been an error in the room allocation... let's go down to the guard and fix it".

The girl looked at him as if he was an imbecile and said, "Well Einstein, the door is locked, that is why you should've held it!"

Just as Jim was about to reply, a sound came from the big flat-screen TV hanging on the wall.

A red-haired woman in her mid-twenties looked directly out on the audience and started speaking:

"Hello new members.

We are very sorry we had to lock you in, but in earlier years the students swamped the poor guard, because everybody thought their room allocations where mixed up.

Let me assure you that this is not the case. Each room is assigned a girl and a boy on purpose. More info will follow.

Please feel free to explore your room. For today only, the doors will be locked from now through the beginning of curfew at 22, and will stay locked, as it is usually the case, from 22 till 05 when the curfew ends.

Good night"

And with that, the TV went off.

Both teens looked unbelieving at the TV and were silent for a few moments to process the new information and its implication.

Jim's big brain could not really get over how weird it would be to live in the same room as a girl — his smaller and more primal "brain" could not stop looking forward to it.

The girl looked at Jim and extended her hand, "Hi, I am Cathy".

Jim shook back, "Jim."

There was an awkward silence as both teens tried to find something to say to break the ice, and at last Cathy said, "Well, let's explore the room - as suggested..."

They soon found out that their "room" was spacious - almost 75 sq. meters (around 800 sq. feet).

Actually it was not a single room but a mid-sized apartment. It had a microscopic kitchen for making tea, popcorn or perhaps instant soup. In the kitchen there was also something the looked like a dumbwaiter.

There was also a fairly large bathroom with a large bathtub, a study room with two fully equipped desks (including computers) and finally a bedroom with a king sized bed.

"Well, it looks as if they meant it when they said we would never sleep alone again," Cathy said sarcastically with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Yeah," Jim replied while trying to sound casually. In fact he was really looking forward to his stay now, "Let's explore some more..."

They quickly found out that there were two identical closets in the bedroom. In each, there was a box the size of two shoeboxes marked "Personal", a similar box marked "External clothes", a letter telling them that their suitcases were in storage and finally an assorted set of uniforms.

The two teens moved from the bedroom out into the kitchen. For some reason they had not noticed a piece of paper lying on the desk before, but now Cathy grabbed it and read it silently.

After a few seconds she gave it to Jim, and he read:

"Dear students.

Please look in the small box on the table. Inside you will see two silver rings with a little stone.

From now on it is mandatory for both of you to wear these. The one with the smaller stone is, of course, for the male roommate.

These rings are not just what they look like. They have multiple functions that will be revealed later. For now, it is sufficient to say that when you approach any piece of equipment or any person in this building, they will know who you are and what you can do.

In case you wondered, a similar function today has been accomplished by a miniature transmitter shot into your clothes as you entered the building.

Every computer in the Society will now be accessible to you, and, from your perspective, will always look the same as the last time you used one. Feel free to familiarize yourself with your computer tonight.

Inside the top drawer in each of the desks there is a small multifunction phone/PDA. For the moment the phone functionality is not enabled. It is also mandatory to keep that unit close by at all times.

The computer can be used to order a multitude of items from our robotic room service. Items will either be delivered through the dumbwaiter, or put outside your door on the rare occasions they are too large. Items not immediately available will be stocked and delivered later, unless it is an outrageous request.

We are aware that the situation seems a bit unfamiliar for you right now, but we can assure you, you are going to like it in the long run.