I nodded and picked up a nylon navy messenger bag.
“You like that one?” Aiden asked.
“Yes.”
“Good choice. It’ll clean up easily if you get anything on it.”
Aiden took the messenger bag toward the counter as Alister walked out from behind the counter.
“Is this the messenger bag?” Alister asked.
“Yes. His initials are R.B.S.,” Aiden told him.
“Very well. We’ll get that stitched into the shoulder strap.” Alister took the bag and went back to the counter. As he began writing on a piece of paper, Aiden gestured toward another table that had lots of general supplies on it.
“Grab some pens, pencils, and notebooks,” Aiden instructed.
I looked over my options and noticed that everything had navy as the primary color. I grabbed two packs of pens and pencils and then started looking at the notebooks. These were more like composition books rather than the spiral bound ones I had in high school. Aiden took the pen and pencil packs from my hands.
“I’m going to take these up to the front. Get a notebook for each class and one or two extra.”
Was I supposed to get enough for both semesters or just the first one?
As Aiden walked back to me, I quickly picked up four solid-colored notebooks that all had the Omnia Academy logo on it.
“Do I just get enough for the first semester?” I asked. I reached for another notebook that had a mix of white, navy, and gray on it. Aiden took the notebooks from my hands and counted them.
“You have five here for your first semester classes. Get seven more. Five of those will be for your second semester and then you’ll have two extras.”
I quickly picked up another seven and handed them to Aiden. As he took them to the counter, Luca walked in and went to Aiden at the counter. I made myself look busy and went to the wooden tray that had calculators on it. They all looked the same,so I picked one up. I thought a calculator was an unnecessary item since iPads have a calculator app, but I supposed there was a reason for the additional item and went with it. Along the back wall was a display with a few different navy gym bags. I wasn’t too picky and grabbed one from the rack. I had everything on the list with the exception of the iPad. I turned on the balls of my feet as I looked around for them. I stopped when I spotted Aiden and Luca coming toward me.
“Cool gym bag. It’s like the one I had,” Luca said.
“The iPads are all on this table.” Aiden gestured to a rectangular table. The three of us walked to it, and Luca picked up one of the boxes while Aiden pointed to the box that had a navy case. “All the iPads are silver and it’s just the case colors that will go with your cohort. They’ll engrave your initials on the back of the iPad and the case.”
“Okay, we have everything on the list now,” I said. Feeling somewhat accomplished, I followed Luca and Aiden to the counter.
Aiden dug through a small wicker basket on the counter that held several simple bracelets in it. The bracelets were each a single color and looked to be made of a thick string. He pulled out one that was navy and held it up for me to look at.
“You’ll want one of these,” he said and handed it to Alister.
“What is it? I mean, aside from the obvious.”
“It’s a cohort bracelet. See, there are some for each cohort in here. Each student gets one, and as you go through classes and tasks, you have the opportunity to earn strings. By the end of your four years, you have a substantial bracelet. Something to remind you of your life as an Omnia.” Aiden pulled the basket over so I could get a closer look at all of the bracelets and their colors.
“Think of it like a memento of sorts,” Luca said.
It looked so simple and almost out of place. Either way, I really liked it.
“Yeah, kind of juvenile, huh?” Aiden asked. I hadn’t said anything, though, because I liked the idea of being able to possibly earn something.
“It was started a few decades ago by an Omnia student. It was part of a social project or something, and it really caught on,” Luca said. He pulled the sleeve of his sweater up and showed me his navy bracelet. It was made of lots of strings in black, navy, and other various shades of blue.
“As it turns out, just about everyone likes to collect something and to silently show off what they earned,” Aiden explained as he showed me his bracelet too.
“Not all of the professors award strings, but most do,” Luca said.
I nodded and watched Alister set the single navy thread bracelet on the stack of my supplies.
