Summer vacation, with all it's good things about it, could not last forever, and so School would begin again. But for Abby and Co., as well as many Animalians, it would mean going to an entirely new school. Such things would usually cause instances of what can be termed as "young grief", but for most Animalians (especially the megafauna) it was a necessity, mainly due to their increased size and weight. But the brand new Worldwide School of Animalia was as different as possible from any normal school.
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The main inspiration for the school was the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. There were a number of different buildings for different age/school groups, from Pre-K to high school, with the High School Building being the largest. At the center of the complex was a massive mosaic map of earth surrounded by flags from many different nations.
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The Pre-K to kindergarten building not only served as a daycare but also served as basic education center. Bash, Bell, Aurora, Umbra, and similar aged Animalians were in this, as well as a prototype for the first video telephones in the world. It was designed after the "dad-link" from the Richie Rich movie, and was designed to help ease separation anxiety and prepare them for first grade. There was a bit of a running gag pulled by tour guides on visitors about how the young Animalians there were studying geometry, chromatics, and parallelism, which often stunned said visitors on how smart those Animalians were, before said guides explained the joke ("geometry" was learning shapes, "chromatics" was learning colors, and "parallelism" was nursery rhymes).
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The Primary School Building was actually more similar to elementary school buildings in lessons, except that before school was let out, there was a mandatory assembly for fifth graders that both explained about growing up, and poked fun at it. This was deemed necessary, both because such a thing was shown in other elementary schools, and to make it less shameful to experience.
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The Secondary School building was similar to both Junior High and High School, with the main difference being the size/height of doors, ceilings, lockers, desks, and similar things. One thing that was different was a mandatory Sex Education class for all those from freshman to senior year, not that anyone complained. Many uplifted Animalians, especially those who found bondmates shortly after becoming uplifted, were allowed to join their bondmate's class/grade level after completing their remedial lessons.
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One thing that was different was that neither the Primary School building, nor the Secondary School building didn't have gymnasiums as part of them, but that was easily explained by the Physical Education Building. It featured many parts that were present in both elementary, junior high, and high school gyms, but a lot of the equipment were easily movable, and the balls were more resistant to the claws, etc. of Animalians, so they wouldn't break, especially if young Animalians with retractable claws forgot to do so.
One thing that was only available for high school Animalians was coed locker rooms, but this was made easier for keeping out junior high and elementary school children was locks that were only openable by using special key cards. These features were combined with a high school student ID, and were not included in junior high school student IDs.
Other things that were included included an Olympic swimming pool, and a weight room. Anton and Marlysa were named head of the athletics department of the Worldwide School of Animalia, but there were also several retired/fallen sports players, who went through Project Phoenix, serving as coaches/gym teachers/lifeguards to help make teaching easier for both Anton and Marlysa. They also gave several students keys to the weight room so they could use it when they had free time during the day.
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Another new building that was part of the school was the performing arts center, which not only showcased school plays and student assemblies, but also functioned as a foreign exchange department/foreign embassy for the School as a whole. It often showcased foreign festivals for the benefit of the students, as well as helping uplifted Animalians learn about the country and culture they were from. There were also music classes that helped understand different music from other countries.
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One common theme for the entire school were the larger writing utensils for heavyweight, super heavyweight, and ultra heavyweight Animalians, extra reinforced books (pages in particular), and other special equipment. There were also posters that explained things from different cultures (greetings from other cultures, for example).
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The main goal of the Worldwide School of Animalia was the teaching of tolerance for others, but for many Animalians it was just a relief to go to a school without banging their heads or getting body parts stuck.
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As Dean and Nzynga entered the High School building of their new school, they were greeted by an enormous elephant skeleton in the main foyer.
"What is this?!" Asked Nzynga, having never seen such a thing before.
"It's the fossilized mammoth skeleton that was found during the digging of the foundation." Explained Dean. Upon seeing Nzynga's still perplexed look, continued, "It's the skeleton of one of your ancestors that was buried in the earth, turned to stone, then re-excavated by humans in this modern age. Such things help explain about what life was like some many millions of years ago, in some case."
"Oh, okay." Answered Nzynga, dipping her head in brief acknowledgment of respect toward her ancestor's remains and silently praying to it that his or her spirit would keep the school safe from those who would do harm to Animalia as a whole.