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were seniors. In order of rank, we were introduced first to the head proctor, who was essentially the leader of our entire student body. Next came the head waiter, whose job it was to assign students to be waiters in the dining room on a rotating basis and who also assigned kids to KP duty in the kitchen. Then the remaining three were introduced to us as being in charge of the three dormitories. It was true that some of the teachers lived in the dormitories also, but the proctors were the ones who were in charge of us outside the classrooms. As a result, each day after classes were over, the teachers would simply disappear and, with the exception of dinner time later in the evening, not be seen again usually until the next morning. So once these introductions were completed, the proctors were then told to sit down again so that Mr. Stuart could go on to inform us on other matters.
    “This afternoon, as it will be for every Saturday afternoon, the school van will be available to take anyone into town who needs to go. It will leave from right outside in front of Ulster Hall by the circle at one o’clock, two-thirty, and four o’clock. And then in town the van will leave to come back here at two o’clock, three o’clock and four-thirty. And if you’re still in town after the four-thirty van leaves, then you’re on your own for getting back here. All drop-offs and pickups in town will be made at the Duncan Donuts. From there you can walk to wherever else in town you need to go.
    “At all times of the day or evening, there will always be one teacher who will be carrying the book you need to sign in or out of if you leave the campus. Around here we call this teacher the AOD, which means the authority on duty.”
    Suddenly the kid sitting next to me leaned over and whispered, “I bet it really means the asshole on duty.”
    “He needs to be,” Mr. Stuart continued, “the last person you see before you leave the campus and the first person you see when you return. And if you don’t know where he is when you need him, then you have to go and hunt for him. Because we never want to have a situation occur where your parents call wanting to talk to you and we have to tell them that we have no idea where you are. If ever you can’t find the AOD, look on the bulletin board out in the lobby. If he’s not around, he’ll usually leave a note hanging there that’ll tell you where he is.”
    I didn’t know at this moment, but within a few weeks I came to understand what the older students already knew. It seemed that soon after the school year was under way, a majority of the teachers—out of laziness mostly—would hand the book over to students so that they could go off and do personal things which interested them more. Heck, I was even made the AOD one Sunday afternoon so the teacher who was supposed to be carrying the book could take a nap without being disturbed.
    Another duty of the AOD was to go around to all of the dorms at lights out every night to make sure that all students were accounted for and that all lights were indeed turned off. But within a week we knew that only two of our teachers actually took this part of their job seriously. The rest of the faculty couldn’t seem to care less about us. In fact, most nights Matt and I could have taken off at practically any time we wanted and gone someplace, if there had actually been someplace for us to go and a way for us to get there.
    “And also,” Mr. Stuart had one more issue he wanted to raise before he was ready to sit down again. “Does anyone need to go and see the baba?”
    At this point I had no idea what this man had just said. Was he making some sort of a reference about sheep? I looked around the room quickly for clues but all I could see was hair rippling across heads which were shaking to indicate a general disinterest in whatever it was our headmaster had just offered. And then I realized what it was that Mr. Stuart was talking about. During this