Claremont: School Grounds

Despite its colorful history and resulting tragedies, Claremont Academy is a beautiful campus set atop the hill of Bayview Heights with nary a visible blemish from its past. Surrounding the school grounds are a light smattering of woods with beech, birch, and oak trees. A short ways away from the walled academy is the scenic South Bay Road.
The campus itself is carefully manicured and always green when the season calls for it. Paths and driveways curve gently and seem to meander through the property, but that’s more a testament to the skill of the landscapers. There are enough trees to soften the terrain without blocking the sightlines, but they also lend a sense of age to the already venerable-looking brownstones. The campus looks like a well-maintained slice of 19th Century life, but the truth is, it’s a convincing mock-up of the campus that Dr. Charles Claremont envisioned, with some extra touches in the way of modern amenities.
The school is divided into three main areas. The first is the school proper with its chateau-style buildings surrounding the main quad on all four sides. Behind it is the second area upon which sits the gardens, three dormitories, and the Administrative Building. Behind that is the third area, a large open field with its tree groves and open green spaces for playing touch football, Frisbee, or just sitting and relaxing. Beyond that lie the baseball diamond and the Academy’s swimming pool.
Inside the buildings, the same attention to detail and decor remains. The walls are half-paneled using maple and cherry woods, while the floors are made in the rustic style with maple floorboards. Carved plaster ceilings adorn some hallways and rooms, while various paintings hang from walls. Some of the windows are etched, while brass and copper trimmings and fittings can be found throughout the buildings.
The school grounds and the building interiors look very much like the touches on old five-star hotels. That’s not to say there isn’t space for the modern touches, but Duncan Summers ensured that they were relatively hidden in comparison to the decor. The multi-story buildings contain elevators, and all the buildings are fully wheelchair accessible for teachers like Gabriel Marquez and certain students.

Architecture

1. THE MAIN ENTRANCE

From the moment someone approaches the main double gates, they feel engulfed by the portico-style gate tower. The double gates are for vehicles, while visitors entering or leaving on foot can use the door set into the gate itself. On the wall next to the entrance is a plaque that reads: “The Claremont Academy for the Gifted, Scientia Potentia Est” (“Knowledge Is Power” in Latin, the Academy’s motto).
The double gates open to reveal a parking area with doors leading into the building on either side, and a driveway leading through to the Main Quad. The parking is mainly for teachers and for parents with appointments. Otherwise, the visitor parking lot is outside the main entrance. A security booth at the gate admits visitors or directs them to where they need to go. All visitors must enter through here first.
Spanning either side of the Main Entrance is the Main Foyer, which is discussed in Section 3 of the tour. The building’s second floor corridor runs uninterrupted through the gate tower.

2. THE MAIN QUAD

The Main Quad is an open air courtyard surrounded on all four sides by school buildings. A circle of grass is stamped in the middle of the yard; at its center, like a spoke in a wheel, is a statue of a proud-looking Dr. Charles Claremont. The Main Quad is the lunch stop for students looking to enjoy a beautiful day or just read, generally under the supervision of two or more teachers. The quad also has wood benches for students to sit and relax during lunch or personal breaks.

3. MAIN SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Six buildings form the main academic body of Claremont Academy. They are all connected, and they frame the outskirts of the Main Quad.

DR. CHARLES CLAREMONT BUILDING

The Main Entrance is attached to the Claremont wing of the academy, on the east side of the Quad. A long, straight corridor opening on either side of the Main Entrance serves as the Foyer’s spine, with school lockers clustered together and interrupted in regular intervals by doors leading to the classrooms, the bathroom, or the stairwell. On one side of the Main Entrance is an office with a counter exposed to the corridor and a waiting area to the side. Allison Humphries is one of the secretaries who answers phones and greets students and visitors.
Next to the secretaries’ office is the Honor Wall with its inset trophy case filled with various honors and awards. Along the wall itself are the dedication plaques, classphotos (new ones and some salvaged from the school after its brush with the Terminus Invasion), and school memorabilia recovered from the ruin of the old academy. This includes battered trophies, half-destroyed books and personal items, the twisted and near-melted St. Thomas Aquinas school plaque, and even the stripped helmet from an Omegadrone. Directly opposite the secretaries’ office is a large engraved wood panel with the names of all the students and faculty killed during the Terminus Invasion.
This wing holds the school’s labs and the music department among its many classrooms. The infirmary is also located here and is under the auspices of Nurse Aretha Joy. Nurse Joy is a red-headed beauty, and there are few boys who don’t have a crush on her. The infirmary is better stocked than most given the fact that some teachers and many students live on campus.

MATTHIAS COOKE WING

Dedicated to the memory of a senior student who died saving classmates from an Omegadrone Squad, the Cooke Wing stands on the north side of the Quad. The Cooke Wing holds more classrooms as well as the different offices of various teachers, the counselors’ offices (including that of Gabriel Marquez), and the teacher’s lounge, which is snuggled away from all the heavy foot traffic. The student supply store is also located here; it sells the required textbooks for class and all necessary school supplies.
In the two-story foyer at the center of the wing stands the statue of Matthias Cooke, dressed in graduation robes and holding his diploma, which Duncan Summers issued and had bronzed. Many students touch the hem of Cooke’s robe, believing he’s good luck for their tests. Double winding staircases in the foyer lead up to the classrooms on the second floor.

DAVID SLOANE LIBRARY

A sizable donation came from the coffers of the enigmatic philanthropist David Sloane. While the donation was meant to be anonymous, Duncan Summers eventually discovered who the mysterious benefactor was and honored him by naming the library after him. Sloane, while appreciating the gesture, also seems uncomfortable by the attention. Regardless, the library is a prize for any large school, much less one of Claremont Academy’s modest size. The three-story building is one of two along the south of the Quad. It contains many fine volumes and works in its mahogany wood stacks, as well as large study tables; the normally quiet library is made quieter by the carpeted floors. It also comes equipped with ten computers for conducting online searches. The computers are all firewall-protected, and they’re connected to the Freedom City Public Library network.
The library has six sound-proof rooms for study, as well as a small micro-film and micro-fiche library with copies of articles from the Freedom Ledger and the Daily Herald. The audio-visual section has televisions, DVD players, projectors, DVDs containing documentaries, and computers with Internet access. The third floor is currently off limits, and nothing piques a student’s curiosity like those two words. Nobody has managed to sneak up to the locked third floor, but that’s not for a lack of trying. Duncan Summers doesn’t even allow the Next-Gen access to that area.

DIANA FALK CAFETERIA

The second of two buildings along the Main Quad’s southern facing, the Diana Falk Cafeteria was named for an affluent industrialist who donated her savings to various charities before she died. The Claremont Academy was one such recipient.
The roomy interior of the cafeteria is two-stories high, with rows of long bench tables and a well-stocked kitchen that serves a variety of healthy meals. The meals include access to the salad bar. Along one wall are vending machines serving a variety of drinks and candies. Headmaster Summers considered removing them in favor of healthy snack dispensers and 100% fruit drinks, but the school almost rioted as a result. As a compromise, Duncan removed half the machines and replaced them with healthy alternatives like fresh fruit baskets and bottled water dispensers.
The cafeteria only serves breakfast and lunch during weekdays, to serve the day students. On weekends and at night, meals for boarding students are served in the staff restaurant, which was designed to feel more like a traditional restaurant than a cafeteria. On weekends, students are also allowed to order fast food delivery, which is dropped off at the Main Entrance.

LEONARD FOX AUDITORIUM

The Leonard Fox Auditorium is one of two buildings on the Quad’s west facing. It also doubles as the theater and the weekend movie house. The seats are fixed and arranged in amphitheater fashion, while the stage and back area are large enough to handle decent-sized school productions.
The auditorium sees use throughout the week, from school concerts to guest speakers, from school announcements to theater rehearsal and school plays. On Sunday afternoons, a projection screen is dropped in front of the stage while a movie that’s already completed its cycle through the cinemas plays. As one of the purer moments of pleasure at the school, Duncan Summers breaks out an old carnival popcorn maker and makes fresh popcorn for the students.
Under the auditorium and stage are the hallways and classrooms dedicated to woodshop, art, and prop/set storage. Many students have a hand in crafting props and painting sets for plays for extra-credit or as class assignments. Still, despite the bustle of student life here, nobody likes to be in the auditorium alone. The shadows seem to fidget, and the echoes dance for just a bit too long. The teachers claim it’s an effect of the excellent acoustics, but the students aren’t so sure.

AARON CAGE GYMNASIUM

Football legend and ex-quarterback for the Freedom City Heroes, Aaron Cage, was more than happy to donate money to the revitalizing of his old school. While he fought with Duncan Summers over renaming the Academy, he was more than impressed with Duncan’s dedication to rebuilding the school exactly as it was. When he first toured the new campus, he said, “It’s like I never left.”
The Cage gym is large enough to hold a tournament regulation basketball court as well as the surrounding bleachers. It contains lockers and shower rooms for boys and girls, a weight training room, equipment storage bins, and the offices of the various coaches, including Alan Archer and Mike “Iron Jaw” Jones, who’s always telling students to “take it on the chin!” Half the students don’t even know what that means, but they’re pretty sure it isn’t good for them.

ST. THOMAS CHAPEL

Although it’s not connected directly to the Main Quad, between the gym and the garden is the chapel. It’s a comfortable place with its doors open throughout the day, hosting bible study after class and Saturday and Sunday services. Father Henry Guimont runs the chapel with a quiet smile, and he always has time to talk to the students.

4. THE ROBERTA ISLEY GARDEN

Surrounded by hedges and a low wall, the beautifully manicured and landscaped Roberta Isley Garden is named after one of St. Thomas Aquinas’s first female graduates. In her life, Roberta went on to become a prominent horticulturalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on cataloging plants and herbs used in native remedies and treatments. Many of the unique and strange flowers found in the garden were those found around the world and donated by Roberta, after she deemed them safe for the local flora and fauna.
After the destruction wrought by the Terminus Invasion, Duncan Summers managed to secure or recover the seeds of many of the garden’s rare plants. In fact, with the rapid deforestation of Earth’s once thriving ecosystems, there may well be several species in the Isley Garden that have since gone extinct elsewhere. Duncan has kindly opened the school to several professors at Freedom City University to study the plants and protect the seeds, on the condition they don’t damage the garden in any way.
In addition to the unusual plants, the Garden includes a small Zen garden, rows of perfumed flowers, and benches to sit upon and enjoy the calm air. Groundskeeper Terrance Williams, one of several people who tend to the large estate, has quite the green thumb when it comes to the garden. He’s always willing to chat with students about plant care, and even runs impromptu lessons for any student who stops by to learn.

THE CARRIAGE HOUSE

Although not attached directly to the garden, the rustic carriage house is a long, green-roofed building along the academy’s south wall. Groundskeeping uses the carriage house to store gardening equipment, fertilizer, and seeds for the garden as well as smaller lawnmowers than the riding mowers for areas like the Main Quad. The carriage house also has a locked room that appears cluttered with crates if entered. It contains a hidden retinal scanner and secret passage that connects to the administrative building and the subbasement.

5. THE JASMINE SUMMERS ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING

Named after Duncan Summers’s deceased wife (and daughter of villain Dr. Sin), the Administrative Building is the brain of the body academy. A secretary works in a small office located near the entrance. She directs visitors to where they need to go, and few people can get by her. Next to her office is a comfortable waiting room for people to sit until someone’s ready to receive them.
The ground floor holds the majority of the offices for the various departments required to run the school, including the orders and supplies desk, the parent/student liaison officer, accounting, and records. The offices of Headmaster Duncan Summers and Vice-Principal Martha Dugan are at the rear of the building, along with the private library. This staff library contains books required to help teachers teach their courses more effectively or the staff to run the academy more efficiently—they include books on various school-related subjects, ways to construct engaging lesson plans, government grant lists for private education, etc. Only a handful of students are allowed in this library, students like the Next-Gen.
Finally, the administration lunch room is also located here, with the cafeteria grudgingly delivering hot meals on occasion.
The second floor is reserved for housing certain teachers like Alan Archer, Jesse Perry, Martha Dugan, and Gabriel Marquez. The apartments are comfortable suites and were originally reserved for those teachers who knew about the Next-Gen and the subbasement. The third floor is Duncan Summer’s private residence and his sanctuary. No one but his daughter Callie (formerly known as The Raven) and Elliot Allen (the current Raven) are allowed here.
The basement contains the school’s mainframe with a netisolated computer for backups and the storage facilities for school supplies.

SECURITY OFFICE

Attached to the administrative building is the security office. Two security officers are always on call here to watch the cameras and respond to problems. The small building includes the monitor room, a small garage for the electric cars they use to zip about campus, and a coffee room with a comfortable cot for when a guard needs a break. The camera system uses motion sensors to trigger the monitors. The campus, however, has several deliberate and subtle blind spots to allow the Next-Gen and qualified personnel to access the subbasement unnoticed.

THE SUBBASEMENT

While the campus is now openly dedicated to powered students, and all the staff are aware of that fact and vouchsafed to protect that secret, the subbasement remains offlimits. Not everyone knows it exists, and of those that do, not everyone has open access.
Duncan Summers fully realizes that not everyone with powers wants to be, or can be, a hero. And Duncan is still loathe to train teens to be heroes without ensuring that there’s some quality to the process.
The subbasement is situated beneath the Summers Administrative Building, but it has six entry points. Two hidden elevators are located in Duncan’s office and inside the staff library. These access the three tunnels that run to the dormitories, the carriage house, and to a clutch of trees near the athletics field. The final tunnel leads outside the academy and is strictly a vehicle tunnel whose entrance is hidden near South Bay Road. This tunnel accesses the base’s garage directly.
Access to the subbasement is restricted by a retinal/thermal scan, meaning the system is a double blind security precaution. Not only does the scanner scan the eye, but it uses thermal imaging to ensure the eye and surrounding tissue are still receiving blood (to prevent anyone from plucking out an eye to be read).
The subbasement is a complete 180 from the organic comfort of the campus. The base is polished steel, frosted glass, and gleaming linoleum. The system is entirely automated, with doors opening upon approach, lights dimming or strengthening when people enter or leave a room, and security cameras keeping track of anyone in the base.

SUB-LEVEL ONE

This level contains the briefing room, living quarters, and trophy room. In the briefing room, Duncan Summers can apprise young heroes of various situations and debrief them after missions. The amphitheater-style room has a holo-projector on the central dais and a 100” LED screen on the back wall. Each seat has a fold-tray laptop hidden in the armrest. It isn’t uncommon to find Blue Bolt, NGM, Wraith, or Catalyst here, using the plasma screen to play a console game…when Duncan is sure to be somewhere else for a long while.
Attached to the briefing room is a trophy room for the exploits of The Next-Gen and some of the resident supers. Some of the items on display include a Deep One's broken power staff, a Serpent People blade, a Grue blaster, a petrified branch from The Green Man, a full Omegadrone battlesuit, and various awards and citations for helping Freedom City and saving lives.
The base holds private bedrooms for the members of the Next-Gen or those supers who gain Duncan’s trust. These rooms were initially designed to give super-powered students a break from hiding their powered identities. Since the school is now an open campus, however, the Next-Gen and other heroic students mostly use the rooms for privacy, to recuperate from battle, or to rest if they’re participating in a battery of tests at the labs.
These mini-apartments share a communal living room with sofas and a satellite television, a game system or three, and a kitchen with a refrigerator and oven. Connected to the living room is a small, but well-stocked library with computers for homework and a network connection to a massive information database.

SUB-LEVEL TWO

This level holds several high-end laboratories, testing facilities, and the communications room. The labs and workshops cater to building, repairing, and examining various items and elements. They fall into three categories: Bio-Sciences (medicine, biology, epidemiology, etc.), Earth-Sciences (chemistry, geology, mineralogy, etc.), and Technological (electronics, constructs, weapons, etc). Sub-Level Two also contains a vault to store those items considered dangerous, at least until they can be relegated to ASTRO Labs or the Freedom League . An advanced infirmary is also available on this floor to handle potentially critical injuries.
The communications room monitors all the channels and frequencies for emergencies, using a sophisticated AI program to detect keywords and images to alert Duncan of a potential crisis. The center links directly to the Freedom League’s headquarters in the Lighthouse, allowing Duncan to share data with the Freedom League.
The testing facilities are designed to test a super’s powers and abilities and are filled with various alcoves oriented around a specific purpose. Some of the test alcoves include high-end scanners that can study the human body down to an atomic level, a hydraulic-stress press that can measure someone’s strength up to 200 ton capacity, a near-frictionless treadmill (the running surface isn’t frictionless, just the underside) that can measure speeds up to 16,000 MPH, and a heavy-duty blast-chamber that can break down and measure the energy waveform of various blasts.

SUB-LEVEL THREE

This level holds the garage and vehicle maintenance bays, as well as the emergency tunnel that runs beneath the academy’s high walls. Unlike most of the facility, this is a large open area with less spit and polish to the metal walls and support girders. It’s filled with a handful of vehicles to transport the Next-Gen well beyond the school, as well as all the supplies needed to repair and maintain them.

SUB-LEVEL FOUR

Most of this floor is dedicated to the combat simulator and the tech needed to run it. The simulator can duplicate any environment and enemy using solid light technology. It was built by Daedalus. Since then, Daedalus occasionally drops in to tweak the simulator or add new programs and tech to improve it, but those visits are rare these days.
The simulator’s control room includes a bank of monitoring devices to measure performance values, movement, and power output to help the young super become more effective. The AI also has a threshold kill-switch that shuts the simulation down if or when the super is in legitimate danger, as well as safety protocols to prevent the simulation from ever turning lethal.
This level also shares space with a gym capable of handling many different levels of strength and speed, as well as accompanying locker facilities, showers, saunas, and hot-tubs.

SUB-LEVEL FIVE

This level contains the power core to operate the energy expensive base, the massive mainframe to control the various systems, the air-circulation systems and carbon scrubbers, and the automated security room that tracks and records all movement throughout the base and its tunnels.

6. ANDREW SCOBLE BUILDING: STAFF QUARTERS

It takes many people to keep Claremont Academy operational. Not everyone receives an apartment in this building, but teachers, the head of the cleaning staff, and staff chefs do live here…essentially anyone whose services are required almost full-time. The apartments are by no means lavish, but they’re large enough to include a living room, bedroom, private bathroom, and a small kitchen. Everyone is given a phone, satellite television, and a computer with an internet connection. The apartments of the fourth floor are slightly larger and capable of accommodating a family, like Vice-Principal Martha Dugan, her husband Charles, and their fourteen-year-old daughter Cassie.
The first floor of the building is taken up by the staff restaurant and kitchen, where students and staff dine at tables and order from a prepared menu. The second and third floors are exclusive to the apartments, as is part of the fourth floor. The fourth floor is also reserved for a spacious kitchen with large bay windows, a dining area for those staff-members who enjoy cooking for one another, and a large communal area. The latter includes a big screen television, comfortable sofas, a wet bar, a fireplace, and a billiards table.
The building is named after a teacher who died saving his students from a classroom chemical fire. Behind the building is the staff parking lot. The basement contains the residence laundry machines and dryers.

7. RITA KORD & EDWARD JON CARTER DORMITORIES

The two dormitories were built at different points in the academy’s history, when it was still enjoying some level of popularity. Later, when the board of trustees decided to turn St. Thomas Aquinas into a co-ed campus, they changed the name of the smaller dormitory to that of philanthropist Rita Kord and designated that the women’s dormitory.
Following the Terminus Invasion, the Jon Carter Dorm was nearly destroyed. It took longer to rebuild, and so Duncan made the Kord Dorm co-ed. Once the Jon Carter was repaired, the school merely kept the boys and girls together.
Most of the rooms are double occupancy, meaning freshmen and sophomore students have a roommate. All double occupancy rooms have two beds, two study desks, and two bureaus as well as a phone jack for the room and separate internet connections. Juniors and seniors, however, are given a room to themselves, meaning they have enough space to bring in a couch and coffee table, if they want. One school tradition is that when a senior graduates, he or she leaves behind the couch and table, but not before signing it. Some furniture is covered in signatures, with a treasured few dating back to the days of St. Thomas Aquinas Academy.
All floors have two communal bathrooms and shower stalls for boys and girls. Each floor also has two rooms, one each for a male and a female resident assistant.
These seniors are trained as peer counselors and are often the first stop for students with a problem or who are scared.
Each floor has a student lounge with cable television. The dorm-monitor on duty is the one who decides on the television programs being watched, generally choosing with the consensus of the other students. The lounge also has vending machines and chairs and sofas. Also located on each floor is a small study hall for students to work on their assignments together, though the school library is also open seven days a week for that.
A portion of the basement in both buildings has been turned into a large lounge with some tables to eat on, a few pinball and videogame machines, an announcement board, two billiard tables, a ping-pong table, and plenty of sofas and chairs. A music system also plays music from a hard drive packed with songs, with another dorm-monitor ensuring nothing is getting out of hand. The other portion of the basement holds laundry machines and dryers, as well as cleaning supplies.

8. OPEN FIELD & GROUNDSKEEPING

A large open field stretches out behind the dorms. Butternut and fir trees sit on perfectly manicured and landscaped lawns, while the Groundskeeping cabin lays nestled in a clutch of trees. During late spring, summer, and early fall, when the weather is perfect, students with rooms facing the field place their music speakers against their open windows, crank the tunes, and go out to play or hang with their friends.
During lunch hour and after school, you’ll find students here reading, talking, playing Frisbee, or throwing a football. On weekends, students might sunbathe or pursue some other leisurely activity. Many students spend their entire Saturday alternating between the field and the swimming pool. At night, you might catch two lovers hidden in the shadow of a tree, making out, though the teachers seem to have a sixth sense about these sorts of things and always manage to pass by at the right time.
The Groundskeeping cabin is a combination apartment for the groundskeeper, an office/lounge for the gardeners, and a supply shed with a garage for the riding mowers and other supplies.

9. POOL

The heated swimming pool enjoys usage from spring through late fall, thanks to heat lamps that warm the air around the pool. No swimming is allowed without a lifeguard on duty, which is usually one of the certified students or teachers, but the pool is almost always open between the last class and dinner time, and always during the weekend. Once a month, the teachers and students gather to roast hotdogs and cook hamburgers in a barbecue pit near the Athletic Field.
The pool includes a small shed for the pool supplies, changing rooms, and outdoor showers.

10. ATHLETIC FIELD

The Athletic Field is designed to handle baseball and soccer games, but not simultaneously, obviously. After a graduation battle a number of years ago, the Athletic Field was redesigned and now features a running track. There are bleachers for both sports, but the school doesn’t have any competitive teams. Instead, they’re used for gym class games and, during weekends, for pick-up games. There’s a small supply shed with the bats, batting helmets, gloves, baseballs, soccer balls, and team jerseys.

11. THE UNDERBELLY

This section comprises all those areas under the care of the janitorial staff, plus some places they don’t even know about. All the buildings have basements that are off limits because of the pipes and machinery to run heating or air conditioning, cold and hot water, and sewage. When the school was rebuilt, all the buildings were connected together through service tunnels and conjoined basements. It’s actually possible to go from the dorms, to the Administrative Building, to the school’s massive basement without stepping foot outside. Naturally, these areas are restricted, but there are students that have found ways in and out of these locations.
Additionally, many of the basements existed before Claremont Academy; they’re the oldest untouched parts of the school, some of them dating back a good century. Who knows what doors were overlooked, what passages were missed, and what basements lay hidden when the Academy was rebuilt? Since Duncan Summers added no new structures to the campus, these places still exist. For certain there are two hidden areas of note, however.

Type

School

Owner

Duncan Summers

Owning Organization

Claremont Academy