Redwood Academy

# **Redwood’s History, Abridged**

Redwood Academy, 2015

Redwood Academy, a well-known and highly prestigious school filled with several different clubs and students, has been a staple to what the modern school should be like. However, unbeknownst to most, its humble beginnings actually started with the foundation of a lumber company.

Zeke’s Redwood Company was founded by Ezekiel “Zeke” Butterfield Senior in 1865. Through his care, as well as his strong devotion to his workers and his company, it would become one of the most popular and successful Redwood Lumber operations on the west coast. Despite all of his efforts, the company eventually fell over in the wake of the Great Depression, the price of lumber as well as the wages payable towards workers dropping through the floor because of the absurd demand for lumber during the Roaring Twenties. Eventually, there would even be labor strikes because of the lack of money going around.

In 1933, after the chaos was over, Lazlo Zachariah Butterfield, president of the company at the time of its decline and grandson of its founder, would found a school from the basis of the main lumber operation property, tearing down a number of the old buildings and revamping them into the first school property in Western Oregon. The school would become a for-profit establishment, while still focusing on teaching the future population of the west coast the principles that the Butterfield family had carried since Zeke had first instilled them.

The school began to develop into a large-scale academy that would be funded by investors all across the state of Oregon, and would make the school one of the top notch educational facilities on the west coast. It would be named Redwood Academy, in memory of the now-defunct lumber operation. Redwood’s growth would continue steadily for almost eight decades, the school becoming more prestigious and valued as time went on.

However, in 2013, things came to a literal boiling point as the school burned down. A number of the students claim that the fire was caused by some kind of riot, and many more of the locals worry that it was started by a local street gang with a grudge to settle, however, the school, the police, and the media have all reassured the public at large that it was just an accident.

While there were no known deaths caused by the tragedy, quite a large number of people were unhappy about it, most notably the current property owner, Nils Delaney Alucard Butterfield (Junior), as well as his most prominent donors. Neither one of the two planned on letting the Redwood legacy end this quickly, especially not right after the school’s 80th anniversary. They needed to salvage what they had into something more, but were unsure how, until they came up with an ingenious plan.

There had been two properties owned by Zeke’s Redwoods other than the one in Oregon; one was in Colorado, the other in California. The California property was unsalvageable, bought out and bulldozed shortly after the Great Depression had subsided, but the Butterfield family was able to maintain some business ventures in Colorado through their summer home, staying popular with the locals. They reserved the deed to the old Coloradan location for future use as a result of all of this, and were even in the middle of constructing a second, then-unnamed academy on the land at the time of the fire.

They decided that this new academy would be their lifeline, their second and greatest attempt at educating the masses, and announced to the former attendees that they would have it finished in no time at all. Blinded by promises of better security, bigger programs, and most of all, infallible fire prevention  measures, a large number of families made plans to enroll their children, much to the returning students’ chagrin. In honor

of the academy that came before it, it would be named the Redwood Memorial Academy for Future Leaders…but most call it Redwood Academy for short.

The year is 2015. The new and improved Redwood Academy opens its gates for the first time, letting in faces both familiar and unfamiliar. A number of families rejoice and prepare for the education their children will receive, and the locals, while worried about the new traffic, are glad to have their town’s legacy and tourism expanded on. The students, however, can’t help but feel a certain dread as they’re left to prepare their dorms. There’s a bad omen in the air.

# **Life at Redwood Academy**

Redwood Academy is, on paper, an academy designed to turn troubled students into successful students, and turn successful students into the greatest minds the world has ever been blessed with. However, any student who’s gone to Redwood even briefly will tell you that it’s not as simple.

Redwood Academy, despite its grandiose reputation, is home to some of the worst students imaginable. The delinquent attendees of Redwood have done everything from violating school code to committing what would otherwise be class A felonies, and neither those with spotless records or themselves are safe from repeat incidents, seeing as th

ey’re all more-or-less equally capable of causing trouble.

Fortunately for those who aren’t content with suffering a terrible fate at the hands of a convict-in-the-making, a rich kid who’s just had enough of them, or anyone for that matter, the students of Redwood Academy have come up with a simple solution: sticking together. Of course, not everyone here wants the same things, but for those who do, forming a group can be their ticket to getting them. These groups are called ‘cliques’, and if you want to survive a month here, you’ll have to either beat them, join them, or at the very least learn about them.