It's blocky and efficient, made out of gleaming concrete. There are quite a few windows, including some huge ones in some of the atria on higher floors. The school has a currently frozen over grass field, where there are kids learning to build tents and drive snowmobiles in the cold weather.

Very Brutalist. Does the information he received from the school tell him where he is supposed to go for Expeditions and Mobility class?

His first class is on one of the higher floors; there's a phone app with info on when and where all the classes are, and he has plenty of time to get there this early. On the ceiling, there are colored lines indicating where many different places of the school are, and occasional blocks of random-seeming colors to help the robots they use navigate indoors.

Well, before that, is there a mudroom where he can remove his outerwear and change shoes? Or do they not do that here? If the building is heated then he'd want to take off his coat, etc.

Not at all, there's a floor mat by the entrance and he's free to change shoes wherever. There's an easily available changig room by all of the gyms, however, if he wants to have a place to leave his clothes.

Since the building is heated, he'll want to change shoes and clothes, then! Is there some kind of shoe or locker marking scheme or do you just put your stuff in arbitrarily?

The locker rooms don't have any kind of nametags or assigned places so whoever can use whatever locker they feel like.

Alright! He'll put his stuff in an arbitrary spot, and then walk to the higher floors. He keeps his backpack with him.

What is the classroom like? Is it open? Can you see inside? Are people just walking in?

Derek is among the first to walk into the classroom, but others come in a bit later. The door is currently open, and the classroom seems to not have a blackboard or whiteboard, only a blank wall and a projector on the opposite side of the classroom. The classroom is quite big, people all sit at their own tables, and the chairs are reminiscent of office chairs instead of simple plastic chairs.

Is there a seating scheme? He doesn't want to sit until he knows what the situation is.

People sit wherever.

Then he'll sit wherever! How are the people dressed? What are they doing? Are they of similar ages to him? He is 14.

They're almost universally dressed in their uniforms with the skirt, and they're steeling themselves and doing concentration exercises before the class begins, or warming up their pencil hands. There is a mix of ages, but none of them are much older or younger than Derek.

Oh, is it customary to meditate before class here? He'll do the same, doing bodyscan.

The teacher walks in. The first class of the day is the mountaineering class: it's chosen because it requires you learn so many things at the same time. Supply requirements, travel speed, the logistics of mountain rescue, keeping warm and the most fundamental climbing equipment gets briefly outlined in the first class. Very little get written down by the other kids, but the teacher takes care to make the numbers prominent and to connect everything together, to make remembering things as easy as possible without the need for taking notes. 

Derek is still going to write things down anyway. Not necessarily for the sake of his memory, but the sake of posterity. Or, a memento, at least. He's done hiking and camping before so it's not unfamiliar to him but it's very interesting to learn about how otherworldly people do it!

There's a very clear emphasis on safety and preparation, and a lot of the class is briefly mentioning various techniques to make rescue easier and what would be considered the ideal way of doing things in terms of safety. For instance, there are 3 types of tracking beacons that are considered good practice to have during a more challenging expedition.

What is the purpose of the tracking beacons? Does the teacher explain? He's not going to ask the question because he doesn't know what the question asking protocol is. The emphasis on safety is good! But they have different standards and different semiotics, so he ought to know what differences there are.

It's easy to realize that tracking beacons are there to make someone easier to find if they need rescue. The teacher talks a lot about how huge the difference it makes to know someone's location when it comes to rescuing them if they need help.

Ah, that makes sense.

The school day starts with theoretical classes, like the mountaineering class, and ends every day with a gym class. Gym classes here build muscle and endurance, as well as letting people learn their physical limits and practice pacing themselves. There isn't much preamble; people go straight to lifting weights and building muscle.

Okay! Derek will pack up his stuff and go to the gym with everyone else. Do they wear the same uniform into the gym? Skirts do not seem like good workout clothing.

He's had very little weightlifting experience! Khakian gym class is almost all calisthenics. Is it very self-directed or do the teachers prescribe movements?

Most people move over to the gym uniform, but there are a few still wearing their skirts. The athletic uniform impresses with how closely it fits without ending up restrictive. The fellow pupils lift the weights by themselves, but there are a few that get help from the teachers to make sure they do things right.

He'll have to ask about where he can buy a uniform later. In the meantime, he'll approach one of the teachers.

"Hello, I'm Derek from Khaki. We don't lift weights in gym class there so I don't know how to work the equipment, if we're supposed to be weightlifting."

"Well, just move the bar very slowly and carefully, think about the muscles you're using, and make sure that you're using all the muscles you feel tensing? That sort of naturally works for keeping the weight on your muscles and not your skeleton, which is how you do it." One of the teachers goes on to showing the way the bar is supposed to move, mostly straight up but sometimes with a gentle curve at the start or the end.