handing in his homework. He was a model pupil.
One day, when he and his friends were just exiting the classroom where they had had an arithmetic lesson, they ran into an entirely different kind of student. They were struck immediately by the difference in the uniform. The cut and style of the outfits in the Academy were standard, with only the colour differentiating one class from another. Thus Naturals wore green, Integers blue, Rationals green shirt and blue shorts, Irrationals blue shirt and green shorts, Reals red, and Imaginaries (regardless of age) black. The teachers were in clothes appropriate to their era and character – Mr Pythagoras wore shabby old robes and someone like Mr Rejewski was smart in a clean, well-cut suit.
But the uniforms of these students who had appeared in the corridor had a quite different style. They were fastened with zips – unheard of in the standard uniform which relied on buttons - and their shirts had round necks without collars while their trouser legs had no turn-ups but hung casually loose. They weren't carrying books fastened together with a strap, either, but instead had large suitcases with a picture of interlocking cogs on the side. All the suitcases bore the same design.