High School Orientation. Always a great and intimidating day. Of course, when its your parents alma mater, and your parents basically destroyed the school, its just pure fun. Which is what it felt like for Ian and Alex. The sons of the infamous Ethan and Evan Brightman. Evan, after marrying Penny, had twins, Ian and Iris. Ethan, after marrying Penny's twin Penelope, also had twins, Anna and Alex. They all lived in the same house. Ian and Alex both had wavy brown hair and brown eyes, and heights of 6 ft
Ironically, Matthew Sullivan, David and Katherine's son was their tour guide. "Matthew!" The screamed, rushing up to hug him. Matthew was a lanky senior, with straight, chestnut brown hair.
It was at this time that Alan Houston; Dwight and Dahlia's child was spotted hanging on the edge of the group, looking bored. He looked like his mother, with blue eyes and light brown hair, bleached from the sun. Alan was tan from spending the summer on the California coast. Evidence of California was so evident in his clothes, Board shorts and a dark green t-shirt.
Matthew cleared his throat and gestured towards Alan. Ian and Alex turned their attention to the other boy. They hesitated, however, to run to him. Alan had changed this past summer. He seemed less ready to be attacked by a hurricane of crazy Brightmanness, and more ready to go surfing.
Ian and Alex instead walked up to Alan and started making small talk. "Hey." Alex called. Alan just nodded to him. "How was summer in California?" Ian asked.
"Good. Sunny. Warm." Alan replied, looking like he couldn't believe he had to be at Dalton. Alan was beginning Dalton as a sophomore. His dad had put him in public school, in an attempt to spare him. Dahlia, his mother, convinced him to transfer though, despite his father's protests. Ian and Alex just looked at him. Then they each grabbed an arm of his and pulled him over to Matthew.
"Ready for the tour?" Matthew asked. The boys nodded, and followed Matt the senior as he started walking off. "I'm sure you guys know all this already, but its mandatory for me to say it, so let's just get through it so I can show you guys the good stuff." Matt stopped in front of Stuart house. "There are three boarding houses at Dalton. Stuart, Hanover, and Windsor. Each is unique in how it handles its boarders. There are also day students, who do not stay in the dorms." Matthew started his speech about staying in Dalton. All three of them just looked at him with blank stares.
The group started walking again, winding around the brick buildings, across neatly trimmed lawns, and eventually into the classrooms. "This here is the main hall, with the science, English, and mathematics wings branching off, along with the arts wing." Matthew droned on, leading them down the arts wing, and stopping outside an oak door. "This is the choir room, home of the famous Warblers. I imagine you will know many people who will come here, if you yourselves don't."
"Listen, this is great and all, but we already know it." Alex complained. He and his cousin really just wanted to get something to eat, and then hang out with their buddies in Windsor. "I'm hungry." Ian agreed. Matt just rolled his eyes.
"I had forgotten about young people's appetites. Alright, to the cafeteria." The group tramped down the hall and into the sunny cafeteria. They all grabbed a bag of chips and a pop from the vending machines in the corner near the back. As they sat down, the senior asked "Any questions?"
"Uhh… yeah." Alan piped up. "If our parents were in a house, does that mean we have to be in the same one as they were?"
"Well, I think they automatically put you in the same one, but you can request to move, if you want. Why?" Matt glanced at Alan.
"Oh. Just wanted to know if I was going to have to change houses. I want to stay in Hanover." Alan replied, opening his bag of Sun Chips. The rest of the group's mouths dropped open.
"Why? No disrespect to Hanover, they're the most level headed people I know, but knowing your parents, I would assume –" Matthew was cut off my the younger boy.
"Let me just get one thing straight. I'm nothing like my parents. I'm not cult crazy like my father, or some weird punk, semi-goth person like my mother. I'm normal. And I don't think I'd do very well in the Windsor mad house environment." Alan said, defiantly. Alex and Ian just looked worried.
"Cool. It's a good thing too. You have no idea the trouble your father caused." Matthew laughed to himself a little, remembering the stories his father had told him. "One less person to worry about, I guess." Alan gave him a grateful glance, thanking him for not arguing. "However, we do need to make a stop at Windsor, everyone wants to say high, and good luck on your first days here."
With that the group got up and headed back outside. It was warm outside, even for September and by the time they reached Windsor the boys were shedding their jackets. Matt threw open the doors to the main hall and called out. "We're here!"
Darren Anderson-Hummel, Forrest Anderson-Van Kamp, and Eric Amos came flying down the stairs. "Ian! Alex! Alan!" Darren yelled. "I'm so glad you made it!" Hugs were exchanged, as Forrest greeted them also.
"I hope your rooms are near ours. The parents have instructed us to keep an eye on you guys." Forrest, with his curly red hair and wiry frame remarked, ushering everyone into the lounge. Everyone sat down, happy to rest their feet for a while.
"That might be difficult for you guys. I guess Nick will have to look after Alan." Matthew said, mentioning Nicholas Bancroft, a junior boarder at Hanover, and Justin and Cassandra Bancroft's son.
"What's this? Not a Windsor boy, Alan?" Eric asked, looking at him, and running a hand though the brown hair that always got in his eyes. Alan just shook his head. "Can't say I blame you. I've thought about making the change to Hanover many times, myself. Guess I'm just too lazy." Eric shrugged.
"Oh shut up. You love it hear, and you know it." Forest quipped to Eric. "You'll probably make prefect next year, if your fathers anything to go by." Forrest was referring to Charlie Amos, Eric's dad. Eric chucked a pillow at Forrest, who caught it mid-air and whipped it back at him. "Take that! Try to hit me will you."
"With your parents, I was expecting you to fall of the couch and get a concussion." Eric muttered, turning to Ian and Alex. "Are you guys boarding here? Or are you leaving us to?"
"Are you kidding? I'll be surprised if Windsor can even handle us." Ian exclaimed. "We're going to tear this place apart, old school." Alex agreed.
"If Windsor survived your dad's onslaught of crazy, I'll think it'll get through you to just fine." Darren shook his head at them, upsetting his mass of blonde curly hair. The boys just smirked at him. "That doesn't mean you should try to find out, though." The junior looked slightly frightened.
"Where is Brennan? Wasn't he supposed to be here?" Forrest asked, looking around.
"He's probably in the art room, grabbing some clay or something. I heard him talking to himself about a new inspiration earlier today." Aden Siegerson, another blonde, this time with short hair, answered, walking through the big door.
All talk in the room stopped as everyone looked at Aden. He stood about 5 ft 6 and The Windsor boarders didn't look too happy at seeing him. "I'm just answering the question. Besides, I want to say hi and welcome to Dalton to the new comers." Aden waved to the boys, and backed out of the room, seeing he wasn't wanted.
"Who was that?" Alan asked. The rest of the boys turned back to him, all a little apprehensive.
"That was Aden Siegerson, Derek and Ashley Siegerson's son. Our parents had some…. Complications, let's call them. His father was in Stuart." Matthew told him. "He's best friends with Brennan, so we tolerate him, but otherwise he's just a big suck-up." Brennan was Wes and Becca Hughes son.
"Let's indoctrinate them some other time. But for now, we need to get back to the main hall so they can hand out information and junk." Matthew got up, and headed towards the door, stopping to wait for the other three boys. Then heading on their way.
"They still don't like me. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Is it because of my father?" Aden was sitting in Fabian's dorm room, lamenting yet again about his Windsor troubles.
"Why don't you just come room at Stuart? It would end all this unpleasantness." Fabian asked. He had spiked strawberry blonde hair and gentle green eyes. He handed Aden a bottle of his special blend of orange juice, red Gatorade, blue pixie sticks, and sparkling water.
"I can't just leave Brennan there by himself. He would be destroyed." Aden shuddered at the thought of Brennan staying in Windsor without him.
"Not to mention the fact that you would miss him too much." Fabian teased. Aden looked up at him worried. Aden was about to say something when Fabian came in with "Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone. You're secrets safe with me." Fabian, son of Logan Wright and Julian Larson, had heard stories about this sort of thing, but had never really experienced it first hand.
"You had better not. It's still really fragile. We're not ready to tell anyone." Aden was one of those nervous types. All he had wanted was a few good friends, a nice girlfriend, and good grades. That was evidently too much to ask. Instead, what he got was way more complicated. He had fallen in love with his roommate. Who just so happened to be Brennan. A silver lining, Brennan loved him too, and they lived together, but it made everything so much harder.
"I think everything might be easier if you just told everyone. The way I see it, it would go one of three ways. Number one," Fabian held up one finger. "Everyone finally excepts you and his friends will be nice and finally realize you're not a bad person. Number two," Fabian lifted his second finger. "No one really cares, because they either expected it or figure its not really going to change anything. And number three," He lifted his third finger. "It blows up in your face. Everyone hates you and shuns Brennan. Fights break out as you two try to defend yourselves against the onslaught of harassment."
Aden looked at Fabian like he was a monster. "How could you even say that? This is why we're keeping it quiet." Aden started to worry even more before he noticed Fabian laughing. "You're not helping, you know."
"Hey! You've got to admit, it's kind of funny. Brennan is one of the shyest, nicest kids ever and you mean nothing but good and you're all worried what everyone will think. You guys should know that no one really cares anymore. Not after our parents generation went through here." Fabian protested, attempting to calm Aden down. "Do you ever talk about this with him?" the Stuart asked.
"No. He's got enough he needs to worry about." Aden replied cautiously.
"Well you might want to. He could have the same concerns, or give you a new perspective on the whole thing. I'm no relationship expert, but aren't you supposed to communicate with your boyfriend?" Fabian advised. Aden just nodded, knowing his friend was right. Sighing, he left his friend's room and headed back to Windsor.
"What'd I miss?" Brennan asked, walking into the common room, where all his friends were sitting. Brennan was short, maybe 5 ft 3 at best with gray eyes and prominent freckles that set of his dark brown hair. Darren was sprawled out on the couch doing Calculus while Eric practiced lines from the school play with Forrest.
"Not much. Matt and the boys dropped by. You know Alan? Yeah, he's not rooming with us." Darren answered without looking up from his math book.
"Turns out he's more a Hanover boy. Though I could've sworn he would fit right in here before I think something happened this summer that we don't know about." Forrest explained.
"He's sixteen guys. Let's give him a break. He probably is just worried about how well he's going to fit in here. And it's not as if we're the easiest house to stay at." Eric reasoned.
Brennan dropped himself into the big chair next to the couch and pulled a small rubix cube. "Wish I had been there. How are Ian and Alex?"
"Like they always are. Excited and energetic. I don't think there's a force in the universe that could change that." Forrest told him.
"You'd be surprised." Brennan said quietly, almost to himself. He continued working on his puzzle, wondering what could've happened over the summer.
Darren glanced at Brennan. "You're awfully quiet today." he remarked. Brennan was always quiet, but usually he carried on the conversation for a little while before going silent.
"Just thinking, is all." Brennan mumbled back, fiddling with the rubix cube.
"That's all you seem to ever do. You need a sport." Eric told him. "It's not like there's any shortage of them here. Fencing, rowing, football, cricket..." he trailed off
"I think I'll stick with my sculpting, puzzles, and academia, thank you." Brennan gave Eric an exasperated look. He had heard the sport speech many, many times.
"Hey, I don't have a sport and you never lecture me." Forrest pointed out to Eric.
"You build stuff though. You're head isn't always buried in books and you're not always going to museums." Darren argued. Not that he wanted anyone to get a sport. He couldn't care less.
"And you play guitar. For a band." Eric added, "Artsy boy over here though couldn't play anything to save his life."
"Which is exactly why I'm going to stick to my current activities." Brennan said, ending the conversation by walking of the room.
"He sure is cranky today." Eric announced, after watching Brennan leave.
"Of course he's cranky. You've been giving him the same speech about sports ever since I can remember. Maybe he's finally had enough." Darren said, looking at Eric a little disbelievingly.
"Well good for him if he is." Forrest remarked, looking back at the script he and Eric had been practicing. "Anyway, auditions are in a week and I want to nail this part, so let's start from the beginning." Forrest instructed, getting into character. Eric just rolled his eyes and flipped back to the beginning.
Alan was just wandering around campus looking at everything and nothing. Every detail was the same as his father, Dwight, had described it. Nothing changes much when your legacy lasts several hundred years.
But the feel of the place was different. There were no ghosts or evil specters or shadowy monsters. But he had expected that, he wasn't crazy like his dad. But what he hadn't expected was the sense of what he would later call individual conformity. It was the sense that you could be who you want as long as who you wanted to be fit within their standards. Alan didn't know if there was room for him.
Alan was walking down a small path; staring glossy eyed at all the fall flowers and the turning colors of the leaves when he heard someone coming up behind him. Alan could here the persons light steps as the crunched on gravel and dry leaves. "Alan!" it was Brennan. He could tell without even turning around. Alan slowed his pace until his older friend caught up. "I'm glad I found you."
"Why? Is something wrong?" Alan asked. He wasn't supposed to be anywhere for a while and he didn't really feel like talking.
"No. Nothings wrong. At least not that I know of. But there is something wrong, isn't there?" Brennan asked with concern in his voice. Alan gave him a funny look. "We've all noticed it. You've changed. You seem older, more preoccupied. The other guys think its just starting boarding school but I feel it's something else."
Alan shook his head no. "nothings changed and I'm not worried. I just want to escape everyone's expectations for me."
"And you think going blonde and living in Hanover is going to do it?" Brennan asked, skeptically. Alan just shrugged. "Cuz it's not going to. People will see you're different from your family within five seconds of meeting you. You don't have to go to all this trouble, especially when you seem unhappy about it."
"What if I really just want to stay at Hanover? Or be blonde? Or live in California? Or be a psychiatrist?"
"Then that's your choice. No one should force you into something you don't want to do or be. And if you feel pressure, talk to someone. I'm here. Anytime." Brennan comforted.
"You say that but I dot think you have experience in the sort of troubles I'm having." Alan argued
"Pressure to be like your parents? I get that all the time. My mother was a dancer and my father a singer. They are both really smart too. I'm none of those." Brennan pointed out.
"That's not what I'm talking about." Alan muttered, walking faster.
"Then what are you talking about? You can't run away from it, obviously so slow down and tell me like an adult." Brennan said, slightly out of breath from trying to keep up with the now running Alan.
Alan stopped suddenly, turning around. "Have you ever had a huge secret that you want to tell everyone? Something that you are both nervous and excited about but you don't know how anyone will react so you don't say a word?" he asked with fierce intensity.
"Yes." Brennan replied with the same intensity. "My roommate and I have been going out for a year and a half and I love him but we haven't told anyone."
"You think that's bad? Try having a pregnant girlfriend." Alan challenged. Brennan just stared at him. "That's what I thought." he said, turning around. Alan resumed walking.
"H-h-how? Whe-when?" Brennan stammered from where he stood, rooted to the ground by the news.
"I think you know how. And this summer." Alan turned around, walking backwards now. "Her names Beth and she lives in Santa Cruz." Brennan ran to catch up to Alan. He grabbed the sophomore and pulled him towards a small, isolated garden, one of the few safe places to talk at Dalton.
"Okay now. From the beginning." Brennan sat on the only bench, looking at Alan, who was sitting next to him. Alan just looked at him defiantly. "I was spending the summer in California..." Brennan prompted. Alan sighed, giving in.
"I was spending the summer in San Francisco. About three weeks into summer I was wandering around japantown when I met Beth. Long story short, I asked her to dinner. She told me she was from Santa Cruz but was in S.F. for a summer education program. We started spending all our free time together. Then one night, we got a little tipsy and one thing led to another..." Brennan just nodded. "Well a month later Beth shows up crying and explains she's pregnant. She says she keeping it too. Though she give me the option of having nothing to do with the child."
"What did you say?" Brennan asked hesitantly.
"I proposed." Alan said simply. "She said no. Beth said she didn't want to raise her child in an unstable environment and she didn't know how she was going to feel about me in a year or a decade."
"And how do you feel about her?" Brennan coaxed.
"I love her." Alan said it with absolute certainty that Brennan didn't doubt it. The Houston's are very loyal people. "I just don't know how to tell my family. Or her family. I know it's not what they want for us.
"I'm willing to bet they just want you guys to be happy. So as long as you are they won't have any problems. The bigger question is what are you going to do in seven months?" Brennan asked
"I'm either going to transfer out there, or Beth will transfer here. And we'll go from there." Alan replied, standing up. Brennan got up also.
"Beth sounds like she's handling this very well for a sixteen year old." Alan nodded in agreement as the two left the garden.
The pair jogged back to Windsor, for it was getting dark outside. "I understand why you want to stay at Hanover now." Brennan panted as they neared the dorm. "Its the only place you'll ever get peace."
"Yeah. But I bet Windsor madness is nothing compared to baby crazy." Alan quipped. Brennan laughed.
"Care to find out?" he asked, opening the door and walking inside and into wonderland.