Hey, this is my first, going to be, (hopefully, really) long fic. pairings will come later, on and are subject to change. (the big choice is between arthur/merlin or morgana/merlin, any particular preferences?)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character's in the following fic, they all belong to BBC.

Rating: T, for swearing.


"Merlin!" came the yell from the kitchen.

Merlin rolled around in bed trying to deafen the piercing sound of Gaius's voice, desperately trying to gain those few minutes more of dream-like peace before getting out of the warm comfort of his bed.

"Merlin, I swear if you are not out of that bed by the time, I, a fragile old man, climb these horrendous stairs there will be consequences, head my words!" ranted Gaius whilst thumping his way up the stairs as loudly as humanely possible.

A few seconds passed and just as Merlin's world started to go black again, he was greeted by cold, murky plant water. Great, now he would have to take a shower. Opening his eyes he saw his uncle staring down at him, with what seemed like smugness. Ugh bastard.

"Good morning to you too uncle" retorted Merlin his words practically dripping with sarcasm.

"And may I ask why you are still in bed, I have been calling for you for at least 10 minutes, plus if you don't hurry up you'll be late for school"

Restraining from answering his uncle with his usual grumpy morning sarcasm of: "wow a whole 10 minutes, aren't you a patient old man", he instead got out of bed, dripping wet in awkward places, and began to shuffle towards the closet. Gaius finally satisfied that he was fully woken, headed for the door, paused, turned around smirked and said,

"Oh and Merlin, don't forget to have a shower you smell like dead algae".
Merlin caught his reflection in the mirror and saw a big, green, squishy strand of algae across his cheek. His face flushing with anger he turned around just about to throw the most outrageous curses at Gaius to find the man wasn't standing there anymore.

Clever bastard, but he will regret this. Merlin quickly glanced at his watch 7:10, good he had plenty of time to shower, and quickly jumped in the freezing shower, not being bothered to wait for it to warm up because the green growth on his face was starting to freak him out.


Gaius looked at the kitchen clock 7:40, where in devil's name is that boy, he is going to miss the bus and not get his breakfast. His train of thought was interrupted by a large thud; Merlin had just landed on the Kitchen floor. For some reason (unknown to Gaius) he liked to jump over the last four stairs. Gaius sighed, ah youth.

"Merlin, do you have any idea what time it is? You can't afford to be late on your first day of school."

"Well if somebody hadn't poured grimy algae on me this morning..."

"Never mind! Just get your school bag and here's your toast, hurry or you will miss the bus and I can't take you into school because I have to mind the shop." Exclaimed Gaius whilst chucking Merlin 2 slices of toast and shoving some money into his hand for lunch. Merlin was sluggishly heading to pick up his bag from the floor and just as he slinged it over his back:

"HURRY!"

Merlin jumped practically out of his skin and rushed out the front door shouting a few words of goodbye towards his uncle. In response he heard his uncle mutter a "have a good day" and a really loud "good luck" and finally the slamming of the door.

Have a good day? did his uncle really expect that to be the case, he had been kicked out of his last school for, well, reasons and now here he was in a totally different city going to a school where people had probably been together since primary school and once again he was going to be the odd one out. Not to mention, if he didn't hurry up, he really would miss the bus and then he would be the new, sweaty kid who walks to school and was late for his first class of the semester. So yea the "good luck" was well appreciated and needed, thanks Gaius.


Merlin arrived just in time to catch the bus, thankfully he was the last stop and not many kids took the bus. So he snuck on and sat in the first seat totally unnoticed. It was a 30 minuet drive and as the bus rounded the final corner, for the first time, Merlin got a view of the school that he was about to be attending for god knows how long.

Whoa.

The school was absolutely beautiful and just gave of the sense of ridiculous wealth. It looked like a castle, so one might ask how on earth Merlin could afford to come to such a high class school. Well fortunately for him, he had spent most of his previous free time studying and in result got a scholarship for four full years of study at this small, but stunning college, Camelot High.

It wasn't anything like his old school, it was beautiful, but it wasn't home.

Now Merlin was nervous, he knew that in a few minutes he would have to face the nightmares of high school: meeting new people; being socially labelled; afraid of being too nerdy, too girly; living in constant fear of bullies but worst of all the learning of a new set of social rules, which he bets is not going to be anything like his old school's everyone is equal policy.

SQUEAK. The bus came to an abrupt stop basically lurching Merlin off of his chair and out the door, smack into the ground outside. Picking himself up and mentally scolding himself for not wearing a bloody seatbelt, he heard the chuckles emanating from the bus, and did the first thing that popped into his mind: Run.


He threw open the door of the office and charged inside. Immediately regretting following his instincts, way to make a good impression, he approached the cougar looking secretary at the desk.

"Wow, you ran here, that's so sweet, so eager for your first day at school, adorable."

Yep, he was definitely regretting the following of his instincts.

"Yea... "

There was that awkward silence, as the cougar lady eyed him up and down, he felt so self-conscious that he was even aware of the bobbing of his Adam's apple. He decided to man up and introduce himself, he needed help and there was, unfortunately, no one else around.

"Hi I'm Merlin Emrys; I am new here and have just transferred."

She answered with a blank confused stare, still eying him up and down.

For flip's sake. "The scholar..."

What seemed like comprehension sprang to her eyes, "Oh, you're the scholar kid, okay so here is your starters pack; it's got a map and your timetable in it, as well as your tutor class." She handed him the package with a smile, and he could almost swear she winked at him.

"Someone from your tutor class should be here to show you around in a minute; however in the meantime why don't we..."

"I'M HERE!" screamed a pretty, tanned girl with the scruffiest, brown, curly hair he had ever seen, bursting through the door. Ms. Secretary looked thoroughly disappointed. Smiling she extended her hand towards Merlin:

"Hey, im Gwen, I will be showing you around."

There was that awkward silence again; Merlin mentally decided that today was going to be the longest day ever. He was just about to open his mouth to reply, when she cut him off frantically,

"Well, I mean I'll show you around if you want me too. Not saying that I don't want to, show you around that is. Or that you don't want me to show you around. And it's up to you really, completely optional. Although..."

She was speaking way to fast and although Merlin found the girls, Gwen's, fluttering and stuttering cute and amusing, his head was just spinning way too fast to keep track of her, so he decidedly grabbed her hand, shook it and smiling at her introduced himself:

"Merlin. Pleased to meet you, and yes I would love to be showed around."

She let out a sigh of relief and beamed up at him.

"Cool, we have about 15 min before tutor starts so ill take you there and show you places on the way, okay?"

"Okay"

"Cool"

"Yea, cool"

"We should..."

Yea we should"

Their eyes met and they both burst into giggles. A loud cough came from the secretary, causing another fit of giggles and after getting a stern glance (and subtle wink at Merlin) they exited the office and headed towards the main block, still giggling and happily involved in conversation.

Merlin decided that today wouldn't be so bad if he had Gwen around; she seemed nice, helpful and like a potential best friend, smiling at the thought of their possible new friendship he gladly followed her to tutor.

That wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, in fact it almost seemed as if Gaius's "good luck" this morning was really working, you know what school bring it on. They arrived at his tutor classroom, room 13, and feeling confident with Gwen at his side he, foolishly and instinctually pushed open the door with no digression.

What had he just said about following his instincts?