Prologue
"And you promise to be safe?"
"Yes dad."
"And to call once a week?"
She sighed, "Yes, dad."
"And to not let those american boys take advantage of a vulnerable girl like you?"
"I'd hardly call myself vulnerable, dad." She said with a smirk on my face, luckily her father was 3000 miles away and couldn't see it over the phone. "And being english isn't seen as being weak by the way."
"I know… but look after your sister, Lexi, she's not as tough as you are."
"She is not my sister! She's also not as vulnerable as you think." Lexi could see the look on his face as though he was sitting right in front of me as he sighed; after all, she'd seen it enough.
"Fine then, step-sister, just keep an eye out for her Lexi… please?" Her dad pleaded, for a head teacher you would think he would be a bit firmer with his own daughter.
"Whatever, look, I've got to go… I think I've arrived." she hung up the phone as soon as she could and flung it into the empty leather seat in front of her.
"Yep… I'm here alright…"
As she was driven in through the gates, Lexi James looked up and read the sign looking down on her: Dalton Academy For Boys.
Chapter 1
"Hello?" Lexi shouted, banging on the door, trying to peer in through the glass panels to see if there was any form of life in the building in front of her.
Nothing.
"Anybody in there?"
Still nothing.
10 minutes of banging on the door later, she walked away to try to find her way to the front office or whatever they had at Dalton when she bumped into someone. Well… two identical someones to be precise.
"Hey, look Dee… a talking flower outside our dorm this late at night!" The first boy said.
"Looks like she's giving White Rabbit and Alice a run for their money at the same time, Dum. She is rather late after all, although she doesn't have the pocket watch." The second boy replied… or was it the first? They both looked exactly the same after all.
"Oh… erm… I was just trying to get into… erm… Windsor House?" Lexi told the two strangers, adding quietly, "Who knew I'd have twin knights to come to my rescue?"
"Well we can't leave such a pretty flower outside in the dark, now can we Dee? Especially not a flower from across the pond."
"Absolutely not Dum! Follow us m'dear."
Lexi followed behind the two boys very cautiously; if this was just two of the guys in Windsor House, then what were they like all together? Now that was a scary thought.
"Yo, Chaz! Special delivery!" Dee and Dum yelled into the ceiling and then the only thing Lexi could hear was a stampede of footsteps and guys shouting "Move!" and "I want to see her!" Looks like they were expecting her.
Then all the noise stopped and only one voice could be heard from behind a door
"STOP! Okay, Rule 1: we don't scare her; Rule 2: we do not make her run away; Rule 3: do not unleash all of your crazy on her at the same time!" A mixture of 'okay's and 'fine's were mumbled from a few boys until one voice asked: "Wait, isn't she with the tweedles? Move boys! MOVE!" and with that last shout came a large bang as a group of 14 boys ended up in a pile on the floor at Lexi's feet as they burst through the door.
"So this is the new girl then?" A tall boy with dark brown hair asked the twins. "I'm Kurt, Kurt Hummel," he added, turning to Lexi "and I apologise in advance for whatever the twins end up breaking… well not just the twins… the damage that any of the Windsors makes. We're very… creative… so to speak."
"Lexi James. Oh and don't worry about the damage, after living in my dorm at Hunters for 8 years you kind of realise not to bring anything of high value to school."
"Oh, so you're a hunter then? We've been expecting you for a while… erm… Alexa?" said the first voice from behind the door.
"Lexi." She quickly interrupted.
"Sorry, I'm Charlie Amos. Charlie, Chaz, anything but Charles or I won't be responsible for the damage done to the item my baseball bat comes into contact with."
"Yeah, sorry my... er… plane was delayed and don't worry 'Charlie' I won't make that mistake." She answered with a slight smirk on her face. "So is there anywhere I can put my bags? I'm shattered!" After looking at the confused looks on the boys' faces she added "I'm reeeaaally tired?" and a chorus of 'ooohhh's was the response she got back.
"You'll be staying on the 2nd floor with Kurt, Reed, me and some of the other guys." Said the boy with curly, black hair standing next to Kurt. "I'm Blaine, by the way. You have two options, we did have a room ready for you until Dwight over here,"- he paused to shoot daggers at a dark haired boy who was trying to look innocent -"decided to use that room for his newest experimental ritual and it won't be clean again until tomorrow. So you can either crash with me or you can stay on the fourth floor and hear the shouting of the all mighty caterpillar coming from down the hall… your choice."
"Who's the 'caterpillar'?" Lexi asked slowly.
"Oh he's Windsor's…"
"Blaine you finish that sentence without running it by me first and your guitar might just suddenly disappear somehow," a robotic voice said from the near-by speaker.
"He's not important… let's just say his name is Han and he doesn't like to be disturbed." Blaine said quickly, looking towards the speaker as he finished, waiting for what Han was going to say…but the voice stayed quiet.
"Well, I wouldn't want to impose on the mysterious caterpil- wait… Hansel Tiberius Link Leonheart Westwood? That Han?"
"You know me?" The voice questioned – for the first time in the 5 minutes she'd been in Windsor house all the boys were silent in anticipation for her answer.
"I never forget a name. You hacked Hunter's firewalls to find out a bit of information about a certain WoW player… and got hacked in return. You forgot that just because we're girls it doesn't mean that we don't know our way around a computer... or even a virus that took you a week to fix. Remember me now Han?" She turned to Blaine, "I think the fourth floor will be fine, thanks... won't it Han?"
Han coughed. " Yeah... welcome to the fourth floor?"
Half an hour later, after promising the twins she'd be in the common room in 15 minutes, Lexi finally had peace in her temporary bedroom. She turned on her phone, staring at the screen until it lit up and showed her the texts she'd been waiting for:
Luce Carter (15:45): You left your lighter in the hotel room. Thought you'd given up anyway? Want me to send it to Dalton?
Luce Carter (16:15): Paulo at the bar said to say hi. He misses you apparently... what did you do last night when I was packing? I was gone for 20 minutes!
Luce Carter (16:28): Crap, you'll be on the plane! Text me when you get these texts so I don't start to worry! Missing you already, how am I going to survive the year? If the guys your staying with do anything to you or break your laptop so we can't skype then I'm flying over there to beat them up!
Luce wasn't her best friend for nothing. Laughing at her over-protectiveness, Lexi replied:
It's not my lighter, I thought you'd know. It was mum's and please send it or I'll start freaking out within a week! Ignore Paulo, nothing happened... even I'm not that quick getting a guy. Don't worry, if the boys break my laptop then I'll borrow Han's. Remember the guy who hacked Josie's computers after I started playing WoW? I'm in the room next to his... this year is going to be interesting. Miss you loads Luce, try not to injure yourself too much without me!
Lexi sighed as she put her phone down, ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair and walked out of the door to go see the twins downstairs. She had to duck a few times on her way down but she had fast reflexes (a must to anyone who wanted to come out of a nerf battle unscathed) and managed to avoid the pellets being fired her way.
"You're not going to get me tonight boys," she yelled, "you might as well give up." After one more feeble attempt from someone on the second floor, the boys stopped shooting at her and went to bed.
The common room was reasonably large - not a large as Hunter's but it would do - with a few sofas, a TV and some debris from a recent Nerf battle.
"Now we haven't got long Tiger-Lily or it'll be off with all of our heads, but before we leave you for the night, the red queen has left it in our duty to tell you the rules." said the voices of the twins behind her. Not that it was entirely true. The two boys had begged Charlie to let them explain the 'Ways of Windsor' to the new occupant of Windsor House and Charlie had had to give up due to an explosion in the kitchen thanks to Drew and Satoru.
"Tiger-lily?" Lexi asked but the boys continued anyway.
"Rule 1: Curfew is ten on weekdays and eleven on weekends. The doors get locked but if you ever find yourself stuck outside just give us a shout and we'll help you out." said Dee - or was it Dum?
"Rule 2: The prefect says it."
"We do it."
"Most of the time..."
"That's Chaz, by the way. He's the wonderful prefect of Windsor" The boys carried on. This was really starting to confuse Lexi.
"Can you maybe speak one at a time?" she pleaded.
"Very well then..." the boys said simultaneously.
"Rule 3: No one tells. Anything. Ever." The twin on the left said. "Any questions?"
"Only one." She told them. "What are your actual names?"
"I'm Evan Brightman," said the brother on right.
"And I'm Ethan Brightman." the other brother replied.
"Good to know." Lexi mumbled before she made her way upstairs to her room - not that she'd remember.
Despite the fact that she was supposed to be in her room, preparing herself for a day of classes with as school full of guys for the first time since she was 8, she was sat in the common room with her phone in her hands waiting until 1am so she could ring Luce at a time that her best friend wouldn't murder her over the phone. No matter how hard she tried, her mind kept going back to those days in the middle of the summer. The accident, the horrible hospital room she'd been in for 3 days until the doctors discharged her, the nightmares that came afterwards. She owed Luce so much for being there from the funeral 4 years ago to the wedding in the spring and then in Mexico City over the summer, yet she had kept it all a secret from her. It wasn't hard to convince Luce that nothing was wrong. It wasn't unusual for Lexi to be out all night, phone a few times through day then be unseen until the following morning but even she was surprised that Luce didn't ask many questions after 3 days.
Its surprising what you can get doctors to do if you pay them enough. That surgery wouldn't have gone down well without her substantial donation to the children's ward... and the one to Dr Armstrong's 'car fund'.
It was her phone's loud and annoying ringtone that brought Lexi out of her thoughts.
"Hello?"
"LEXI!" a familiar voice shouted down the phone.
"Luce! Its great to talk to you and all but can you turn down the volume? I think you just burst my eardrum."
"Oh yeah... sorry! I'm just so glad to speak to you!"
"Its been, like, 12 hours!" Lexi laughed.
"I know but I've missed you!"
"I've missed you too Luce. You know why I had to go though."
"I know, I just wish I'd been able to come too! It would be my dad that was the over-protective one wouldn't it."
Lexi laughed, no matter how much Luce complained about her dad, she would always be a 'daddy's girl' at heart. "I don't think that even you could handle this level of crazy. I on the other hand am used to it, 4 brothers ignoring dad and visiting whenever they please has been good practice for this!" She heard a door open from upstairs. "Crap! I've got to go, someone's coming. I'll talk to you later though, I promise! Bye!" She'd just made it up to the first floor hallway when she bumped into Blaine as he was walking down the stairs.
"Oh, sorry! I was just getting..." she paused to think, "a glass of water!"
"You don't need to worry about being out of bed you know," Blaine told her. "Its your first night, Charlie won't give you a hard time. None of us will."
"Thanks, I was just talking to Luce - my best friend. Its weird being at school without her."
"I know the feeling, when I came here I have to leave my brother behind... we're close and it was really hard at first, but it gets easier." He paused, " you'll meet him soon actually, he might be transferring if he gets his way."
"It's good that you're with you're brother again," she replied, looking at the floor. "Don't waste the time you have with him, it goes too quickly." As she saw the questioning look on Blaine's face she added, "I'm gonna get to bed, big day tomorrow and all."
"Yeah, night."
"Night."
As she made her way up the stairs to her room she scolded herself for almost spilling the secret that she had sworn to not tell, she was already the new girl, she didn't want any more attention than she was getting already - even though she was dying to tell someone... it just hurt too much.