The chair Thomas sat in was stiff, the air was stale, and his eyelids were heavy. He was currently stuck in a room at 7 am and it was amazing how bright the sun was lighting up the room through the blinds.
Slumping down, Thomas opened his eyes as the door creakily opened. A lanky man holding a set of folders under his arm walked in, his eyes impassive. He set in the desk infront of Thomas ignoring him, opened the folders, and started organizing papers on the desk. Watching the other man, the brown-haired boy found himself slowly drifting off...
At the loud clearing of a throat, Thomas' eyes snapped back open.
"Name?"
He looked up at the clock. 7:25. Great. He looked back at the old man.
"Excuse me?"
"Name, please." He sounded exasperated.
"Thomas." Shoulgn't you know this already?
The old man pulled out a stack of stapled paper and wrote on it. He flipped through a few pages before stopping.
"Age?"
"U-uh, sixteen."
He circled something.
"Gender?"
"Male." Duh.
He wrote more stuff before flipping through a few more pages, then turned back to the front page.
"Stephen?"
"Yes."
"Alright."
The old man circled more things before setting the pages in a nice pile and putting them back in the folder. He opened a new one.
"Where'd you transfer from?"
"Colorado."
"Has anyone said how long you'd be staying?"
"...No. Not yet."
The man tisked while writing more things down and Thomas frowned.
"How long am I gonna be here?"
He shrugged.
"Really, depends on your cooperation and treatment of others," he finished writing and put up the second folder. "Wouldn't want you starting fights with anyone again now, right?"
The last part was said almost mockingly and Thomas' frown deepened.
The older man didn't notice, instead standing up and grabbing the folders and paperwork.
"Speaking of which," he began, "how about you meet all of your future mates now?"
They both stood up. Thomas, mostly happy to be out of the hard chair, quickly agreed and stretched before walking out the room.
The first thing Thomas noticed about the standing group of boys in the yard outside of the mess-hall was that they all looked as bored, tired, and pissy as he felt.
All of them had dark lines under their eyes and bed-raggled hair. Some were looking at Thomas with curiosity, others with boredom, and a few with glares.
The lanky man, Mr. Janson, Thomas found out, walked infront of him and called out.
"Albert. Newton. Come, immediately."
Thomas watched as two boys about the same age broke away from the group and walked up to Mr. Janson. One, the tall one, had messily combed long blonde hair and a slight limp when he walked. The other had dark skin, short black hair, and a frown. The blonde spoke up, Thomas could hear an accent in his voice.
"Yes, Rat Man?"
Thomas raised an eyebrow at the name but Mr. Janson remained impassive.
"This, he said, pulling Thomas up next to him, "is Thomas. We don't know if he'll be staying for long, but, while he is here, I want you and Albert to help him out with anything he needs. Got it?"
Newton shrugged and Alby nodded.
Mr. Janson pushed Thomas infront of the two older boys.
"Thomas, I'll come back and get you to finish up some paperwork later. Alright?"
Thomas nodded and before he knew it he was by himself infront of a crowd of boys he didn't even know.
a/n; second chapter hopefully up by wednesday or thursday