Glade High
Chapter One
Thomas Jones crossed his arms and let out an annoyed breath, settling farther back into the seat of the car. The old, worn van smelled like a weird mix of young kids and vanilla air fresheners, a scent that Thomas was annoyingly familiar with.
"Are we almost there?" he complained, shooting his adoption agent Mrs. Carson a dirty look. "We've been in this car forever!"
Mrs. Carson, with her obviously dyed red hair, looked into the mirror and narrowed her eyes at him. "We'll be there in a few minutes. You could be a bit more grateful that you earned a spot in this school."
"This school?" Thomas snorted in disbelief. "This is a school for guys who couldn't get adopted because they weren't good enough. Trust me, I could get into a lot better schools!"
"Of course you could," Mrs. Carson muttered, her obnoxiously red finger nails tapping on the steering wheel. "Just shut up and wait for the drive to be over, Thomas."
Promptly turning away from her and shuffling his crossed arms, Thomas glared out the window at the town they were passing through. It was rather small with old-fashioned looking buildings, a lot of small churches, and a very sparse collection of stores. He hadn't bothered to ask for the name of the town, but he knew that it was somewhere in northern New Hampshire.
As the old van crawled along the dirt road and kicked up dust onto the outside of the car, Thomas let himself start to think about what his new school might be like. Sure, Thomas tried to play off the whole fearless vibe that most foster kids did, but in all honesty he was a bit worried.
The kids at this new school would be all guys. Guys who were probably bigger than him. And stronger than him. And they had been there longer. Why wouldn't they have gotten adopted? In Thomas's case it was because he had run away from every foster home since he was six, but that was only because the people who adopted him all sucked. What had these guys done to wind up in the school for rejects?
Thomas stared blankly at his bags on the seat next to him and tried to imagine what his first few days would be like. Probably slightly hellish. Yeah, probably. Odds are no one would want to hang out with him, he was such a loser. That's what the kids in all of his foster homes had said. Same with the parents, though Mrs. Carson never believed him when he showed up at her door with tales of abusive people.
The system didn't care about him. Why would these guys? Why would the teachers?
Mrs. Carson pulled a sudden sharp right that jerked him out of his thoughts and slammed him against the door with a thud.
"Ow," he snapped at his less-than-enthusiastic driver.
She didn't reply, simply nodding her head forward towards the road in front of them.
Thomas peered out of the window and saw that they were driving up a secluded paved road way (no more dirt roads!) with stone walls lining it. Trees loomed over the driveway, gleaming in the spring sunlight. Feeling unsettled at how pleasant it actually looked so far, he tried to see farther up the road.
They pulled up to a building that looked less like a school and more like a massive house. A massive, massive house. It was at least seven times bigger than any house Thomas had ever lived in with huge rock columns and stone steps. In front of the house was a pristine green lawn and around the side he could see sprawling tree-less hills with a wooden fence. There appeared to be a make-shift track as well.
On either side of the circular driveway, which had a broken fountain in the center, were two buildings that were much smaller. Both were white with blue doors and shutters and a simple porch each. One said "Information/Office" on the sign and the other said "Nurse" on it.
Thomas blinked.
This place was huge. The house looked like a...a...
Oh.
It looked like a boarding school-house, like those ones in the movie. He grinned sheepishly to himself. What had he been expecting really? A regular old high school? Naturally, an all boys boarding school would look like this.
"Grab your stuff!" Mrs. Carson trilled, parking the car at a slant in front of the house. "We have to meet the principle!"
Thomas quickly grabbed his duffel bag, the one that contained his measly collection of clothing and an old iPod and headphones, and jumped out of the car. It was nice and warm outside with a light breeze that tugged at his sweatshirt slightly.
As he looked past the driveway out to the open field behind the buildings, he heard the door of the main house shut.
"Ms. Paige!" Mrs. Carson exclaimed unhappily from the front of the building.
Thomas turned around and looked at his agent, only to see her awkwardly shaking hands with an uptight looking woman with black hair in a tight bun. "Mrs. Carson," the woman greeted stiffly. "Nice to see you again."
"Nice to see you again too," Mrs. Carson said through a bland smile.
"I suppose you're here to drop off Thomas Jones?" Ms. Paige asked her, looking over at Thomas.
"Yes. Thomas! Come here!" called Mrs. Carson, as though beckoning a dog.
Thomas rolled his eyes to himself, slung the bag over his shoulder, and walked up to the two woman. "Hello, Ms. Paige. I'm Thomas."
Ms. Paige simply nodded, observing him. "Nice to meet you Thomas, I'm your principle."
"Principle!" Thomas exclaimed before he would help himself. At Mrs. Carson's sharp glare, he coughed and said, "Nice to meet you."
Taking Thomas by surprise, she smiled kindly and replied, "Yes, principle. Would you like to come in? We have a lot to discuss about your future here at the school."
Obviously not having much of a choice he told her, "Sure."
Ms. Paige looked at him curiously as they stood there for a moment. "Would you like to say good-bye to Mrs. Carson? This could be the very last time you see her again."
Thomas turned his gaze to his agent, grinned sarcastically and said, "Bye. Good riddance, hopefully I can live without you breathing down my neck anymore."
As Mrs. Carson let out a stifled exclamation of shock and stomped over to the car, Thomas expected Ms. Paige to yell at him for being rude. Much to his glee she simply said, "I think that was the nicest farewell I've ever heard one of our new students give."
They walked into the building where there was a large living room type room. Three hallways led out into different parts of the house and a massive staircase led to an upstairs area. Thomas could see the balcony overhead and was nearly certain he saw someone duck around the corner when he looked up.
Ms. Paige swept her arms open and smiled at him, pulling his thoughts away from the balcony. "Welcome to Glade High!"
"This is the school!?" Thomas exclaimed. "But it's so much like a house!"
"It used to be an old mansion for a famous movie star, but they moved out ages ago. We fixed this place up into a working school for foster boys of ages ranging from eleven to eighteen. We allow you to live here until you're an adult at which time you leave to join the real world."
Thomas was impressed, but he didn't say so. "How do classes work?"
Ms. Paige led him to one of the many couches and motioned for him to sit down as she explained.
"Classes take place in ten of the rooms here. Some even take place outside. You will have classes with boys from all grades because we cover a new curriculum nearly every year. Anything you're unfamiliar with you get caught up on, and anything you already know you can use to your advantage. We have a track team, a soccer team, and a baseball team, as well as a music and art program."
Slightly overwhelmed Thomas asked, "Who will I be rooming with?"
She took a list out of her skirt pocket and read from it, "Chuck Cooper, Brendan Rivers, and Terry Agnes. Chuck's twelve years old, Brendan is seventeen, and Terry is sixteen."
Damn, one's just a kid, Thomas thought. "How many students go here?"
"Sixty two, as of today," she replied with a smile. "It's a small school. We wish we were allowed to take in so many other students but we simply cannot afford it. Our teachers are paid very little so it's hard for us to keep bringing kids in."
Thomas nodded and looked around the room, focusing on the stone fireplace and deer heads that lined the walls. Everything was very warm and nice in the room and against his will, he found himself glad to be there.
Ms. Paige noticed his looking and once again smiled, though it was slightly sad-looking. "Much nicer than those foster homes, isn't it?"
Startled, he looked up. "Those things suck. End of story."
She shook her head. "It never is the end of the story though, is it?"
Before he could ask what she meant, she kept going. "Anyway, you'll be shown around by one of the other students today. Don't be afraid to ask questions - all of these boys have been in the same position as you. They understand."
He nodded silently. "Do you think..." he began to ask, and then cut himself off. "Nevermind."
Looking concerned, Ms. Paige raised an eyebrow, but didn't pry. "If you're ready now, we can go find Alby Donahue. He'll be the one to show you around."
Thomas just nodded again and stood up. "That'd be great."
And so began his first day at Glade High.
Yes, I know the title is lame but whatever. XD This is going to be an AU where the guys are in this all boy boarding school in upstate New Hampshire. Of course... drama will always occur where hormones are the rulers. XD You'll all see what I mean eventually.
~Dani ;)
