Everett wraps the scarf more tightly around his neck as the Romanian wind chills his face. 2 weeks out of Florida, and the incoming winter already proved to be hell.
He walks faster down the street hurrying toward the looming building in the distance. He can't believe his parents were sending him there, a boarding school for gods sake. It would have been too much to ride with his mom, she was the one locking him up. He'd meet her at the school when she brought his stuff.
He finally makes it up to a giant fence where he stops to stare at the camera above. The gate door suddenly creaks open and he takes a huge breath before stepping inside.
A shrill ring echoes through the courtyard and students come flowing from every direction. Everett tries to move out of the way of everyone, but suddenly a body slamming into him sends him crashing to the cement ground. He looks up to see a slender yet muscular teen boy with short black hair and brown eyes. His uniform hugs every muscle and converse on his feet set the formal tone off.
The boy's eyes widen, "I'm sorry I-" he starts to say but his shoulders are seized by two other boys.
"Way to go Andrei!" one says with a smirk, "Putting the new guy into his place already."
One of the boys send a quick kick causing Everett to lose any breath he had gained back, doubling him over coughing. "Hey wait a second!" the first boy Andrei tries to protest but his friends drag him away.
Everett looks up to watch them leave through watery eyes. Andrei glances back catching Everett's eyes as he walks away with his friends.
Everett slowly climbs to his feet, clutching his stomach as sharp pains trickle through. Once to his feet he hunches over coughing and hugs his ribs when he hears the sound of frantic footsteps and an arm wraps around his shoulders.
"Everett! Honey what's wrong?" his mother asks frantically.
"Just.. Fell," he manages and pulls away from her hold. He looks up slowly as he hears more steps approaching.
"Oh lord Everett, what happened!" his mother demands as she sees his face.
"What?" he asks reaching a hand to his face, then glancing at his hand to see blood.
She reaches into her purse, grabs his arm, and begins to wipe away the blood.
"Don't touch me!" he exclaims as doubles over coughing as a man walks up to them.
"Temper tantrums will not be accepted here young man," the man says giving him a disapproving look as he eyes Everett's face when he glances up. "And also fighting."
"I fell," Everett protests trying to look the man in the eye.
"Not quite," the man replies. "You fell, the face shows that. But after being pushed there and kicked in the ribs."
Everett gapes at the man in awe and wraps his arms around his own body.
"My office please?" the man asks walking toward the building, Everett and his mother follow behind.
"A fight?" she hisses to him grabbing his arm as they walk, "Here 5 minutes and a fight?"
"Someone just ran into me and I fell god!" Everett replies.
"And the ribs?" she glares.
"I got kicked. Bell rang and there were a bunch of people, someone accidentally knocked me over and I'm on the ground in a group of people, of course I got kicked!"
Once they reach the man's office, he quickly picks up the phone and punches in a few numbers.
"Hello, Mr. Keller. Can you please send Master Maria to my office? He might not return, so have him bring his belongings. Thank you." The man hangs up his phone and looks at Everett with a grimace and points out the door. "Take a left and 2nd door on the right is the bathroom, clean up. Master Maria will meet you there."
Everett retreats out of the office and looks down the sterile school hallway with dread before walking to the bathroom. Entering the bathroom he checks the stalls to assure he's alone, and turns to face the mirror.
He grimaces when he sees blood dripping down his cheek from red irritated skin. Everett stares into the ice blue eyes of his reflection and pushes his dirty blond hair from his eyes trying to spike it back how it was previously.
Finally he turns the faucet on to cup some water in his hands and splashes it on his face. He snags some paper towels to dry his hands then wipes at some of the already dried blood on his face.
"Let me help you," a formiliar voice with a thick Romanian accent says from beside him, a hand reaches out to grab the paper towels.
Everett turn quickly to look into the brown eyes of Andrei, the boy from in the courtyard. He drops his gaze quickly but realizes it was a mistake when he notices the boy is dressed in a black wife-beater tank and athletic shorts.
The boy slowly pushes Everett's head back up to look into his eyes once more, he takes the paper towel and carefully wipes at the blood. "I'm Andrei," he says as he works at cleaning Everett's face. He reaches under the sink to open a cabinet from which he pulls peroxide. "This will sting a little," he whispers as he dabs at Everett's face.
After finishing, Andrei sets the paper towels down and remains close to Everett searching his eyes. After a minute a frown appears on his face, "I'm so sorry about earlier man, Derek was messing around and shoved me and I knocked into you. I was trying to help but they're jackasses."
Everett blinks quickly in confusion and replies, "You're sorry?"
"Very," Andrei answers not bothering to back up, his gaze flickering to Everett's mouth. "So very...very... sorry.."
Everett finds himself leaning toward the boy as if in a trance, his lips calling him, his heart racing a mile a minute.