Chapter 1

Finally getting somewhere

This is a requested story for The Forgotten Reader, I am sorry it is taking so long. It is hard to get into writing between assessments but I am plodding along and will hopefully get it all done

"Are you sure you are alright, Bro? I know you planned ahead and prepared everything before leaving the Farm but…"

"Yes Clay, don't worry about me. How is dad taking it?" Desmond had his mobile phone on his thigh while using loudspeaker as he went through papers to make certain he had everything. He sitting in front of the main office, around him a few students who were here a day early for sport practice or to use the schools equipment eyed him curiously as they walked through the hall and with noses turned up. A commoner in a rich University.

Some stood around pretending to talk to each other while listening in to his possibly gossip worthy conversation, through their lashes they eyed his cheap white jumper. Feeling their eyes Desmond reached up and tugged his hood further down his face.

"How do you think he is taking it?"

"With burning disappointment and rage." Desmond spoke confidently as he sorted the papers back into his folder.

"Correct, mother is trying to persuade him that it is a good idea for you to do this course… but Willy is a little mad at her too for helping you pay for your apartment."

"Of course he is, tell mother I am thankful for everything and I will call her as often as I can."

"No problem, I should get back to work. Got a horse brought into the ranch by some butler that a rich kid no longer wanted, bastard's father wanted to put the beautiful mare down to save money. Good thing the old man found out about her and bought her rather cheaply, she is the most beautiful horse, will breed well with Assassin."

"Oi, who gave you permission to breed my horse?"

"Bye Bro!" At Clay's singsong tone the phone went dead, Desmond sighed deeply in annoyance and tucked his phone into his jean's pocket making the small groups around him disperse, when the eyes were gone he relaxed and pulled off his hood. He held his folder against his legs and looked around once again at his wristwatch, he had been here for almost an hour waiting. Stupid him for thinking things will go smoother if he came earlier… the women in the offices did tell the headmaster he was here right?

"Mr Miles, come in please." Finally. Desmond lifted his backpack and put one strap over his shoulder. Nervously he entered and bowed to the old man behind the desk, "I apologize for the wait, one of my wards was causing trouble with a couple of the others this morning and I had to… oh but you don't want this story. Your papers please."

Nodding his head meekly, Desmond placed the folder on the desk and the man went over them. The young man looked at the old man with amazement, he had a blind eye that looked like it was damaged in a fight.

"I used to be a soldier." The man said without looking up, nervously Desmond cleared his throat and resisted in tucking his hands into his jumper. "Sit down boy."

Quickly Desmond sat in the offered seat and waited with a jiggle of his leg nervously as time ticked by, was the man going to accept his requested degree courses?

"You wish to do degree levels in Journalism, and Business, then a certificate in Digital-audio… along with the other main classes? Is that all correct?" The old man looked impressed that Desmond was willing to take on so many courses and didn't seem to believe it.

"Yes sir."

"Well you have the school marks and letters from teachers voicing your dedication to work, which makes me certain you can handle it all. I will have your courses filed, a timetable will be at the front desk tomorrow morning." The old man sent an email, "Bear with me, I will have a map faxed with the required rooms marked so you can get used to your surroundings."

"Thank you so much sir." Desmond sighed and felt tension flow from his shoulders; the man chuckled while going through the files on Desmond's personal life.

"A farm boy huh? I bet your parents are proud of you going out into the world and succeeding in gaining entry to such a renowned school."

"My mother is… not my father."

"Oh? If you have trouble with your father I will be happy to help." The man spoke gently catching Desmond by surprise, he didn't expect that.

"Thank you sir, I hope nothing will happen for you to have to interfere… my mother and cousin trying to change his mind and keep him at home."

"Ah, the map is here." The man waited for his fax machine to stop spitting out the paper and handed it to Desmond, using a red pen he circled other important areas like the library, his office, car-parks, entrances, and the café. "Welcome to the University life, Mr Miles. I hope you enjoy it and make a life out of what you learn here."

"Thank you sir." Desmond stood and began to leave while the man stored the file into his large metal cupboards.

"Call me Al Mualim my boy."

Nodding in understanding Desmond left and examined the map, he walked down the walls following the map perfectly and found the Digital-Audio room first. He peered through the open door and almost grinned, it was full of computers and different instruments. Not something found often where he grew up, this was far more superior then his makeshift studio in the back of the barn along with his cheap laptop.

School didn't start officially until tomorrow but already a group of students sat inside together tweaking at sounds they had made with instruments to make an amazing remix song, one young teenager of Syrian nationality facing the door and working by himself smiled cheerfully and stood up to greet.

"You're going to be a new kid this year too?"

"Yes, I am Desmond." The teenage boy shook Desmond's hand happily with both of his.

"Kadar, when we start classes you want to team up with me or are you more of a lone music maker?"

"I will be happy to make a team, I have much to learn and it is better in a group." The boy looked so happy, he slapped his hand on the back of Desmond's and returned to his work. Did Kadar already have a job in the industry making music or did he just want to learn what he could before anything started?

Not wanting to distract the students Desmond went off to check out the journalism room, peering in he raised a brow, the few person inside had a laptop on their lap while sitting in armchairs around coffee table and not even looking at each other. It did not feel like a classroom but more like a comfortable coffee area or an actual business.

One man who looked just like Kadar but older, slightly bearded on his chin and with a deep frown spotted him when looking up to give his eyes a rest from the screen, he gave Desmond an almost dangerous glare making him back away quickly and leave them to their business. He searched for the business room and got halted in the hall by a fight between a student and teacher, not a physical one but it seemed close to it.

"Altair stop it this instant, Ezio don't you start too! I will have to inform Al Mualim about this!" A teacher who must have been here today to oversee students prepping for tomorrow yelled out, the student must be a senior.

"Go ahead old man!" Desmond flinched when a man who also looked like a Syrian stomped out and shoved him to the side making him stumble, the man's ember eyes examined him swiftly. "Out of my way, trash."

Backing away Desmond almost shrunk in on himself and got ready to flinch back to avoid a possible punch, something he started to do when his father got mad to weaken the pain of a blow. If he dared to dodge his father it would end up worse then before. The man seemed to notice the reaction and frowned in disgust as he thought Desmond was simply terrified of him.

"Filthy weakling." He stomped away with the angry bearded teacher calling out after him, a brunette man with his long hair in a ponytail stood in the doorway giving a small smirk at the scene, quickly Desmond rushed away to find the business room and then sports room and see what equipment they had. He felt a shiver as the longhaired man eyed his back the whole time, there was a burn in his eyes that Desmond didn't recognise.

There was nothing eventful in Business class, there was only two people there. So Desmond trekked to the sports area, which he found to be larger and in many different rooms.

'Bows? Seriously they have an archery range here?' Desmond blinked in awe and walked to the ranges door to watch the one man inside, everyone else seemed more interested in the sword fighting, kick boxing, and swimming. To them archery was probably boring and they couldn't pull out a bow and arrow in the middle of a bar fight.

The man fired an arrow cleanly into the centre of the target making Desmond release a faint sound of amazement. That caught the man's attention and he turned his dark eyes to Desmond, "Who are you?"

"I… am Desmond, I will be attending this school by tomorrow. Why are you the only one shooting a bow?"

"Not a popular sport. Some new students come to check it out but they always lose interest after a time." The man spoke very calmly and polite, but beneath it all was an antisocial tone that Desmond could just hear. It was like this younger man was actually telling Desmond to piss off if he wasn't interested.

"My cousin owns a bow, he won't let me touch it though…" The half Native look at him curiously at that, "I would like to learn…"

"Connor." They shook hands; Connor judged Desmond's height and arms before going into the armoury to pull out another bow. "Here, right size for you and good to learn with."

"Oh… you're teaching me?" Connor nodded slightly and gestured over Desmond to a different target while holding a small quiver. Gently Connor strapped a wrist brace around Desmond's left arm and then showed how to hold the weapon properly and aiming.

"You are a fast learner." Connor spoke with a small lift in his voice, he seemed pleased about Desmond and his progress, and this made him seem to suddenly like Desmond. His dark eyes flashed behind at the range entrance.

"Hey Connor, you made a new friend with the common boy already? I should have known you two would hit it off, damn I am jealous." The longhaired man entered followed by Altair, the man that glared at him in the Journalism classroom, and finally Kadar. The last ones eyes lit up.

"Desmond!" Kadar skipped over making the glarer look surprised, "Are you going to learn archery from Connor? He is really good."

"Yes, are you all leaving?" Desmond removed the arm brace while Connor cleaned up; Kadar nodded his head vigorously and looked behind him at the others.

"This is Altair, Ezio, and my older brother Malik." Desmond swallowed nervously and nodded to each one, Altair looked him up and down with a sour look.

"You know this trash?" Kadar gave Altair a look that said 'don't be mean' which Altair scoffed at.

"Yeah, he is going to be in the Certificate course for Digital-Audio and promised to tag-team with me." Kadar looked happy as he linked arms with Desmond making Malik twitch in annoyance and Desmond shy away, "Are you taking any other classes Desmond?"

"Ah, Degrees in Journalism and Business." The others all looked at Desmond with slight annoyance, except Ezio who grinned widely.

"Really? Malik is in Jou…"

"He probably knows that Kadar, we all saw him peeping about the classrooms." Kadar looked at Altair with a kicked puppy look before going silent, Malik glared at Altair at the tone used on his little brother but said nothing. Already Desmond could tell there was a bad history between the two, yet they were still friends, if friends was what you could call them.

"I-I should go. Thank you Connor for the lesson, I want to learn more about a-archery while I am here… um…?" Damn, his stutter was returning. That only happened when his stress levels were getting high.

"I will teach you." Connor nodded politely and with a small quirk of his lips, understanding Desmond's unsaid question. The half Native didn't want to throw away the chance of someone else using the range with him. It was more fun with other people.

"Thank you so much… g… good bye…" Desmond shook Kadar, Ezio and Connor's hands then bowed his head nervously to the others, he rushed out of the range while tightly holding his backpack strap in a hand. In the distance he could hear Malik telling Kadar to stay away from 'that bum' only to get a loud disagreeing whine as a reply.

-AC-

"Welcome Desmond Miles, I heard good things from the pub you worked at and your interviewer. This is not just a 'pub' however but a Nightclub and will be a bit harder and much more crowded. But I'm sure you can learn and handle it."

"Thank you sir." Desmond followed the Bad Weather manager through the nightclub; it was filled with dancing people and drunks stumbling through the constantly moving crowd. The manager took him out the back and got Desmond into a bartender's uniform, he tucked up the sleeves of his white shirt to his elbows and made certain the vest was perfect. It felt a little tight and clung to his torso a little more than he would like, but the manager seemed to think it was perfect.

After everything was all right he was sent out the front to join the current bartender, the man looked over at him with an annoyed expression. "Stick with simple orders and what you are a hundred precent certain you can make."

Tightening his lips Desmond nodded and got to checking out the bar to learn what he could, if he needed anything he will just ask the other man. He worked late into the night enduring catcalls from women and men alike, and violent drunks that the bouncers took care of one at a time.

By the end of his shift he went out the back, clocked his time and changed into his normal clothing again, he folded his new uniform into his backpack and nodded to the Manager, "Thank you sir, I will be back tomorrow night."

"Thank you for the hard work tonight."

Quickly Desmond rushed out the back door and jogged through the streets until he reached the taxi pickup, his apartment was a few blocks from the University, but too far for the Nightclub to walk and he did not know the directions yet to ride his motorbike. A taxi pulled up beside him and he told his address while sitting in the back seat.

It felt like an age until the taxi arrived at his place, the two room apartment he had been staying at for the past two days and possibly will for a long time into the future. "Thank you." Desmond gave the man his money before rushing off to climb the three flights of stairs, he rather them then the elevator. He only planned to take the elevator if he was with a large load of groceries.

Unlocking his door while panting he entered and sigh, it wasn't lavish and in a terrible area but it was a place to stay. And even though it was a bad area there was less possible to have things stolen, because why would there be anything valuable here?

Sighing Desmond placed his backpack on the end of the bed in the second room before returning to his small kitchen slash living room, turning on the cheap TV he sat on the kitchen bench stool and watched some news. The images fuzzed and voices cracked with the bad reception but it was better than no TV like he suffered back at The Farm, the only way he saw anything what when he and Clay snuck over to Shaun's and Rebecca's shared flat just on the border of good reception, and that was rare as the two were always away at work or college.

Rubbing his sore eyes Desmond switched the TV off and pulled out cheap microwavable meals from his fridge while taking out another from his freezer to let it defrost for tomorrow's dinner. He heated his meal for six minutes and devoured the spaghetti with a starved hunger.

Once finished he threw away the unwanted rubbish and decided on what he desired to take to snack on for University tomorrow. Well it wasn't really much like a University they just called it one because people could come and take degrees, but it was more of another school for people aged eighteen to thirty who want to expand their knowledge more. It is a school for children of celebrities, rich kids and top of the class cadets in the defence forces.

Desmond was lucky to even get past the front door let alone to speak with Al Mualim, he was for the first time in his life thankful for his father beating perfection into him. All his classes back home in all his schools were high marks, but Desmond had felt it all useless if he was just taming horses and teaching inconsiderate kids how to ride ponies. He wanted something else, a life built by his own hands and not the swinging ones of his father.

Yawning Desmond walked into his room and fell into his bed, he had checked out where the car parks were on the map. Maybe he will ride his motorbike to school tomorrow.