Reid couldn't believe his terrible luck as he sat in the back of the black car, staring absentmindedly out the window as he watched the green forest fly by at a boringly normal pace and wished, not for the first time, he was back home in Ipswich. He'd admit there wasn't much of an aesthetic difference between his rainy home town and the small town of Forks but for the life of him he couldn't get past how dirty it looked compared to his home and how dreary it seemed when he didn't have Tyler or even Pogue and Caleb around.
He had made the mistake of pushing his parents too far, although if anyone asked him he had done not one thing wrong and he would stick to that statement. A girl, conveniently related to Aaron in one way or another, had called Tyler out at Nicky's yelling and carrying on about him not being man enough and Reid hadn't been about to let that just slide. He had ruined the girl's reputation, outed her for the things she obviously didn't want her parents or anyone else to know and had made it known that he had done it.
Although in hindsight even Reid had to admit that being a little bit more discreet about the situation he of course didn't regret it, until of course his parents had found out and had decided that it was time Reid got to know some of their more distant family until his parents were able to cover up what he had done.
"Sir, we're here." The driver spoke and Reid sighed out, breaking from his thoughts and looking over to the driver who got out and came to Reid's door to open it for him.
"Great…" Reid mumbled, scowl in full view as he looked at the tiny double story house in front of him before turning to the driver as he grabbed Reid's things out of the trunk and began carrying them inside.
"The house looked as if it was maybe even less than a quarter of the size of his parent's home, not nearly as well cared for either and Reid gave a small huff of annoyance as he looked to the other side of the street to see another house not unlike the one he would now be forced to live in. He already hated the place even before he stepped foot onto the creaking front porch and made a mental note to mention the old state of the house should his parents call him, before fully stepping into the house and giving a tiny groan.
If he had thought the house looked small from the outside it looked even smaller inside, with tall bookshelves in places they shouldn't been and other things piled up in teetering stacks that looked like they could swallow Reid whole if they ever fell onto him. It all vaguely reminded him of a show he had seen called Hoarders and Reid gave a tiny shiver of disgust at the thought of the house being that bad, wrinkling his nose as he followed the driver who seemed to know exactly where to go.
"Your Aunt is a good lady." The driver broke the silence with a rueful smile as they walked up the stairs and Reid didn't bother hiding the sneer on his face as he looked away.
"Sure, she is." He mumbled, nose wrinkling even more as they reached what he assumed would be his room.
It was half the size of the dorm that he and Tyler had shared and from the looks of it there was also only one bathroom in the house, although he could only wish that it wasn't as bad as the mess that was the rest of the house.
"There you go." The driver spoke again as he dropped the suitcase on the bed before turning to Reid and smirking as he held out a hand, clearly assuming that Reid would tip him.
"See ya." Reid hummed, pointedly looking to the door of his room with a sarcastic smirk and an attitude that clearly told the man where he could shove the thoughts of getting a tip.
The man gave an angry grunt and stomped out of the room, his clear anger forcing Reid to follow along behind him and make sure the man didn't do anything to the teetering stacks of things scattered around. He locked the door once the man was out and huffed out a long-tired sigh before making his way around the ground floor to the kitchen in the far back corner.
A yellow post-it-note on the bench caught his attention and he yanked it up as he shuffled his way to the cupboard to look for something to eat.
"Reid, Sorry I'm not there to welcome you but the station called me in. Left overs are in the fridge. See you tomorrow." He read the note out loud before groaning in annoyance, scrunching the small harmless piece of paper up before throwing it into the small bin.
Without bothering to look at the food he walked back up stairs to his room, content to sleep the afternoon away after the plane ride and drive he had had to endure to get to the small rainy town and as he shut and locked his door he silently hoped the next day would be even minutely better than that day had been.
The next morning was surprisingly not unlike how his usual mornings at Spenser would start, the dull light shining through the window and faint sounds from out side his door made Reid think he was home for a moment before he remembered where he was and sat up with a tired groan as his phone began to ring.
He picked it up and answered without bothering to look at the caller ID, sitting up in his bed and stretching his back with a tired groan.
"Woah, at this time?" Tyler's playful voice rang through from the other end of the phone and Reid smiled, putting his phone on loud speaker as he got out of bed to change.
"You know me, baby boy. Anytime!" Reid laughed, amusement trickling into his once prickly and frustrated mood, making the start of his first day at a new school all that much better.
Although even with the help of a call from Tyler the thought of going to a small town public school compared to his prestigious private school hit a nerve and Reid sighed, his mood dropping slightly as he picked out his clothes and began changing into them.
"Sure. Hey don't you have school soon?" Tyler asked teasingly, earning a small grunt from Reid as he slid on his finger less gloves and picked his phone back up.
"Shut up, Baby boy. I can still get your ass transferred here." He grumbled as he stomped down the stairs and into the kitchen where his aunt was standing in front of the coffee machine with a frustrated frown.
The woman was so unlike his well groomed and manicured mother that if it wasn't for her matching grey-blue eyes Reid would have thought the woman was a stranger, with her curvier figure and her insanely curly blonde hair. He cleared his throat a bit and put his phone down after he mumbled for Tyler to wait a minute before walking closer, ignoring her jump of surprise he tapped a few buttons before stepping back as the machine began to work its magic.
"Oh, thank you Reid." She spoke with a smile, eyes seeming to light up like Pogue's did at the thought of coffee.
Reid gave a simple nod in return and grabbed his phone, placing it back to his ear only to hear Tyler ranting on and on about something he had clearly been meant to hear. And as he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl he snickered, listening to the remnants of whatever it was his best friend was speaking about.
"Reid you should get going!" His aunt called and Reid gave another nod, running up the stairs to his room to look for the back pack he had been told he would need.
"Why are you laughing?" Tyler asked, his voice showing his slight frustration and Reid could just imagine the child-like pout on the others lips that earned him the nickname 'baby boy'.
"I have no idea what you were talking about, baby boy. I put the phone down." Reid snickered softly, grabbing the bag that held the books he had used in Spencer before walking down the stairs again.
"Ass. I gotta go dude. Classes." Tyler rushed out, his voice showing his sudden panic and Reid imagined he had just looked at the time as Tyler would usually be ready at the classroom relatively early.
With a quick goodbye they hung up the phone, Reid slipping the device into his pocket as he began towards the door where his aunt seemed to be waiting all dressed and ready for work. It took Reid a moment to recognise she worked as a police receptionist, barely holding in the snort when he thought of the woman answering the phone with the same overly cheerful voice she had used when she had thanked him for helping her.
"Are you sure your okay to walk? I can ask Charlie to take me with him so you can take the car." She spoke, seemingly unsure and Reid scoffed as they both walked out of the front door.
"In that thing? No way." Reid grunted, giving the small hatchback a wrinkled nose before letting his eyes widen a little from mild shock when the woman swatted at his arm with a protective look in her eyes.
"My baby is beautiful, young man. Don't make that face." She spoke, tilting her chin upwards as she walked to the car and seemed to gently caress the roof, mumbling as she went along.
Reid wrinkled his nose yet again and simply shook his head as he walked past the car, turning right and beginning the walk to his new public school. He had seen the sign for the place when he had been driven to the house and from the glimpse he had gotten of it the place was nothing like what he was used to, especially in size.
He glanced to the side as a loud rumbling came storming past him, raising an eyebrow at the faded red pickup truck and shaking his head in seeming disgust as he continued his walk. He couldn't believe how someone could drive that car, it was even worse than the piece of crap his aunt had and he had thought it was bad enough. But the red beast with its load deafening engine was above and beyond the poor hatchbacks ugly curse, at least the hatchback was made in this century.
It was another five minutes before Reid reached the school, still early by any standard considering the lack of cars around him and despite being a people person he was glad to have a moment to breath and truly see the school in all its glory. Not that it had much.
Reid took off again, begrudgingly following the signs leading him to the forest and giving a tiny groan when the small office came into view on the others side of the Gymnasium. In front of the office was the school parking lot, complete with students milling around their cars and talking to the friends that Reid was willing to bet they had known their whole lives.
It was like the students has a sixth sense and eyes snapped towards him as he made his way to the other side of the lot, his chin held high in his usual cocky demeanour and his gloved hands moving by his side. Reid had always loved attention, when he had been a young boy he had used mischief to grab the attention of the adults around him and when he reached high school he quickly learned that he liked the new kind of attention he could receive from the opposite gender and his own alike.
He glanced around himself absentmindedly as he walked, noticing the old and battered nature of all the cars around him with slight surprise and nearly froze when he saw a few right next to the office entrance. He could clearly see their makes and models as he went, checking out the expensive cars with interest and forgetting the lot of rust buckets around him.
He hummed, tilting his head curiously as he slowed slightly near the cars and paid no mind to the clear owners where they stood in a group silently. Although he had seen and driven better the Volvo and the convertible were a nice sight, a clear sign that Reid would have to get his parents to let him buy his own car for the rainy small town.
As he waltzed past the group he didn't spare them a glance, much like he usually did back home to other students at Spencer and he wasn't about to change now in an equally small school that he would hopefully not be spending much time in anyway. He would spend his time here free of all his ties in Ipswich before he was allowed back, after all he needed to take advantage of the fact that Caleb could no longer lecture him bout his usage and the fact that he no longer had to bother with making friends.
A light ding was heard as he entered the school office, followed by an overly polite and overly cheerful greeting from the receptionist as she jumped to stand and held out his papers to him.
"You must be Peggy's nephew! Welcome to Forks!" She happily called, speaking loud enough that he was sure the people outside of the office could hear her words as they walked past.
"Uh yeah…" Reid mumbled, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked away from her and out the window overlooking the parking lot.
As she began speaking about where his classes were he let himself tune her out, noticing how the students that had previously been in the lot chatting were now slowly making their way in and to what Reid could only assume were their classes. In Spencer they hadn't really lingered near their cars too often in the morning, mostly because they had dorms and had no need to drive anywhere so early in the morning.
"You got it?" The woman's voice suddenly broke him from his thoughts and he looked up with a small smile, clearly forced as he took the papers.
"Sure." He spoke, turning on his heel abruptly once he had the papers and beginning to make his way towards what he assumed was the classrooms.
He walked slowly, staring curiously down at his timetable before wrinkling his nose in disgust and shaking his head a little. Spenser had to have been more advanced than this school because he had been placed into a lot of high grade classes, unless of course his parents had a hand in pushing him into harder classes. Neither really surprised him as while he rarely seemed like he paid his teachers any attention he retained the words they spoke and the words he read when Tyler used to force him to study.
"Hi, you're the new kid, right?" A voice suddenly spoke and Reid glanced up to see a small Asian boy grinning at him in excitement, although Reid did notice his eyes give his body a once over.
"Mhmm." Reid grunted, looking away again as he began walking only to have to other boy walk with him with a bounce in his step and a cheerful attitude that was already grating on Reid's nerves.
"I'm Eric Yorkie, best journalist in the school." The boy grins, overly excited smile nearly blinding Reid when he glanced over and he couldn't help the snort that left him.
"Looking for a front-page model?" Reid spoke sarcastically as he smirked, looking away from the other as he neared the building to see which classroom was listed on the paper.
"Of course." Eric flirted back, earning himself a raised eyebrow from Reid before he stopped at the door of the classroom he was to be in now.
Reid snorted softly as Eric waltzed in, clearly proud of his own actions as he went walking to his seat in the middle of the classroom and Reid glanced around the boy to check out his surroundings. The small room was nothing like the rooms at Spenser, though he hadn't exactly expected them to be with the schools overall lacklustre appearance, with windows on the opposite wall and cliché desks sat in rows.
He sauntered up to the teacher, smirk playing on his lips when he saw the students whispering to each other out of the corner of his eye and handing the folded paper to the unimpressed teacher behind the desk.
"Mr. Garwin, welcome to Forks High. I've heard a lot about you. I'm Mr. Daniels." The teacher spoke in a stern and careful voice, nearly showing Reid just the things that he had been told about him.
"Cool." Reid spoke defiantly and took the paper back, waltzing his way down the rows before sitting right at the back of the classroom next to a large male who seemed frustrated.
Reid situated himself, leaning back in his seat and watching as the teacher started the lesson with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. He rolled his eyes as the man spoke about Romeo and Juliet, eyes moving instead to scan the room around him and the people in it.
They all seemed relatively boring, dressed in dreary looking clothes with equally dreary facial features and as Reid looked over them they seemed relatively content in their surroundings which Reid felt was completely absurd. The only person other than Eric's relatively interesting attitude was the male he had sat next to, he seemed completely out of place in the room and didn't seem to really care about it much like Reid himself.
The male was huge, even taller than Pogue from what Reid had seen, with dark brown hair and muscles bulging as if he couldn't wait to leave. It was as if the male felt his eyes because in the second Reid had looked at him he looked back, amber eyes meeting Reid's icy blue ones and sending a shiver rolling down his spine. He hadn't felt it since what had happened with Chase months ago and the mere thought of something like that happening now, while he was alone and away from his brothers, terrified Reid much more than he'd ever like to admit.