REWRITE: I started this fic when I was an angsty, hipster teenager. I reread it it recently and wow, this was BAD! Cringy wording, subplots that led nowhere. Kinda like that movie "THE ROOM".
Frankly, my dear readers, you deserved much, much better! This is the first chapter of version 2.0. I am in the process of doing a MAJOR rewrite. Let me know your thoughts, be critical.
I hope you enjoy this little fic!
Note: The title will tie in later. In chapter 17 to be exact. The fic came about when I was attending boarding school. Most movies and fics I red made them sound unrealistically fun. So I wanted to write about the downsides nobody was mentioning: snobby preps, over the top rules, feeling "oppressed" (hah). Plus, I just adore the pairing. This fic is dedicated my dear Austrian writer friend, .
-x-x-x-
I bet you are happy to be here!
Rain was cascading down the mountain. Pounding on the roof of the Rolce Royce; its rhythm, reminiscent of war drums. The car windows had fogged up. It was hard to make out any of the scenery. The weather was perfectly illustrating how trapped I felt. I slumped into my seat, letting out a defeated sigh. I could not believe that I was going through with this. I had not attended a regular school since kindergarten. This would be a "prestigious all-boys International School with boarding facilities". Not to say that it couldn't have been worse. It could've been a religious academy that required me to wear shorts. The school I was attending did have a uniform codex, though it did not involve shorts. That had been my one condition. I had told my father he was otherwise free to choose a school.
Until just a few months prior, I had been home schooled by tutors at my grandfather's mansion.
Then he got arrested.
First, I stayed at the mansion, which was absolutely fine with me. I had a housekeeper, cook and chauffeur. About a month ago the bank repossessed the building. That was when social services decided to play their part, bluntly stating that I wasn't allowed to live on my own, being only fifteen. They gave me the choice of either living with my father or attending a full-time boarding school. And that's how I ended up in this lovely situation.
The car rolled (or rather slithered) up the wet road. We were driving uphill on a winded mountain road, less than 30 km away from where I used to live. The mountain itself was a popular tourist destination, famous for its hot springs and ski resort. The school however, was located at the head of a remote, unpaved road. Isolated from society.
I have to admit, I was looking forward to a little bit of solitude. It would be nice to get away from the press and the turmoil.
Vibrations shook me out of my trance. We were driving on different ground now. A glance outside told me we were entering through a pompous stone portal, approaching an antique sandstone building. One of those that posh schools typically emulate when they wish to resemble castles. The driver stepped out and opened the luggage compartment. I quickly jumped out, just in time to grab my bags myself. I couldn't stand other people handling my stuff, even if it was only a suitcase filled with clothes. I thanked the chauffeur who in return wished me well and took off.
So here I was. May the torture begin.
With my suitcase in hand I walked up the sandstone stairs and rang the doorbell. Nothing happened. About a minute later, a man in his late twenties, opened the door.
"Welcome, you must be Kai."
I nodded.
"I'm the house father, come on in."
He led me down the hallway.
"This school has been around for almost 50 years now. It was founded shortly after the harbour was expanded, which connected the region to the rest of the world. International trade boomed and there was a need for a place where the foreign executives could send their children."
The story was all too familiar. My Grandfather had actively been a part of it. He had been sent to Japan as a the factory head in order to learn about innovative weapon technology and negotiate trade deals for the Soviet Union. Not every aspect of history should be celebrated.
The house parent handed me a pile of nicely folded clothes, each item neatly wrapped in plastic foil. My school uniform.
"Is size M okay?"
I nodded.
"These should fit. Do you have appropriate shoes?"
I nodded again.
"Good. Your room is on the third floor, just walk up those stairs, your classmates will show you around."
The inside of the building was equally as tacky as the outside. Beige wallpaper, antique photographs of the founders and alumni. Give me a break! This place resembled a dated hotel. I would not be surprised if it used to be one before they turned it into a school.
The stairs were steep and narrow. My bag was quite heavy. I had pre-ordered my textbooks and brought them alongside my clothes. By the time I reached the third floor I was somewhat short on breath. I took a mental note to up my exercise regime. This was laughable.
I had entered a common room. There was a big pool table in the centre and bean bags spread out on the floor around it. There was only one sofa, currently occupied by a stack of old magazines. About seven guys were assembled there. Eyeing me critically. I wasn't the most well put together looking guy. My clothes were generic. My shoes worn out. I did not fit the mold of a prep school boy.
"You must be the new guy." one of them said. There was something presumptuous and condescending about the way he stated the obvious.
It was all too tempting to make a snappy comeback, but I decided to act polite and keep composure. There was a time and a place for everything. It would not be wise to turn the student body against me on the first day.
"Yes." was my simple reply.
Then it began.
"Hey, you know who he looks like?"
"Yeah, yeah totally!"
Oh how I had looked forward to people going all "OMG you are Kai Hiwatari" on me! Being recognised in public is damn annoying. I'm baffled that Takao gets off on it the way he does.
"He totally looks like that guy Wyatt jerks off to! What was his name again? That athlete."
Excuse me! WHAT?
"Don't say things like that!" another guy cried out. His cheeks flushed red with shame.
"Remember when we were played the biscuit game and we put a poster of him up as a joke. I've never seen you get a boner that fast." the first guy insisted.
Jerk-off-dude denied all the accusations. "No, no, no! It wasn't because of him. There were five posters of naked ladies next to him."
At that point, I didn't know what the hell the so called 'biscuit-game' was, but it was getting a little bit too graphic for my taste. I was hoping to steer clear of this conversation, but they addressed me directly:
"Sorry man, if all of this disturbs you, but you gotta know, Wyatt here…" he pointed at jerk-off-dude. "…totally has a crush on this beyblader."
"Kai Hiwatari?" I suggested.
"Heh, you know him! I gotta say, you do look a little like him. Do you get that a lot?"
"That's because I am him."
Silence.
The poor guy, who they claimed was into me, turned pale. He looked like he was about to faint any second. His friends burst into mocking laughter and continued to rip on him.
So I was stuck with a bunch of perverted, judgemental idiots. Could state custody be worse than this? It was tempting to make a call and find out.
"Where's my room?" I asked bluntly, not addressing the matter of my hallmate being turned on by me or not.
"It's this one, right here." one of the guys said, pointing at a room in the back.
"Do I have a room mate?"
"No, you were supposed to be with Tom but he got expelled last week for hiding booze in his room."
Lucky for me, my potential room mate had a bad drinking habit and sucked at hiding the evidence. Good.
"Hey, if the loneliness bothers you, I bet Wyatt would love to share a room with you!" one of the guys suggested.
The guy I had nicknamed "jerk-off-dude" blushed even more and hissed an insult at his laughing companion. As far as my knowledge of German goes, he called him an 'Asshole'.
"I prefer to be alone." I informed them.
I marched off, expecting that to be the end of it.
"Do you need help with your bag?"
That was "jerk-off-dude", or rather Wyatt's voice. I didn't want him anywhere near my room, let alone inside of it so I declined.
"I carried it up the stairs, I am capable of carrying it three more meters."
"Oh okay." he seemed disappointed.
That didn't stop him from trotting after me. I had barely entered the room, turned around, when I found him standing right behind me.
"What do you want?"
"Please don't believe the stuff that the others said about me. They like to tease me. Especially Detlef, he can be a bastard sometimes.
"The asshole?"
"Yeah, he's the asshole."
Wyatt wanted to keep the conversation going. He asked me what nationality I was, even though I was pretty certain, he had learned my wikipedia page by heart. I decided to throw him off.
"Japanese."
My wikipedia page said Russian. Despite having Russian citizenship I did not have much of a connection to the country.
"You don't look Japanese."
"I'm not Japanese by blood, but I have lived here all my life." I explained. Thereby trashing the past he had built all his theories on.
Hopefully that would shut him up. I hadn't actually been completely honest with my biography (not like he didn't know the details from the internet already). I hadn't lived my entire life here, I had spent a couple years in Russia, training at the abbey. But that was none of his business.
"If you want to make friends, you should tell everyone you're Russian." he advised me.
"I don't need friends."
"Okay, let me rephrase: If you don't want people to piss on your toothbrush you should tell everyone you're Russian."
This conversation was getting absurd.
"Why would they do that if I'm Japanese?"
"Interns have a rivalry going with the externs. Basic boarding school fact. And since this is an international school, it's more of a race war."
"How progressive." I remarked.
"For the most part, there are no bad intentions. We speak English amongst each other. They speak Japanese, ..."
There was no need to explain the dynamics of being in a multilingual environment to me. I had been to airports before.
"...but there are some people who take it too far. Like with anything. Anyway, wanna know where I'm from?"
I didn't feel like doing him the favour. He was a little bit too excited about it, for my taste, which I viewed as snobbish. He was probably English. Though, he knew a German insults so he might be that. Or he could be from Timbuktu for what I cared. I didn't give a damn.
"No." I told him.
"Oh okay. You must be tired from your journey. Should I leave you to it."
"Yes I am, so get out!"
It came across harsher than I had intended for it to. I did appreciate his advice, I had no intentions of brushing my teeth with another guys' piss, but this night had been a handful.
I yawned. I hadn't lied about being tired. My room wasn't too awful. It was quite large, as it was supposed to be for two people. There was a lingering smell of cigarette smoke, though. Seems like Tony (or whatever my predecessors name was) didn't just have a drinking problem. Other than that, it was fine. I stripped down to my underwear and spread out on the bed.
I fell asleep instantly.
I slept well, no nightmares. Life became a living nightmare as soon as I woke up, or rather, as I got woken up. Lucky for me, I heard someone whispering, followed by the creaking of the bedroom door. I narrowly avoided getting a bucket of water dumped on me.
"Hold it right there!" I yelled.
The guy jumped in surprise, spilling the water on himself in the process. He got what he deserved.
"Haha, Cody wet his pants." I heard "the asshole" yell.
Attempting a childish trick like that... were these people really fit to become the ruling world elite?
"Shut up man, he's awake." the guy who wet himself hissed.
"Of course I'm awake. You were talking in the hallway. Do you expect me to sleep through that?"
Being a weak sleeper had come in handy that night. Otherwise, I would have spent the entire morning trying to air out my sheets with a hair-dryer.
The asshole shrugged. "I would have."
I sighed. What time was it anyway? I looked around my room, cursing myself for not having brought an alarm clock or watch. Finally, I gave up.
"What time is it?" I asked them reluctantly. It better be an appropriate hour!
"Six thirty. On a normal day you will need to get up at around that time anyway. Breakfast is from seven to seven thirty. Attendance is compulsory."
Compulsory Breakfast? Were they kidding? I'm not eating unless I want to. Who did the school think I was? Takao?
The guy who wet himself ensured me that they did not actually force feed their students.
"I usually just have some coffee. School starts at quarter to eight. I need one before first period, or else I'm a total zombie."
Amazing man, amazing. I was dying to hear about your morning routine. Why not start a youtube channel?
I climbed out of bed and reached for my shrink wrapped school uniform and a towel. The towel had the school logo printed on it, hotel style. How corny is that?
"Where are you going?" Cody asked me.
Was everyone here slow? And bored? Why did they want to know every minute detail of my dull life? I couldn't be bothered to dignify his question with words, so I held up my towel.
"The shower room is at the end of the corridor." he told me.
It wasn't something I wouldn't have figured out by myself. It was written on the door.
Unfortunately, the shower room was indeed a "shower room". Like one of those that you see at public swimming pools. No single cubicles. To make matters even worse, guess who was the one and only person in there with me at the moment!
"Oh, hello Kai, how was your first night?" Wyatt asked.
His face lit up with excitement.
Yep, jerk-off-dude!. Butt naked, soaping himself. And people wonder why guys from single sex-boarding schools turn gay…
It's pretty obvious to me now.
Thankfully, Wyatt had the courtesy to turn his back to me whilst I was undressing. While I showered, I kept my back to him the entire time and as far as I could tell, so did he. Even though he had been standing under the shower before I had come in, I finished earlier than him and got dressed.
The shirt and blazer fit fine, but the trousers were a bit baggy.
"They gave you size M pants, didn't they? Normally everyone gets them a size smaller, so it doesn't look as dorky." Wyatt advised. He was glancing over his shoulder, eying me up.
"I prefer mine big." I countered.
He blushed and turned away. "I'm sure you do."
Something about the way he acted made me wonder if there was some perverted ambiguity in my statement. I must have looked pretty lost since he decided to explain the double-meaning to me:
"Don't you get it? "Big" as in "big penises"."
"That's pathetic."
"It's the humour here. Everyone makes those kind of jokes."
"That doesn't make it any less pathetic."
He shrugged. "You'll get used to it."
I hope not. I didn't say anything and simply left the shower room. Wyatt was still showering. Who knows, what took him so long?
Immature kids! They must've all been about my age but all acted like total infants. What the hell had I gotten myself into, here? This was supposed to be one of the most prestigious learning facilities in the country. Not some rich kid day-care with homoerotic undertones.
-x-x-x-
So that was the first chapter. I hope you liked it!
Leave a review if so!