AU; Sebastian's a nerd and has been transferred to prep school because of being bullied, and he's just meet his two new roommates, an overly cheerful boy named Jeff, and Hunter, a military school reject whose a year behind because of his behavior and his domineering attitude towards other students. It's going to be a long year.
.
Sebastian wasn't sure how he felt about getting stuck in a triple room part-way through a school year. He was certain the other two already there, a Hunter P. Clarington and a Jeffery R. Sterling if his papers were correct, would probably be less than thrilled about such an awkward new addition into their lives. Because the thing was, Sebastian was awkward. At least here he'd have a uniform and not have to wear whatever over-priced and nonsensical outfit his parents threw at him. Because none of that was really him, it was just stuff that had been bought for him. And that ruined whatever effect it otherwise might have had on making him look more than halfway decent.
Because he knew he looked decent.
Until he started talking. Then he looked like an idiot.
He also currently felt like an idiot which didn't help, lost and alone in a school he'd never been to, dropped off at the front door like he knew anything besides how to get to the office, where all they'd done was hand him a map and some papers and sent him on his way. He only even found his room because he'd rather literally turned a corner too fast and run into a kid named Nick who was apparently friends with Jeff. Whichever one of them Jeff was going to be.
He shifted his over-sized duffel bag on his shoulder and slowly opened the door. It was empty. Sweet relief. Scuttling into the room he shut the door behind himself and paused. He hadn't brought much, just two bags, one of which was mostly his lacrosse stuff which he wasn't even sure he'd need, and the other the few personal belongings he cared about, but the room already looked like it didn't have space for him. There were three beds sure, a bunk bed and a single, but Sebastian wasn't seeing anything beyond that to indicate three people could actually fit in here.
He didn't have any classes today, he didn't know anyone, and his roommates were missing so he couldn't even unpack. But he felt, for some other reason, agitated. Like something was wrong with the air. He sighed and sat on the lower bunk bed. He figured it had to be his anyway – the top one had stuff strewn on it, and the single bed was so anally-retentively neat it had to belong to someone.
He pulled out his computer and flicked Skype on.
- Blaine: Offline
- Quinn: Offline
- Parents (&Jett): Offline
He let it idol in the background as he did some other things, paperwork for the school and whatever else he'd need filed away for tomorrow. He almost didn't hear the door open nearly an hour later. He turned his head, glasses near-threatening to fall off his face, and found a tall, skinny blond with Nick behind him and some other, slightly shorter male behind the both of them with a face carved out of a rock with mossy brown hair.
"Nick, you lied, he's way past kind of cute." The blond nearly bounced over to him. "Hi I'm Jeff, you must be Sebastian. Can we call you Seb?"
"Er."
Nick appeared behind Jeff again, hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, he can be a lot to handle sometimes."
"Really? Sounds like he's fine with how you handle him, Nick."
"Hunter!" Jeff squeaked back.
Oh, ok, awkward. Sebastian thought. He knew he wasn't straight, probably not even remotely. But he wasn't so used to having that kind of information dumped on him so openly. Public schools could be kinda harsh.
"Smythe's fine." Sebastian said. It's what most people had called him before anyway.
"Ugh, you're nearly as bad as Clarington over there already and you haven't even meet yet. Hunter, would it kill you to cross the room and say hello?"
Hunter's face twitched. Interesting.
"It might, Sterling." He said, turning and standing so much in Sebastian's personal space he wondered how that was even possible considering Jeff was partly between the two of them, and Sebastian was also sitting down.
"Hunter Peterson Clarington, Dalton Academy, Former Cadet, Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, Kitty Hawk Air Society."
Sebastian's head tilted, "That would explain why you smell like a cat."
Jeff snorted and turned slightly away, Hunter seemed to be unsure weather to glare more at Jeff, or at him, and Nick seemed to be trying not loose it completely tucked in his little corner.
"And that," Hunter said, stalking over his his side of the room, "is why I'm not friends with such people."
"Oh come on," Jeff said, "you're friends with me. It's one remark. One funny remark. Get over it."
And Sebastian wondered how Jeff didn't turn to stone under the look Hunter shot him. He was pretty sure he couldn't breath and it wasn't even directed at him.
" 'Bas," Nick said, drawing his attention, "do you want a tour? Jeff and I can take you around, if you're not busy."
Sebastian smiled, "Might be good to get away from Mr. Puss over there."
At that moment though, Sebastian felt something connect with the back of his skull, and he was falling before he was even completely up. Everything was sort of fuzzy, though he was sure that was more from loosing his glasses and being disoriented and anything worse or concussive.
Though he was dead certain, somewhere behind him Jeff was screaming at Hunter.
###
"Hunter, you're suppose to be nice."
"Maybe I don't want to be."
"Well can you not, you know, do the you know what with other people around?"
Silence.
"Hunter."
"Leave it alone Sterling, I can control myself."
###
"Sebastian?"
Sebastian heard his name hovering somewhere to his vague right, and tried to look up. He squinted. It looked like it was probably Nick, but he could really only assume that since he'd just been standing there.
"I can't see anything." Sebastian said, as if it wasn't totally obvious.
"Yeah well...," it sounded like Jeff trailed off, "you can't see anything?"
"No, I think my glasses fell under the bed or something."
"You've never seen yourself without your glasses?" Jeff sounded the dangerous kind of curious Sebastian didn't like.
"Not really." Sebastian replied, though that seemed to dumbfound the other male. "I used to borrow Trent's contacts for lacrosse practice, but my mother always criticized us for it. We're not really the same prescription even if we are twins. And it's one of the easier ways to tell us apart anyway. I probably just look like whatever he looks like."
"Holy shit, there's a second one of you?"
"Don't make it sound like a good thing, Jeff."
"Hunter, I'm going to kick you if you don't shut up."
"I'd like to see you try."
"Oh, I can try," Jeff muttered, "it just wont do any damage."
"Naturally." Sebastian could almost hear Hunter smiling.
"Look," Sebastian butted in, "when you two are done spitting at each other, can someone give me my vision back?"
"I wasn't spitting at him." Oddly, it was Hunter who replied.
"You're like a cat, you spit, it's what cats do."
"Do I look like I have a pussy to you?"
"I don't know, I haven't checked have I?"
"Found 'em!" Nick said, pushing a familiar feeling object into Sebastian's hand.
"Thank you, Nick." Sebastian said, haphazardly putting the think black frames back on his face. "Really, the most helpful person here isn't even the one I have to live with."
"Well, Hunter's never helpful." Jeff added, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm getting that vibe." Sebastian said, getting up properly this time as Hunter busied himself with whatever it was he was meant to be doing, "So, tour?"
###
The school itself consisted of a few buildings, but it wasn't as large as it had first seemed from outside. Even if it was two stories or three in some places. And all very fancy at that, his parents would have loved it from the start, was probably why they'd sent him here. But the more they walked around, the more Sebastian felt maybe he could get used to it too.
"That wasn't so bad really." Jeff said, coming to stop on a main landing with Sebastian and Nick still follow along behind him.
"No." Sebastian agreed. "I might still get lost tomorrow, but it's easy enough."
"Oh, I wasn't talking about the school, that was always going to be the easy part. I meant Hunter."
"What, was Hunter on good behavior today?"
"Kind of." Jeff said, as if he wasn't sure how much information to give him. "He didn't attack you or anything, then again he does have to live with you."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"He has a habit of pushing people up against walls. And not even in the kind of could be sexy way, more the, he forgot to get new steroids and is in a bad mood sort of way."
"So we live with a drug addict." Some secrets perhaps were better learned on your own, Sebastian supposed, but that didn't sound like one of them.
"More or less." Jeff said, pulling on his jacket. "I got in trouble for it once, but that was a while ago. The school knows, but doesn't really do anything to stop it. He doesn't share with anyone on campus, so I guess they figure it's a contained problem. Plus, he's here on scholarship, and it'd make them look bad having to replace one of their team captains."
Sebastian tilted his head slightly.
"He's the lead of the show choir." Nick answered. "It's called the Warblers, they even have little pet birds."
"We don't have one, of course," Jeff added, "because only new members have to take care of the animals. They're cute though, when they're not popping on everything. I'm not saying you should join or anything, but Hunter and I are both in it. Nick too."
"I'll think about it."
Really, Sebastian wasn't sure he could even get past living with these people, let alone voluntarily hanging out with them. And if Hunter was lead? Yeah, no thanks.
.
A/N:
Unsure if I'll continue or not, depends on if I can think of anywhere solid to really go with it from here. Would probably end up Hunter / Sebastian though.