Chapter 2-Clark's Coffee

The morning sun shone brightly into the dorm room of Nick and Sebastian's dorm room through the windows. Nick, who got the bed closest to the window groaned and opened one of his eyes. "Merde! Sebastian forgot to close the curtain," he mumbled sleepily. The French glanced at his friend who's still sleeping, snoring a little bit too loud. Glancing at his phone, he woke up and stretched his body. It was half past six, there was no way he could sleep anymore. So Nick decided to do some exercise at the Dalton Gym.

When Nick came back to his dorm, Sebastian had just finished showering. Nick opened the door to find a rather wet Sebastian only in his towel. "Oi, where were you?" asked Sebastian while wearing his clothes.

Nick closed the door and headed to the bathroom. "Gym, you forgot to close the curtain, I can't sleep anymore."

Sebastian chuckled. "Sorry, I'll remember next time."

After both of them were ready, Sebastian took Nick to the cafeteria, where all students were having their breakfast. Sebastian pulled Nick to a group of boys with warbler pin on their blazer. "Guys, guys, guys," Sebastian called. "I want you all to meet our new friend, Nicholas Duval, the French student and potential warbler."

"Wow, is he going to audition?" asked a blonde warbler.

Sebastian nodded. "Yes, as soon as possible. I think today's a good day." The boys nodded and hummed in agreement.

Nick turned his head. "pourqoui? Pardon? Today?" he was not prepared. "I haven't practiced anything."

A small boy smiled at him. "It's okay, I am sure you'll do fine. If Sebastian invites you to audition, then you must be good." The boy reminded Nick of what Rachel said yesterday.

The blonde warbler stood up. "Boys, where are your manners? We haven't properly introduced ourselves to Nick." He then waved at Nick. "The name's Jeffrey, but you call me Jeff. That's Thad, Trent, David, Jon, Wes, and Skylar," he said, pointing each boy who smiled at Nick.

Nick nodded, trying to remember the names. "Nice to meet you all."

Sebastian put his satchel at one chair. "Alright, let's take our breakfast,Nick."

Nick whistled as he walked through the Dalton hallway to the parking lot. The audition went well. Nick finally sang Build to Last from Melee. At first he was very nervous, his voice was barely heard, then Jeff started singing back tune, and the rest of the warblers harmonizing with Nick's voice, giving him confidence. At the end of the song all of them cheered and he was immediately accepted. After warbler practice, Nick asked if Sebastian could lend Nick his car for awhile, as his car would be sent to Dalton next week. He spotted a black BMW and climbed in. After turning on google maps, Nick drove away to a coffee shop, Sebastian's recommendation.

Clark's Coffee was engraved in a piece of wood, hanging on the roof of a small coffee shop. The strong smell of coffee hit Nick when he entered the coffee shop. It was warm inside, and so cozy, with black and white tiles, old photographs hanging on the wall, a gramophone sat nicely in one corner, and all the sofas, they looked inviting. Nick joined the line of people ordering coffee. He hummed the song he had used for audition just now. The warblers was so cool, and they were happy to accept Nick as a new member. Nick smiled, remembering Jeff giving him a loud cheer and a bone crush hug.

"Next please," the sound of barista pulled Nick back to reality.

Nick stepped forward and smiled. "I would like one vanilla latte, and two strawberry muffins, please." He was so obsessed with anything that had strawberry in it, family trait.

The barista nodded. "That will be $7.50."

Nick paid for his coffee and muffins and sat at one table facing outside. He was munching at his muffin happily when he heard someone called his name. Nick turned around to find Sebastian's friend, with a coffee on her hand, smiling at him. Nick smiled although he groaned internally, he forgot the girl's name.

"Hi, remember me? Rachel, Sebastian's friend?" asked Rachel, as if she could read Nick's mind.

Yes, Rachel, Nick finally remembered. He stood up. "Hi, Rachel. Nice to meet you here. Are you alone?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, can I join you?"

"Sure, please."

Rachel smiled gratefully and sat across Nick. "You're not with Sebastian?"

Nick shook his head. "No, he has emergency lacrosse practice."

"I see," she said, then sipped her coffee and sighed. Coffee from Clark's Coffee always had a positive effect to Rachel. Call her corny, but she thought Clark's Coffee was the best coffee ever made. She and Sebastian accidentally found this coffee shop on one rainy night where Sebastian's tires went flat and they had to wait until someone helped them. Rachel was sure Sebastian recommended this coffee shop to Nick. "Did you go here with taxi?"

"Sebastian let me use his car. My car won't be here until next week. Dad decided to ship my car from Paris. I say why don't I buy one here? It's simpler that way," Nick said.

Rachel laughed. "You're spoiled, Nick," she said in mocking tone.

"How dare you," Nick cried, clutching his chest in mock pain.

Rachel rolled her eyes fondly, Nick was such a funny boy. "Well, uptown boy, how about I take you for a tour, seeing you're having a free time."

Nick raised his eyebrow. "I'd love to. Where are we going?"

Rachel stood up. "Just follow my car."

"You bring me to.." Nick said to the girl beside him. "A park?" Rachel led him to a park not far from the coffee shop. It was pretty wide, with a pond in the middle of the park. Children were riding bikes, some people were either jogging, or enjoying the afternoon with their friends.

Rachel chuckled. "Where did you think I would take you? Museum?"

"Well, yeah."

Rachel laughed, hard. She didn't care that some people were looking at her. "Nick, this is not Paris, we don't have big museums with grand architecture."

When Rachel laughed Nick realized he liked hearing it. Her laugh sounded like angel voice. "Hey, it's common for tourist to go to historical places, in our case, museum."

Rachel walked faster to catch Nick, he walked so fast. "Museums are boring, this park, you won't find it anywhere." Rachel extended her hands to emphasize what she said. She pointed to a place where a baby was trying to walk to his parents. "See, you won't find like that in museums, this park offers life and joy."

Nick followed Rachel to a bench near the pond. Strangely, he found just sitting there with Rachel was, relaxing. The cracking sound of dry leaves being stepped on didn't sound so tragic anymore, the constant autumn wind teasing his hair didn't annoy him too much anymore, and he realized this was the first time he actually found autumn was bearable, but still not enjoyable. Not since her mother died on a cold autumn day.

"Hey, what are you thinking?" asked Rachel.

Nick smiled softly. "Nothing."

Rachel raised her eyebrow. "I know you're thinking about something. Sebastian does that a lot too," she said. "You were so quiet just now, your eyes were glassy, and your eyebrows wrinkle, Sebastian do those things whenever something's on his mind."

Nick felt a pang of jealousy. Sebastian and she seemed close. "Are you and Sebastian…" Nick trailed, unsure whether to continue or not.

"What?"

Nick played with his tie. "You know..dating?" Nick didn't even realize he was holding his breath, waiting for Rachel to answer.

Rachel laughed. "What? No! Seb is like a brother to me. We've been friends since we were kids. Even though he used to live in Paris, he spent his holiday in New York, his father is my father's best friend." She shook her head. "Anyway, what makes you think that Sebastian and I are dating?"

Nick shrugged. "You've mentioned his name twice today, and Sebastian talks about you often." He didn't know why, but he was happy to hear there was no special relationship between Sebastian and Rachel.

Rachel smiled softly. "We're close." She didn't put further explanation. For awhile, they were quiet, just enjoying each other' s presence. Strangely, Rachel felt comfortable near Nick. He was calm, polite, and cute. She glanced at the boy beside him and found him staring to the pond. Rachel noticed that Nick's eyes were grey, just like her.

"Hey, your eyes are grey," Rachel pointed.

Nick turned to her. "Yes, they are. Why?"

"I have grey eyes too, see?" she said, pointing to hers. Rachel got her grey eyes from her dad, while her papa had black eyes.

Magical, that was the first thing that Nick thought when he stared into the grey eyes in front of him. He cleared his throat to clear his mind. What was he doing? Crushing on a girl on his first week in Ohio? He had to focus. "Do you want another cup of coffee? It's getting colder," Nick said instead.

Rachel nodded, but suddenly her phone rang. "Hello, papa?... with a friend…what?...alright I'll go home now." She pocketed her phone and pursed her lips. "Sorry, Nick. I don't think I can go back to Clark, papa wants me to go home now."

Nick ignored the upsetting feeling inside him and stood. "It's okay, I can go back alone."

Rachel grabbed her bag. "It's nice talking with you, Nick. See you soon." She waved at Nick and walked to her car.

Nick slapped his chin. "I forgot to ask her number."

Yep, chapter two's up. I kind of change their eye color, to fit the story. You'll find out later why they have same eye color. Read and review? :)