Eat, Pray, Lie
It would have been nice if he had been consulted about this. Maybe he was just pissy about Jack dying. But it would have been nice if, you know, somebody had fucking asked him before deciding "sure, Alex will be happy moving to fucking America for the rest of his life." Sure, he liked Sabina. He'd known her for like eight months, though.
What about Tom? What about Jerry? What about literally any other adult that had been in his life since he was seven? Sure, Henry Bray was strict, but he had taken in other students before now. Surely it would have made sense to at least ask him?
Alex had decided to just be a little bit of a pain in the ass. It wasn't like he was going to burn anything down. Besides, this school seemed like it needed a bit of spicing up. Who in the hell made parents sign out anyone past the age of ten? Really? Alex had been taking the trains home since he was seven. By himself. With Jack picking him up on stormy days or after football practice. Alex was going to categorically refuse to call it soccer. Just no.
They arrived at the school in the car. Sabina smiled at him. Alex gave her a little wave as they stepped out of the car. He was suddenly flocked by a bunch of people. They all looked to be about his age.
"Whoooa, you must be that adopted brother Sabina mentioned. Welcome to Littlewood High School!"
Alex took one look at the bright eager eyes and smiled. He had found his first sucker. "Ah, hello, I am Alexei. I come from Russia."
Alex internally cringed as an awful cross between an Italian and Russian accent came out of his mouth. Surely someone would notice that the accent was fraudulent? The other boy beamed at him. "Wow! Your English is going great, bro! Feel free to ask me for help editing your essays. I'm on the debate team."
Sabina was shooting him a death glare. Alex was barely containing his laughter. That had worked?! "I'm Duncan, by the way."
Alex took Duncan's beaming smile in and allowed himself to be dragged towards the school. Duncan grinned. "So, uh, it's a pretty normal school. We have water fountains! And a vending machine! And don't get sloppy joe from the cafeteria, they add way too much sugar and it tastes sweet…"
Duncan managed to steer him towards the office as he continued his ramble. He knocked on the door and they were buzzed in. Alex thought that seemed odd. Why the locked door to the office? Duncan prodded him and then spoke up.
"Sabina's new brother is here! Alexei, say hi!"
Alex waved at them. The principal frowned. "I thought your name was Alexander."
Alex shrugged. In for a penny, in for a pound. "When I was adopted, I took the chance for a name change. I want to blend in with America. Alexei is very Russian. Alexander goes both ways."
The principal looked at him. Alex wondered if he wasn't laying it on too thick. "Are you…able to do classes in English?"
Alex beamed at the man. This was far too much fun. "Do not worry, Bossman. I took IELTS and got eight. There was a visa mix-up and they thought I wanted college now. It is just my accent that is very bad, you see. Reading and writing goes very well."
The principal rolled his eyes. Alex thought he seemed pleased at that. "Sounds like the federal government. Here is your schedule. Uh, they have those in Russia, right?"
Alex nodded vigorously. "Yes, the orphanage had a very strict schedule. They beat you if you do not follow it."
The principal blanched slightly. Duncan's eyes went very wide. Well, Alex supposed that he had just bullshitted his way into an excuse for his intense scarring. "Um, here it's just detention. You sit quietly in a room and you do worksheets."
Alex glanced at the schedule. It didn't look horrible. "Yes. Ah, how long is the solitary confinement?"
The principal stared at him. There was an awkward silence throughout the entire office. "It's not- Ah, you know what, we can have you discuss this later with the school counselor. Try to make it to first period on time!"
Duncan carefully dragged Alex out of the office. "Are you okay?"
Alex gently patted Duncan on the shoulder. "Very. No more awful orphanage."
Duncan just looked at him. "Bro, why didn't you just, like, run away?"
Alex paused and stroked his face. "Well, the orphanage only gave me three concussions this year. I decided to run away if there were five in one year."
Duncan just looked at him in abject horror. Alex heard a bell ring above them. "Isn't that the class bell?"
Duncan snapped out of it as a flood of people headed toward them. He shook his head. "Nah, that's the fifteen-minute warning bell. Let's go talk to the nurse at lunch. You did get head scans, right?"
Alex felt himself internally sparkle with glee. He had not, in fact, gotten any head scans. "What head scans?"
Duncan just facepalmed. And muttered something about shitty third-world countries under his breath. Alex was tempted to correct him, but there wouldn't be any fun in that.
Besides, he was committed to this act now. He would need to brush up on his Russian, but, as long as nobody questioned him until next year, he would be good to go. The one thing that Ian had been good for was teaching him how to learn languages exceedingly fast.
Duncan glanced at his schedule. "We have six classes together. Don't worry, I'll give you directions for the other two!"
Alex nodded along. Duncan led them to their first period. Alex had a feeling that Duncan was the kind of gossip who'd have the news spread around and hushed from his ears by nightfall.
Alex was grinning slightly madly by the time they entered the classroom. At least his school supplies were in order. Alex had brought all of his books and notebooks. This should be an okay day.
Based on a prompt by mediaboy (see story summary). This is the 302nd work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection. We have an index of all the prompts used in this event so far and going forwards - join the discord to get access to the online index (and to take part in our events, chat about everything and anything, and meet a load of awesome people!
