Weston College Prep

by thaliaarche

A blond starlet. His bespectacled stalker. A rich chess player. A redhead actor who's superficial on the surface. A perfectionist obsessed with Harvard. A valedictorian-to-be with one hell of a poker face. A shifty youth whose only mood is subjunctive. All seven juniors report to the counselor's office, after violence breaks out in the hallowed dining hall of Weston College Prep.

3. Chapter 3

Grell

Counselor: "Why don't you like Alois Trancy?"

Grell: "He's rude, crude, overappreciated, undertalented, and he keeps stealing my roles in the school plays, as if pro theater wasn't enough."

Counselor: "Anything else?"

Grell: "What makes you think there's anything else?"

Counselor: "You tell me."

Grell: "Fine. He, um, is stealing someone I care about from me. Not in a romantic or friendship sense, and Alois probably doesn't even know . . . But I still hate him for enabling this whole mess in the first place."

William

William: "Is there a 'romance' section on the Common App?"

Counselor: "No."

William: "Then no, I've never been romantically linked to anyone in my life. I may look for a suitable life partner when I am in at Harvard and have more time, but, right now, a relationship is like a thankless unpaid internship you can't even put on your resume."

Ciel

Ciel: "Romance? Why do you ask?"

Counselor: "I suspect romance propelled quite a bit of the conflict that day. Alois, for example, hugged you with open romantic intent."

Ciel: "It was less of a hug, more of an attempt at manslaughter."

Counselor: "Have you been romantically involved with anyone since moving here?"

Ciel: "I have no interest in romance."

Counselor: "Because of your phobia?"

Ciel: "People always assume that, but no. I could see myself having sex one day, if I trusted them, but roses and boxes of chocolate are not in the cards."

Counselor: "Do you ever feel love at all?"

Ciel: "Are you tactfully checking for sociopathy?"

Counselor: "Have there been people you've loved in an unromantic sense . . ."

Ciel: "Of course there have. Two of them died in a fire, remember?"

Alois

Alois: "I expected Ciel to scream or run away or slap me. Those are the usual reactions I get from people who aren't Claude. Of course, there was the slight possibility he might like my hug . . ."

Counselor: "So what actually happened?"

Alois: "Goosebumps. Maybe a seizure. At any rate, I was immediately pulled off of him like a stinky bandage, thanks to a certain Sebastian."

Claude

Claude: "I wouldn't say I'm possessive. Not unreasonably so. But if someone harms one of my belongings, then, yes, I may harm them in return."

Counselor: "So this would make Alois Trancy one of your belongings?"