Chapter Three

Double English in the morning followed by Science and a painful hour of Maths would have made Adrian's morning hell if Rose, Mason or Lissa weren't around to keep him entertained. But now he had two lessons of the subjects he chose to study for his A-Levels. As it was only a Monday he thought he might as well get his exercise for the week over and done with so only had double PE, but he was looking forward for the next day when he had double Art.

This time Eddie and Dimitri had joined the class. Mason explained how the girls were in a separate PE class so they could do more 'feminine' sports while the guys got to play fun and exciting sport such as football and dodgeball. Adrian wasn't a big fan of football; he never understood the point in supporting teams and getting into arguments with friends who supported enemy teams. But dodgeball was a long-time favourite after he played a game in Middle School and ended up giving a nosebleed to the school's bully, getting very brave remarks and a lot of congratulations.

But today was basketball. Outside. In the warm and sunny weather of spring. It started out okay, until Adrian started to feel lightheaded and nearly fainted in the middle of the pitch.

"You should had mentioned that you couldn't play sports. Why didn't you tell us?" The game still continued despite losing four members. Adrian was now sitting in the shade with a water bottle in his hands, while Dimitri stood next to him, Eddie patted him on the back and Mason knelt in front of him to watch drops of sweat fall from the artist. Adrian chuckled.

"I can play sports. Just not in the sun."

"Why not?" Eddie knelt down next to Mason to look at Adrian's slightly red face.

"Don't know. It's some weird condition I have. I can't be out in the sun for a long time without getting dizzy and weak." Adrian leant back to get some air on his face. "I've had since I was a kid. I can play sports until the bitter end when we're indoors, but five minutes into a football match in the sun and I pass out."

"But Mason was right about it; why didn't you tell us?" Dimitri sounded worried about Adrian.

"It had been a while since I played sport in the sun, I thought I could man up and get over it. But it doesn't look like it." Adrian waved off the guys. "Look, I'll just find something else to do in these two periods. Maybe I could go join Lissa or Rose for a laugh."

"Lissa doesn't do sport either."

"Huh?"

"She has a weak body so she can't move around much. That's why Rose is always with her; she's so over protective of her." Eddie moved once again but sat on the bench next to Adrian. "Lissa can't handle playing sport, especially in the sun. One time she was jogging, and literally a minute later she fainted in the middle of the field."

"Christian is the same. But he just doesn't like the sun at all." Mason laughed. "He has sensitive skin. And Jill. They get sunburnt so easily. And they get dizzy too. It doesn't help that our springs and summers are really hot. But when its autumn and winter Christian and Jill play sports. Maybe you could attend classes with them two or Lissa until autumn and winter? This school does put the safety of student's health first, so if you can't play sport in the sun they'll allow you to only do sport indoors."

"I'm sure Christian, Lissa and Jill would be happy if you joined them in Media Studies. It's basically a class for students who want to watch films all lesson then write essays on what they had just watched."

"Sounds interesting."

The three boys made Adrian go to the nurse, who done a quick check-over on Adrian and gave him doctor's orders not to play sport in the sun from now on. She also made Adrian stay in the office for the remaining lessons to get some rest. So Adrian took the opportunity to rest up and get some sleep before heading back to the dorms to check out his room.

When the bell rung for the end of the day Adrian was surprised to see Rose, Lissa, Christian, Sydney and Jill outside waiting for him. It turned out that Mason had ditched PE to go find Rose and the others to tell them what happened, then came by to check on the sleeping boy. The doctor told him that she would wake him up at the end of the school day, so asked him to come by and visit him. But because the boys had to stay behind and do some extra work for missing out on half-an-hour of PE Mason asked Rose to collect Adrian.

Lissa had told Adrian that it was best to unpack while he still had the chance as it was most likely the party would start the moment the boys got back. But on the way to his room he found out why the group were even closer. They all lived on the same floor. The girls were on one side of the corridor and the guys were on the other.

Adrian managed to get a room by himself because he had quite a lot of art equipment that he was allowed to bring to the school, but on one side he had Eddie and Mason sharing a room together, and Dimitri was on the other side paired with Christian. Rose and Lissa shared a bedroom across from Adrian's room, and Sydney and Jill were in the room across from Mason's and Eddie's room.

Just as Lissa had predicted, just as Adrian finished putting some clothes in his wardrobe and propped one of his three easels up in his room ready to be used loud thumping came from the wall he shared with Mason and Eddie.

"Come on Ivashkov! We can't start the party without out!" Adrian started laughing when he heard Mason's voice from the other side of the wall, so he walked out of his room and into his neighbours room for everyone to cheer and raised their plastic cups in the air as he closed the door behind him and entered the bedroom.

He finally got a chance to talk to everyone and find more about them. Rose's mother was actually the martial art's coach at the school, and her father lived somewhere remote where he got himself working in the dangerous business of the mafia. Lissa's older brother Andre was a student who attended the city college several hours from the school, who Adrian had met once when Lissa's mother dropped by for a chat and brought poor Andre with her.

And it turned out that Lissa's father had a one night stand with Jill's mother when Lissa's parents were on the verge of getting a divorce. But after that night he realised it was a mistake and apologized for all the bad things he done to his wife, for their marriage to just become stronger than ever. Lissa's mother knew about Jill and treated her as a member of the family despite her being another woman's child.

Mason and Eddie barely spoke about their family as they were too busy getting drunk with Rose after she told her family history to Adrian. But what he did manage to get out of them was pretty basic family stuff, they were sent to the school because their parents wanted them to get a better education and to learn independency. Eddie mentioned having younger siblings. Mason was the only child.

Christian didn't seem that bothered when he told Adrian about his family to Adrian. His parents died in a bank robbery when they tried to escape along with other victims. So Christian moved in with his aunt who happened to be a teacher at the school. What teacher, Adrian wasn't told, but by the way his friend describe his aunt she was one badass woman so secretly the artist begged that she would be a teacher of his'.

Sydney's parents were believers of Christianity and sent their eldest daughter to a school that was very big on religious knowledge. The RE at the school, according to the others, was a very big topic as many families sent their children here knowing that they'll learn in God one way or another. But during her first year at the school Sydney fell in love with Science, and even though she believed there was a God began to believe the word of science, not religion. This of course is something her parents do not know.

Dimitri came from Russia. Adrian guessed that the moment he heard the Russian accent. But he was confused on why someone from Russia ended up at a boarding academy in the middle of America.

"My father was abusive to the family and often beat my mother up." Dimitri and Adrian were sitting on one of the boy's beds while the others were all dancing to a song that was on the radio and drinking as they danced. "I attacked my father and he left the family. But Mother was worried that I was going to get hurt by him and sent me out here. I call her and send her letters, and so far that man hasn't returned."

"Oh…I'm sorry to hear that…"

"You've heard our stories, now yours."

"What is there to say? I'm the only child. I live in the Ivashkov family yet I have no idea on what I do. My father is the current chairman, and he's a right dick. He's more of a workman than a family-man. Mum grew depressed after my Great Aunt, Tatiana was murdered but she had the distraction of working at the city council to distract her." The discussion of their history seemed a bit depressing for Adrian so he tried to change the subject to something more entertaining. "I got kicked out of my last school when the headmaster caught me and several other students have a fag behind the science block."

"No way."

"I was the only one kicked out of school because three months before that I got my first warning when I turned up to school still slightly drunk from the party the previous night. And my second warning came when I accidently kicked a football through the headmaster's window."

"I can see this year being very entertaining with you around."

"I know." Adrian winked at Dimitri then stood up to grab the drink off Mason and take a huge gulp of it.