The last remnants of his sleep were sticking to his eyes as Erik's hands searched for his alarm to let it shut up already. Although he didn't bother to look, it read 8:45 as planned, which meant that his first class at Crowby's, History, started in fifteen minutes. With both eyes still closed he sat up in bed, shaking his horrible bedhead and groaned slowly. Erik had never been a morning person and preferred to be left alone until he'd had his dose of coffee and today was not any different. Eyes opened drowsily, a frown plastered all over his face as he heard the bathroom door open, an unrecognizable Constantijn with flat hair walking out.

"Good morning to you too." He said and Erik just nodded in reply, furrowed eyebrows still in place. It was too early to figure out if Constantijn had meant that gesture or if it was just a simple morning routine. Why did Erik even care about this anyway?

Instead of breaking his head over it he made his way to the bathroom after turning on his coffee maker, flicking off Constantijn as he commented: "Nice underwear by the way."

That guy was way too much of a morning person and Erik didn't like it one single bit.

The shower was exactly like it had been the day before and only contributed to his horrible mood. God, he needed his coffee. So after his hair was barely soaked, he stepped out of the little stream and towelled his locks dry again in a matter of seconds. Next he pulled on those horrible pants and buttoned up his shirt. The jacket could wait until he left and he sure wasn't going to wear that cardigan with this weather.

This would do for a first day.

When he came out of the bathroom, Constantijn was also done with buttoning his shirt even though his hair was still as flat as roadkill. The door was standing wide open, revealing Preben who was casually smoking a cigarette as he leaned against the doorway. His shirt wasn't even properly tucked in, let alone buttoned up to the top. Erik was definitely going to need his coffee now with this guy present in the room. Dealing with him during the day was hard enough already, at 9 in the morning without his dearest caffeine it was a nightmare.

"Mornin'. Constantijn just told me what a delight you are at this time of the day." He grinned as he put his right hand into his pocket. Erik just rolled his eyes after which he held his hand up in the air. He didn't need to notice the raised eyebrows and questioning looks until he'd poured himself a cup of coffee. After taking a sip from the mug he finally spoke:

"Okay now you're allowed to talk to me." He stated, slowly waking up decently now as the warm liquid found its way to his stomach. Loud laughter filled the room as Preben threw his head back.

"Holy fuck, this guy is a treasure." He managed to bring out between breaths.

Erik just wasn't sure if he had to see that as a compliment or not, but that laugh made his stomach do a few turns. Nevertheless he remained silent as Constantijn gelled his hair upwards in a way that obviously showed he'd done it millions of times before. Preben was just muttering things like "move it, we're gonna be late….not that I care but we're gonna be late." in the doorway as he decided to jump from one foot to the other.

Crowby's dress code didn't seem that ridiculous when you first looked at it. The uniform was decent, unique in its own way to say at least and was what many considered fashionable. All very fine until you stepped outside in those clothes. Erik was dying already with the sun trying to radiate him straight into his coffin with ridiculous uniform and all. Everybody else seemed to be unfazed by the heat as they one by one made it to their classes. Yesterday the population of students seemed manageable from his little spot in front of his dorm but once Erik arrived at the classroom area it completely overwhelmed him. Luckily for him most students preferred to lounge on the grass or the little sidewalk in front of the classes before they actually had to go inside, so it was easy to manoeuvre himself through the crowd of white blue and beige.

The classrooms were, thank god, pleasantly quiet and cool. They faced the north side and were therefor mostly protected from the sun's global warming effect. Erik slid into the seat next to the one Tino was sitting in, since it felt okay to sit next to someone he considered a friend now. Sitting two seats further was just awkward and anti social, something Erik wasn't going for this year. Taking another sip of his coffee he watched as Tino slowly looked up from his hibernating state on his table. There were some groans and definitely some whining noises before he managed to sit upright.

Speaking of a horrible bedhead….

"Oh god it's so early…" He groaned again but just as he was about to drop his head on the table, he turned to Erik. "Is that coffee?"

"Ye-aah?" Erik managed to bring out, not sure if this was a question he should answer positively or not. The pleading over the top puppy face from Tino made his intentions clear. With a small but unnoticed sigh Erik handed him the mug, which Tino accepted with great appreciation.

"You know-" he started in between mall sips, his horrible morning attitude melting away because of the lukewarm drink. "- I always said that if I ever made it into the student Council I would opt for coffee vending machines here."

"So far you didn't make it I presume?" Erik asked with a raised eyebrow, getting his notebook and pen out on the table.

Tino just smiled brightly. "Nah, who would want to run for student council? Rather no vending machines than doing that."

Erik snorted a little before accepting the cup back from his friend, drowning the last bits of his breakfast.

He almost choked on his last gulp as someone patted him on the back a bit too harshly. Erik coughed once, twice and the back of his hand wiped away whatever was sticking just below his lip as he looked up and gave this person his best shot at Berwald's glares.

It turned out to be the girl he recognized as the one walking beside Constantijn the day before. Immediately his attempt at glaring disappeared, leaving the most confused face in its place as she spoke up.

"So this is the handsome chap everyone is talking about!" She exclaimed and pulled Erik out of his chair. He was sure he would've choked on his coffee a second time if he had still been drinking. But, wait, people were talking about him? Oh god what were they saying and was the handsome chap her share in the conversations or were others actually talking about him like that? God, Erik don't be stupid and focus on this conversation for once. With slight shock still present on his face he looked at the girl who was still smiling brightly at him. Her smile reminded him of Daisy's in the wind of a Spring day and her eyes were equally as green as spring itself. They looked so much warmer than those of Constantijn but they were obviously exactly the same.

She was holding onto him with one hand as the other was waving somewhere above her head. With her head slightly tilted and her tongue sticking out…was she measuring him?

"Dammit, taller." She finally said with a small sigh.

He wanted to interject that it was only a matter of inches and that she obviously got the same genes as her brother in terms of height but refrained from doing so, once again. Speaking up more was still something he had to work on for now.

Erik was saved from much more conversation as their teacher walked in, books tightly pressed against her chest as she strode towards the desk on the other side of the room.

Constantijn's sister sat down on his right as Erik pulled his chair closer to the table after sitting down himself. He wasn't so sure if sitting between these two was the best of ideas but there wasn't really any room to complain about it either. He placed his coffee mug next to his pens. A little nudge made him look up, facing that brightly smiling face again.

"Mathilde." She giggled. "Nice to meet you."

He just managed to swallow before replying with a deadpan voice: "Handsome Chap, Likewise." Since she apparently already knew enough about him to start using the phrase, he didn't bother to give an introduction himself. She laughed again and in a matter of seconds her attention shifted from him to Tino, making her lean over the table in the most ridiculous manner.

"MacDonald's during free period? Preben is already in." She asked, hand next to her little mouth as if she was telling him the most dirty secret and unaware that Erik was sitting right between them, listening to every word.

"Berwald has English then, but I don't think he'd mind." Tino replied, biting his lip in the process. His pen tapped against his chin in the process before he started drawing some random shapes on the blank piece of paper in front of him without looking.

Mathilde bounced in her chair a little. "Constantijn is still in his business mood, so that's settled."

"Miss. Declerck, If you don't mind I'd wish to start my class or do you wish to take over today?"

"No Ma'am…." And to Erik's surprise there was still a smile present on her face as she spoke, even though the whole class was staring. He would've died of shame if this would ever happen to him.

Like apparently every teacher at Crowby's miss. Jacksons carried the name Dr. and wore it with pride. She turned out to be the strictest teacher he could ever imagine. She loved to skip the 'how was your summer' talk to dive into a list of Roman emperors and conquerors together with a tidal wave of data to memorize before the next class started. Apart from that she didn't appreciate the class's input when it came to the course material and preferred to teach while the rest listened; something Erik could totally live with. He never liked class discussions because about ¾ of the students thought they had a valid opinion, which usually consisted of basic knowledge together with something that couldn't be called common knowledge. In conclusion, they were stupid and should leave the teaching to people who studied for it.

He knew he should be listening but at the moment Erik was more amazed at the speed Tino was taking notes with. He just kept on scribbling on the paper, biting his tongue in concentration and Erik started to feel a dreading feeling in his stomach, afraid that he was not doing the effort he should be doing in a class like this. Looking around he saw no other student write that much down, so he decided that it was probably okay.

When Tino shifted the paper in his direction he knew that he was most definitely okay with not taking notes. The paper consisted of huge squares aligned like the desks in the room, each one full of Tino's handwriting that turned out to be a lot loopier than Erik could've ever expected. His eyes scanned the abundance of names and info underneath. Every person that he should or shouldn't know was on there, little descriptions on important things he had to keep in mind. One of them was written in red, with an exaggerated number of exclamation points.

Feliciano Vargas.

Apparently he was the one organizing this party all of them were talking about and Erik still needed an invitation. According to Tino's notes, this wasn't so hard since a simple 'hii' would do. Feli turned out to be one of those social people who invited literally everyone. Erik wasn't complaining of course. He just wasn't so sure if a party was such a good idea on his first week of school. The paper got stuffed in his bag as he endured the rest of class in silence.

Erik has no real option other than talking to the boy when Tino pushed him into his general direction after class. He took a deep breath, a small part of him happy that he hadn't tripped in the whole pushing affair. His heart was already beating in throat when he approached the group of two. Feliciano was everything but intimidating in the way he flared his arms around with a smile that was even brighter than Preben's. The thing was that Erik swore the kid next to him could kill a man if he wanted to. He was tall with a stern expression on his face that almost beat Berwald's, almost.

Another deep breath. He couldn't do this. What was he going to say?

'Hey I don't know you for shit but some people I met merely a day ago are pushing me to beg you for a party invitation'?

God this was stupid!

Erik had made a turnaround again before even realizing, his feet already carrying him to the other side of the grass and away from all the people flocking around the classrooms.

He mentally winced when someone called out an obnoxious "hey" that was obviously directed to him. With a gulp Erik turned around, eyes closed and his head already making up the best sarcastic retort he could think of.

"You must be new, right?" The voice called out with the cheeriest tone and Erik slowly opened his eyes to see Feliciano way too close for it to be anything but pleasant.

"We're gonna be best friends, yes!"

All Erik could do was nod before bringing out a "Sure, Whatever." In a flat tone, although he was sure that he didn't have a say in the friends affair at all.

Feliciano's bodyguard friend had already dragged his smaller companion a few steps back with a few words of displeasure. Feliciano didn't seem to care however and began to chat away again, totally forgotten about Erik who was still standing right in front of him.

"What Feli is trying to say here I think is that you're invited to his party on Friday as well, I'm Ludwig by the way."

Erik took the outstretched hand to shake it, staring at the two in front of him. Wauw these two were functional in their own weird way.

"Yes!" Feli suddenly found his attention back into the conversation, brightly jumping around. "You know when and where, right?"

"I-I think that won't be a problem." He replied with his eyes directed to anything but those two.

Feliciano had apparently considered this conversation over and started dragging Ludwig by the arm, which Erik didn't mind in the slightest. Flailing arm movements accompanied the words "I see Kiku, c'mon let's go say hii, Ludwig!" almost drowned out Ludwig's silent apology to Erik for Feli's behaviour. Erik just shrugged and walked off in the direction he'd wanted to go before this conversation had ever started, back to a laughing Mathilde and Tino who were sitting against a small oak tree by the side of the main building.

"And did it work?" Mathilde chirped as soon as Erik was in hearing range, clapping her hands enthusiastically.

"Of course it did. If you ask nice enough, Feli would even add you to his will in a heartbeat." Tino added with a smile, eyes on Erik. Erik couldn't help but grin a little at that, his hand still fumbling with the corner of his bag.

Mathilde got up, brushing some dry grass and sandy dirt from her plaid skirt. "I could've asked Lovi really really nicely too if things hadn't worked out…." She added; her pink lips curving into something Erik labelled her not-so-innocent smile from then on.

Erik had no idea how they were actually going to get to the nearby McDonalds 3 miles away from Crowby's campus, as he sure wasn't going to walk all the way. Therefor he wasn't sure if he should be happy or not when it turned out that they were travelling with a cramped cranberry red two-door that was owned by Preben.

Luckily the car was packed with people that Erik knew, since he wasn't too fond of introducing himself when someone was sitting on his lap because of a lack of space. Scratch that, he hated introducing himself as he sat on somebody's lap, since that scenario was a more likely thing to happen. Four people in one way too small car, this day already started out as unforgettable. The vehicle smelled of cigarettes, late summer air and something Erik labelled as Preben's aftershave. How he made that link so easily, he still wasn't sure of and preferred to ignore it for his own wellbeing.

"Erik, meet Serenity"

A snort "You named your car Serenity?"

"Yep, like the ship in Firefly: a total piece of crap but it gets you where you need to be!"

Erik just frowned while he clicked in his seatbelt in the hope that it might save him in case that Serenity wasn't able to get them where they needed to be because of a certain, most likely, irresponsible driver.

"We opted on calling her blood orange for a while." Tino explained next to him with a huge smile. "But Preben would just argue that she was fucking red, not getting the joke that blood orange is, in fact, red and that she's a citrus."

Preben had turned around in his seat –seatbelts were apparently for pussies-, shooting angry looks at the backseat.

"She is NOT!"

Erik was slightly uncomfortable with the fact that everyone in the car seemed to address said car with the pronoun she instead of it. That was apparently a thing as soon as a piece of scrap metal received a name. How did one decide if it was male or female anyway?

Mathilde sighed in the passengers seat, "Oh whatever, just hit the gas already." And in that moment Erik could've sworn he heard Constantijn.

Preben turned out to be a decent driver to say at least. He took some risks, sure, but Erik didn't have to grip the seats out of pure fear once they were on the road as he thought he would. The only issue was that Preben liked to yell obscenities every time another driver decided to play a little more reckless. After about a fast yet noisy drive of 3 miles they finally reached their destination. Erik was glad that his free periods consisted of enough time to actually pull these kinds of trips off, since he wasn't that fond of the idea of skipping classes just yet.

He really wasn't that hungry and decided to pick the hard fries from in between the soggy ones as the rest of the group talked on and on about things that sounded as least vaguely important to them. They all set on the grass with the plates scattered around for everyone to take since lunch consisted mostly of fries and coke. The grass prickled Erik's arms as he laid down but he never mentioned it, as always.

Mathilde and Preben shared a cigarette across from Erik.

"Since when do y'smoke again?"

"I only need nicotine when dealing with you, you know that."

Preben just laughed it off, saying he loved her too. The words made Erik's stomach churn but he ignored it since it was mostly because of the greasy food anyway.

She was sitting in his lap, casually feeding him fries when she found them not worthy of her time. It was the sickest thing Erik had ever seen in his whole life but he suppressed the feeling to throw up here and now and picked the clover from in between the grass.

"what is so special about this party anyway?" He heard himself ask, mostly to get those two to stop whatever they were doing.

Mathilde gulped down some more soda through her straw but Preben cut her off as soon as she wanted to speak up.

"Mr. Vargas wants to be known as a cool dad so he makes sure that everyone has a good time."

"Which means free drinking and partying with a supervising adult who doesn't give two shits." Tino added.

Preben grinned. "We behave, I swear."

Mathilde and Preben had started laughing because of some stupid inside joke or something. Tino had noticed Erik's annoyed look and had just rolled his eyes with a smile. It wasn't much but it kinda made him feel at little bit better at least.

"Just make sure you watch out for these two, they have a reputation of getting drunk." Mathilde told him while feeding Preben another fry.

Preben and Tino clinked their soda to that, proudly chuckling with the reputation they had managed to build from a few years of party traditions.

Erik wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of commitment in a friendship.

I cannot write Germany and Italy to save my life, have you noticed?

Anyway, sorry for the wait. I'm horrible with filler chapters since i just want things to progress a lot faster than they should. This also means that the next chapter will contain some action, finally.

I wanna thank everyone who deemed this work worthy of a favourite or a follow, i honestly feel honoured! It really motivates me to keep on writing this silly thing because i know that there are people who enjoy reading it.

Here on Fanfiction people already blessed me with some reviews and comments, but i'd love to know how all of you think of this work so far. I have a lot to learn and every comment would really help me out. A comment just really makes my day

Thanks again 3 I hope I won't disappoint.