School Daze

Loughburrough Grammar School for Boys was a very pleasant place to look at. The walls were tall and a pale brown colour, the building itself seemed to spilt off like a castle and it probably did used to be one. There were criss-crossed windows along the top part of the building and a pair of large brown, wooden doors. Inside the building it was even more complicated than it looks on the outside, the walls had paintings of people on and little shiny golden plaques which remember previous head teachers, prefects, head boys etc. The floors were smart black and white tiles, none cracked and they barely held any dirt on them.

Josh realised he'd been holding his breath and just staring so he let it all out in a big gust, squared his shoulders and opens the door to his dormitory. Thankfully, it was Sunday so he didn't have school until the next morning and he already knew where everything was thanks to a previous visit. The man who took his suitcase to his room when he arrived less than an hour ago was long gone, but there were four other boys in the room. Josh never had to share a room before, so he presumed this was gonna suck. But he still smiled slightly and stepped into the room properly. The teens were all snooping around his suitcase and hadn't realised Josh was right there. Anger bubbles through his stomach.

"Oi, what are you doing to my things?" he kind of growled and immediately regretted it. So much for a good first impression. The boys weren't fazed though and they moved away willingly from his suitcase with the really awesome Incubus and Green Day and Blink 182 stickers, and a guy with a brown and bleach blond Mohawk thing - the hell? - smiled at him.

"Hi, I'm Jared. So this is your suitcase, right? It's really cool, I love Incubus too," he blathered on in an American accent, and Josh warily side-stepped him, nodding. The rest of the guys had moved over to their beds, unpacking their things, except for a leggy-looking boy who was simply lying down on the bed closest to Josh's suitcase. He groaned, reached for a heavy-looking hardback book and flung it at Jared. Josh watched it in half-horror, half-amusement as it clocked Jared right in the face. He stumbled back - holy hell, how hard did that guy throw it? Josh wondered - and his arms swung like windmills as he tried to keep his balance. It was no use though, and he ended up knocking over a tall, very pale dude. Josh let out a really loud giggle and he wasn't not alone because a chubby kind of dude laughed too and then, finally, introductions were made when Jared stop[ed apologizing profusely to the guy, Andy he knocked over.

Oli threw the book, and it turned out he's a gumpy, sarcastic arsehole from Yorkshire. He had messy dark brown hair that fell into a pair of dark brown eyes, rimmed in black kohl might I add, and was much too tattoed for his 17 years of life. He was leggy and skinny but had some serious strength in those arms. Josh wasn't sure whether he was just an arsehole to them, or to the whole world, and he couldn''t help but wonder why, because he's had his share of assholes, but none of them really were clever. They were just big, burly cavemen with the brains the size of a pinprick.

Jared was a total ditz, although Josh saw some of the novels he unpacked and 1984 and the Catcher in the Rye didn't seem like the kind of books a ditz would read. He had innocent, childlike big blue eyes and was bordering on very pale, save for the giant bruise on his jaw from the shoe. He was around 5"8, which Josh is kind of jealous about. He was from Louisiana, explaining his accent. All through unpacking, he told stories of exotic lands and stupid brothers and Josh gathered that he's actually really okay for a ditsy guy.

His other room-mates included a kind of chubby, shy guy called Gerard who had cherry-bomb red hair. He seemed quiet, and had said his name with an awkward smile and a little half-wave. He had that look in his hazel brown eyes, as if he was bullied, and to be honest, none of the room-mates seem to push him into conversation. Josh decided to leave it alone for now, he had an entire semester to get to know him. He laughed obligingly at every story and looked quite laid-back.

Andy was the last one besides him. He was pale, almost 6"0 tall and had really awesome shaggy black hair. He was hotheaded and mouthy and argued with Oli a bit, but he also smiled at Josh and told him which bunk is his, so Josh counted it as a half-win. His eyes were a piercing light blue and he is all skin and bone - in fact, besides Gerard and himself, they all are. Andy had really cool snake-bites in, which made the challenging look in his eyes more prominent. Josh wondered if he fights with people a lot.

The beds were all in a row, with it going like Jared - Gerard - Oli - Josh - Andy, and in the three-quarters of an hour it tppl them to unpack, Josh felt slightly closer to them. "And then Shannon decided that grabbing the kangaroo was a good idea," Jared told them, and Josh was honestly nearly in tears from the story, and a smile was even breaking through on Oli's face too. "But kangaroo didn't really like that so it kicked him, right in the-"

An obnoixious, droning voice interrupted him right in the middle of it. "Attention, all students please report to the gymnasium for the welcoming speech."

Oli groaned. "It the same speech every year, it's so boring I swear to fuc-"

"No swearing!" Jared butted in, "And we have to go, it's a tradition. And we can show Josh the way to the hall so we won't have to do it tomorrow morning."

Josh felt kind of ignored, but he finished putting away his suitcase and stood up. He smiled. "Lead the way," he offered to the room in general, and they did so.

The rest of the night was filled with harmless bantering and getting to know each other, and Josh honestly felt quite relaxed, unlike his old school. He laughed at Gerard's story about his little brother bringing a space-heater into the shower and got a smile in return for his efforts, which was a win too.

All in all, maybe school wouldn't be too bad for him.