About a Boy

Kellin walked into the music room with a smile on his face the next day, grinning a he entered his favourite class. He sat down next to Jesse, who turned and smiled to him, before muttering, “Choir practice.” Kellin groaned and nodded, turning back to the door when Mr. Kowalewicz and Mrs. Bates entered, sheet music clutched in their hands.
“Alright boys, we’ve missed a good three lessons of practice because of public exams, entrance exams, whatever,” Mr. Kowalewicz started, passing out the sheets, “so we will probably need some lunchtime rehearsals.” He ignored the student’s groans and began to play the piano.
“’In Bethlehem A Child Is Born’?” Kellin snorted.
“Yes.” Mrs. Bates answered simply. “So obviously, we need a soloist, so does anyone want to do it?” She looked around the room hopefully, but when nobody raised their hand, she looked to Kellin. “Kel-“
“I’ll do it.” Kellin spun around to see Vic with his hand in the air, looking nervous but self assured.
“You will?” She smiled. Vic nodded in response. “Do you know the song?”
“Yeah, I do, actually.” Vic answered.
“Can you sing it now, then?” Mr. Kowalewicz asked eagerly.
“Erm… Okay.” Vic agreed. All the other boys were watching him, some sneering slightly because he actually offered to sing a solo, others looked curious, but most seemed to have some sort of respect for the other boy, because he was brave enough to do it.
And when Vic started to sing, Kellin completely understood why. Because, Christ, that kid could sing. He had a high voice like him, but he sounded a bit less like a woman, and it was just so smooth, and soft and perfect and Jesse had to nudge him he was staring at Vic so much.
“Knew you liked him.” The ginger boy whispered, earning a swat from Kellin.
“Boys! Everyone up now.” Mr. Kowalewicz ordered. The rest of the boys joined in once the second verse came in, all already knowing their harmonies from last year, apart from Kellin, who eagerly joined in with the soprano parts.
_____
“You were good.” Kellin told Vic when they left their music lesson. Vic turned away from Tony and Jaime and smiled shyly at Kellin.
“Thanks,” he murmured, brushing a strand of long, brown hair behind his ear.
“Well, you were.” He shrugged and started to walk away before Vic could say anything else.
“And you say you don’t like him?” Gabe clarified as they walked up to Latin.
“I don’t!” Kellin insisted. “He was good, I told him. That’s it.”
“You never compliment anyone, though. You don’t really talk to anyone, come to think of it.” Gabe mused.
“Nobody’s ever done anything worth complimenting.” Kellin answered, taking his seat in the Latin classroom. He turned as Vic, once again, entered his classroom and stood at the back, waiting for a teacher to come and tell him where to sit.
Soon after, the room became quiet, and Kellin was aware that their teacher, Dr. Stump walked in.
“Oh, yes. Vic, if you could sit next to Kellin over here.” He said, waving to the seat next to Kellin that had always been empty because they had an odd number in their class. Vic scurried forward and began to unpack his bag on the desk next to Kellin, who tilted his head down to hide the blush rising on his cheeks. He did not, he could not have a crush on Vic. It was impossible.
“So boys, good morning, sit down,” Dr. Stump said. “So, as I said last week, we’re going to be looking at imperfect passive participles today-“
“More grammar?” Jesse called exasperatedly.
“Well you are in a grammar school Mr. Lawson.” Most people in the class chuckled at the lame pun because, quite frankly, Dr. Stump was really cool.
“So anyway, does anyone know how to form the imperfect passive? Or am I expecting too much of you?”
“You just add ba- and each verb ending to the end of the infinitive…” Vic muttered under his breath.
“How do you know that?” Kellin asked curiously. Vic looked up at him and shrugged. “Fine. Whatever.” Kellin turned away again and watched Dr. Stump flip the slide on his PowerPoint and tell them to write down exactly what Vic had said. Alright, Kellin decided, the kid was smart. Kellin pulled out a pen and his Latin grammar book, sloppily copying the notes that he would need to rewrite as soon as possible, lest he not know how to recognise whichever participle they were looking at in the exam.
He couldn’t help but look at Vic every few minutes, as he copied down the notes on grammar he already knew, and muse about how cute he looked. It was embarrassing really, and quite frankly a bit sickening, but he couldn’t help it at this point. And he’d known this boy for a day. If you could even say that. Kellin bit back a groan and continued to write down the notes, frowning at the sentence about a patron and some slaves being carried.
____
“Tutorial is a waste of my life.” Justin groaned dramatically, flopping into his seat next to Kellin. It was lucky that he got to sit next to one of his friends in most of his lessons. And his crush in one. Kellin shook his head and stood behind his chair in anticipation for their form tutor, Mr. Wentz to enter and greet them. He was an awesome man, but the fact that he took them for tutorial sort of made the students resent him.
“Sit down, sit down boys!” Kellin heard a voice call from the back, and he smirked as his teacher entered the room and sat down at his own seat. “I know how much you hate doing these, boys, but I’m afraid we’re having another ‘bonding session’.” Mr. Wentz nodded sympathetically when the boys groaned. “So we’ll just go around the room, talk about your interests, what you’ve been doing lately whatever, I don’t really care. We’ll just pretend we did everything we should have if anyone asks. So… Vic do you mind starting, just because I don’t think anyone really knows too much about you yet.” Mr. Wentz smiled, as Vic nodded.
“Erm, okay. So… I guess I like playing the guitar-“
“Are you in a band?” Mr. Wentz asked excitedly.
“No… But I’m looking into it.” Vic smiled. Kellin looked at the back of his head and smiled. Vic didn’t seem like the kind of person to be wanting to start a band.
“That’s awesome. Sorry, dude, carry on.”
“That’s it really.” He shrugged. “I guess I write and stuff. And I watch ‘Coraline’ a lot.’
“Alright. Austin, you next.”
Kellin zoned out for the next twenty five minutes as his classmates said the same things as they did every year, instead daydreaming about Vic, and eventually his imagination came up with a make out session in the back seat of the car he had been promised for his eighteenth birthday, until Mr. Wentz called his name.
“Oh, yeah. Erm… I dunno, I sing, I write, I eat, I sleep. That’s it, really.” Kellin said shortly. There was no point in these sessions. Nobody paid attention, nobody even cared, but at least it meant he wasn’t in maths.
“Okay boys. We’ve still got ten minutes, so get on with private study, read a book, have a conversation, I really don’t care.” Mr. Wentz waved a hand and started to do something on the computer, probably IMing Dr. Stump, who everyone was sure was going out with their form tutor.
“Kellin. Wanna come round on Friday?” Jesse threw a piece of paper at the back of Kellin’s head, forcing him to turn around.
“What? Oh, sure. Who else is gonna be there?”
“Just Jack, Justin and Gabe.” Jesse answered.
“I’ll ask my parents.” Kellin nodded and turned back around, pulling out a notebook to start writing lyrics.
Is it naïve to make plans that seem so far away? There’s a reason I feel this way
You’re sleeping alone, I’m awake. When you dream of me tonight am I close to where you are?
Kellin looked at the lyrics. Where had that come from? His lyrics always seemed to be kind of romantic, but this was… Probably Vic’s fault. Kellin snapped his notebook shut and shoved it into his bag. It was honestly becoming a problem.