Cover Your Eyes

A loud, obnoxious beeping invades Riley’s eardrums, causing him to wake up. He pulls the covers over his head and tries block out the sound. He wants to sleep again and when he wakes up he’ll realize this is all just a bad dream. Then the sound stops and Riley turns around, content with the silence.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I thought it was on radio. I hate that beeping sound.” Riley opens his eyes again, groaning at the voice. It’s not a dream. He really is sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, sharing a room with a guy he doesn’t know and has the most annoying alarm clock ever. He really is attending a boarding school and has to wear those stupid uniforms.

He groans again, throwing the covers off of his naked body and gets up. Vince quickly looks away when Riley walks towards his suitcase to look for some clothes. He throws his uniform on and leaves the room to go downstairs together with Vince, walking towards the canteen for breakfast.

“Where are your friends?” Riley asks Vince. He hopes he actually has some friends and isn’t some loner that only makes his homework and doesn’t have a life the rest of the time. He doesn’t want to be his only friend and he doesn’t want to be his friend just because they are roommates.

Vince laughs a little. “Don’t worry, I really do have friends. But they start a period later on Thursdays. They’re probably still sleeping now.” Lucky bastards, Riley thinks. But he only nods his head at Vince.

They eat breakfast in almost complete silence. Riley doesn’t really want to talk and Vince still seems kind of nervous. Vince asks some questions from time to time, but Riley only gives short answer. The frown on Vince’s forehead grows with time. He’s afraid Riley might not like him and that it might be the reason why he is so distant. But in fact, it really doesn’t have to do anything with Vince, Riley really just wants get out of here.

They also don’t say a word as they walk toward their first class, which is math. That ruins Riley’s day even more, because really who likes math? He’s got six periods of math a week. It was the same thing in Gloucester, but they had such a nice and good teacher that he didn’t mind math at all. He bets that this teacher will be totally different.

Mr Carter, the math teacher is late. The sixth form students in the classroom next to theirs already went inside. Riley had recognized some of the guys who laughed at him the day before. They saw him, too and made stupid faces at him.

There is one sixth form student who is at least five minutes late, but he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry at all. He joggles slowly towards his class. When he looks up his eyes meet Riley’s. Riley is met with some of the most amazing greenish blue eyes he has ever seen. He tries to smile apologetically, but the guy only looks him straight in the eye, without a twitch upwards of the corners of his mouth.

“I’m sorry I’m late. Go quickly inside.” Riley tears his gaze away from the guy and follows his classmates the classroom in. When he heads for the back of the class he is stopped by Mr Carter. Riley sighs. He hopes he doesn’t have to introduce himself for the class. But luck isn’t really on his side. Mr Carter tells him to introduce himself.

Riley sighs again and says: “I’m Riley Fitch.”

Carter raises his eyebrows. “That’s all? Tell us something more. Where are you from?”

“Gloucester.”

“What are your hobbies? Do you have any siblings?” Will you please shut up? Riley thinks.

“Football. And I have an older sister, Gemma.” He really isn’t that big of a football fan. He actually really likes baking and singing, but that sounds so gay and he is positive that people will laugh at him when he says that.

Carter obviously gets tired of his short answers and lets him take a seat next to a girl with empty grey eyes and dirty blond hair. Her hair almost reaches her butt and is tangled and knotted, obviously not combed or washed in the past few days. Though, she could be beautiful if she took a bit better care of herself and if she wasn’t so lifeless.

She doesn’t say a word to Riley the entire period, but he really doesn’t mind. He doesn’t want to talk himself. He barely pays attention, even though he knows he should. His mind wanders off to Gloucester: his old school and all the friends he had to leave behind. It sucks being without them, because these people really don’t seem so cool. They all seem pretty snobbish.

“Where the hell is classroom C07?” he asks Vince when their math course is over. This was just his first period and they already got a test due Monday.

“Just this corridor through, then you go left twice. It’s the seventh classroom on the left,” Vince explains. “It’s actually really simple. These classrooms are A’s, on the opposite side are the B’s and in the other corridor it’s just the same, but with C and D.”

Riley isn’t really listening. Him and Vince are walking behind the guy from earlier. He now completely ignores Riley, since his walking in front of them and his back is turned to them. He is talking to one of the guys who laughed at Riley the other day.

“Who are they?” Riley asks Vince, nodding his head in the direction of the sixth form students. Vince looks up from Riley’s timetable. It takes a while for Vince to answer, because Riley had cut him off midsentence, while he was saying something about Riley’s next course, French.

“Some last year’s bullies. Don’t pay too much attention to them, they’re assholes,” Vince says, obviously not caring about who they really are. But Riley sees the eyes of the mysterious boy again, like they’re burned on the inside of his eyelids. He shakes his head to get the image out of his mind.

“I got Latin here, so I’ll see you during the break,” Vince says. Riley simply nods his head and keeps walking until he reaches classroom c07. He leans against the cold wall and closes his eyes, trying to block out all sound. But he is interrupted by some hyper kid.

“Are you Riley Fitch, Vince’s new roommate?” he asks with an Irish accent, a big smile placed on his face. Riley raises his eyebrows at the kid. He has white blondish hair that is a bit messy. He’s got some piercing blue eyes and is not very tall, being the same age as Riley.

“Yup,” Riley says, popping the ‘p’, “that’s me.”

The smile on the kid’s face grows bigger, if that’s even possible. “My name’s Nolan Chasson. I’m Vince’s friend.” Obviously.

“Cool.”

Riley is glad he doesn’t have to introduce himself this time. Mrs Pais, their French teacher, is sweet, but old fashioned. She’s one of the oldest teachers at this school, being somewhere her mid-fifties. She puts him next to the hyper kid called Nolan. It’s the only place left, in the middle of the front row. Nolan is put there because he was eating in class.

French goes by a little faster than math did, but it still goes too slow for Riley’s liking. Nolan talks a lot during class, making it harder for Riley to let his thoughts wander off, but also to pay attention, even though he is actually not listening to what Nolan is saying.

“Monsieur Fitch.” Riley jumps a little as his name is called. He didn’t hear the question. “Tu veux répondre, s’il te plaît?”

“Vous voulez répéter la question, s’il vous plaît?” he asks, hoping that she won’t get mad for not paying attention.

She shakes her head in disapproval and lets out a sigh. “Would you mind paying attention next time, Mr Fitch?” Nolan giggles next to him and Riley shoots him a glare that he doesn’t see.

Yes, Ma'am.”

He looks at Nolan as Mrs Pais continues her lesson. “You giggle like a girl,” he says. Nolan’s smile immediately disappears from his face and Riley doesn’t even feel bad about it, because the smile returns a second later.

“You’re like a grumpy old man. What’s the matter?” Nolan asks. Mrs Pais shoots them a warning glare and Riley doesn’t bother with answering. Nolan doesn’t press it and he doesn’t ask again when they’re finally able to leave the classroom. But Riley is called back by Mrs Pais.

He stands in front of her desk with his hands in his pockets, looking down at his shoes. She looks at him with a concerned look in her eyes. “I know it’s hard being the new kid, Mr Fitch, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay attention. Is there something bothering you?”

Riley shakes his head. The only thing that matters is that he doesn’t want to be there, that he wants to be home again, in Gloucester. But she doesn’t need to know that. She’ll think he’s homesick and that he wants to go back to his mummy. But he really doesn’t. The only advantage of being here is that he is away from his parents.

“You know if there is something wrong that you can contact one of the teachers, right?” He nods his head. “Will you pay attention next time?” Another nod. “You can go.” And he’s out of there as quickly as possible. Nolan waits for him in the corridor and he wishes he didn’t. But he is not alone, he’s there with Vince and another guy Riley hasn’t seen before.

“Everything alright?” Vince asks. Riley only nods his head and starts walking towards the Great Hall. He doesn’t ask who the other boy is, probably just another one of Vince’s friends. Because he had to talk to Mrs Pais, he already missed half of the break and it pisses him off even more. This really is a bad day.

The rest of the morning goes by as slow as the first part. Riley learns that the other guy’s name is Eben Meller. Riley’s got fourth period, which is chemistry, with him. He fell asleep and Riley had to laugh a little with the face he pulled when the teacher, Mr Wilson, woke him and gave him detention, since it was not his first time.

Riley looks a bit happier when the lunch break rolls by. He is actually talking to Eben as they walk together toward the canteen. Eben complains about their chemistry teacher, that he really should retire now, since probably already sixty. Riley can’t help, but have a smile on his face as they finally meet up with Nolan and Vince.

“He’s able to smile,” Nolan says, also smiling, although his smile is much wider. “What did you do to him, Eben?”

Eben simply shrugs his shoulders. “Nothing. I just talked. I guess I’m not as boring as you are.” That earns punch in the shoulder from Nolan. Soon they’re chasing after each other, Nolan getting much more punches than Eben, because Eben is much faster.

“How old are they?” Riley asks as him and Vince take a seat at one of the lunch tables that isn’t full already.

“I guess four,” Vince replies, happy to finally see a smile on Riley’s face. Riley chuckles a bit, stuffing his mouth full with food.

“Vince! I haven’t seen you all day.” A girl with dark, perfectly shaped curls walks their way. She has a wide smile placed her face. Vince starts to smile as well as he sees her and Riley is already positive that they’re dating.

Riley turns his head toward his plate. He really doesn’t want to see all the cuteness, it gets him sick. After a while, Nolan and Eben take a seat at their table as well and greet the girl. Apparently they know her pretty well.

Suddenly, Riley’s eye catches a boy sitting alone at a table in the corner of the canteen. It’s of course the sixth form student. He is holding a book in his hand, but Riley can’t read the title, since he is sitting so far. A moment later, an amazingly gorgeous girl approaches him. He smiles at her as he puts his book away and she takes a seat in front of him. The girl has long, blond hair that is put in loose waves.

For a split second, the guy’s eyes look past the girl and are met with Riley’s. Riley’s heart skips a beat and looks away from the guy and tries to focus on the conversation that Vince is having with his girlfriend, while Nolan is empting his overfull plate at a record breaking speed and Eben just stares at his food, half asleep.

“You’re not going to eat that?” Nolan asks Eben. Eben shakes his head and Nolan changes his now empty plate with Eben’s and starts to eat again. Riley wonders where puts all that food. He is so small that it surprises Riley that he hasn’t exploded yet.

Riley smiles. They are not as bad as he first thought.