I liked talking to Nika.
It was surprisingly easy? I wasn't sure where that came from. That night I went to bed earlier than I usually would, for the sole factor that Leo would not stop talking and I was annoyed by the sound of his voice.
"Nighty night, oats," he whispered. Oats. His nickname for me was oats.
I decided that I would not be able to continue listening to him babble, so I put in my earbuds, not caring if I fell asleep with them in or not.
The next morning, Jason shook me awake. "Wake up man, you don't want to be late on the first day!"
False. I literally couldn't care less if I was late or not, but I got up anyways, brushing my teeth and trying to figure out how my uniform worked.
"Met anyone other than us yet?" Jason asked, spraying his hair with hair gel and slicking it back. "You seem pretty antisocial, so I was wondering if you managed to talk to someone else yet," he laughed.
I pressed my lips together and nodded, "uh yeah I met this girl that seems pretty cool. We talked a bit yesterday."
Leo grinned, "oOOoOO what's her name? We might know her." I shook my head, "I don't think so, she's new here too."
Nico scoffed, rolling his eyes and kicking one of his drawers closed. I had almost forgotten he was in the room, the guy was always so quiet and... dark. "I hate the new girls," he complained, pulling his socks up.
I glanced over at him puzzled, "why?" I asked. "She was really sweet."
"The new girls alwayyysss shit talk about the people they're rooming with, and just everyone in general." Leo muttered, struggling to tie his tie. "Last year my girlfriend had a roomie who talked bad to one of the teachers about her, and Calypso ended up getting suspended for literally nothing!"
Mans had a girlfriend? Huh, I guess anything is possible. "Oh," I replied, "well she didn't seem too bad."
Nico picked up his tie, prepping it, "I bEt she said something rude about someone, it's literally a new girl tradition." I racked my brains, a little exasperated because I didn't understand why this was such a big deal. "Well..." I started, "she said one of her roommates was annoying? But that's about it. I think... Hazel was the name she gave me."
Leo swung around to face me, tutting, "nope, nope, nope, Hazel is my homie, don't listen to whatever LIES this new girl tells you."
I nodded slowly, not really caring about the subject at hand whatsoever. "Can we just go eat," I muttered to myself, stuffing my pj's into my drawer, not bothering to fold them.
"Yeet lets go," Leo said, his tie very untidily tied. "You can meet the rest of our friends!"
Since Charford was for 'special' kids, boys and girls were separated for pretty much everything outside of regular classes. Not entirely sure the reason for it but oh whale. We ate separately, did sports separately, and we had separate common rooms. The only times we could interact with them was during our free time, which we fortunately did have a lot off.
We walked towards the dining hall, Leo and Jason complaining about a new teacher that had come this year and was supposedly pretty strict.
"Hey Leo," I said, grasping his attention. He swung around wiggling his eyebrows. "What did you do to get sent here?" I asked, genuinely curious to see if the reason he got sent here was because he talked too much.
He giggled, giving Jason a side glance and smirking, "I set a bunch of fires around my town, one of them was really big and I got caught. Mom was a little peeved so she sent me here, but don't worry, I don't set fires anymore." He cackled bouncing up and down.
Why was that funny to him? Oh nevermind, no need to dwell on things like that. Just have to accept that Charford is full of a bunch of psychopaths. I was tempted to ask Jason why he was here too, but I didn't feel like interacting anymore.
The four of us got to the dining hall which was already packed with boys from the age of 13 to 18. Jason led us over to a table that already had a couple guys there, chatting away and filling up on scrambled eggs and toast.
"Hello, hello, helloooooOoOo," Leo said, shaking his hips and opening his arms to the sky. Nico sat down next to a blonde boy who I'm pretty sure I had already met. His name was Will and he gave me beach boy vibes to be honest.
"Otis my man," Leo exclaimed, "meet the crew!"
I did not want to meet the crew.
Leo pointed at each boy, introducing them all to me, "this is Frank Zhang, he speaks a bit of mandarin which is hashtag kewl, that's Travis, he's having girl problems right now where he can't get himself to ask said girl out officially. Yeah Travis you should talk to Katie about that," Leo clicked his tongue and the boy Travis shot him a look. "Anyways," Leo continued, "that's Percy, he's totally whipped for a scary blonde," he turned my way putting his hand by his face and whispering so Percy wouldn't hear, "her name's Anabeth and she is not pretty in any way, she just scares me. That's it, she's just a scary ball of blonde."
Percy chucked a bread crust at him, "shut up elf face, she's the most beautiful girl I've ever laid my eyes on."
Leo picked up the crust which had managed to land on his shoulder and stuffed it in his mouth, "Percy gets a little grumpy about that sometimes." he pointed at the last few boys, "those two are Travis and Connor Stoll, they're brothers not twins, and um, watch your wallet around them." Leo continued to introduce me to all the boys, and I just gave them all a tight lipped smile, hating the social interaction.
I sat down, taking a now cold piece of toast and spreading chunky butter on it. My mind wandered over to yesterday about talking to Nika. She was the first ever person who I found it easy to talk to and didn't totally hate. It was like there was this magnetic pull... like she was haunted by the same demons as me. I needed someone to be there for me since my dad left, and I wanted it to be her.