Should Quinn have made an attempt to be nice and proper and just like the other kids on his very first day of school? Yes, probably. Was there a loud little demon in his head that told him to be as insufferable as possible whenever he was around new people? Yes, absolutely. And that loud little demon had won once more on Monday morning, 8:58, when Quinn was asked to introduce himself in front of his English class.

He'd been about six minutes late, which was actually impressive. He expected it to be more, considering that he was left on his own accord after breakfast, with Ciel heading off to his own class and leaving Quinn to find the correct classroom by himself.

So, six minutes late, he burst into the room, his golden and green striped tie hanging around his neck closer resembling a noose than part of his uniform, droplets of strawberry jam still stuck to the corner of his mouth. And then he'd said something, maybe an apology, not that it mattered though. Two minutes later, Quinn had turned to the class and introduced himself.

It went somewhere along the lines of 'Hello, my name is Quinton Harvey, I'm sixteen years old, I'm from London, my dad was english, my mom was polish, but not anymore, because they're dead now', except not quite like that, since he decided to leave out the dead parents part for now.

Someone had then found it necessary to point out that Quinn was 'one of those scholarship kids', proceeding to ask whether 'he was enjoying the free vacation' or if it was 'a culture shock' to walk among all these stuck up little rich rats.

Apparently this had been a very funny comment to half the class, to which the teacher, older than the oak tree at the center of the courtyard, had scolded them with a bang on the table.

Quinn, of course, had smiled at his beloved co students, educating them that sometimes, people were successful because they were smart, and not because mommy and daddy were shoving money up their asses instead of requiring them to use their brains!

Apparently that joke wasn't as funny. Especially not to his teacher.

But aside from all that, the lesson went great. Great in the sense that Quinn didn't pay much attention and hoped nobody would notice. And it seemed as though nobody did. At least nobody decided to call him out, and so the lesson came to pass, and Quinn packed up his stuff ready to get lost in the Oakwell hallways once more.

Despite Ciel promising that any idiot would find his way through Oakwell's layout, Quinn once more proved that he was a totally new breed of idiot. He stared at the timetable on his phone. History, Mister Hoffmann, Room A2.06.

What the fuck did that mean?

He sighed, swung his bag over his shoulder as he stepped out of the classroom, now desperately looking for an image of the school's floor plan in his gallery. Right now, he was in... B1.13. Or C1? What the fuck.

So if he went to the right- No, to the left, if he went left, then he'd be back at the main hall, probably, and then-

"No phones in the hallway, Mister Harvey." The English teacher - Quinn forgot his name - leaned over his shoulder, lips pressed together and eyes narrowed. "That is a rule even for you."

"I genuinely don't know where I'm supposed to go, so either I check my phone really quickly, or I get lost and die in some corner until you find my corpse during spring cleaning."

The teacher cleared his throat, loudly, very loudly, and his eyes turned into teeny tiny slits.

"There are floor plans in the-" A disgruntled sigh. "You know what, whatever, check your phone and get to the next class before anyone else sees you." What a gracious thing to say for a man who looked like he'd seen every world war live and was going to cause a third one if Quinn didn't get his ass to the next class soon.

So Quinn nodded, twirled around, and made his way to the main hall while trying to decipher the floor plan, then slipping his phone back into the pockets of his emerald green blazer.

Out of the hallway that maybe was B1, or C1, maybe something completely different, then into the main hall. Green figures moved through the hall, up the stairs, down the stairs, disappearing behind doors Quinn hadn't dared to explore yet.

So if he went this way - his already unstable train of thought regularly interrupted by students bumping into him - then he'd probably end up in A1. No, but he had to go to A2. So if he went the other way-

"Quinn." A voice called him, his name loud and clear among the chatter of other students filling the main hall. Quinn whipped his head around to the top of the stairs, and between turned heads and annoyed gazes, Ciel's face appeared, along with his arm, waving.

Quinn hurried up the stairs, catching up with his roommate. Oh, what a saviour. Despite Ciel having made it very obvious that he wasn't particularly interested in making friends with Quinn, at least judging by the silence between them whenever they sat in their now shared room, he'd come to save him.

"Where the hell were you going?" Ciel muttered when Quinn had reached him, now following him along a slightly less crowded hallway.

"I don't know? Trying to find my next classroom. Didn't know what A2 meant."

"Did Mister Osborne not explain the room numbers to you?"

"Probably did. And I probably didn't listen," Quinn admitted, tempted to grab Ciel's hand in order to not lose him.

"There's signs everywhere, by the way."

"I told you, I was most definitely going to get lost. You didn't believe me."

"Because I didn't think you'd be that st-" Ciel let out a quick and quiet hiss, as though he'd bitten his own tongue. "Whatever. A2 is up stairs. The 2 always means second level, it's easy to understand. As for the letters, you'll just have to try and memorise them."

Much to learn, Quinn thought, yet so little space in his brain for arbitrary numbers and letters and directions. Shame, really, that Quinn's head was able to hold the entire galaxy, but all the important things on earth just didn't quite fit in anymore.

"You're lucky Mister Hoffmann is chill, he's usually late himself," Ciel continued. "So even if you get lost, somehow, you'll either meet him on the way or he won't notice. You can't pull that with anyone else, though, so you better start learning room numbers."

"They won't even let me look up the floor plan on my phone, though, how am I-"

"That's what you have a brain for, Quinn. To remember things."

"My brain has tons of other things to remember, you know. More important things."

Ciel sighed, then took a sharp turn and stopped in front of a classroom door. A small black sign next to it said, in golden lettering: A2.06.

"More important than the floor plan of the school you'll be attending for the next two years? Good luck. I'm not picking you up for every class to tell you where to go."

With that, Ciel pushed the door open, and let Quinn step in before following him.

The history classroom looked a little more friendly than the English one. Though the floor was made from the same stone, and the walls were paneled with the same dark wood, it was decorated to look much more inviting.

Posters hung on the wall of important historical figures, most of which Quinn had barely heard of by name, then some landmarks, old photographs, timelines.

At the front of the classroom, like in the other room Quinn had seen so far, was the same (already outdated) digital blackboard, and in the back a regular whiteboard with small doodles in the corners.

If it wasn't for the arched windows and high ceilings and very obviously high budget put into decoration and learning material, the room almost could've been a regular highschool classroom.

Ciel sat down at a table further in the back, then nodded at the chair next to him, inviting Quinn to sit as well.

Ciel began to unpack his history book, some water, paper, then a very pretty pencil case from his bag. It was green, and blue, and a little star charm hung on its zipper, dangling around, back and forth, catching the light every now and then, just the way some stars looked as though they were flickering in the night sky.

Quinn watched it swing back and forth, for a while, only flinching back into reality when two large hands almost crashed down onto the table. Quinn looked up at the disturbance, blinking.

A boy with short cropped black hair and two eyes even darker, black holes on a pretty face, looked at Ciel, a pleading smile on his pale lips. He leaned onto the table, making him flex his arms, the sleeves of his button up hugging his biceps. Well, damn. Hello to you too.

"C, please tell me you're showing up to the party this weekend."

"Do I look like I am?" Ciel furrowed his brows, crossing his arms. "No, thanks."

"Girl, come on," the pretty boy whined, pulling his hands away to instead fold them into a praying gesture, though Ciel remained unbothered, unaffected even, by the charm of two sad dark eyes staring at him.

"You know what I think about your weird 'party'. Just ask Dev? Is he not going?"

"He is, but-" The boy took a step back and looked around, then lowered his voice a little. "You know he's gonna hang around Nicolas, and when there's Nicolas, there's Zach, and-" He then gestured as though his hands could complete the sentence. They did, apparently, judging by Ciel's understanding nod.

"And yet you hang out with them all the time."

"Because the only other friends I have are boring and antisocial."

Ciel bit the inside of his cheek, nodding again, this time less understanding. "But Dev isn't boring?" Before the boy could answer, Ciel finally looked at Quinn now, who'd just sat there staring and listening like he was involved in this conversation in any way. "Why don't you take Quinn along? Our new guy? He'll surely love a party."

Quinn did love a party, if only his last one hadn't ended up with a ruined shirt, a fight, and kisses with blood in his mouth.

The boy's dark eyes now widened a little, a smile tucking at the corner of his mouth, and he scanned Quinn almost knowingly.

"So that's you, the new kid? Fun. Sure, if you wanna come. I'm Felix, by the way."

"Quinn," he introduced himself, grinning back. "I'm not completely sure what you're talking about exactly, but like, I'm not gonna decline an invitation."

"We got a little party down by the lake every year. Saturday night, nothing crazy. But you're free to come. Maybe get to know some people, you know."

Ciel snorted at that, shaking his head a little, and Felix' expression soured just the smallest bit

"More like, scout out who not to talk to."

"Just because you hate everyone doesn't mean-"

"Sit down already, Felix." Ciel shooed him away, and Felix complied, rolling his eyes and turning on his heel to march back to his own table.

"You're friends?" Quinn asked.

"Eh. He's alright." An answer that, in Quinn's circles, meant something along the lines of 'I want him', but Ciel just shrugged, his eyes lingering on Felix' table, who was now having a one sided conversation with the boy sitting next to him. "He's one of the art kids." Like that told Quinn anything about the type of person he was.

If you were an art kid at Quinn's old school, that meant you were an absolute fucking loser, and also gay, but at least you looked cool and were creative or funny or interesting in any other way. Hell, Quinn counted as an art kid, and the only thing close to art he'd ever done was dye his hair.

But art kid had a different connotation here, and Quinn had yet to figure out if it was good or not.

"So who's worse," Quinn found himself asking, "the art kids or the science kids?"

Ciel actually seemed to be thinking, but before he could answer, the teacher finally stepped into the classroom.

Mister Hoffmann, Quinn remembered his name, was tall, thin, could overall be described as 'long'. He was a young man, certainly looking younger than any staff Quinn had seen at this school before, with a smile that was also friendlier than anyone else's. His green blazer looked particularly new and shiny, contrasted his dark skin perfectly, yet had an awkward fit- that long limbs and short clothes problem Quinn knew too well.

His eyes scanned the room, the smile on his face not fading, then his gaze stuck to Quinn for a second. He nodded at him, nearly unnoticeable, then went on to put his bag down at his table, unpacking it slowly and peacefully.

Ciel had straightened his back, folded his hands on the table, watched Mister Hoffmann's every movement as though he'd turn around any second and praise him for looking so damn ready to be taught some history.

Quinn decided to copy Ciel, though looked much less graceful, more like a child imitating the grown ups.

"Good morning, pupils," Mister Hoffmann nearly sang, his attention still on his bag and the loose paper he pulled out of it.

"Good morning, Mister Hoffmann," the choir of students replied in cultish unison.

"I have planned... a lot of..." He pulled out his laptop now, adorned with the school logo and another small sticker in the corner that Quinn couldn't really make out. He paused after every movement as though opening and starting up his laptop required more attention. "...very fun things this term. One of those being..."

Another agonisingly long pause, and Quinn relaxed again, his super straightened back starting to hurt. Ciel, however, held his posture.

"One of those being an excursion!" Mister Hoffmann finally looked up from his laptop back to the students, the smile on his lips radiating. A couple of students now perked up. Excursion sounded fun. It'd probably be the only time some of these kids would get away from the creepy Oakwell woods that surrounded the campus.

"I've spent quite some time convincing dear Mister Osborne to allow this, but this is a fantastic opportunity for you all to see, experience, touch history itself." His dark eyes now turned into something brighter, two little stars — no — suns, like this guy had waited his entire life to announce this. "We are going to take a camping trip to the ruins of Saint Christina Cathedral!"

If Mister Hoffmann's shining eyes had inflicted any excitement on some students, it had disappeared again. Ciel's shoulders fell just the smallest bit, and Quinn was sure he could hear sighs and quiet groans coming from the seats around him. Come on, a camping trip was pretty damn cool. Those spoiled brats.

"And thus I'd like to focus on local history of Oakwell and the surroundings for this term, we'll talk about the cathedral, our very own church and the history of the abbey, and, of course, the dissolution of monasteries starting 1536 through Henry VIII that-"

Mister Hoffmann stopped, held his breath, turned to stone for a second before looking Quinn straight in the eyes.

"Excuse me! I'm sorry, we also have a new student in our class! Quinton, correct?"

"Uh, Quinn is fine-"

"Quinn, wonderful! Before I lose myself yapping again, why don't you introduce yourself first? I didn't mean to gloss over you, please excuse me!"

Quinn opened his mouth to say something, anything, now everyone had turned around to look at him, and stare into his soul, and read his mind and all the filthy secrets he didn't know he was keeping.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Quinn?" He tried to grin, cleared his throat. "I'm from London, I'm sixteen years old, and I got a STEM scholarship thingy."

"Which is an honour to receive," Mister Hoffmann added, his voice now stern, deeper than before, and Quinn wasn't sure if he was the one being lectured or if it was the rest of the class. "It's not something everyone can get. I don't think there'd be a lot of students in this class that could actually receive one if they tried." For a second, it became dead silent, and the stares of students that were stuck on Quinn felt like beams of ice freezing him in place. "I expect everyone to act appropriately and according to Oakwell's image."

Quinn held his breath for a second, then he cleared his throat, a familiar feeling spreading in his face and cheeks, a smile appearing on his lips almost automatically.

"Right. Though you may all treat me as your new academic rival, if you'd like."

☆-☆-☆-☆

WC: 2875

so what do we think of felix and the various other names thrown into the mix? blank faces of oakwell are slowly being filled out... who knows who these people are......

also quinn's struggle to find his room was inspired by me not finding any rooms at uni. fuck you university of [redacted]. where the FUCK am i. why are you built like this.

anyways thank you for reading! ily pls vote thank u!

OH also! it has come to my attention that we have now hit... !200 views! after just about a week! That's so crazy, thank you so much for your support on this story already ;v;