Being called to see the headmaster was never a particularly good sign, especially not after your first week of attending school. And Quinn had been so sure that, aside from the lake thing this past Saturday, he'd been a basically perfectly behaved fine student totally up to Oakwell standards.

And yet, after Monday classes had ended, Quinn was asked to visit Mister Osborne in his office. Now here he was, sitting in that chair opposite of that boney old man with his cold eyes, an undead lich in the making, shuffling in his seat.

"How has Oakwell treated you so far, Mister Harvey?" The man didn't look up from the papers he'd laid out on the desk, and Quinn unsuccessfully tried to sneak a look at them.

"It's, uhm... been good." Had it actually been good, though? It'd been fine, for sure, like alright. Not awful, at least. He'd made like two and a half friends, and aside from his same old introduction speech he had to hold in every class, he hadn't really said much yet, which was quite out of character for him.

"That's pleasing to hear. We are aware not every new student has an easy start here at our school. Which-" Mister Osborne now looked up, his gaze a mix of judging and worried. "-would bring me to the reason I wanted to speak to you. I've collected some reports from your teachers, and there's some things I believe we should go over."

Ah. Fuck. This was the moment where not reading the school rules and zoning out whenever they were read to him was going to bite Quinn in the ass, wasn't it? Or were there any assignments he hadn't done? No, surely he'd submitted most of them. Or perhaps that black hair streak was simply too much after all.

"You come from a very different background than most of our students, and I recognise this. People had different expectations of you. Now, you're an incredibly intelligent young man, Mister Harvey, and you're here for a reason. Intellectually, you fit right in. However, we cannot deny that there is a clear divide between you and the other students, taking into account your upbringing and financial background."

Quinn was semi poor and everyone else got money stuffed up their asses by their still alive parents. Yeah. Correct. There was no need to remind him of that.

"Some of the feedback I've collected also includes things that, well, stand out, or could perhaps be improved. There's been mentions of rather poor posture, frequent movements and fidgeting, a very difficult to read handwriting, frequent misspellings that make it rather hard to grade your homework and assignments."

Surely Mister Osborne had seen Quinn's medical records, correct? As in, he must've read, in big bold letters, the part where it says 'ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER' and 'DYSLEXIA' and perhaps some other stuff the doctors had snuck in when Quinn wasn't looking.

"I'd like to provide some assistance for you to properly find your place among the students and get used to Oakwell's expectations and practices. One of our students has agreed to create an extensive program to focus on improving your writing, as well as etiquette, for which you will meet up twice a week. Of course this tutoring will be credited on your school certificate as a special extracurricular activity."

Quinn blinked, opened his mouth to say something, because the way Mister Osborne was staring at him now told him that he was expected to say something, but nothing really came out, except for a rather weak "Ah". He nodded slowly, then nodded a bit more rapidly, bowed his head a little in order to look thankful.

"Oh. Ah! I see. No, yes, you are very correct and I am very thankful for- for this opportunity. I really value how welcoming and, uh, how accepting you have been. It's great! And good." Quinn smiled. He was quite good at smiling, really, and at looking thankful and proper and normal.

Normal enough to fool Mister Osborne. Somehow.

"Certainly," the old man said, satisfied with Quinn's absolute shit answer. "We are happy to have you here, it is an honour. And again, we truly understand that you may struggle to fit in with the other students. We hope you can use this opportunity to grow."

Sure, whatever.

"Your tutoring will be happening every Tuesday evening before dinner, starting tomorrow, as well as Saturday evening after dinner. You'll be meeting at the library, but Mister Ansari will come by in a bit to introduce himself." Mister Osborne cast his attention towards his desk once more, and Quinn felt his body relaxing slightly. "In the meantime, is there anything else you'd like to talk about? Anything on your mind?"

"Uhm, not really, I guess. It's really only been a week, so..."

"Have you been getting along with Mister Moseki?"

"Ciel? Well-" Getting along? Kind of, but like, barely. Ciel had never really talked to Quinn more than he had to, he'd been grumpy in the mornings and even grumpier in the evenings, seemed happiest when Quinn was leaving and at his worst when he was coming back.

And yet, in every single class the two shared, Ciel sat down next to him, reminded him of homework that was due, sat at his table during breakfast, lunch and dinner, though silently. And even though he'd promised to abandon Quinn in the halls of Oakwell one day, all on his own and lost forever, those threats never actually came true, and Ciel had played Quinn's guide every damn day of the last week.

So Ciel really couldn't hate him that much, could he? And even if he did, he was way too good of a person to really let that out on Quinn. He was kind of like a disgruntled guardian angel. Not too different from Grace.

"I like him," Quinn concluded.

"I'm glad. He is a kind young man. I'd been worried that-" A knock on the heavy office door interrupted Mister Osborne, and he finally looked up from his papers again. "That must be Mister Ansari. Do come in."

The door opened, and Quinn turned around in his seat to face his new tutor, just to see- Oh. Ooooh. Oh no.

"Mister Harvey, I'm sure you've met Dev Ansari before. He's one of the most shining students of our art department, and he-"

Words faded into the background when Dev's dark eyes met Quinn's, and the carefully put-on smile dropped out of his face like a cloud pushing itself in front of the sun. He clenched his jaw, held eye contact with Quinn for a little too long before his face finally relaxed again and he forced a smile towards Mister Osborne.

Quinn brushed through his hair, then tried to focus back on the headmaster, who'd never stopped talking, while Dev sat down on the chair next to Quinn, crossing his arms.

"-will surely have created an interesting and helpful program for you, Mister Harvey." What? Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say. "And I'd like to once more extend my gratitude to you, Mister Ansari. I understand that you're already working overtime and dedicating a lot of your freetime to extracurricular activities. You are a model student, and Mister Harvey can surely learn a lot from you."

Oh, yeah, how to be a stuck up rich little straight boy that hated fun, for example. That was something Quinn had always dreamed of learning.

"Thank you for trusting me with this task, Sir." 'This task', which apparently was domesticating the idiot gay boy. "I will send you my notes to our lessons soon so you may revise them, but other than that, I am ready to begin our sessions tomorrow evening with Quinton."

Something about the way Dev said his name felt sticky, slimy even. Like it was something dirty he didn't want to put in his mouth, and could only spit out.

"You're truly representing Oakwell's ideals, Mister Ansari, hardworking, dedicated, obliging. See, Mister Harvey, I believe he will be a large help to you. I'm sure you will be able to blend in a little better if you try to take after him," Mister Osborne said.

"See, Quinn, things might get a little easier for you if you at least try to be more like James," the distant voice of Quinn's father said, a ghostly echo, something Quinn had believed to have forgotten long ago.

A dirty smile appeared on Dev's lips when Quinn turned his head a little towards him, smugly soaking up every bit of praise Osborne was showering him in. He loved this, to be the ideal, to teach Quinn all about being obliging and hardworking, like he hadn't tried to murder Quinn with his eyes from the first moment he saw him.

"I'm sure I'll learn a lot. Thank you so much, dearest Dev, for taking time out of your precious week to privately teach me your ways."

"So very happy to help."

"I'm sure you two will work fantastically. Now, I don't want to stop you from going along with your day, I know Mister Ansari has some extracurricular programs to attend. I wish you two a very pleasant evening." Mister Osborne nodded, smiled, then his eyes dropped down towards his desk once more and suddenly, Quinn and Dev no longer existed in his world.

Quinn hesitated, waiting for Dev to get up from his chair before copying him. Dev pushed open the door, hesitated, before holding it open for Quinn, gesturing him to walk through. His eyes pierced Quinn as he walked past him, once more narrowed and dark and filled with something poisonous.

Quinn returned him a smile, though. And when the door fell shut behind the two, he stretched his arms and patted Dev on his back, who flinched immediately.

"Who would've thought? We're meeting again! How fun!"

"We're meeting tomorrow at 17:20, in the library. Don't be late."

"So what exactly are you gonna teach me, golden boy? Like... writing in cursive or something? How to be a good boy?" How to say every possible slur though just eye contact? How to be a judgy little bitch for no reason at all?

"How to not be an asshole to strangers, Quinton." Dev sped up his steps, and fled out of the hallway.

Quinn waited for him to be gone, or at least at a far enough distance for him to not accidentally catch up to him, then huffed. Asshole. Sure.

    "Getting called to the office in week two, huh? What'd you fuck up?" Ciel shoved the book he'd been reading underneath his blanket when Quinn walked into their room, leaning against the door with a sigh and a heavy eye roll.

"I didn't do anything wrong, just like- It's tutoring, I guess?" Quinn loosened the tie around his neck, crossed his arms as he stared against the ceiling. "But like, so I can learn to behave properly, or whatever. Because I'm not rich and cultured like y'all."

"Behave?" Now a short laugh escaped Ciel's mouth. "What are you, a dog? Do you need to be house trained?"

"Dude, I wish I knew." Something actually tugged at the corners of Quinn's mouth. "It's so stupid, now I have to waste my time on this weird thing twice a week."

"Twice a week? Every week?" Ciel sat up on his bed a little, his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, Tuesdays and Saturdays- Why, you looking forward to the alone time?"

"In all honesty, yes. I don't particularly like sharing a room, in case you haven't realised."

"I absolutely have, no worries about that, Ciel." Quinn finally let himself fall on his bed, his hands rubbing his face, then brushing through his hair, fingers getting tangled in his curls.

He let his arms fall to the side, then closed his eyes for a few seconds. This was going to be a waste of time, for both Quinn and Dev. What was there to teach? What could there possibly be taught to help Quinn fit in more?

People had tried that plenty of times, to make him fit into a mould, and it had never worked, not once in his past sixteen, almost seventeen years of life. From telling him to be more like someone else, more like James usually, to punishing him for when he failed to do so, Quinn had plenty of domestication attempts behind him.

And he'd always come out worse. His spite had only ever grown. It wouldn't be different this time, Mister Osborne could be sure of that. Especially not when Dev was supposed to be his brand new role model. The model student. The new James.

"What do you know about that Dev guy?" Quinn eventually asked, opening his eyes again and turning towards his roommate.

"Mh, not much. He's Felix' roommate but not really much of a talker. He's besties with Nicolas Benson though." Ciel shrugged. "And he's crazy good at painting, from what I've seen. Why are you asking?"

"Dev's like... my tutor. Not sure how I should feel about that." Quinn was very much sure about how he felt, actually. But Ciel didn't need to know all that.

"Oh? He's a bit of an overachiever, I know that much. Takes everything very seriously apparently. Probably not super compatible with you, but he doesn't seem too bad."

"If you say so." Quinn closed his eyes once more, furrowing his brows. "We'll see how this is gonna go."

☆-☆-☆-☆

WC: 2256

surprise <3 two assholes are colliding in the worst way ever. oh gee oh man what will they be up to? what will happen? if only anyone knew!

anyways, thank you very much for reading! i hope you liked the chapter, do let me know your thoughts about this chapter, dev, quinn, anything at all, and don't forget to vote! mwah mwah!

oh, and before i forget, i'm gonna start adding songs to every chapter, either songs i associate with the scenes, stuff i listened to while writing, or just parts of the playlists i have for the characters. i'll go back to the previous chapters as well when i have the time! this chapters song is:

Choke by iDKHOW