Quinn had hoped that the tutoring thing he was forced to endure twice a week would count towards the mandatory extracurricular activities that Oakwell students were damned to do.

It did not, of course, and now Quinn had found himself on the running track on a Saturday morning, jogging after Ciel who had unfairly long legs and a lot more stamina than him.

"And we're taking a break!" Coach Owens yelled across the field, accompanied by the shriek of a whistle. "Stretch and hydrate, we're continuing soon."

'We' meaning the poor students, whereas that old fucker could continue to relax on his little bench at the sidelines, in that stupid Oakwell branded tracksuit that'd never seen a drop of his sweat before. And here Quinn was, thinking that maybe the teachers would be more dedicated here than in his old public school. He was very wrong.

Quinn's rather pathetic jog turned into a more pathetic walk as he caught up with Ciel, who'd begun stretching. Quinn plopped down onto the ground next to him, resisting the temptation of simply laying down and passing out- or away.

"This sucks. So badly."

"Quinn, darling, you chose this." Ciel stretched his other leg, then his arms, rolling his head back and forth. "There's a million other activities for you to choose from."

"I thought this would be chill," Quinn whined, now trying his very best to get up as well to rub his aching legs. "I fucking hate running. I hate this. I hate sports."

"I can only repeat myself, but you chose this. The Saturday time slot is exclusively sports. You could've easily signed up to any activities on Monday or Friday, you've had enough time to sign up to those."

"But, uh, I didn't wanna go alone. Y'know, I still barely know anyone here, so, yeah."

"Felix and Dev have choir practice on Mondays, pretty sure you've met Milo who has his German class on Mondays, I do coding on Fridays, Felix does Latin-"

"Fine, okay, listen, I just- I forgot." Quinn sighed, making one pathetic attempt to stretch his arms. "I forgot to sign up for anything else and the Saturday activities were the only ones left. And Tennis Club sounds horrible. And swimming sounds even worse."

"Yeah, no, I get that. I'd rather shoot myself in the head than do competitive swimming with these absolute shitheads. But now you're stuck here."

"You know, I was hoping that maybe this was the type of running club thing where I only run a couple of laps and then go into hiding in some bush for the rest of the session." Quinn glanced over towards the coach, who sat on his bench unmoving, a rock floating in space. He surely wouldn't notice if Quinn just slipped away, right?

"Yeah. No. He does make us run through the woods every couple of weeks though, so if you wanted to fall behind and take a break, which I'm not telling you to do, that would be the time."

"Something you've never done, I assume?"

A smirk cracked on Ciel's face, and he shot Quinn a wink before continuing his stretches.

Quinn sighed, checked the coaches position once more before giving in and dropping back onto the bouncy floor of the running track, stretching his limbs out.

Mid September was treating the Oakwell skies well, sun shining with only few clouds blocking it off every now and then, or rather grazing it before passing again. The rubber floor had heated up, a nostalgic feeling of warmth, the memory of sitting on the playground in the summer, tickling Quinn's skin.

Oakwell summer felt kinder. The heat wasn't as sweaty and wet and smelly as it was in London, the sun was gentler as if it knew it had to behave when around Oakwell staff and students.

As though it was dimmed to fit in, having to hold back, and it had learned to behave. Now, the sun was shining down onto Quinn's freckled skin telling him to do the same. Dim, hold back, behave. Quinn closed his eyes and for a second, he considered obeying.

Then, he began to feel his skin burning, that pale sensitive skin of his, and was reminded not only of the fact that he was absolutely allergic to direct sunlight, but that also, the sun had absolutely not dimmed its light, and never would.

Actually, one day, it'd implode and consume everything. It wouldn't obey, wouldn't yield, just simply consume all. Not that Quinn wanted to necessarily implode any time soon, but he could at least try to not be intimidated by Oakwell's stupid scary rules and stupid scary aura and stupid scary students that wanted to attempt to teach him how to be normal.

He opened his eyes again, shielding his face with his hand, turning his head to see Ciel, who was still stretching, then sat down. Quinn then looked into the other direction, squinting to see the tennis court that was separated from the race tracks through a mere chain link fence, a choice that was quite certainly disrupting the elegant, expensive aesthetic Oakwell was so desperate to uphold.

Sounds of a tennis ball hitting a racket, flying back and forth, echoed across the field, and Quinn watched small figures run back and forth to keep the game going.

Looked kind of fun, actually. If it wasn't for the fact that those were rich students playing tennis. If it had been a bunch of kids playing badminton in someone's backyard, it would've been a lot more fun.

"Dev does tennis as far as I know," Ciel said, sitting down next to Quinn on the ground. Well, didn't sound fun at all anymore. "Speaking of, how's your cleanliness training going?"

"My- tutoring. It's called tutoring. And it's going- Well, I'll tell you where it's going: absolutely nowhere. It's by far the most useless thing ever. And I'm only one lesson in."

"I don't know, I think the idea isn't even that bad." Ciel finally rested now, sitting down more comfortably as he looked at Quinn. "I mean, that they're giving you an opportunity to learn to adapt. From what I remember, the last students they brought in with scholarships had it pretty rough, lots of bullying and shit, because they didn't really fit in. And you, Quinn-"

"Yeah, I'm the greatest freak this school has ever seen, I get it."

"Maybe not the greatest. Believe me, there's tons of closeted freaks here. You just happen to make it kind of obvious." Closet made of glass, was what Ciel was saying. But he couldn't help himself.

"Okay, so, they don't want me to get bullied for being weird, so they ask someone to bully me into being normal. And that's supposed to help me, then?" Quinn scoffed, sat up and brushed through his hair with his hands. He threw another glance at one of the figures moving about on the tennis court, hoping that it was Dev and he maybe felt his gaze in his neck like a mosquito bite.

"You're not- I know the execution isn't the best, but it's good that they're supporting you a little."

"It doesn't feel like support though, it feels like I'm too stupid to keep my head up on my own!" Quinn got back on his feet now, twisted his body side to side in an attempt to look as though he was stretching. "I'm already pissed that they had me change my hair, but now they're trying to discipline me into being like everyone else? They chose me to enroll in this fuckass school and now suddenly I'm not the right person after all."

Ciel opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, a glint in his eyes nearly resembling sadness.

"In two years, when you're out of here, you're gonna be able to be whoever you'd like, Quinn. Until then, you're gonna have to fit in just enough to survive to graduation. Trust me. You'll be free eventually." The sadness disappeared as quickly as it'd had come, and Ciel shot Quinn a brief smile. "Besides, you do fit in. You're obviously smart as hell and know a whole lot about, like... Physics and shit. Just because you've got a different background than most of us doesn't mean you're a complete outsider."

Quinn sighed. No, it did. That was exactly what Mister Osborne had been trying to tell him. Yeah, sure, Quinn had aced that stupid entrance exam and his most beloved maths teacher had written him a five page letter of recommendation. But nobody had really asked him about that yet.

What some students had asked him about the past few weeks were what his parents worked as (nothing, they're dead), if they left him a lot of money (no, the little bit they'd left them went to James anyways), why his hair looked so stupid (it used to look cooler), and if he thought he was special and better than everyone else for getting a scholarship (yes, but he didn't say that).

Ciel had remained the only one who actually regularly spoke to him, though he only really started doing that this week, and then there was an occasional 'hi' from Felix if they crossed each other. The rest had been fantastic at simply not speaking to him, letting him sit alone, sometimes bumping into him in the hallways without an apology muttered.

Not that they had ignored him so far though. They'd certainly made sure to make him feel seen, with their stupid rich people stares and whispers. With their giggles when a teacher called his name while he was zoned out.

Having some asshole read the school rules to him over and over wasn't going to make things better, or easier, wasn't going to make Quinn more invisible.

A butterfly, small, yellow, innocent, landed in front of Quinn's feet, sat there, rested, wings gently moving in the breeze. A whistle echoed across the field, and the butterfly was gone again, as though the sound had disrupted its peace.

"Come on, our sign to keep running. It'll get easier with time, I promise." Quinn didn't want it to be easier. He wanted it to get harder for everyone else around him. "You just gotta build some stamina but in a few weeks you'll notice how much longer you can run."

☆-☆-☆-☆

WC: 1733

WAUGHH a bit Ciel + Quinn chatting. my roomies, my besties even, warming up to each other! i do love these two a lot together, i cant lie <3

well, i hope you liked this shorter chapter, taking it slower and more calm. if you enjoyed it, leave a vote and some comments! mwah mwah thank you for reading!