Part 1
New day, new week, new year. A clean slate, exactly what he needed.
The weather was warm but cooling down, September’s weather bled slowly into the atmosphere, not too harsh of a transition but enough that it was still a noticeable change.
His “spring” uniform wasn’t keeping him very warm but he preferred this rather than an excessive amount of heat that his other uniform would’ve provided him.
He looks down at the paper in his hands once more before making his way to his new dorm. New year, new dorm, new dormmates, new friends.
A familiar flood of black hair raced past him breaking him from his thoughts.
“Melissa!” He shouts to get the girls attention.
Well, maybe not completely new friends.
“Achilles?” The girl turns around and rushes at the boy without waiting for his answer.
“Why are you so bloody tall?” She pulls him down to hug him tightly.
“Puberty, I guess?” He answers, smiling at her.
“A growth spurt and a haircut, living lavishly are we Atkinson?” She hooks her arm through his and drags him with her towards her dorms.
“I’m not allowed in the girls dorm” He says, still following her.
“It’s fine, you're not going to get kicked on the first day” she pauses “what wing are you in anyways?”
“CR, Well obviously ‘R’ that’s where all boys’ dorms are…”
“You're in luck!” she claps “I'm in CL so you can just walk from mine to yours!”
“What room?”
“342”
“I’m in 245”
“Little bit of a walk but it probably won't take long,” she gestures at his long legs.
The two quickly make it to her dorm, the walk going much faster since they were there to entertain each other.
Achilles knocks on the wall next to her dorm door, “Well i’ll see you later then, probably in refect?”
“Don’t call it that, it sounds weird” she pauses “and yes, I will be seeing you later”
Achilles walks down the hallway to get to CR, glimpsing up everyone once and a while to look at the dorm numbers.
Melissa was right, it was a bit of a walk but it wasn’t very long, he thinks as he stops at his door.
He unlocks it swiftly and sees another familiar person.
“Ti-?”
“It’s Andy” He interrupts, “It’s Andy now”
Achilles smiles at him, “All right then, anyone else showed up?”
“Nope, two in, two more expected” Andy says
“I forgot that you had four dormmates in Year 13” he sighs loudly and collapses onto an empty bed.
“Oh poor me,” Andy mocks Achilles, “No where to put all of my skin care” he fake sobs.
“Oh shut it, there's just going to be less space for my fencing equipment if there’s more people” He says “when are fencing sign ups by the way?”
“After orientation I think,” Andy says, moving back to unpack his stuff.
Achilles follows suit, unpacking his suitcase into the nearest drawer. The boys aren’t allowed a few minutes of silence before the sound of the door opening is heard throughout the room.
Loud laughing is heard when a boy walks in followed by a girl, a little shorter than him.
He had short dark brown hair that complimented his pale complexion, half frame glasses the color of worn asphalt, and a small gray earring in his left ear.
“Hello Andy” the girl spoke.
Achilles’ eyes snap from the boy to the girl behind him. She was an attractive woman, light brown eyes almost resembling honey and a soft jawline that was framed nicely by the muted green hijab she wore.
“Hello” Andy blushed a dark red, almost the same color as the sweater he was wearing.
Achilles noted this and made a mental note to ask him about it later.
The boy walked in further and waved at the girl.
“Bye then Pat” she smiled softly and walked out of the room.
Pat walked to the dresser on the other side of Achilles and started unpacking his already folded clothes.
“I’m Andy” The smaller boy breaks the silence, all of them look at him “and this is Achilles”
“Well I’m Pat,” his voice was soft and sort of pitched up but matched his face very well, “and i’ll be taking the top bunk if that’s alright?”
Achilles cleared his throat attempting to make it deeper “Yeah that’s fine”
Andy muffled a laugh into his hand, trying to pull it off as a laugh.
“D’you know if there’ll be another boy with us?” Pat asks.
“Probably not, it’s getting kind of late so we might be some of the fortunate lads with only 3 to a dorm.”
“Alright then,” Pat rubs his hands on his slacks and grabs a folded blanket and tosses it up to his bed, “I’ll see you later.”
“At orientation?” Achilles asks, a little desperate.
“No, I’m not going” he says “where is the gym, I need to sign up for fencing.”
“Oh! I can walk you” He answers loudly
“No, that’s fine if you would just point me towards it that would be nice”
Andy points in the direction “over there”
“Thank you” He leaves just as quickly as he came.
Achilles groans loudly, falling back onto his bed and puts his large hands on his face.
“Nice going mate” Andy laughs loudly at his misery “so much for not coming off to strong”
“Says you” He props himself up on his elbows “I saw you blushing over that girl”
“Well she's my girlfriend I can blush over her”
“Girlfriend!” Achilles shouts “well, blimey then” he flops back down “maybe I am a douche”
“Not a douche, just an idiot” Andy says as he sits down next to him.
“I hope he sucks at fencing, so that I have to teach him” Achilles grumbles
“I take it back, a douche and an idiot”