Chapter Text
The school was a monumental building. Every corner you could see was adorned and dressed with elaborate cornices in flowing patterns in an off white, not on purpose, but from poor upkeep. The rest of the school a molding red-ish orange brick will thick ivy vines on some of the darker parts of the building. Many children who were attending this year were children of alumni, who were there when the school was almost at its prime. A shining display of wealth and the boast of many to display on resumes for upper-class internships that made them feel important and useful. The graduation certificate on the wall in various distant fathers offices and collecting dust and a display of expectation for the rest of their children.
Although contrary to the parent’s beliefs not everything is about them. Returning student, Archi Mc’coy, would have loved to remind his parents about this fact, but, they were arguing to much in the car to really give him a second thought.
Archi was newly sixteen, his hair was straw blond. His face was longer and gaunt with slightly hollow cheeks. His eyes reminded many of a frightened deer, like he had tuberculosis, they were a dull green and they held a bored look to them, but they flicked around outside the car window, watching and taking note of everything. He wore a black fisherman’s sweater, a blue shirt peeking out over the top, khakis, and a light beige wind breaker that smelled like tide and lavender. His shoes were newly polished and came with a half hour lecture about watching where you step, that, once he saw his mother start taking a deep breath, was immediately tuned out.
His earbuds were in and he was just staring out the window wondering why he went for the thanksgiving vacation at all. These vacations always turned out the same, he would come home, his mother would kiss him once, he would see his father once, and that was the end of it until dinner. And make no mistake, dinner was no better. The conversation was just as dry as the chicken his mother would insist on making because it was better for them all to have lean meats instead of red meats. And the wine that would go along with it was just as bitter as Archi’s heart for the home he had lived in.
But school, this school, was a blessed reprieve from the cold atmosphere of his old house. Especially because of one Thomas Sadowski, Archi’s favorite person ever. Archi was not a liar, he knew he had a crush on Thomas Sadowski, although a better word would be infatuation. There weren’t any shrines in closets or lockers, or murdering those who merely looked at him, but every chance he got he looked for Thomas. He talked to him, not in weird ways, and would try and hang out with him when at all possible. Thomas thought nothing of this, although he was aware that Archi had a crush on him, truth be told he found it quite endearing, but Thomas was not the kind of person who thought of himself as someone people had crushes on so the mere thought of someone having one was a little hard to believe for him.
Archi knew the ride was coming to an end when they passed a sign that read ‘welcome to St Sebastian school for boys’ he started to collect everything into a more orderly, ready to move manner in the backseat so no one would be more on edge then they already were.
On edge was an understatement for Mrs. McCoy. Mrs. McCoy had reached the point where she was so frustrated she ended up just sitting with her arms crossed facing forwards, hoping with all hopes that her son would move quickly so she could move on with her day. This whole bringing her son back to school at ten in the morning put a real kink in her plans, she has a dinner book club she had to be getting ready for, this week it was charcuterie night and she had to top Mrs. Williams, or she might not be able to restrain herself from spilling gossip about how she knew that Mr. Williams wasn’t the most honest with where he was going when he said he had business on Sundays instead of church. So needless to say she was a bit preoccupied and was a little spooked to see her son’s school gate arriving in front of her quickly.
Archi watched the gate pass and admired the ironwork as they passed. Similarly to the school, the gate had intricate designs flowing through it, that, at the time, displayed how wealthy the school was. And to this day still did. Finally rounding into the gravel parking lot of the school he waited, hopped out of the car. Grabbing his hard brown suitcase he clung to it like it was a lifeline while waiting for his parents to exit. This had to go smoothly, the transfer from house to school had to be clean, like a x-acto knife cutting good paper. His parents walked in front of him, entering the school was like a breath of fresh air. To say the air was fresh was generous, it was musty, smelled of old books and new wood floor polish. The decorations and cavernous entry way weren’t much better. As the school got older, so did the people who knew how to take care of it. So even though it looked beautiful, if you looked in some of the corners you would see dust bunnies older then some of the parents dropping their kids off. Similarly some of the ceiling was cracking and the chandelier had some wandering cobwebs to high for the ladders, and so too high for the parents with mediocre eyesight so notice.
But all this didn’t truly matter to Archi, he had seen this all before and everything had lost its novelty. But what hadn’t lost its novelty and had been seen before was the face of Thomas Sadowski. His best friend and favorite human ever, standing at the top of the winding staircase looking down onto the mingling crowd. Thomas Sadowski was also sixteen, had brown-black hair that curled and flopped over a face that invited people in, for secrets ad gossip Tom knew most of it. he was relatively tall and lanky wearing a hurt-your-eyes patterned sweater with a khaki collar, and black corduroy jeans. His shoes were a warm brown, despite the black pants, and hadn’t been polished in a couple weeks. As he scanned the crowd for Archi his mind was racing as it usually was. Wondering how the blond would be, what was for lunch, then dinner, and hopefully a dessert this time for the holidays, maybe he should water the plant in the corner of his room, it hadn’t had much water in a bit.
When Thomas finally spotted Archi and his parents, they were just wrapping up their goodbye speeches
“Bye Dear, stay safe and don’t get into any trouble.” Mrs. McCoy had said the same thing while dropping Archi off for every holiday since he started school. “Me and your father want that report card clean and with A’s and B’s, only.”
Mr. Mccoy agreed with a little less pizzazz, giving just a small grunt of acknowledgement while scrutinizing his watch, waiting for the perfect moment to go when they could miss the traffic and Mrs. McCoy could start her charcuterie board.
Waving goodbye was probably the second easiest thing Archi McCoy had done once getting back to school. The first was turning around and smiling at Thomas. They stared at each other for a solid three seconds or so with wide smiles, scrutinizing every detail and looking for any changes. Once they finished they threw their hands out and embraced like long lost brothers that hadn’t seen each other after years of separation.
Once apart they finally got to talking, with Thomas starting first.
“Oh my gosh, imagine my surprise when I see your head of hair at the bottom of the stairs, alive and breathing. I know how hard those visits can be so I’m surprised you didn’t end it while you were over there.” Thomas was glad to finally be able to see Archi again, he was his best friend and all, and as much as he would deny it he might have also had a slight liking for his friend.
Archi answer in a light tone, almost as if to say, ‘what can you do’ with a shrug of his shoulders he said, “yeah, what can I say, the thought definitely crossed my mind a couple time while there, the house is so quiet during the day time that a man could go mad without that much human contact. Who knows,” at this he made a point to wiggle his fingers over his head, “maybe I did go insane and I’m just making this all up, trying to get you close then, BOOM, your gone and no one would suspect it’s me.” He crossed his arms and finished with a mischievous smile that was alien to his usual features.
Thomas laughed and threw an arm over Archi, “well, then that makes the two of us, I swear sometimes I feel more at home here then at my old house, but! That is besides the point, I heard that Mr. Burkowski’s dog died.” That dog had probably seen the first world war. It was old and it needed to go fifty years ago. “Well, come on roomie, time for you to get settled back where you belong, and back to taking care of little Richard.” Thomas swayed going up the stairs with Archi much more relaxed under his arm.
Making it to their room Archi was glad to be back somewhere that actually felt like home. Although they weren’t allowed to paint the walls, they did have the opportunity to stick up posters, so they took full advantage of that fact. Their most prized poster? An old Weezer poster, you know the blue one, that they found from the previous residents, that they placed over top of a dresser and underneath a couple candles and a plate for candy. Near the Weezer shrine they had their room pet, little Richard or Richy, he was an old salamander Thomas had had since middle school. The room was pretty established, both boys had been at the school and in that room for a while, so they had to make the most of it, building up a sanctuary of sorts for them and their friends. Both beds were pressed up against opposite walls, leaving a large space in the middle with a rug and small table for visitors, their friends came over often.
Thankful classes were postponed for the rest of the day Archi hunkered down for a nap, pulling the many blankets up to his chin and curling into a ball.
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Waking up from naps is something Archi was never good at, and this one was no exception. He had the strangest dream, couldn’t remember what it was about and stared at the ceiling for a good fifteen minutes after waking up. Thomas had gotten used to this routine after the first couple of naps and learned to just leave the other be and sometimes grab his water bottle. He waited a good half hour before getting up and looking over Archi’s face, interrupting the blond’s blank staring at the ceiling.
“hey, we’ve got like”, Tom glance at his watch, “twenty, fifteen minutes before dinner, broski. Chop chop!” he clapped and moved back to his bed to wait, he was already ready to go, he just had to wait for Archi to work up the courage to get out of bed. “Oh, and remind me that after dinner I have something to tell you, it’s nothing bad, don’t worry.” He went back to wondering what they were going to serve for dinner.
Now Archi was curious, and wanted to get to dinner as soon as possible to find out what this important-not-bad-thing was that Tom had to tell him. Stopping himself from daydreaming too much and losing time, he wormed his way out of bed and rolled onto the ground. Standing up was a chore and seemed the worst thing he had to do today. Grabbing his shoes his mind too started to wander to what they were going to have for dinner, hoping they would serve dessert with it.
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Their friend group had a tradition of meeting up in the same dorm room and walking together for dinner, so they left with ten minutes to spare.
Oliver Wickett (whose dorm they were visiting) was a strange kid. He was wiry but short, had black hair that was so curly it made him look like Karakul sheep. His eyes where small and a grey blue, but the thick, bottle glass glasses he wore made them seem three sizes bigger and almost alien like. He usually wore flannels and nice black pants with black leather shoes.
Opening the door Oliver greeted them with a wide smile and open arms, he was one of the kids whose parents couldn’t pick them up for the break so he stayed at the school, nothing much had changed about the dorm except for some Christmas lights hung up around the window. His roommate, also a friend of theirs, was unpacking on his bed.
They didn’t actually know his name, he introduced himself as Maple. So everyone called him Maple, even the teachers used it for role call. Most people suspected this wasn’t his actual name, but nobody questioned it, there were weirder names. He wasn’t someone who showed emotions on his face much, resting bitch face was his norm. he had dishwater blonde hair that was always slicked back like a greaser. His eyes were narrow but fit his face, they were a dark brown. He was slim, but he had detention more then once for starting a fight.
The group of four boys started to go over their breaks and how they went, many exaggerated stories of finding fairies and slaying dragons were mixed in for some variety and laughs. Soon the bell rang for dinner and they started to shuffle up and out the door, moving with the rest of the students to the dining hall.
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Dinner wasn’t much to wax poetry about, it was beef stew, with mash potatoes, and noodles if you wanted them. the dessert though, Archi could talk about that dessert for the next week, or until they made another dessert on Wednesday. The dessert was a layer of chocolate cake, with a layer of some chocolate moose thing with chocolate chips sprinkled on top. It was light, it was rich, it was the perfect amount of chocolate that wasn’t something that made you have to stop eating halfway through the slice. It was the best welcome back present he had ever had.
Despite the most amazing dessert Archi had ever had, he couldn’t help but glance over at Tom. He hadn’t seen the guy for over a week so he wanted to get as much time with him as possible. But with these constant glances he also noticed something else, Thomas was antsy. Often bouncing his leg, he didn’t eat much and what he did eat didn't warrant a trophy either. Archi was pretty sure he knew why, it was that thing he wanted to talk to him about, he didn’t know that it was that important or dire. Once Archi had finished eating he looked over at Tom, who noticed and looked over, gave a small smile and a thumbs up just above the edge of the table. Archi smiled and nodded and they both got up from the table, telling Oliver and Maple, Tom had a headache and needed to go back to the room.