Settled

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Darkness... There it was. The sweet abyss of nothing. Pure black. The noise was loud, but there was nothing there. White noise in a dark place. Hints of green appear. Left. Right. Left. And then back to black. And then...

A loud, distorted scream. A roar. And a sudden flash of blue, with a strange sword. Crooked.

Latin woke up with a start, sweat dripping down his face. He let out a groan as he flopped back down on his bed.
Stupid spook dream...

The boy yawned and rubbed his sore eyes, grabbing his phone to check the time. Upon turning it on, the light of the screen felt like it was burning his eyes. There was one new message sent 5 minutes ago.

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Yoooo

Latin mustered up the energy to type a reply back.

Latin Gay
Bro, it's like 2 in the morning over here whatchu want

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Oof that sucksss It's 10 here

Latin Guy
You not in school??

Silly Cowboy 🤠
In school, just messaging in class

Latin Guy
You're gonna get caught. Who you got?

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Sub for maths. Absolute chaos lmao. First day of school for you tmrrw?

Latin Guy
Yes, so I'm going back to sleep. Night.

The male turned off his phone and shut his eyes. And then his phone buzzed again. He huffed and picked up his phone to check what it was (really a bad habit).

Silly Cowboy 🤠
No don't leave me

Latin Guy
Hoe, stfu. It's an American school. Need to be ready idk wtf kind of bullshit I'm gonna face. Like the Spanish teachers.

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Tf you mean the Spanish teachers??

Latin Guy
Most of the Spanish teachers in our school are aggressive. Why wouldn't they be in America?

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Bitch gtf to sleep you stupid mf XD

Latin Guy
I hope the teacher takes your phone. Now STFU and let me sleep. Goodnight

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Good morning :)

Latin Guy
Dude I swear to fcking god

He decided to put his phone on mute to stop receiving notifications so that he could go to sleep. It was a good idea. Once more, he closed his eyes and drifted into a state of sleep.

.  .  .  . ✦

Latin yawned and stretched. Even after getting a good few hours of sleep, he was tired still. He wondered if the school would wake him up. Probably not until period 3. Still worth the hope.

He got there soon enough, same time as everyone else. Not bad for the first time, he thought to himself. He had been pretty sure of how the American school system worked. Kind of.
Eventually, he remembered where he was told his locker was, and so he walked over to it and put his stuff inside. Along with sticking a sticky note on the inside of it that said, 'Don't make a fool of yourself, act natural. But not weird.'. Now it felt like he was settling in.

Nope. As soon as Latin took a glance up at everyone else, that uncomfortableness came back. His stomach knotted up. He could feel some stares at him and some muttering. Oh hell no, too much. He turned back towards his locker and shit it. To do something before lessons started he pulled out his phone and decided to message his one but not only friend, Cowboy.

Latin Guy
Dude oh my god I feel sick. I'm scared.

Silly Cowboy 🤠
Did you only just get into school? Wow, time is weird. Anyway, you should be fine. As long as you don't meet any of those blonde tough guys like in films and shit

Latin took a seat on a bench and lowered his sky-blue cap, staring at his phone.

Latin Guy
Wow so funny. Seriously, man, I can see some popular girl staring at me and mumbling to her friends.

Silly Cowboy 🤠
How do you know she's popular?

Latin Guy
I'd send you a pic of her, but that would be weird.

Silly Cowboy 🤠
True, true.

Latin was about to reply. That was until the bell rang.

Latin Guy
Gtg man, classes starting and I've got History first, I'll tell you if I survive or not :/

He grabbed his bag and began his walk to his class. And he would've gotten there straight away if he had known where he was going. The boy wanted to ask someone, but he didn't want to seem weird, or stupid. Especially not on his first day.

Eventually, though, he did have to ask someone. He noticed a boy with a blue jacket and black hair with a girl with black hair and hair clips. Latin took a deep breath. They won't bite, they won't bite... He kept telling himself as he approached them.

"Um... Hi, would erm... Would you guys know where history class is?" He asked, as normally as he could. The girl was the one to answer first.
"Yeah, it's just down the hall and to the left. That's my lesson now, so I can show you if you want?"
Latin nodded, smiling. "Thanks, that'd be great."

The girl waved bye to the boy as she and Latin walked down to their class.
"Are you the new student? I haven't seen you around here before."
"Erm, yeah. I just moved from the UK."
"Cool! I'm Claire."
"I'm Latin. It's nice to meet you."

They both took their seats in the class, although it seemed like more students were still coming in.
"Which part of England are you from? Are you a London guy?" Claire continued.
"I come from Britain. Funny thing, I've never actually been to London before..."
A middle-aged-looking man walked into the class. He was getting the attention of the class at the start, giving Latin a few moments to think this through. Was he going to get called up to introduce himself? Yes. Yes, he was. Probably.
"Ah, the new student. Would you like to come up and introduce yourself?"

Bingo.

Latin had no comfort in doing this, but he thought why not? First impressions matter. You don't get a second chance at them. And so, he got up and tried his best not to let his voice crack.
"Um, so, hi. My name is Latin. It is a real name. And um... Yeah."

He quickly went back to his seat as the teacher continued to talk and teach something to do with Greece or something maybe.
Latin stared at his desk and let his thoughts swarm around his head.

Well, Latin. Welcome to your new life in Arcadia.

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