Dead Ravens Society

Chapter Two - Ring, Happy Bells

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true

- Ring out, Wild Bells, Lord Tennyson

Gansey

It took Gansey some time to find his new roommate, but not because the boy didn't stand out against the rest of them. Adam Parrish was the early work of Van Gogh surrounded by the man's last paintings. A speck of grey among a sea of blue. 

Despite wearing the same uniform Gansey wore, Adam's seemed duller to the colour, as if it already had been washed too many times. It didn't quite fit his lanky frame, baggy where he had rolled up the sleeves to keep his slender hands visible. His dusty hair, though cut neatly, was not too different from a bowl cut, while the rest of the Raven Boys had theirs styled in different variations of comb-overs. 

Gansey had noticed the boy the moment he stepped into the building, but as there had never been someone with the surname Parrish on the school grounds before, he hadn't been able to know it was Adam. He hadn't known the boy he'd walked past in the garden was his roommate until he overheard headmaster Whelk refer to him as Mister Parrish.

Adam was polite, yet quiet as he accepted Mr Whelk's compliments and prognoses of his future at Algionby. The smile he'd had plastered to his face dropped the moment Whelk turned his back towards him to talk to the man who would replace their old history teacher this year, Mr. Czerny. 

Gansey had been beyond saddened to hear that Mister Mallory would retire, as the eccentric professor had been a nice change of pace from the rest of their tutors, who all just read straight from the aged course material and never added anything of their own to them. But Mr Mallory had said 'Noah' had been one of his own students once upon a time, so Gansey had some fate that the blond man, could still make history a fun class to attend. At the very least his young age might make it easier to relate to him, although it felt odd to have a mentor that was so close to their age.

Gansey dragged his attention away from the older men and examined his new roommate. Adam looked as if the conversation with the headmaster had drained all his energy, the blue of his eyes faded and his shoulders slumped. He stared down at a piece of paper in his hands, mumbling something under his breath as he turned first to the left and then to the right before his hand dropped to his side and he kicked at the ground.

"Adam Parrish, right? I heard we're going to be roommates!" Gansey said as he walked up to the boy, putting his arm around his shoulders and turning him in the direction of their dorm.

"Yeah," was all Adam said in response, his entire body flinching at the sudden touch, but he didn't shove Gansey away. He instead looked down at the gravel path beneath their feet as if he hadn't quite heard him.

"I'm Gansey." 

At the lack of response from the other boy, Gansey repeated himself, a little louder this time.

Adam looked up at him and promptly shook his head. "I am sorry. I was a bit caught up in my head...It's nice to meet you, Gansey" And with those words, the polite smile returned. Some part of Gansey felt wounded at being treated the same as the school faculty when he was the other's peer, but this was Adam's first day. Gansey himself remembered feeling lost and powerless on his own and knew politeness had been a way for him to regain some power.