Rosewood School for Boys

Chapter 2 - Roommates

Thanks for reading hope you enjoy! Xx

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I push open my own door and walk inside. There are two beds, each with a bedside table, and two desks. There's another door to the side which I assume is a bathroom. The one large closet has the door swinging wide and I spot that there are clothes hanging in one half. I'm surprised to see a boy already sitting on the bed farthest from the singular window. He's thin and wiry with dark skin and messy curls flopping over his forehead. His eyes widen behind thick-rimmed glasses as he stares at me, staying frozen like a deer in headlights.

"Hi," I say tentatively "I think I'm your new roommate? My name's Amaryllis."

My words seem to break the spell holding him still and he bounces to his feet excitedly.

"Oh my gosh I thought the rumours about them letting in girls was fake! You're so pretty! How did you get in are you like a genius or something? You must be if you're here!"

His rush of words overwhelms me and I just stood there confused for a second until he says,

"Oh sorry did I talk too fast I do that sometimes I do it in my sleep too it's why I don't have a roommate, well until you came. I'm Caspar." He holds out his hand and I shake it gently, still a little scared of his verbal diarrhoea.

"Nice to meet you Caspar, do you mind if I set my stuff up on that bed?" 

I point to the bed that doesn't have his things strewn all over it. Caspar is clearly not a neat person, his clothes are all over the floor as well as books with dog-eared pages and some broken pens.

He blushes and scratches the back of his head sheepishly when he notices my line of sight. "Yeah sure, sorry about the mess."

I kneel down in front of the bed and open my suitcase. All of my belongings fit in this small bag. I move around a lot so there's never been any point to owning much because I would just have to leave it behind when I went to the next foster home. I've been fostered many times since my grandad died when I was five, some better than others, some unspeakably bad.

I shake away the dark memories and focus on unpacking, I'm determined that this school will be the fresh start I need to leave my past far behind me. I put my books on the bedside table and my few trinkets on the windowsill. I only have a few books despite the fact that I read a great deal. But I usually borrow books from libraries or school, there's only a few I have deemed worthy of my personal collection.

After a minute I realised Caspar is still staring intently at me. "You good?" I ask, unnerved.

"I have loads of questions but I don't want to scare you off." He replies bluntly.

"No it's fine. Ask away." I sit on my bed and turn to face him.

"Well first of all are you rich? I didn't think so because you don't seem loaded and I would know a lot of people here are really rich but you could just be modest or something I don't know. And are you related to the headmaster or something? I don't want to be rude but you'd either have to be very special or know some people in high places to be the first girl allowed here. Or do you have a special talent? I like comics but I'm not much good at anything else it's why I don't have many friends but you seem like you would have friends and not even just because you're pretty. You seem like you're good at art or something, although maybe that's kind of sexist of me sorry about that I'm a feminist but y'know deeply ingrained societal stereotypes and all that."

"Okay wow. That's a lot."

I'm not very good at meeting new people so over the years I've developed a strategy, if you match everyone's energy they tend to like you back because you remind them of themselves. I take a deep breath.

"No I'm not rich at all and I'm not related to anybody important. I don't really know why I'm here I'm not particularly special and I don't have any special talents that I know of but I got a letter a few weeks ago saying the school wanted to try having girls and so they wanted me to be one of the first for some reason. I thought there would be others as well but it doesn't seem like it. Also I'm a feminist too so I appreciate that and I think that the harmful stereotypes that society impresses on us is one of the main barriers to gender equality." 

I gasp for air. Damn that was hard, how does he do it?

Caspar leans his head on his hand and looks deep in thought for a moment. "Okay." He turns back to the book he had been reading when I came in.

"That's it?"

He looks at me again, "Yeah you answered all my questions I guess I'll just have to wait and see why you're here."

I nod in understanding and start to put my few clothes into my half of the closet. My clothes are mostly from goodwill or hand me downs from older children in the home so half of them don't fit right but I usually have more important things to think about.

Later that night I climb into bed exhausted. I had got up early that morning to catch a train from London and since then it had been a busy day. I switch out my light, leaving Caspar bathed in the glow of the laptop he was watching Netflix on, and fall asleep almost immediately.