New beginnings (boyxboy)✔

N.B 2

Ryan's POV

I didn't like moving to a new town. It was beautiful, I didn't like it. I didn't like going back to school after I had spent a year off school premises. I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to smile and pretend everything was okay. I didn't want to be polite and make friends. I wanted to go back where I came from, but my dearest uncle wouldn't hear a word of that.

It was too late to register, but the school took me in. I immediately hated it when I saw the building. It wasn't a private school, but it sure looked like one. The building was huge and beautiful. The yard was clean and green. I didn't belong there.

My previous school hadn't been a dump, but it hadn't been classy either. The new school looked expensive. The halls were spotless with marble ceilings and floor-tiles that looked like mirrors. I knew my uncle was paying a lot for me to be there and I honestly didn't think it was worth it. I was going to fail, just as I'd failed before. I was repeating the 11th grade for the second time. It would have been for the third time, but I'd dropped out after 3 months the previous year. I'd spent that year doing odd jobs. My uncle decided my life wasn't going anywhere and forced me to move so he could monitor me. Part of getting me back on track was enrolling me at school in November, two months after formal classes started.

I hated moving, for more reasons than one. But I had been barely surviving. I had been getting more and more desperate. It became more and more impossible to fight my uncle. He was trying his best for me. His wife wasn't excited about my presence. She tried to make me comfortable, but I didn't fail to see the pretence. Her children's money was going to a nephew whose only talent in life was disappointing people. I was going to disappoint my uncle and he was going to send me back where I came from, making me feel worse than I already felt.

The first classes I went to were okay, and my definition of okay is: zoned out after 15 minutes. I was resenting my decision to move too much to even concentrate. Besides my aunt's fake smiles, I didn't have nice memories about the town and my uncle's place. I'd had great memories of when I was young and running around in snow throwing snowballs, but all those were erased by one potent memory. I remembered the only thing that I wanted to forget.

"Ryan, this is Pete, Caroline, Jason, Lilly, Wendy, Mark, Bolt, Kristine and Jesse", Rosaline did the introductions.

We were seated at the cafeteria, at what I had just learned was the popular table. I hadn't been at the popular table at my old school; I had been on the rebel table. The rebel table and the popular table hadn't gotten along.

I said my greetings and everyone said theirs. Rosaline sat next to Jesse who gave her a peck on the lips. I realized then I was seated with couples. There was a cheerleader for every jock. How typical. I felt a bit awkward.

"Ryan is new in town", Rosaline said.

"Oh, where are you from?" it was Caroline who asked. She was the typical ditzy blond, at least she looked it.

"Aqua St Parks", I said briefly.

Questions streamed in then about why I had moved, what it was like there, whether I played football and so on. I gave curt answers, not wanting to divulge too much and open old wounds. Soon the focus shifted from me. Everyone in the group seemed nice. They were of course nice to everyone they considered part of their clique. But was I part of them? You could say I had the build and the face. A few girls had already flirted with me. I guess in some aspects I did qualify.

I listened to the conversation and made a few remarks while I ate my food. At some point I zoned out and looked around me at the fancy cafeteria which had a fancy menu. Everyone looked like they fitted at the school, even the nerds.