School Troubles [Ereri]

Chapter 1

"'Rise and shine, ladies! Get up, get up, get up!" Levi groaned and rolled over. A fist banged on his room door and he heard his roommate, Brandon, groan as well. He decided to sit up. "Come on, people, get a move on!" One of the seniors banged on the door again. "We're up!" Brandon called out before covering his head with his pillow. Levi just rolled his eyes.

Being woken up by shouting seniors is just one of the privileges of being in boarding school. The true horror will start when he's a senior next year and will have to be up before everyone else to pull their lazy asses out of bed.

He climbed out of bed and started fixing the sheets before he had the chance to give in to the temptation to go back to sleep. It was five in the fucking morning. It should be considered a miracle that he got out of bed every day. "Get up, Patch. I'm not coming back for you." He gave his roommate's sheet a tug. "I hate that nickname..."  Brandon grumbled and Levi rolled his eyes. "Then get your ass up and go shave." With that, Levi left to go get breakfast.

A few of his classmates seemed to be in a zombie-like state as they made it down to the cafeteria with their matching, school issued navy sleeping pants and white shirts. The pants were available in long and short for summer and winter, but Levi had lost his – probably left it in the dryer the last time he did laundry – and only had his long ones in his locker at school. It didn't get all that hot at night, so he wasn't too worried about it.

The morning light filtering through the dorm cafeteria windows wasn't enough to light the large room up yet, so the bright overhead lighting had been turned on. Levi's floor was the first one to be woken up, but already there was a queue forming at the counter.

"Hey Levi." He turned around. "Jean." His friend gave him a small salute as always and he answered with a small wave as the taller boy caught up to him. Jean yawned. "Can you believe we've been back here for three weeks already?" Jean asked as they fell into the food queue. "I'm still not used to it. All I want to do is sleep in."

A boy walked past them on his way to a table and Levi peeked into his bowl. Looks like African Porridge, or as the cook calls it, 'Pap'.  The row slowly moved forwards.

"Where's Farlan?" Levi asked and Jean looked around. "He's already up. Probably in the bathroom before the rush." Levi hummed.

His two friends, Jean 'Horseface' Kirstein and Farlan 'Blondie' Church were roommates and located a few doors down from Levi's room that he shared with Brandon 'Patches' Frank. Their nicknames came from initiation when they started at the school.

Jean just wanted to go home during the first few weeks of school and it became a rolling joke to ask him 'Why the long face?'. Then one of the prefects cracked the joke about a horse going into a bar and the bartender asking him 'why the long face' and the term 'Horseface' translated to Jean.

Farlan had had the lightest, blondest hair in the grade and got dubbed 'Blondie'. His hair has darkened a few shades since then, but the nickname still stuck to him.

Brandon was the only newbie at school already sprouting a bit of a beard, but, much to the seniors' amusement, it only grew in a few patches around his jaw. Hence the nickname 'Patches'.

Learning these nicknames was easier than learning everyone's names. There are still boys in Levi's class that he only knows by their nicknames. Levi's nickname was 'Mouse' to his great disdain. The reason behind it was that the senior he was assigned to was nicknamed 'Mickey' in his first year and the duo was known as 'Mickey Mouse'. Luckily for him, it wasn't a nickname people used much. Except for the geography teacher and Farlan when he wanted to get under Levi's skin. In a year's time, they will be the seniors of the school and will each be assigned a newbie to initiate and give a nickname. Time flies.