Blight Academy

Past Memories

I walk into my dorm, G17. I immediately notice the size, much bigger than I had imagined. One side was plain while the other was like an alter of colour. Tones of natural green and browns are meet with dark shades of purple and blues. A figure appears out of a small tent, a frown furrowing his brow at my disturbance. He had long red hair with two strands braided down the side of his face. He had bright green eyes, his skin having a strange greenish glow. Shimmering golden leafs are embedded into the skin down his neck. He wore strange purple and green robes, a pair of delicate fairy wings spread out behind him. He decorated himself with an array of flowers, feathers and leaves.
"Hey, sorry. I'm your new roommate, Leonard Quince but my friends call me Leo."
"Oh, your him. Your bed is that one, don't touch my stuff or disturb me when I'm meditating and I won't give your life hell," he said. "My name is Skren Durah. I'm a fairy."
"Yeah, the wings kinda gave it away." I said but he was unamused and crawled back into his tent, the sound of flute music playing on full blast.
I sigh, deciding maybe it was for he best. I have a lot of unpacking to do anyway and I have to prepare for tomorrow. I open the clear file Principal Williger gave me, pulling out the timetable. My first class is transformation studies, lecture hall 9. I wonder if I'll find it okay.
~~~
At breakfast I sat down and was quickly joined by Thoman and Alice yet Sapphire was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Sapphire? She's gonna miss breakfast," I say
Alice smiles, "let's just say Sapphire isn't really a morning person."
"I would be too if I didn't have swim practice at sunrise every morning," Thoman said
"Swim practice?" I ask and he smiles
"Yeah, merpeople swim team. It my chosen extra activity, it was either that or underwater aerobics," he said before taking a large bite of his toast.
"How was your first night? Getting along with your roommate?" Alice asked
"Almost completely unpacked, can't say too much for the roommate though. He pretty much ignored me, he would rather meditate."
"Who's your roommate?" Thoman asked, a frown on his face.
"A fairy called Screen Dura or something,"
"Oh, Skren Durah," Alice said. "He's in my wilderness survival class, I also think he was in the gardening club for a while but he got kicked out."
"What did he do?" I ask.
"Wasn't he caught growing pot?" Thoman chimed in.
"Pretty much," Alice said and I laughed. "He's a bit of a grumpy guy but I'm sure if he's still at it with the pot he will lighten up."
We all laugh for a solid three minutes, spurring some strange looks from by-passers. I was glad I was fitting in, everything is so new and strange. I'm afraid to be left behind. I'm just glad, Thoman, Sapphire and Alice are cool people, I can't imagine hanging out with anyone else.
"What do you have first?" Thoman asks waking me out of my trance.
"Transformation studies," I say
"In lecture hall 9?" He asks, I nod. "It's on my way to my swim class, I'll walk you there if you'll like."
"That would be great," I practically jumped in my seat.
Alice smiled a strange smile while I looked into Thoman's bright blue eyes.
"Well, I gotta get to glass. Have fun you two," she said getting up. "But not too much fun."
~~~
We walked slowly since we weren't in any rush, just leisurely strolling around the school to the back buildings. Its the end of Autumn, winter is approaching and the air was getting colder with each passing day. We started with talking about random things before it slowly turned more personal. I didn't mean for it to get that way, we have only known each other a day yet I feel like I can trust him. Yet I don't know why I feel this way, I'm usually more reserved than this.
"How did you become a merman, if you don't mind me asking," I asked
"It's not that interesting," he said, looking down at his shoes.
"Well you know what they say, another mans trash is another mans treasure," I said awkwardly. "Not that your life is trash or anything."
Thoman gives a small smirk. "It was a girl from my school."
"A girl?"
"Yeah, I wasn't born in Hawaii but my parents had always wanted to live there. I wasn't complaining, the sun, the sand, the surf. I was in love. I was kinda popular in school, I was captain of the basketball team. Yet in my last year there, a new girl arrived. She had bright blonde and blue hair and vibrant blue eyes, it all reminded me of the ocean. She was perfect, she sung like an angel and loved to surf like I did. She was an excellent swimmer."
I started to notice we had stopped walking, stopped under a tree with bare branches. He looked out over the long field and into the distance. I was entranced by his story, the way he spoke made her sound so beautiful and yet made him sound so lonely.
"I somehow got the courage to ask her out," Thoman said. "I can still remember the excitement in her eyes when she said yes."
There was a silence as we sat down into the grass. Thoman picked at it absentmindedly, lost in his own memories. I swear his eyes were the bluest they had ever been.
"Everyone said we were the perfect couple, a match made in heaven. Little did I know about what was to come. On the night of graduation, she wanted to go skinny dipping. There she confessed to me that she was madly in love with me before she dragged me down into the water. I don't remember what happened under there, all that I know is that the next morning I washed up to shore. There were some guys, they took me to Blight Academy and I never saw her again."
"Is she alive?" I asked with thinking.
"I've wondered that every day for the past two years,"
I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight. He looked at me intently and I got lost in his eyes. "I'm sorry that happened to you. It must have been confusing."
"How did you get kicked out of collage?" Thoman asked me suddenly.
"How do you know about that?" I said, lowering my hand and looking away. I looked out onto the field.
"I was reading an article online," Thoman said. "I didn't mean to pry but I just wanted to know if your friend was still okay."
"It's fine really. It seems so long ago now, college feels like a dream." I said. "I loved college honestly. I was rooming with my best friend, I was studying something that I loved so much. My job was shit but it's what kept me alive."
"It sounds nice, normal people college. I wish I had gone before all this happened, I could have seen how the other half lived, you know," Thoman said.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," I fiddled my thumbs. "Although my college experience wasn't the best."
"How so?" He asked
"I was so stupid back then. I literally gave up everything for someone who probably wouldn't have done the same for me."
"What happened," Thoman asked.
"My friend was on some drugs, like serious drugs. I knew he was on them but he never really got into trouble using them. But one day he did get in trouble. He was selling them on campus, I didn't know he was selling until he got caught by a professor. We had been friends for so long, he had done so much for me when my mum died. I just thought I was doing the right thing."
"You took the blame, didn't you?" Thoman asked
"Yeah, stupid me took the blame and told them the drugs were mine. I even believed the promise he gave me when he said that he would get help, get better, get clean!" I almost yelled, my vision going blurry. "They found him a month later, dead from an overdose in the dorm we had shared."
"Oh god, Leo. That horrible," Thoman said, his turn to comfort me. He wrapped his arm tight around my shoulders, pulling me close as a few tears escaped me.
I hugged him back, cursing myself for giving into my emotions but I couldn't help it and with Thoman here, I was glad I had someone to talk too. Nobody has ever had my trust since that moment. Yet I knew I could trust Thoman with everything, I don't know why but I could.