The House Master

Challenge

Aleister watches in slow motion, the knife stick into his side. Adrian pulls his hand away, leaving it protruding from the wound. "If you're a doctor, you'll know that ain't fatal,"

"Wh-What did you do...?" Shuddering, terrified eyes look up at the teenager.

Adrian's eyes continue to flash that strange light, he stands over Aleister looking like the grim reaper himself. "Your mistake was letting me get in the car by myself, not having someone let me in.  But even before that, your initial mistake was not researching me thoroughly enough to know that I'm a chemistry student, and to know that this-"

He pulls an empty bottle of soda from is pocket. "- doesn't boost a car's endurance when it's poured into the fuel tank,"

He smirks and with a final warning, a warning that manifests as nothing more than a subtle shift in his smirk, he clambers out the side window of the car. Adrian's feet land on the pavement of the empty street, which he surveys for cameras or witnesses. Satisfied there aren't any, he sneaks up a side-street shrouded in overhanging trees. He needs to get as far away from the car crash as possible, and his expertise of this town leads him down winding paths onto the main street, where he blends in with the shoppers.

"Fuck," he realises his uniform, especially his blazer and prefect badge, is highly recognisable. He pulls that off along with his tie and button-up shirt, exposing his bright pink t-shirt underneath. Pulling a hoodie from is backpack, he hides his bright hair under its hood.

"Well," he sighs in relief once he stops in a café to be off the street. "Now this means I have the afternoon off,"

After a grace period of half an hour passes, with nothing to do Adrian walks not home, but to Diedrich's house. He intends to sit on the step and wait for the taller to return, but Diedrich's mother opens the door.

"Oh! Adrian, isn't it?" she asks with wide, surprised eyes. "Diedrich is at school..."

He knows she says that while wondering why Adrian isn't at school too. He nods, ready to turn around and leave, when Diedrich's mother invites him inside.

"Really?"

"Yes, of course," she smiles down at him. She's taller than Adrian when he's slouched like this, but when he stands at full height, she's just shorter.

"Well, see, the thing is..." he sighs, kicking his feet against the front step which leaves the imprints of his rubber soles. "I'm here to say sorry to Diedrich..."

She turns pale, blinking and staring straight at the ground. Assuming they had a fight and some nasty words were exchanged, should she invite him in? Would Diedrich want to see him?

Eventually, she relents to Adrian's original plan of him sitting on the step in wait for Diedrich. Unfortunately. when Diedrich arrives home, he's accompanied by Vincent. Both stop short of the gate when they notice he's there. After a brief exchange of surprise and awkwardness, they enter.

"You weren't in science," Vincent states plainly.

"I know, we have some things to talk about," Adrian tells him.

"Why are you wearing different clothes?" Vincent gives him a frown is distaste. "And why are you here of all places?"

"Diedrich, I'm sorry I was a bastard this morning," Adrian blurts out his apology in the knowledge that if he doesn't say it now, he never will. "That's - That's all I came to say,"