He Bleeds Flame ✔️

2. look underneath

t w o
"Forsan miseros meliora sequentur." - Virgil

LOOK UNDERNEATH [ the surface ]

---

A couple days later and William Brown had not passed his exam on Friday, and, to top it all off, he had received a D on his graded research paper earlier that morning, which meant only one thing. He would be assigned a tutor, and if he didn't get his dammed English mark back up to a passing level, Professor Thompson would report to Headmaster Clyde. William could not have another strike, or he would be expelled and sent back to his foster home.

"Students are expected to perform to the best of their ability, Mr. Brown," Headmaster Clyde had told him the last time William had found himself in his office.

Glaring at any living soul he passed in the stone hallway, William ambled towards the dining hall, his empty stomach growling slightly. Oil lamps lit up his path with a golden hue as students around him walked in pairs in the silent corridor, some still dressed in their school uniforms. The uniforms consisted of black khaki trousers and a long sleeved white shirt with a formal starched collar. Dark black blazers were thrown over the top with the Oakwood Academy emblem stitched across the left side pocket.

William looked down at his loosened tie and his white buttoned shirt which had become untucked over the day. He couldn't be bothered to fix it. He just hoped any passing teacher wouldn't be bothered to issue him a detention for breaking the dress code and "being out of uniform."

Luckily for William, out of uniform detentions did not merit a strike. Most detentions he obtained were merely inconveniences, yet they made him feel alive. Plus, school hours had ended nearly four hours ago, so even if they attempted at giving him a sheet of paper, issuing him a detention, William would argue and manipulate his way out of the situation.

He'd done that too many times too count, especially back at home, when he'd been confronted about his sexuality. Sure, William knew most did not accept it, nor understand his ability to be interested in the same gender, alas William also knew admitting to such things would only make his terrible life even more horrendous. He'd rather not the entirety of an all boys school know his secret, yet even if it did get out, William wouldn't necessarily care too deeply.

Maybe he'd get another offer to hook up from one of his fellow students.

A handful of people knew Williams's sexuality, one of the primary ones being Ashton. Actually, the more William thought about it, the more he realized that he would be rather surprised if no one at Oakwood Academy had at least heard the rumor.

After all, he had been caught in the supplies closet his first year here with a student who had graduated last year.

Focusing his attention somewhere elsewhere, William stepped into the dining hall, the scent of tonight's dinner wafting throughout the large room. He grinned, relishing in the smell of well cooked steak. This was one of the things at the school William would never take for granted: a well-cooked meal.

God only knows when he'd get another good one when he left the school.

Inside, three long mahogany tables, with a perfectly vanished shine, took up most of the vast space the room offered. It stood like some mid-evil banquet hall used by past kings and their subjects. Above the tables hung iron candelabras, which glowed softly as if they were merely stars in the night-unwavering, yet twinkling and dancing above.