1 Chapter 1

I'm different. I don't blend in, no matter how much I want to. Now I'm being shipped off. I live in the slums of New York, surprise surprise. My slut of a mother is letting me be taken away and sent across the country, although I'll be happy to escape the experience of being kicked out in the middle of the night for one of her late-night visitors. God, I swear if they ship me off to some weird foster house with fifteen kids. I packed my things, not that I have many, and get into the car that was sent for me. Damn, the car has a leather interior. There's no one in the car except for a driver who doesn't seem like he'll be talking anytime soon. I pull on a pair of headphones and play music. I'm tapping my foot along to the music when someone taps me on the shoulder. I didn't realize someone was in the front seat next to the driver. I slip my headphones behind my neck. "So, how are you?" It's a brunette with green eyes. She looks about thirty-five. How does she think I'm doing?

"Fine." There's no way I'm being polite to the person responsible for getting me sent away. "Do you know where I'm going?" I may as well know if I'm going to some foster home. "I'm not going to some orphanage, am I?" She turned to me.

"No, sweetheart, of course not!" The nickname made me cringe. Call me that one more time. I took a sip of the water bottle that was in the cup holder for me when I got in. "You're being sent to a very nice, respectable... boarding school." I choked on my water. This time she was the one that cringed. "It's not as bad as it sounds. The only thing different about it from any other school is that it has dorms." She handed me some brochure.

"No. No way I'm going to some year-round boarding school." She looked at me, sympathetically.

"The foster care system in your area is full, and considering your police record, this was the best option." Christ, my police record. The last time I've gotten arrested was two months ago. "Oh, I'm sorry I never introduced myself! I'm Karen. You won't see me for long because once we arrive, you'll legally be the schools' responsibility, but it's nice to meet you..." She looked at a file, "Ren." She doesn't even know my name.

"So I'm being sent off to some school for delinquents, but they like to call it a boarding school."

"Oh, goodness gracious no!" She has the vocabulary of a seventy-year-old woman. "The system has known about your situation, and we think if we put you in good circumstances, you could have great potential. It is a costly private school, and they have an excellent curriculum. You are very lucky to go there." She's trying to make this seem so exciting. Going to some expensive private school with snobs that will look at me like trash. What a great opportunity, am I right?

"So, where is this place anyway? How long is the drive there going to take?" I may as well like the place if I'm going to be living there. She gave me a small, hopeful smile.

"It's in the mountains. It will take about three hours to get there, but from the school itself, it doesn't take long to get to the city. Although you would have everything you need at school so there would be no need for you to travel to the city. And though it is in the mountains, the campus is large, so you are not in the middle of the forest." I cross my arms and look at her.

"Thanks for the geography lesson, Karen." She looks unsettled that I called her by name. Good, that makes two of us. But she smiles anyway.

"I think this will be a good place for you, Ren. I hope you get good opportunities for your future." I look at the floor of the car.

"Thanks." I pull my headphones over my ears and let the music drown out the sounds of the car. I make it almost through one of my playlists when I feel the car stop and turn off. I take off my headphones and look forward.

"We're here," Karen says delightedly. I wonder how many times a week she does things like this. God, it's huge. I get out of the car and look at the building. I can't even describe how big it is.

"This is the place? Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" Karen pulls my one black suitcase and backpack out of the trunk and hands them to me.

"I told you, you are extremely lucky to be here, don't waste this opportunity. The school's Headmaster will show you around and explain everything." As a man comes through the main door, Karen goes to the car. "I wish you the best of luck, Ren." Her smile seems sincere — sort of. I turn back toward the man. He has dark, neat, brown hair, and he towers over me. Is he wearing a blue suit? I don't know what to call it, but it looks elegant and expensive. Something a Headmaster would wear, I guess. He gives me a warm smile.

"Ren, correct?" I nod. "I am your Headmaster, welcome." I give him an unconvincing smile and pick up my bag and grab the handle of my suitcase. After showing me around, he takes me to the dorms and brings me to the end of the hallway on the first floor. He opens the door and gives me the key. "This is the only student issued key to your room, so I recommend you take good care of it." I set my things next to the bed in the small rectangular room. I look around, one decent-sized window, a twin bed, and a desk next to a bookshelf. I flip on the light switch, and a fluorescent glow brightens the room. "I'll leave you here to rest and get your things unpacked. There is no one else in the dorm right now because class is still going on. Feel free to roam the campus to get used to things. Dinner is at 5, or you can buy food anytime from the campus cafe or store. And the curfew is at 10:00 PM exactly. If you need anything, feel free to come to me directly."

"Ok," for some reason, I feel like I can actually trust him, and I smile at him for real this time, "thanks." He smiled back at me and closed the door behind him, and for the first time today, I'm finally alone. I unpack my things and decide to explore a little. I go into the hallway, and out of the dorm, I walk towards what looks like a garden. As I walk through the high hedges and plants and flowers, I spot a bench and sit down. So much happened today, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I thought I would be ecstatic, being so far away and having a room. But I kind of miss the small apartment, and as much as I hate myself for it, I miss my mom. She was a shitty parent, but I know she cared about me. A loud bell chime rings out through the grounds and scares the hell out of me. I'm pretty sure everyone's done with the class now, I was hoping to avoid meeting anyone until tomorrow — my luck.

I walk around more, trying to avoid being seen by anyone. I head back towards where I remember the dorms being. But unfortunately for me, I get lost in the garden. I'm stuck in a maze of eight-foot hedges and rose bushes. After about half an hour, I feel like the birdbaths and cherub fountains are mocking me. I kick a cherub and grunt as pain shoots through my foot, a bad idea on my part. I hear a chuckle behind me and turn around. I see a boy that looks about my age leaning against a hedge with his arms crossed. He walks over to me, still grinning. He's about four or five inches taller than me, so I reluctantly look up to meet his eyes.

"You're new." It wasn't a question.

"How do you know?"

"Well, you've been lost in here for at least ten minutes. And most people like the cherubs." I feel my face flush, getting a little defensive.

"How are you supposed to get out of this damn place anyway?" His honey blonde hair brings out the bright green in his eyes.

"Come on." He turns and starts walking. "What's your name?" I jog to catch up to him.

"Ren. You?" We make countless amounts of turns as we talk.

"Sebastian. Call me Seb." He grins at me. He's wearing a navy blue blazer with a school emblem on the front pocket and matching pants. Underneath, a white button-down with a dark crimson tie. I guess that's the uniform I have to wear. I sigh mentally as I think about how stupid I'm going to look, dressing like these people who are nothing like me. His voice silences my thoughts, "Are you okay?" he looks at me curiously.

"Yeah, sorry. This place is so overwhelming." Dammit! Why did I just tell him that? "I mean, I've never been to a school like this so, it's all new." That didn't sound much better. "I mean that probably sounds weird, everyone here has always been super-rich and has probably never set foot in a public school." Oh my god. Stop talking. "I didn't mean that how it sounded!" I turned to face him. He's staring at me. Great, it's my first day here and I already pissed off some aristocrat. He suddenly starts laughing. I feel some of my stress melt away.

"Don't worry about it. That whole freak out thing that you did was kind of cute, like a little kid or something." He smiles at me. I think I was just insulted? I don't think he meant it as an insult though. As we miraculously exit the garden, I just want to go back to my room.

"Thanks." I say quietly before I walk away. I already humiliated myself enough in front of him. I walk back to my room avoiding anyone I see. Using the key to unlock the door, I push it open before hearing another door open. I turn around to see him again.

"Looks like we're neighbors." He smiles at me. His room is at the end of the hall, right across from mine. Great. He opens his door and my jaw almost drops. His room is like, four times the size of mine.

"Damn." It slips out of my mouth. I look away embarrassed. It's not like it's huge but it's pretty big for a student, especially compared to mine. Maybe all the rich kids have big rooms? I wouldn't be surprised if they stuck me in a broom closet. The sound of him laughing makes me turn back to him. It's smooth like honey... wait, what? No, I didn't just think that. Erasing that from my brain.

"It's a pretty big room, right? A privilege of being the prefect I guess." I look at him confused.

"Sorry. The what?" He chuckles as he looks down at me.

"Basically, I enforce rules and can discipline people who break them. It's a British thing, but this school has a lot of influence from over there." Now that I think about it, the whole headmaster thing is pretty British too.

"Doesn't that mean you get perfect grades and are super well behaved, stuff like that?" Even though I felt like that was him from the moment I saw him. He radiates wealth and perfection.

"I guess you could say that." he smirked at me, "So if you need help or anything feel free to ask."

"Thanks." I mumble under my breath. I walk back over to my room and close the door. Yeah, right, like I'm going to willingly speak to him again ever. I'll be lucky if I can avoid him for more than a week. Sebastian and his perfect everything. Kinda pisses me off. His whole life's probably been perfect. I just want to go to bed already. But, it's super bright out, and I should probably at least unpack my stuff. I toss my single suitcase onto the bed and unzip it. When I go to open the closet I'm pretty sure the corners of my mouth go physically downwards. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." In the closet hangs the most perfect, annoyingly wrinkle-free uniform that I will have to be adorning my body with from now on. So pretty much, I hate it. If I didn't look out of place before, I definitely will if I'm wearing this. I push it to the side and start hanging my clothes. After hanging those and the one cat-eared hoodie that I definitely do not own, I go to my bag. I take out most of my things, which isn't very much. Laptop, chargers, and other random stuff. I take out the one picture frame, me as a toddler and mom both laughing. The edge was a little ripped from the part where my dad was torn out. But you can still see his arms around me. I don't really remember him much. But I also don't really care. If that bastard wanted to run off with his secretary, then that's fine with me. As long as he never comes back. I put the picture on the bookshelf. I guess I should get some books, there's finally room for them since the bookshelves are even taller than me. I like reading but didn't have anywhere to put my books at home. I sigh as I sit down on the bed. I can hear people talking outside. There are little pangs of anxiety in my chest as I imagine having to go to class tomorrow. I can already see everyone staring at me with a look of disgust. No matter what I do, everyone will know that I don't belong here. I snap lightly at the rubber band on my wrist. Looking again at the bookshelf, I wonder about the incredible library they probably have here. That headmaster guy pointed it out when he was showing me around. I don't want to go to bed on an empty stomach, and they don't start serving dinner for a few hours. I guess I can kill some time there.