Chapter 18

The dining room was vast because it was designed to hold all the students at once. There were six columns of six tables lined up, each table could fit eight students, two on each side of the table. It was spacious and large chandeliers hung low above each table, brightening up the room.

Audie, Valentin, and Nael goofed around in front while Henri and Errol walked quietly behind them holding a polite conversation.

"Are you in any clubs? Henri asked curiously. He was still unaware of the clubs that were present in the school.

The lights seemed to go out of Errol's eyes at this question. "I'm in the Painting club," He answered quietly, his head down. "I'm not very good at it though."

"So you enrolled in the club to learn how to paint? I could also join the club to help you out, I'm not terrible with a paintbrush." Henri offered nicely.

Errol went back to smiling at this. "You don't have to join a club for my sake, what club do you want to join?"

Henri clasped his hands behind his back, unsure of what to do with them in a conversation. "I don't quite know what clubs the academy offers."

"Oh! I'm sorry, it's going to be told to you during the orientation but it's simplified really." Errol apologized, they were already in the dining room. It was rapidly filling up with students from every year, a cacophony of students wearing dark reds, blues, and greens.

"It's divided in two, Arts and Sports, and a few of the clubs are well known throughout the country."

Henri listened intently to Errol while the other three found a perfect table for them all to sit at. "Is there perhaps a Horse racing club?" He asked curiously.

"Why yes there is…"Errol was quick to answer.

"The Horse racing club is known for performing in national and international tournaments." Valentin piped in.

"You'd like to join it, Henri?" Errol asked without a shred of judgment in his eyes.

"I've considered it." He answered hesitantly.

Audie scoffed. "What's there to be demure about? You'd shred every competition."

"Oh? Is he a good horse racer?" Nael chimed in, Henri noticed that he was always quiet, until he wasn't.

Audie cleared his throat nervously. "Well…"

"You don't have to tell them." Henri cut him off with laughter in his voice.

Audie's expression darkened. "Sometimes, I think you're only happy when I'm miserable."

They finally found an empty table, their meals were already served, the trays of food covered with gold bowls. Candles on golden candelabras were lined up at the center of the table although the chandeliers already provided enough lighting.

Errol sat right beside Henri on the same side of the table, Nael sat beside Errol, Audie, and Valentin followed suit. There were three empty spaces on the chair due to this, Audie sitting across from Errol.

Just as they were about to begin eating, two students walked up to their table. The first one was tall with tawny hair, deep blue eyes, and a polite smile on his face. While the other student behind him was even taller, so much so that he slouched deeply but was still almost a head taller than the tawny-haired student. He had wild black hair that he left a little too long that it obscured his eyes.

"Hello, do you mind if we share the table with you?" The tawny-haired student asked Henri.

Henri panicked slightly. "Yes, you can." He answered calmly for all his internal discord.

"Thank you." The newcomer beamed, "I'm Louis and this is my friend Dio." He introduced, sitting comfortably.

"I'm Henri." Henri felt the need to say.

"Errol." He smiled, "My little brother Valentin and his two friends Nael and Audie." He introduced the rest, pointing at them.

Valentin's expression soured at his introduction but he nodded to acknowledge the newcomers' presence anyway.

Throughout this introduction, Dio hadn't raised his head up once and he seemed to lean in Louis' direction.

"There are a lot of new students here, I hope we end up in the same class," Louis said to have a conversation, opening up Dio's tray and handing him his utensils.

Dio took them, showing his hands for the first time, they were all bandaged up and he held the utensils like weapons.

"Don't hold them like that, Dio." Louis patiently cautioned him, helping him to hold it the right way.

The others watched with wide eyes but didn't say a word about the strange students that had joined their table.

"Are we not all going to be in a single class?" Henri asked, confused about Louis' earlier words.

Audie snorted in laughter, Valentin joining in. Errol calmly flicked grapes their way, hitting them both on the forehead with startling accuracy.

"We're not," Louis answered without batting an eye at Henri's strange question. "There will be too many of us in a class so it'll be divided in three, we'll be told what classes we're in after the orientation."

"Ah, I see." Henri nodded.

"I also just learned that myself," Louis added. "I've been homeschooled my whole life so I'm not knowledgeable yet on how school systems work."

Henri's grey eyes immediately sparked with happiness. "Really now? I didn't think I'd find anyone else who was also homeschooled."

"There's quite a number of us you'd find, Dio and I were homeschooled together."

Henri was immediately hung up on Louis, for someone who had been met with people vastly different from him from the moment he left the castle, it was especially nice to meet people he could relate to.

"There's nothing that special in being homeschooled," Audie grumbled from where he sat, clamming his mouth shut when Errol lifted another grape threateningly.

Social conversations still didn't come easy to Henri but he was starting to find that it was easier to talk to some people than others. Perhaps he should be grateful to his father for inviting Audie over to the castle to make friends. His first day of school would have been much more difficult if it hadn't turned out this way.