Basement Royalty

Chapter 1

Ray stood helplessly in the hallway as the first bell rang for class and students swarmed around him, the crowds separating to pass him. He had been given a map of the school to find his way around, but it was proving useless so far. No one stopped to help. He wished that the freshmen had started the same day; at least there would be other people hopelessly lost with him then. But they started the next day, and for now he was on his own. He stared at the map a little longer and walked down the corridor to his left. As he passed through a set of double doors, he saw another kid walking the other way.

"Uh, excuse me?" He said. "Could you tell me where room 12 is please?"

"Sure." She replied. "Go through those double doors-" She pointed at the doors he had just passed through "Take a left, and it's on the left side of the hall."

"Thank you so much." He took off running the way she had told him to go and found the classroom. He knocked on the door before slowly opening it. The teacher and students looked up as he walked in.

"You're late." The teacher said, giving a firm stare.

"I'm really sorry. I just started here, I got lost."

"Oh. Well, don't worry about it. Just try to remember where we are next time." She smiled at him. "You should probably introduce yourself to the class." Ray groaned internally, but nodded and walked to the front of the classroom.

"Hi, my name's Ray Narvaez. I just moved to Texas from New York." Someone snickered at the back of the class, and Ray walked to the only empty seat, next to a boy with curly reddish hair poking out from under a beanie.

"Alright." The teacher took over again. "Well, welcome to the class, Ray. Now, we've got a lot of work to do, so let's get going. You should all have a notebook and pen, and a copy of your summer required reading, so get those out, please." Ray obediently opened his backpack, which he'd dumped on the floor, and pulled out his notebook and a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. The boy next to him cursed under his breath as he pulled out his book.

"Hey, man." He whispered. "Ray, was it?" Ray started as he heard his name.

"Me?"

"Who else, dipshit?"

"Uh, sorry. What's up?"

"Could I borrow some paper? I forgot my notebook."

"Oh. Sure." He pulled a few pages from his brand new notebook, leaving ragged edges against the pristine pages, and handed them to the red-haired boy.

"Thanks. I'm Michael, by the way."

"Nice to meet you." Michael didn't reply, so Ray just listened to the teacher, taking notes every so often. He didn't raise his hand for anything. He figured he could get away with it for at least a week, if not more. No one expected the new kid to talk straight away, after all.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of the lesson, Michael spoke to him again.

"Hey, what class do you have next?" He asked.

"Uh..." Ray consulted his timetable. "Physics."

"Oh, shit. I have health, that's like the other side of the fucking world." He screwed his face up for a moment. "Ah, screw it. What lab are you in?"

"Five."

"Okay, I'll take you there."

"Won't you get in trouble for being late?"

"I'll just tell my health teacher I was showing the new kid around. He's a pushover anyway."

"Alright. Thanks, by the way."