Basement Royalty

Chapter 2

After the long summer, getting up at seven was still a shock for Ray. He groaned as his alarm pierced his sleep, but turned it off and fumbled around on the nightstand for his glasses. After a hot shower, he felt a little more awake. He got dressed and headed downstairs, where his mom was drinking coffee and reading a newspaper at the kitchen table.

"Morning honey." She said cheerily.

"Morning." Ray replied, somewhat less so. Mornings had never been his thing.

"You sleep well?"

"Yeah, fine." He lied, deciding not to tell her that he hadn't gone to bed until 2am. There were some things she didn't need to know. He took a box of cereal from the cupboard and poured himself a bowl.

"What classes do you have today?"

"Uh... I can't remember, I left my schedule upstairs. I have health first thing, though."

"Do you know anyone in health?"

"No, but apparently Michael has some friends there, so I guess I'll probably meet them."

"Oh, well, that's nice."

"Mm-hm." He poured milk into his cereal and sat down to eat. Before long, his mom was up from the table.

"Okay, I'm gonna go fetch my bag and then I'm going to work. Make sure you're out of the house on time."

"I will."

"Don't be late."

"I won't."

"Alright. Bye, honey, see you tonight."

"Bye, mom." Ray ducked as she ruffled his hair on the way past. She fetched her bag from the living room and left the house. Ray finished his cereal and went back to his room to get his backpack. On the way downstairs he pulled out his schedule and looked at the day. Health, world history, art, chemistry, math, and gym. He groaned. He didn't know how things were going to be here but at his previous school that was a day to be avoided. For now he just had to wait and see.

*

Ray managed to be on time to his health class by asking a passing junior where to go. He sat down near the back of the class at a desk surrounded by other empty ones. They started to fill up quickly, but no one acknowledged him. He wondered who in the class Michael knew. The seat next to him was taken by a tall blonde girl and he was shocked when she turned to speak to him.

"Hey, are you Ray?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Cool, Michael told me to look for you. I'm Barbara."

"Oh. Hi. Yeah, Michael said you might be in this class."

"Yeah, he didn't want you to be on your own all the time so I'm looking after you."

"I don't think I need looking after."

"Maybe not, but you probably do need escorting to your next class. What do you have?"

"World history."

"Aw, we're not together then. But I'm not far away; I can take you there?"

"Sure, thanks."

"You're welcome." The teacher stood up from his desk and brought the class to attention. Barbara continued quietly. "So, how are you liking it here so far?"

"It's okay. I've met more people than I expected to."

"I guess you met all of Michael's friends then."

"Yeah. Gavin, Ryan, Jack, and Geoff. Although Geoff didn't seem to like me much."

"Oh, he probably did. He's sweet really. Was he telling a story or something?"