Back To Our Roots, Book One

LXX. New Characters Unlocked

"Who are you?"

He turned around. "Oh, um, I'm Sawyer. I'm new here."

The other boy smiled. "Welcome to Dalton. I'm Blake. This is Eliah."

The words came out of Sawyer's mouth before he thought through them. "Eliah? Isn't that a girl's name?"

"Gender is a social construct," Eliah said idly.

Blake laughed. "That means yes. Do you need some help finding your dorm?"

"Oh, that'd be great. Um, it's 204," Sawyer said, checking his papers.

"204? This way," Blake said, hiding his distaste.

"Wait, no. You wrinkled your nose. What does that mean?" Sawyer asked nervously.

"It's just, you're rooming with two of the most popular guys in school," Blake explained. "There was a third guy but he got moved to a separate dorm."

Sawyer walked beside him as he showed him to his dorm. "Like, good popular or bad popular?"

"Well... I mean, they have this little group, and whenever they get a new roommate they kind of get sucked into the group."

"That sounds like bad popular."

"I mean, I personally try to avoid them. Well, there's one on my lacrosse team and he doesn't seem too bad."

"Who am I rooming with? Are the on the better side or worse side?"

"Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson. They're dating, have been for a while now. Then Jeff Sterling, his boyfriend Nick Duval, Thad Harris, and Sebastian Smythe– he's the one on my lacrosse team– share a dorm. Then Matt Richardson, Wes Montgomery– there was a scandal with his parents recently, gained him a lot of popularity– and David Thompson, who's dating Wes."

Sawyer nodded, trying to take in all the information. "So being gay is just cool here?"

"It's more rare to see a straight at Dalton than a gay. Like, we're all pretty much gay."

"You mean you're pretty much all gay?"

"No, all of us are pretty much gay," Blake said, chucking. "I could show you around, if you'd like."

"That'd be great, thanks. I've never been to a boarding school before, I don't really know how it works," Sawyer admitted.

Blake nodded. "You'll catch on soon enough. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say you're gay, Beanie," he said, tapping Sawyer's hat.

Sawyer's dark complexion hid his blush. "Maybe. This beanie is mainly hiding my hair, though."

"Hiding your hair?" Blake asked, confused.

"It's kind of... long," Sawyer said.

Blake looked up at the hat curiously. "How long?"

"Very."

"I'm intrigued." Blake tried to pull the hat off of Sawyer head but he blocked it, laughing.

He tried to take it off again and again, both of them laughing.

Then Blake actually managed to pull the hat off of his head and fell absolutely silent.

Thousands of strands of curls fell down from the hat. Small, slightly frizzy ringlets, no bigger than an inch wide.

Sawyer looked nervous. "Is it that bad?" he asked, running a hand through his hair, bronze skin and black hair complementing each other.

"It's beautiful," Eliah said. Sawyer blushed.

"Thank you. You worried me for a second there."

It was indeed long. It fell to his shoulder blades, and would go farther if straightened.

Sawyer started to put his beanie back on, but Blake stopped him. "No, don't hide it."

He smiled, putting the hat away in his bag. He did, however, pull it up into a ponytail.

"I don't want to sound rude or something, but where are you from?" Blake asked curiously.

"Well, I've lived in America my whole life, but my family's from Kerala." Seeing his blank expression, he added, "It's in India."

"Do you speak Malayalam?" Eliah asked interestedly.

Sawyer looked surprised. "Yeah, my parents spoke it when I was growing up so I'd learn."

"Do you know how to say the name of the capital? Because I can't figure it out from the life of me. I get one syllable in and I've already messed up."

He laughed. "Thiruvananthapuram," he said slowly and clearly.

"Thiruvananthapuram?" Eliah attempted.

"No, it's Thiruvananthapuram."

Blake looked between the two of them, completely lost.

"Thiruvananthapuram?"

"Yeah."

"Um, we're here," Blake said.

Sawyer turned to look at the dorm. "Oh! Thank you for showing me here."

"Any time."