The Ranking System (BoyxBoy)✔

⚜Chapter 6: Home

"I can't take it off," I said firmly.

Despite his intimidating height and fierce glare, I couldn't take off my necklace. It felt wrong not having it around my neck for even a second. He stared at me. Before I could stop him, he examined the ring and probably guessed that I couldn't cause much damage with it. 

I could read his thoughts: why the fuck is this kid wearing this piece of crap?

"It has sentimental value," I said.

He let out a mocking laugh.

"You shouldn’t wear necklaces in Serpenti High."

“Why? You think it’s too girly?” I spat in a venomous tone. 

“No, someone might choke you with it." 

I stiffened.

When my bag passed the x-ray examination, I was allowed to enter deeper into the building. He quickly went over the school regulations and the do's and not to do's. I had the attention span of a goldfish and stopped listening after the first sentence.

My eyes studied the bleak walls. Students who walked past us glanced my way with smirks and haughty gazes. They all had one thing in common: they looked intimidating as hell. My instincts told me that if I wanted to survive behind these walls, I was going to have to sleep with one eye open. I needed to avoid messing with the wrong crowd, but how was I going to do that when all the students looked like the wrong crowd to be with?

"... And if you break any of the rules, you'll be sent to SI," the guard said. "Understood?"

"No, what's SI?"

"Self-isolation," I noted. "Wonderful."

We went into the boy's dorm room where more hungry eyes followed my trail. Something about the way the other boys were staring at me made me uncomfortable. I could read the look in their calculative eyes: fresh meat. 

"What kind of teenagers are enrolled in this school?" I asked. 

"Delinquents, gangsters, pyromaniacs, mentally unstable kids, there's a variety of them," he answered. My lips pressed into a thin line.

"That's... Great."

"The bathroom and showers are over there. There aren't any doors in the showers, so don't be surprised if a naked guy is showering next to you. Some of them like to stare, so I wouldn't stay in there longer than  necessary," the guard clarified. 

"Wait, you mean we have to take showers with our ding dongs hanging out in front of each other?!" 

"This isn't a five-star hotel."

"No, but even crappy motels have doors for privacy," I hissed. His eyes lowered.

"Worried that they might make fun of your size?"

"For being too big? Possibly," I smirked. The guard ignored my cocky attitude.

"Privacy is going to be the least of your problems."

Well, damn, that was kind of brutal.

But complaining wasn't going to magically make doors appear. The authorities didn't seem to care about our well-being and did the minimum that was required of their jobs. It reminded me of the orphanages I used to be stuck in. But in places like these, there were bound to be loopholes. If the food that was served wasn’t good, then you had to find the secret pantry where they hid the good rations for the guards.

If the public bathroom reeked of shit, then you had to find the floor with the private bathrooms for teachers that smelled like lavender. To survive in places like these, you needed to use your brain and find loopholes; at least, that was how him and I used to survive in the orphanage.

All I had to do was start from scratch and understand how this place operated. 

If Serpenti High was as corrupt as the orphanages I grew up in, then there had to be a social hierarchy among the students; a minority who’ve hacked down the system and created their lines of sources to get what they wanted.

The stronger orphans used to boss around the weaker ones. It was like a microcosm of gangsters where the fittest survived and the weakers obeyed.

Was this place like that too? Then who was the boss around here? 

We took the elevator to the fourth floor.

“This is your room,” he said, nodding towards a metal door with a green sticker plastered in the middle. I noticed that all the doors on this floor had green stickers. 

“Your roommate should be inside. This is your class schedule and you can find your books in the library tomorrow. Classes start tomorrow. If you break the rules, you'll be sent to a place worse than this one."

He nodded towards the window and I followed his gaze. There was an isolated building separated from the main campus. Something about it made the hair on my arms stand.

“Best you don’t break rules, eh?” he said. 

“Best not,” I grumbled. 

He handed me the key before sauntering off. I pushed open the metal door that made a painfully loud screeching noise. I stepped into the room.

Home sweet home.

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A/N: Who's excited to meet the roommate? 😙

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Q/A: What do you guys think of 'friends with benefits?' Would you do it? Or is it something that you don't agree with or understand??