Boarding School - SBI

Chapter Four

Wilbur walked over to his new roommate, Fundy, and followed him as he walked back up the fancy stairs that he just came down. When Wilbur got to the landing, he looked behind him to see his brothers and their new roommates talking away happily about this and that. He was happy that they were happy, but stressed out himself and he was worrying about what was to come.

Wilbur followed Fundy back up the stairs, then into a short hall that ended in another staircase. Fundy hopped up the steep steps quickly, very light on his feet. When they reached the top of the staircase they walked a few meters down another hall and Fundy pulled out his key and opened a door.

"Remember that this is our door, it's kinda embarrassing when you open someone else's. I remember that when I first got here I tried to get into Maple's room because I thought it was mine. They weren't too happy, but they're so nice, and forgave me pretty quickly," Fundy had opened the door, and motioned Wilbur to enter.

Fundy was quiet for a couple seconds after they entered the dorm. He closed the door behind them, but didn't lock it. He looked around, then he started to talk again. "Anyway, you can have either the bunk bed there, or the bed by the window. I suggest the window, it has a nice view. I would have taken that bed, but I used to have a roommate and that bed over there grew on me."

Wilbur looked at the beds while Fundy talked. And talked. Wilbur liked the idea of a bunk bed, but decided that he liked the window seat more. Also, if he had the window seat he would be able to climb out of it if he ever wanted to. "I guess I'll take the one by the window."

"Hmmm... okay.... Do you want to go to lunch now? Then I can show you around the building." Wilbur nodded, and they walked down a flight of stairs. At the bottom there was a hallway that went two ways. Fundy didn't stop, and he went down the shorter hall. Close to the end he opened a door into a large room filled with people.

Fundy walked up to the line to get lunch, and Wilbur hurriedly followed him. When they got there, there were six or seven people in front of them so they had to wait a few minutes, so Fundy decided to try and fill the space so it wouldn't get too awkward.

"Why did you come here?"

"Oh, um, my father decided that we, me and my brothers, would get a better education by coming here instead of staying homeschooled." Wilbur responded quietly.

"Your brothers seem nice, the small one seems a little bouncy though." Fundy smiled.

"Y-Yeah..." responded Wilbur, unsure of where Fundy was going. It didn't matter though because it was his turn in line to order.

The lady handed him a plate, it had what looked like chicken and spinach on it, with some sort of creamy sauce. "Thanks!" Fundy said, "Can I also have some bread, and an orange?" He asked as she handed him a tiny cup of water and a package, probably with cutlery in it.

Wilbur looked at the cup of water. It really was tiny, like microscopic. It looked like it had one or two gulps of water in it, a good proportion for a preschooler, but for a fifteen year old?

"Honey, you there?" the lady behind the counter asked.

Wilbur snapped out of his thoughts, and mumbled, "Yeah, sorry." She smiled warmly and handed him a plate with the tiny water and cutlery. Wilbur mumbled a thanks. Fundy, seeing that Wilbur had his food, started to walk away, looking for a table.

They walked up and down the rows of tables, until Fundy chose a table. Sitting at it were two girls, one with dyed pink hair that was similar to Techno's, and the other with long curly white hair.

"Hello! How are you guys?"

"Good!" the girl with pink hair said, she had a fair sounding voice that matched her nicely. She had a white shirt to match silver earrings. She quickly introduced herself and her friend to Wilbur, the girl with pink hair was Niki, and the other Puffy. Then the three of them started to talk rapidly, leaving Wilbur to either try and figure out what they were talking about, or zone out and eat quietly.

He chose the latter, picking at the spinach. He wondered about what the headmaster meant by active classes, he hadn't heard that term before. It was probably gym, but it was plural which confused Wilbur. He didn't like the idea of having multiple gym classes.

"Wilbur, what do you do?"

"Pardon?" he responded.

"What do you do to pass the time? I was saying that I like reading, Puffy likes cooking and Fundy is very boring." answered Niki, smiling all the way through, making it funnier when she so blatantly insulted Fundy.

"Oh... I play the guitar. I've written a few songs, too,"

"That's so cool!" said Puffy. It's an odd name, he thought, probably a nickname, but why Puffy. Did she get a really bad bug bite?

Wilbur scanned her over, trying to figure out how the name fit her. He must have had a confused look on his face because she said, "Do I have something on my face...?"

"No, no. I was just thinking about something. Sorry." Wilbur said, looking back to his food.

"It's okay. Anyway, what do you write your music about?"

"This and that. I get inspiration from all sorts of things. I mostly learn music that other people have written though." Wilbur, paused a moment, trying to think of something to take the attention from him. He didn't really want to talk about his music. "What kinds of books do you read?" Was what he decided to try.

"Poetry!" Thankfully it worked, and she dropped the music.

"Who's your favourite artist?"

"That's hard... but my favorite poet is probably Robert Frost, in particular 'The Road Not Taken.' The name makes it pretty clear, but it's about two paths in life, and how once you've chosen one you can't take the other, but sometimes if you take the less taken road it benefits you more. It's a good poem."

Wilbur blinked, he didn't realize that she liked poetry that much. He found it a little dull, and the meanings shallow, because unlike what English teachers seem to think, if the poet said the wheelbarrow is red, they meant the colour.

"Once the English teacher asked my class to choose a poem to study. First and last time that happened. I suggested 'To Sit In Solemn Silence,' and she agreed way too quickly. It was hilarious when she realized what she'd been set up for." Puffy said, trying not to laugh too hard. Neither Fundy nor Wilbur knew the poem, but Niki and Puffy thought it was funny.

Lunch continued like that for a half hour more, before Puffy had to go to class. Niki got up with her, so Fundy and Wilbur hastily got up too.

They walked over to another counter, different from the one that they got their food from, and Wilbur watched them sort everything on their tray into different buckets. One for forks, one for spoons, a rack for plates and so on. There was a bucket or rack for everything, except for knives. Something had probably happened with the knives, a fight most likely.

Fundy and Wilbur said goodbye to Puffy and Niki, and Fundy led Wilbur out of the cafeteria to continue the tour.

They exited the cafeteria, and walked back down the hall. Fundy pointed at all of the doors saying which class was held in each.

"And that one is maths." He pointed out the last one to Wilbur. "Don't worry about memorizing them all though, since you have me. Oh, out this door here is the outdoors, where we have the active classes. They kind of suck at first, but after you get used to them they're super useful."

"Really?" Wilbur asked, not seeing the point of having more than one gym class. "Why?"

Fundy faltered, "OH! Umm, well.... We have competitions sometimes and the uhh, the prizes are pretty good." Wilbur was confused about why that was such a hard question for Fundy to answer, but decided not to worry about it.

"Okay. Can we go back to our room, yet? They should have my stuff there by now, correct?"

"Yeah, they should,"

"Cool. I'd like to unpack as soon as I can." Wilbur said. He had had a nice time with Fundy, but he was starting to wonder about his brothers. They seemed happy enough when he last saw them, but still. It had been a couple of hours and Wilbur was starting to worry.

Word count: 1460

 A/N

this will hopfully be the average chapter length