Behind Closed Doors || dnf

America

"That plane ride was absolute ass." Nick groans, keeping his panda neck pillow around his neck.

"Tell me about it." Clay grabs Nick's luggage followed by his own. They both carry their huge duffel bags across the airport. They get on the steep escalator that leads them to the exit.

Clay reads an email on his phone. "It says here that someone from the school is going to be picking us up and taking the car back to the boarding school with us."

"So a teacher?" Nick says plainly.

"Fuck if I know." Clay yawns, rustling his hair.

At the bottom of the escalator stands people with fun signs that have names written on them. Clay scans the signs and finally comes across a "Clay" sign and a "Nick" sign.

The one who is holding the Nick sign is a girl in a uniform with long straight blonde hair. She's smiling huge and is shaking her sign. The sign is decorated with footballs and american flags.

"Okay, so a fucking brown noser." Clay mumbles to Nick, making him laugh.

He looks over at who's holding the Clay sign. That ones decorated the exact same.

There stands a small black haired guy also in a uniform. Must be the school's uniform. He stands there with a small smile on his face that doesn't seem all that genuine. His eyes travel around at all the people on the escalator. He looks a little nervous but also a little.. bored.

Clay and Nick reach the bottom of the escalator and make their way towards the two students.

"If these are the kids that they sent, then the whole school must be full of dweebs." Nick mumbles back.

They stop right in front of the students.

"Are you two Clay and Nick?" The girl looks up to them with wide eyes. Her accent British as ever.

"Caught us." Nick says with a bland tone.

"How exciting! So this is for you to keep." She hands Nick his sign. "And we also made you guys welcome baskets!!" She turns around and on the floor, sure enough, there are two huge baskets. "This is the 'Oxford All in One'! It's full of our favorite treats and goodies." She smiles and shoves the baskets into the boy's hands.

Clay finally looks over to the guy student who has not said a word throughout this whole greeting. But he's already looking back at Clay. His eyes are almost as dark as his hair.

Clay would naturally be confused- hell he'd be annoyed if someone was just staring at him. But those emotions don't seem to be relevant, to be honest all of his emotions seem to be covered up by one; curiosity.

"Here." The boy says, snapping Clay out of his thoughts.

Clay furrows his eyebrows in the slightest and looks away from the boys eyes, and down to his hands. He's holding out the sign to give to him.

"Oh. Thanks." He grabs the sign and tucks it under his arm.

"Hope you enjoy the basket as well." The boy nods towards Clay, then looks away.

Clay focuses his attention on the girl again, who hasn't stopped talking.

"Oh how rude of us! My name is Jenna and this is George. We are your class reps and we meet any new students that transfer to Westwood Grove. I am technically paired up with Nick and George is technically paired up with Clay, but since you two traveled here together, we are going to be a splendid group of four!"

No one says anything.

She looks down at her apple watch. "And our car just arrived outside. Shall we go?" She smiles big, her blue eyes bright.

"Yeah let's get out of here." Nick smiles, trying to be friendly.

"Brilliant!" Jenna walks ahead. "I adore your neck pillow by the way." She points to Nick.
"Bro, thanks!" Nick will find any chance he gets to talk about his neck pillow.

The two of them walk ahead, leaving George and Clay to walk in the back. Clay picks up his duffel and they walk in complete silence.

The "car" outside is very much not a car. It's a limo.

Nick whistles. "Wow, for a boarding school this is a sick ride." He awes over the shiny limo, putting his luggage in the trunk.

"Yeah well, sitting four in a car can get a little crammed." Jenna says simply, getting in the car.

"Can it?" Clay naturally jokes under his breath, a hard habit to break, but the only one who catches it is George.

George lets out a small breath of laughter. "No. Not particularly. Jenna insisted on the limo." He says under his breath back to Clay.

Clay smiles bigger than he should at such a simple comment. "You boarding school kids are so privileged." He walks away from George, putting his luggage in the trunk.

Nick eyes Clay after his rather blunt comment, but just rolls his eyes playfully and gets in the limo.

"I beg your pardon?" George raises his eyebrows.

"Of course your school just has limos to take." Clay struggles shutting the trunk. It isn't one he is familiar with.

"I hate to break it to you Clay, but you happen to be a 'privileged boarding school kid' now, so I wouldn't go around talking so little about yourself. It doesn't come off all that confident." George puts one hand on the trunk, latching it successfully with the other.

Clay looks at George, unable to shake the smile he's had on his face since they started talking. His curiosity has officially peaked.

"Guys please don't wait around! Let's get back to the school!" Jenna says from inside the limo.

George turns away, hopping back onto the sidewalk. He places his hand on the door. He looks to Clay.

"You coming, America?"