Sorry, Sir || Eddie Redmayne

I

Saint Gemma Galgani Preparatory Academy sat halfway in between Ottawa and Toronto, Ontario. Fifteen minutes outside of the minuscule town of Madoc, the old gothic-style castle sat on top of a large hill. There was a wall around the bottom of the hill since the entire thing and the woods on the other side of the school from Madoc were all school property, and there was a treats and drinks stand that some of the student council kids set up early in the morning. Since it was the day before the beginning of the second semester, there was hot chocolate and sugar cookies set up at the entrance gates. 

Since schools at Saint Gemma started a week after public schools, and it was the seventh time that Alastair was making the trek from home to school, their parents decided that it would be easier if they just took the train. " Allie!" Lauren, the head of the student council and Alastair's best friend, shouted as they loaded their trunk onto the back of the snowmobile. " Come on and get some hot chocolate, or we have cider too!" 

" I'll pass on the drinks unless there's some fireball in the cider," they joked, going to stand behind the cart and help hand out the drinks. For some reason, second-years tended to think that they were too cool to be getting drinks on the way into the school, so they ended up freezing and shivering as they walked up the hill. Alastair smiled at some first years that they didn't recognize, " Here you go, have a good term!"

" So, what's the inside scoop on all the things happening now that term's starting back up again?" Alastair asked, chewing on a sugar cookie. As head of the student council, she usually knew about all of the changes that the school was making before the rest of the student body was, although it seemed like she was a mafia boss trading information sometimes.

Lauren chuckled, " Well, it's supposed to be a surprise that they were going to reveal at dinner, but I just happened to figure it out. Over the break, Ms. Suzuki quit her job to move to Barbados with her new boyfriend, and we're getting a new English teacher."

A new English teacher wasn't huge news, since the replacement was usually just an old nun who was halfway in the grave and had more spittle on her face than anything else. The bigger scandal was that Ms. Suzuki had a boyfriend since she overlines her lips the way that kids playing with their mom's makeup do and was of indeterminate age. She could have been thirty, she could have been sixty, no one ever managed to get confirmation from her.

" Have you met the new teacher? Is she old? Is she a nun? Is she crazy?" Alastair asked, stirring the hot chocolate so that it didn't separate. Lauren didn't respond, she just stood there, scooping the cider up and then dropping it back into the bucket. Alastair waved a hand in front of her face; " Hey Lauren, you feeling okay?"

Lauren shushed them. " Don't say anything just look," she whispered, pointing the ladle at the crowd in front of them. " Just look and appreciate." 

Standing on the fringe of the crowd of parents and their kids, along with a few of the teachers who were welcoming students, was a young-looking guy with a full-on suit- jacket, tie, sweater, dress shoes, all of it- underneath a wool trench coat, holding a suitcase. His was perfectly styled and gelled. Not to mention that he smoking hot, literally perfect. It was hard to see from far away, but there are some people where you can tell how attractive they are without needing to see them up close, and this was one of those moments. 

Alastair slowly leaned in towards Lauren, completely ignoring the two kids that were standing in front of them expectantly with cups in hand. " Who's dad or brother is that? And can we convince him to stay?" 

" There are so many things that I would like to do to him- with him," Lauren corrected herself with a cough and finally gave the poor kids their drinks. Thankfully, right after she did, Michelle and Jonathan, two other kids on the student council, came to take over the stand. " You should totally go and talk to him," she suggested, nudging Alastair's side. 

" What?! Absolutely not?!" They shrieked, turning away in embarrassment when everyone turned and stared at them. " He looks like he's twenty, and either very straight or very gay. Either way, not into me. Besides, I want to see who I'm sharing a room with this year." 

" Pussy!" Lauren spat, despite the smile on her face, but she went with them anyway, but that was to be expected. Lauren had a "reputation" to protect as she liked to put it, and although she was willing to tell other people exactly how they should make a fool of themself, she was still a self-respecting person. 

Alastair on the other hand had absolutely no self-respect left after last semester's end-of-term party where they stole some of the professor's wine and ended up falling asleep on a table. The teacher's table, after singing and dancing for them, while dressed as a literal a monkey. So yeah, there went the end of Alastair caring what people thought of them.

" Fine," they said, letting go of Lauren and grabbing two warm drinks, before heading over to the man. Upon closer inspection, he was even more handsome. His face was peppered with freckles, and right in the middle sat the most perfect lips and emerald green eyes that just drew the breath right out of Alastair's lungs. They handed him the hot chocolate with a slightly shaky hand, " Hello, I'm Alastair. How are you doing?"

He smiled and took the hot chocolate without spilling any of it. " I was cold, but you seemed to have just solved that problem for me, so thank you for that," Alastair melted when he spoke with a silky British accent. " I'm Eddie, it's nice to meet you." 

" So, how long have you been living in Canada?" They asked, sipping the hot chocolate to try and hide their ridiculous grin. A grin they were well entitled to since they were talking to a hot British man. " Wait, let me guess. Under a year, and someone told you that you would be fine in Canadian winter dressed like this, but the people who told that weren't Canadian either." 

Eddie laughed, he actually laughed, eyes squinting slightly as his cheeks moved upwards to accommodate his wide smile and pearly white teeth. " Actually yes, I just moved here from Britain and I'm feeling a bit out of my comfort zone," he admitted. " I also lost my gloves somewhere on the plane over here and I feel like my fingers are about to fall off." 

This time, it was Alastair who chuckled and handed him their hot chocolate. " Hold this for a second," they told him and slung their backpack off their shoulder, grabbing their spare pair of gloves from their bag. They were knitted and hot pink, but they were just as warm as their leather, fur-lined ones. " Here, I've lived here my entire life, so I'm smart enough to bring a second pair with me wherever I go. You can take them." 

They exchanged the hot chocolates for the pair of gloves, and he slipped them on. " Oh my god thank you so much," Eddie gushed, taking a sip of their hot chocolate as well. " I guess that I owe you one." 

" It's really nothing, they're just knitted gloves that my mom made. Considering that I have a basketful of them, it's not that big a deal," they wanted to keep talking with Eddie considering that he was delightful and hot, and really sweet, but also mostly incredibly hot, but the bell rang signalling that all of the students that they needed to pick up their trunks. They grabbed a piece of paper and pen out of their pocket and a pen, and wrote down their phone number along with "Alastair <3 (the cute one)". " I've gotta go, but here," they said, handing him the paper. " You can make it up to me later." 

" I look forward to it," Eddie smiled, looking at their phone number before slipping it into his pocket. " It was nice meeting you, Alastair, and thanks for the gloves." 

" No worries," they said, scurrying away back to Lauren and running right through the gates to the stairs of the Great Path that lead all the way up the stairs. " Oh my god did you see that? I swear to go he smiled at me and was like, genuinely nice. I don't know how old he is but I hope he's a transfer student here for his last year or something." 

Lauren cackled, " At least it will mean that you finally get some play. And from one of the most attractive people on planet Earth. Come on now, if we get there earlier enough, we might be able to convince some people to trade rooms so that can bunk together this year." 

Despite the attractive man who was still standing at the edge of the now dispersing crowd with his bags, Alastair looked forward and prepared themself to run all the stairs. They tapped Lauren's shoulder and started running up the stairs, " GO!"