Laurance's Freshman Year

Chapter One: First Day

    Cadenza watched Laurance slam the front door and rush off to school, already running late, and it was only the first day. She sighed and cleaned up his barely touched breakfast, trying not to stress. When they first adopted him, he'd been so small and fragile, and even now, as he entered his teen years and grew more confident, her protective instinct remained. Hopefully, all that soccer made him fast enough to reach school in the next... three minutes. Oh yeah, he's screwed.

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    Laurance arrived at the school only eight and a half minutes late, lungs burning as he slumped against the fountain out front. He wouldn't get in trouble for this, right? It was only the first day, and the small group chatting at the foot of the stairs told him the school wasn't as strict on punctuality as Cadenza made it seem. That thought calmed his nerves, and he drew in a final shaky breath, marching up to the giant front doors and yanking. It refused to open, and he started to panic again, trying to both push and pull repeatedly as if they would magically unlock if he only kept trying. When they still refused to open, he started to knock loudly, hoping someone would let him in.

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    "Hey, freshman! Doors lock five minutes after the second bell. Normally, they reopen fourth period for senior lunch, but since it's the first day, you won't be getting in." The speaker at the bottom of the stairs had short black hair with dark red tips and a few piercings, matching his cut-up, dark clothes. Despite his intimidating appearance, he smiled warmly, though his teeth were a bit yellow. Maybe he drank a lot of coffee? Laurance focused more on the words than the speaker's looks.

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    "Wait, so I can't get in? Why? That's so stupid! That has to be a safety concern." He groaned in frustration and backed off from the doors, slumping back against the fountain. "So are you guys all upperclassmen? You don't have your uniforms on, are you guys late too?"

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    "Uniforms are pointless. Fashion is self-expression for us. We're not late—just skipping. First period is for socializing, then they shove us all into the gym for club sign-ups, then they send us home. Waste of time if you ask me." Finn gestured for Laurance to join them, which he did after a moment of internal debate. The guy grinned and introduced the group, "I'm Finn, this is Cole. We're seniors, and I sort of run the group. That's Gene, he's a junior that joined us last year, and the girl's a freshman like you, but I don't know her—Gene brought her." The girl rolled her eyes and sighed from where she sat on the steps.

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    "I'm Sasha."

​     "Oh. Um- hi. Laurance. Zvahl. Freshman, as you could tell," he chuckled awkwardly and averted his eyes as an embarrassed blush grew on his cheeks. They didn't say their last names. Why did he? These guys seemed nice enough, though the girl was a little off-putting, but skipping first period on the first day? They didn't seem like very good kids. "Umm, so are you guys like a gang or something? No offense, you just don't seem like you're what I'd consider to be model students."

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    Finn laughed lightly, "None taken. I guess you could say that, since we have a leader and a name and everything. Last year, one of the seniors started calling our group the Shadow Knights, and that kinda stuck. The teachers seem to think we're bad news, but they can never prove it since we aren't actually bad kids; we're just a group that hangs out a lot. Does that make us a gang?"

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    Laurance paused in thought for a moment before answering, "Depends, do you want it to make you a gang? It's really only a gang if you want it to be, isn't it? Unless you beat people up, then that makes you a gang, I think." Finn nodded a bit and leaned against the school's wall, taking a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket. Laurance frowned. That explains the teeth. "Aren't you too young for that? And on school property? You know that smoking is horrible for you, right? You're gonna get in trouble."