Peer Pressure

New in School

I stroke the strap of the bag while I get on the bus. My parents decided that I should go to an all boys, catholic boarding school after I had a massive argument with them. My father went to the same school and knows that the teachers are strict enough to 'keep me in line'.

What a fucking stupid idea.

The bus is packed with people and I'm lucky enough to find a seat near the back. The boy next to me looks at me for a while before starting a conversation.

"You a new kid?" He checks, I'm taken by surprise by his voice. It's a lot more high pitched than I would've expected from someone as big as he is.

"Yeah." I reply. "My dad signed me up."

"Bad behaviour?" He checks.

Not really, I didn't do anything wrong.

"I guess you could say that." I sigh, running my hand through my hair to distract him from my answer.

"I think we might be room-mates." He tells me. "Before we broke up last term, we were told that we were getting a new kid. I think you're the guy they were talking about."

"Sounds about right." I murmur, remembering how furious my father was when he signed me up.

"Why don't we get to know each other? My name's Luke." He smiles. "If you want, you can call me Pilnahn, just not in front of any teachers, okay?"

"It shouldn't hurt." I reply. "Drew." I introduce myself. "Don't worry, I'm not that stupid."

I'm about to try to start a conversation when something hits my head. I look behind me to see where it came from and I see a couple of guys laughing. One of them have a stud piercing - I doubt that's school regulation - and his hair has been dyed red, the one next to him has black hair and has his arm around the third, who's wearing glasses. The third one doesn't even look at me as he laughs with the other two.

"Who are they?" I ask Luke. "And what's their problem?"

"Them?" He points to the red fringed one. "That's Kier, next to 'im is Laurence and the one on the end's Shane. I don't think any of them have ever even gone to a normal school so who knows."

"Thanks." I reply absently, staring at the boy named Shane. He seems to be somewhat uncomfortable sitting and laughing with the other two but I also get the feeling I don't want to be on his bad side.

"Oh, before I forget, Shane's also a room-mate of ours." Luke quickly adds.

Soon they all notice the way I'm staring at them and the red fringed one throws me a glare while the other two stop laughing.

"Come on Drew, stop it. You don't want to get mixed up with them, they mean trouble." Luke whispers to me. I blink before slowly starting to look away.

"That's right, you better look away!" A voice yells, I don't need to see to be able to guess that it's Kier.

Throughout the rest of the bus ride, Luke explains to me the basic rules of the school and the punishment system. This school is now apparently a school for "trouble" kids. Turns out, Luke was expelled from his old school for accidentally setting fire to his desk in a science lesson. We both laugh about for a while, it's a lot funnier than my reason for being here.

After a three hour drive the coach stops at an old looking building. As I leave my seat my foot gets caught on something and I fall flat onto my front. I slowly start to get up, hearing Kier, Laurence and Shane laughing again and I instantly know what's happened.

"What did you do that for?" I almost growl when I get up.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything." Kier lies, grinning the whole time.

"Drew, stop it! It's not worth it." Luke quickly tells me, pulling me by my sweater towards the exit.

Kier raises his eyebrows at me and Luke before whispering something to the others, getting them to laugh, Shane continues to avoid looking at me.

I bet this isn't funny to him.

"If you're just going to stand there, get out of the way so that we can get out." Kier tells me.

I glare at him for a moment before following Luke's lead.

Luke pulls out two large bags and carries them over each shoulder. I struggle to find my bag, when I see it I reach for it, only to find another pair of hands on it. I look up to see that the other person is Shane.

I freeze up, so does he, and we stare at each other for a while.

"Barrone, hurry up and get over here!" Someone calls, not Kier.

I look at his expression as he nervously turns around and replies. "I'll be right there Laurence, just hang on a sec." He looks back to me, then the bag before letting go.

"Are you sure it's not yours?" I ask him quietly, ignoring Laurence's calls for him.

"Yeah, mine has different lyrics on it." He answers quietly. "Over there." He points before disappearing, calling something to Laurence again.

I jump when a smartly dressed teacher appears. "You're Drew Woolnough, I'll assume." He checks.

"Yeah." I reply nervously, I don't do so well when I'm in the presence of teachers.

"I'll show you to your dorm room." He tells me before walking off. I quickly get to following him.

All of the dorms have three beds in it.

Crap I forgot about what Luke said! If I'm in his dorm I'll be sharing with Shane. Fuck's sake, I don't want to have Kier and Laurence on my back.

Sure enough, I'm brought to a dorm room with Luke and Shane both unpacking their bags. Luke smiles warmly at me when Shane looks like a deer caught in headlights.

"Boys, I'd like you to meet your new room-mate. This is Drew Woolnough." The teacher tells the two of them.

"Nice to see you Drew." Luke smiles, before looking to Shane awkwardly.

Shane's shocked expression dies down and he nods a simple. "Sure." He glares at the teacher as the older man grinds his jaw angrily.

"I-it's okay, I think I can take it from here." I tell him. The teacher looks to me before glaring at Shane and leaving the room.

"Welcome buddy!" Luke grins, pulling me into a bro hug.

"Hey Pilnahn." I smile, Luke is almost like a bear in size in comparison to me.

Shane lies on his front on the bed by the window with an irritated sigh. He jumps slightly when he phone buzzes, immediately sitting up to check it with a smile. He reads the text and hastily types out a reply before falling on the bed again, this time on his back as he seems to be looking at something on his phone.

A girlfriend maybe?

"Hey Drew, this is your bed." Luke tells me warmly, failing to notice where my attention is.

I smile to him and start unpacking. I use my proverbial vision to keep an eye on Shane. He gets a reply and immediately pulls on a jacket and almost runs out the room with a grin.

"You okay?" Luke asks, noticing my expression at last.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm probably just a little homesick." I lie.

"You'll get over it soon enough." He says to comfort me.

"Yeah, I guess I will." I sigh.