Oakleaf Academy For Boys

five

"Yeah, you'd be fucking devastated if I died, wouldn't you?" He shot back sharply, his voice dripping in bitter sarcasm.

"Well, I'd be pretty pissed. The police would probably ask me a ton of questions and that's just a lot of effort and paperwork for everyone involved."

"So, you wouldn't care if I died? I bet you dream about it every night, huh? Murdering me?"

Lucky shrugged, "Eh. A little. You and everyone else in this shithole."

"I'm not gonna turn out like your friend. You can leave." Steel finally broke off the small talk, trying to find a way out of this conversation.

Lucky only laughed, "I never said he was my friend. I said he was a kid in my class."

"It doesn't fucking matter."

"It matters to me!" Lucky retaliated. "This guy was a total racist and one time he tried to stab someone 'cause he 'looked at him funny'. I don't want to be associated with that prick."

"I don't even know the twat, why does it matter if I think he was your friend?" Steel asked incredulously, stunned by the pointless nature of this conversation.

"Because I know." Lucky shrugged. "It was heroin by the way. The thing he overdosed on. Hey, have you ever-?"

"No, I haven't done heroin." Steel spat, "Have you?"

"Nope. But I used to be friends with a group of inbred chavies - that's what I call them, it sounds less mean, don't you think? Anyway, they did it all the time. I almost tried it once actually, but the police showed up before I could-"

"Is this going anywhere?" Steel grumbled, rubbing his face in annoyance.

"I was just going to say, I'm glad I never did it. Heroin seriously fucks people up."

"Yeah, well, half the kids in here came from drug related crimes. Why don't you find one of them to talk about heroin with?"

"It's around, isn't it? The drugs, they're everywhere." Lucky lowered his voice, glancing across at Steel for the first time, "How do they get it in?"

"How'd you think?" He asked dryly.

"I don't know." Lucky replied.

Steel rolled his eyes at Lucky's failure to read the sarcasm in his voice. "It's through the guards. It's always through the guards."

"They smuggle it in?"

Steel shrugged, "Not a hard thing to do."

"But how? Aren't there like metal detectors and searches and-"

"And those things are conducted by the guards. Use some common sense, Blue. They're all part of it, they help each other get away with breaking all the rules in the fucking book."

"But no one's got any money, the kids in here are from rough backgrounds. How're they getting paid for this?"

Steel rubbed his eyes from exhaustion, "How long is this gonna go on?"

"It just doesn't make sense-"

"They suck them off, Blue." He groaned in complaint.

"But I thought-"

"The dudes in here hate anything that smells even slightly homosexual but they'll do anything for a high. Apparently it's not gay if it's for drugs."

Lucky stared at the other boy, completely dumbstruck. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. None of his other schools had been anywhere near this rough. Sure, there were always drugs circulating, but he'd never heard of students bribing guards with such desperate actions.

"But then..." He scrunched his face up in concentration, trying to untangle the web of confusing questions clouding his brain. "Wait, so...there's like the main dealers, right? The guys who do the...the deals with the guards. And then they sell it off to the other boys, so...so, how do they pay for it?"

Steel rolled his eyes, "Why do you care so much?"

"I'm just curious. It's like a massive drug ring that no one's doing anything about."

Steel let out a deep breath, "They do stuff for them. Their dirty work. They beat up anyone who poses as a 'threat' and try to find out information. Mostly they just go round with rolled up sleeves, protecting each other."

Lucky nodded in thought, his mind spinning with the revelation. The guards who were meant to be protecting them were supplying them with deadly substances. The boys who were meant to be students were drug lords. He'd always known the school was a dangerous place, containing dangerous people with dangerous intentions. But he'd never have thought something so dark and complex was dwelling beneath the surface of it all.

"Why were you crying?" He blurted out without being able to stop himself.

"Oh, fuck off."

"Right. Yeah...I should..." He scrambled awkwardly off the bed, not realising how close they were sitting. He could have sworn when he first sat down there was a sizeable distance between them. That had completely evaporated and they'd apparently drifted closer. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Steel merely nodded as Lucky retreated into the bathroom and plonked down onto his mattress. Steel wondered what had just happened between them. Why was Lucky being so nice when he had treated the poor kid terribly ever since he arrived? It didn't make sense.

Unless he was trying to get Steel to stop crying. He realised his eyes were completely dry. Lucky had quenched his pain and left him thinking about something besides Alex.

As Lucky drifted off to sleep, he wondered whether his plan had worked. He'd been trying to distract Steel by getting him to talk. He'd intended for the conversation to wander off on its own and find a natural ending. He definitely wasn't expecting to discover the secrets that lay embedded behind Oakleaf's walls, hidden from the rest of the world.

Plus, he got Steel out of his momentary trance of sadness - something Lucky was still extremely curious about.

He'd gotten useful information and cheered Steel up. Despite still hating the boy, he somehow felt like he'd come out of a win-win situation.