At Welton, Charlie and Richard were still fighting about what bed they were going to get and shamelessly displayed their hatred toward each other.
The front door of their dorm room opened and Neil, Todd, and Knox walked in. Charlie muttered as he sat down on the bed he least liked and then pretended to be pleased by their presence.
"Guess what?"
"What?" Richard answered before Charlie could, earning a glare from the boy in the left-side of the room. Knox sat down on Charlie's bed with a smile.
"It seems something went wrong with the dorm chart because I have a room all to myself. With the right convincing you could move right in with me, we don't need Cameron anyway."
"Hey!" Cameron said, offended that they would say such things in front of him. He could only imagine what they said when he wasn't there.
"You're kidding," Charlie grinned as he stood up from the bed and ruffled Knox's hair. "Don't go on pulling my tie, Overstreet. Cuz' with this drag of a roommate I've got I'd rather sleep in the locker room."
Richard Cameron walked out of the room instead of replying to Charlie's tyrannical blabber. Charlie laughed through his nose before looking back at the boys. "So...are we moving out of here or what?"
"I don't know Charlie," Neil pursed his lips awkwardly. "You and Knox in a dorm together? The whole hall won't be able to sleep."
Todd laughed to himself, even though he hasn't been part of the friend group for a long time he could easily agree with the taller boy's statement. "Whatever, anything's better than dorming with Cameron."
He stood up and Knox did as well as they started heading to Knox's empty dorm. Neil and Todd followed shortly behind, "What's your problem with Cameron?" Todd walked at the same fast pace as Charlie, Neil was falling behind from the rest of the group.
"First name's Richard. But to make it short: he's annoying," Charlie retorted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's small, fragile, and I hate his voice too. I've been his roommate for a single day and I already know what his socks smell like, that's my problem, Anderson."
"Shut it, Charlie. You're acting as if you're any better. You're loud and obnoxious," Knox laughed as he got to his dorm.
"Then why are you so persistent in having me as a roommate? You like me...don't you?"
Knox punched his friend on the arm and opened the door to his dorm room. Neil noticed that there was a note on the front door, then stopped in front of it as the other boys piled inside the room. They looked at him in confusion as he struggled to pronounce what was on the thin piece of paper. Todd took it away from him after a few seconds of humiliation then raised his eyebrows in confusion, "Does anyone know someone named Siegfried?"
Charlie took the note angrily, knowing that because the note had a name on it that the dorm was reserved for someone that wasn't him. He had to stay with Richard. "Taylor Hall?" Todd continued to ask, a small lightbulb lit up in Knox's head.
"Like Peter Benjamin?"
"Eivind?" Neil raised an eyebrow, remembering his first head-over-suede crush.
The boys shrugged in a poor response. "I know Peter Hall, he's in a couple dorms down from us. Maybe we could ask him if he knows anything about this. I doubt he has a brother, I've only seen him around with his sister. He calls her Si...maybe as in short for Cecilia?"
"Or she's unfortunate enough to be named Siegfried and Nolan's gone in over his head to let girls into Hellton," Neil joked which caused the other boys to laugh.
"Knox with a girl? Nolan would have to be clinically insane," Charlie muttering before giving a fictitious apology to his blond-haired friend. They always had small banter, which included a few mindless insults and reminders that none of them were good enough flirts to have girlfriends. Knox was too invested in the female human anatomy to look for any signs of personality and Charlie was way too mean. He mistook bullying for flirting. Some girls like it, but most of the girls he came in contact with just thought he had a problem keeping intrusive thoughts to himself.
"It wouldn't hurt to ask Peter," Knox said with a slight light of hope, which Charlie quickly shut down by laughing at his optimism. "I doubt we have the time, class is about to start," Todd mumbled. He wasn't having much of a conversation with the other boys, he felt like he was just standing there.
"I mean...if we want to know if Charlie is going to dorm with me we might as well try to find the boy. Or do you want to be the reason Charlie tortures himself in the presence of Cameron?"
"You guys talk about him like he's a bad guy."
"He is!" Knox and Charlie said at the same time. "But if you don't want to go, head onto class. Knox and I are going to go find Peter. Just tell me what he looks like, Neil," Charlie turned back around to look at his taller friend. Neil looked to the side in thought before licking his lips to talk.
"He's about two inches taller than me, wears glasses, blue eyes, chubby-looking face, and always wears his suit with the blue and red tie instead of the black and red."
Charlie nodded slowly and then signaled Todd and Neil to walk to their classroom, they did as told, having a small conversation and laughing at a new-forming inside joke. Charlie crumbled the piece of paper and swiftly put it back in Knox's hand. Knox looked at his friend with furrowed eyebrows. "Are we actually going to bother to look for this kid?"
Charlie was about to answer when he noticed the sudden look of admiration on his friend's face, he turned in the direction he was looking in and laughed. "Seriously Knox?"
Charlie noticed two women waiting by the stairs for-who he was assuming- Headmaster Nolan. They were both wearing a pale shade of green and the woman on the left side was wearing her hair up in a half-up half-down hairstyle. "You can't even see their faces! How's it possible you're already drooling over them?"
Knox swallowed thickly and then laughed nervously, "T-they're girls."
"The one on the right side looks a million times older than you."
"I like the shade of green she's wearing, a girl with style has got to be a real stunner."
And then Headmaster Nolan walked down the stairs, introduced himself to the two women in front of him, and gave the woman on the left a key. The two boys watched in curiosity, the idea of finding Peter Benjamin flew right over their heads and now they were focusing on the matching women. The girl on the left craned her neck to look at the woman on the right, Knox saw half of her face and nearly fainted. "She's hot, oh my days."
Charlie laughed when Knox leaned onto his side to make it look like he was slowly falling down. "Please don't die when the one on the right turns around. She looks so ancient one huff would turn her to dust."
He looked back at where the women were and his face completely fell. On the left was the girl he had found with a tray in his dorm room and right next to her was, "Mom?"
"Charlie!" Mrs. Dalton beamed, Sigrid's mouth widened dramatically as she looked at the boy and Knox was focused entirely on her. Charlie hugged his mother awkwardly before separating from her with an erroneous smile, "Mother, what are you doing here? I didn't expect your visit."
"Oh Charlie I didn't tell you I was coming today. This is Sigrid," Sigrid.
Siegfried. Sigrid. Siegfried. Sigrid.
"Sigrid this is Charles, my son."
Charlie made the connection like a Sherlock Holmes when he remembered the girl in front of him beaming the name Peter. He hadn't mentioned the strange occurrence to the other boys, or his mother, so when Sigrid and Charlie finally made eye contact and had to shake hands it seemed like their awkwardness was victim to something entirely different. Sigrid laughed awkwardly, "I thought that yesterday would be the last I've seen of you," she whispered so only he could hear her. His ears went red even though he wasn't supposed to be the one to be embarrassed.
Knox coughed to get her attention, she let go of Charlie's hand and then smiled at him warm heartedly. "Hi I'm Knox Overstreet."
"Sigrid Taylor Hall," she let go of her hand and waited for him to say something else. He took the note out of his pocket and breathed out in disbelief. Headmaster Nolan and Mrs. Dalton had walked off to take her things into the dorm room. "What's wrong, Knox?"
He showed her the note, she shook her head in disbelief. "This feels like a fever dream. I bumped into Charlie yesterday and made a complete fool out of myself and now...I'm here, with a woman I've known for less than twenty-hour hours, and I'm your roommate? Madness."
"Are you not happy?"
Charlie stifled a laugh, "Knox you don't just ask a girl whether or not she's happy when she's clearly not."
"And what makes you think that?" She retorted with furrowed eyebrows.
"Look at the way that you're standing. Slouching, your shoulders inward to hide your chest, and your knees are trembling like some deer in headlights. If I were anything short of a psychologist I'd say you're scared. A very slouchy deer."
"And why would she be scared? I'm a respectable man."
"A desperate one too," Charlie smirked.
Sigrid rolled her eyes, "I'm not scared of Knox, he seems nice. Appealing even," she smiled at him before fully turning in Charlie's direction and glaring, Knox's ego was growing considerably by being called appealing. "I think that it's rude that you'd assume that I'd give such poor conclusions. And how dare you call me a deer?" The bell rang and she sighed in distaste. "Go to class, boys."
Charlie gave her the same expression she had gave him when the first met, she took it as a huge fuck you. "Bambi," he whispered as he got close enough to her ear with a small smirk on his face and then grabbed his friend by the elbow to head to class. She looked at him angrily as they walked away. He found it funny how easily she became irritated. Knox was still red from Sigrid's comment, Charlie laughed through his nose.
"Appealing my ass."
Mr. Keating was giving his first lecture of the semester, to which everyone was listening and standing in a military-like stance in front of the trophy case Welton students had managed to fill over the years. Mr. Keating looked at them with a humorous expression, suddenly remembering how uptight and pristine some of his classmates were in his years at Welton. They were all cookie-cut, sharp, and didn't dare to even utter a word of their own beliefs. Even Charlie, who for the short time he knew of his presence seemed the least uptight, was now standing like he was being inspected and had a serious look on his face. He felt sorry for them, they were practically robots.
He took quick attendance and made witty comments about his students' names, some of them laughed and the victims of his joke were tight-lipped.
At the end of the hall, Sigrid was looking at the class while awkwardly fixing her overall-dress. The material the suitor had used for her uniform was extremely uncomfortable but she was too shy to bring up her displeasure. Besides, she'd get even more obnoxious complaints from the Headmaster if it was even possible.
Her dress was black and her tie was borrowed from her brother, who she had only seen for a full five minutes before she was dragged. She still managed to make it look cute, but her wardrobe was overwhelmingly limited. It was either the nun dress or the exact uniform with a red sweater vest instead of a coat.
Her experience so far wasn't equal to the boys but she started to understand why boys called it Hellton.
She walked without making any noise as Mr. Keating encouraged Stephen Meeks to read from his book. She walked next to Knox, he looked at her and then appreciated her uniform. Mr. Keating noticed her but continued to give the meaning of Carpe Diem. Sigrid was too focused on Knox to notice that the boys had all stepped forward to the trophy case. Mr. Keating came up to her and offered her his hand. "Siegfried Hall?"
"Sigrid, Headmaster Nolan wrote my name incorrectly," she whispered then got a pen from her pants and wrote the correct spelling of her name on the roster. Mr. Keating nodded before going back to his scheduled lesson. She walked to the trophy case, stood next to Knox and then tugged on his sleeve so he would look down at her. She was already looking up and shifted her head to the side to whisper in his ear.
"Since we're going to be roommates now I was wondering if you could come around the dorm as soon as your last class ends so we could make some rules...also I'm really excited so I convinced Nolan to let me use the kitchen so I could make you some brownies. Apology for being aggressive earlier?"
Charlie was distracted from the lesson when he noticed Knox's face turn red under the poor lighting and the smaller girl holding onto the side of his face tenderly so she could whisper in his ear. Sigrid had the habit of holding onto people's faces while whispering in their ear, she didn't know where she had picked it up from but it was inevitable now. Both of the boy's minds went to the dirtiest of places. Knox stuttered out, "Accepted."
She smiled and moved away from him, she was looking at the face of all the boys who went to Welton. She was met by her father and the rest of class of 1930. She frowned then muttered to herself, "He'd be saying non temptaris."
Charlie stopped looking at her and was met by his own father, class of 1935, he smiled. "Carpe Diem."