ɪɴ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴛʜᴇʏ ʀᴇᴛᴜʀɴ ᴛᴏ ʜᴇʟʟ-ᴛᴏɴ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴡ ꜱᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ʏᴇᴀʀ...
𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 ran her hand over the sweatshirt. The gray soft material under her hand. The bolded red lettering reading Welton on it. It didn't smell of his light cologne, clean shampoo, and even the faint hint of smoke, clean sheets or books anymore, and it hadn't for a while. And oh, how Evan missed the light clean scent.
"Evangeline!" A voice called up the stairs loudly.
"Yes?" The girl called, quickly stuffing the hoodie into her suitcase. The loud footsteps trudged up her stairs and her back straightened to face the doorway in which her father appeared.
"We're to be leaving quite soon. Why aren't you dressed and ready yet? You're not to make us late again, Evangeline." The girl's father spoke sternly.
"Yes, sir." Evan said, almost sarcastically. "I'll be down in under ten." Her father curtly nodded and turned heel, walking back down the stairs.
Evan finished packing her bags and quickly got dressed into her Welton uniform. As much as she hated some of the boring, drawling teachers, she felt a sense of excitement, she'd soon be with her closest friends again.
Evan rushed down the stairs, bags in hand, uniform ready, with of course, the first few buttons of the shirt undone just how she liked it. Her mother, looking prim and proper, rushed over to her only daughter.
"There. Now you look lovely." Her mother smiled, smoothing out her daughter's blazer and pining her hair back with a ribbon in a half up half down style. Evan smiled politely.
"Thank you." Evan said with a small smile.
"Now, darling, this year, it must be different." Evangeline's mother spoke. "Angeline, you must behave as we've brought you up." Her mother spoke, strictly, and calling her by one of her nicknames.
"Must we remind you how lucky you are to be attending Welton?" Her father spoke up. Evan swallowed hard and lifted her chin up.
"No father. I'm aware." Evan nodded.
"And you damn well must be grateful." Her father spoke harshly. Evan almost rolled her eyes but contained her strong urge to make some snarky remark.
"I'm very grateful." She said simply. With that, she picked up her trunk, walking out to the car to load up her bags.
----///----
It was if the old school had been waiting for Evangeline to arrive. The fall colors bloomed in the trees and the cool air and warm sun shone down on the girl's skin as she breathed in the clean autumn air. She was back to Welton. Back to her friends.
After the opening assembly, that consisted of reciting the pillars, introducing a new teacher that Evan thought nothing of, and the usual lecture, Evan practically skipped to her dorm room, shared with no one else, all to herself.
"Goodbye, dear. Be good." Evangeline's mother said, touching her daughter's cheek, not bothering a hug or even a kiss on her cheek. Her mother truly had emotion blooming in her eyes, but much like Evangeline, would not let it spill, no matter how much she'd truly miss her only daughter, her only child.
"Yes, mother." Evangeline smiled lightly. Her father stepped forward, placing a hand out, which Evan firmly grasped, shaking it.
"Behave, Evangeline." Her father nodded. "I trust you'll not waste this opportunity. Do not prove me wrong." Evan nodded; her chin held up high.
"Of course not, father." Evan spoke, keeping his eye contact like a hawk. All her father did was nod and walk swiftly out of the room.
"We'll write you, darling." Her mother smiled softly, before exiting the room in the same manner as her husband had just a mere six seconds before. Evan didn't say anything, but stood in her room, counting backwards from 100. Precisely the time it would take for them to exit the building. After that, a smile cracked on Evan's face. She was free, even if only for the school year.
----///----
Neil Perry began unloading his trunk. His head popped up when he heard a familiar voice coming from the doorway of his small dorm room. Neil smiled slightly, seeing the familiar red-haired friend.
"Hey, heard you got the new kid! Looks like a stiff!" Richard Cameron laughed, Neil's smile faltered slightly when his new roommate, walked right into the room. "Oops." Cameron shrugged, slipping out and away into the hallway. Neil sighed, turning to his roommate.
"Listen, don't mind Cameron. He was born with a foot in his mouth, y'know what I mean?" Neil spoke, patting his roommate on the back before turning his attention back to his suitcase momentarily before another voice called him away from the task. And this time, he was much gladder to see this familiar friend.
"Hey, preppy." Neil turned his head, and his face broke into a wide smile at the sight of the girl standing in his doorway, leaning on the frame.
"Hello, Lina." Neil grinned, calling Evan by a nickname that only he ever called her, a reference to the name he'd accidentally called her the first time they'd ever met, instead of Evangeline, he'd called her Evangelina, which she hated even more than Evangeline, and thus the nickname, Lina was born.
Neil ran forward, scooping the girl up into a hug and spinning her around. The two best friends grinned happily, and Neil set her down and ruffled her hair.
"What's with the bow? You broke fancy now?" Neil teased, flicking the ribbon in her hair.
"My mother. This apparently makes me beautiful for once." Evan rolled her eyes, walking into the room and sitting down onto Neil's bed. Evan glanced up, seeing the new boy, Neil's roommate, standing a bit shyly. "Hi." She smiled nicely, standing up. "Evangeline Brookes." She introduced, placing her hand out.
"Evangeline. Hi, Todd. Anderson." The boy spoke softly. A light blush formed across his face, he thought she was quite pretty.
"Oh, please, call me Evan, it's what everyone already calls me, and I never was much of a fan of the name Evangeline anyways." Evan smiled. Todd gave a small smile and nodded and went back to unpacking his suitcase quietly while Neil and Evan chatted, catching up.
"Hey, I'll be right back, gotta finish unpacking." Evan smiled, after a bit of talking with Neil.
"Hurry on back soon." Neil chuckled, waving her goodbye. A few minutes later, a small knock came from the doorway. Neil smiled at the boys in his doorway.
"Rumor has it.... you did summer school." It was the infamous, the iconic, the troublemaking, cocky, thrilling boy, Charlie Dalton. Neil smiled.
"Yep. Chemistry. My father thought I should get ahead. Speaking of chemistry, you're about five minutes late, Evan just stopped by. You just missed her." Neil smiled.
"Oh, don't act like that." Charlie rolled his eyes.
"We all know Charlie's still smitten." Knox Overstreet chuckled from behind him, standing with Steven Meeks.
"Smitten for who?" A voice rang out from behind them, and Charlie spun around, recognizing the voice immediately.
"Just you, princess." Charlie winked, waltzing over and taking Evan's hand, which he planted a light kiss on.
"You flatter me, Dalton." Evan grinned, pushing past him to greet Knox and Steven, giving them both tight hugs.
"None for me, huh, Ms. Brookes?" Charlie scoffed, playfully. Evan rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around Charlie's neck, he'd grown much taller. Charlie wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly. Evan inhaled his clean aroma before the hug broke apart and they two enjoyed the time looking into each other's eyes, the colors they'd so dearly missed.
"How was your summer, slick?" Evan grinned, walking back into Neil and Todd's dorm room.
"Keen." Charlie chuckled with his sly grin, following Evan into the room, Meeks and Knox following. "Meeks. Door. Closed." Charlie stated to Meeks.
"Yes sir." Meeks chuckled, closing the door.
"Lady, gentlemen, what are the four pillars?" Neil asked, jokingly, mimicking the headmaster Nolan and the tradition four Welton pillars (Tradition, honor, discipline, excellence).
"Travesty, horror, decadence, excrement." Charlie, Evan, Knox, Neil and Meeks recited their joke.
"Okay, study group," Charlie spoke, laying down onto Neil's bed, Evan beside him, her back resting against the headboard. Charlie pulled out a cigarette and his lighter while speaking. "Meeks aced Latin, I didn't quite flunk English, so if you want, we got our study group." Charlie shrugged.
Evan leaned forward, snagging a cigarette out of Charlie's pack, placing it between her light red lips, taking out her lighter and leaning forward to light the smoke.
"Nope." Charlie spoke, snatching the cigarette from between her lips. Evan sighed and rolled her eyes, sending Charlie a glare.
"Oh, so you can smoke but I can't?" She scoffed, reaching for her cigarette again which Charlie held out of her reach.
"Precisely. Don't smoke, it's bad for your lungs. Sorry, love, I don't make the rules." Charlie shrugged, taking in a puff of his own cigarette. Evan sighed and directed her attention back to the study group conversation.
"Cameron mentioned study group to me too, anyone mind including him?" Neil asked.
"What's his specialty? Bootlicking?" Charlie chucked.
"C'mon, he's your roommate." said Neil. Meeks's attention turned to Todd who'd been silently unpacking his belongings.
"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Steven Meeks." he introduced, extending his arm to shake Todd's hand.
"Oh, this is Todd Anderson" Neil introduced as Steven and Todd shook hands, exchanging "Nice to meet You's.
"Charlie Dalton." Charlie smirked from the bed.
"I'm Knox Overstreet." Knox smiled, shaking Todd's hand who nodded shyly.
"Todd's brother was Jeffery Anderson." Neil nodded, stealing a small puff from Charlie's cigarette, Evan then quickly snatching it from Neil's fingers and taking a smoke from the cigarette. Charlie frowned and gently took the cigarette from her hands.
"Oh yes, valedictorian, national merit scholar." Charlie recalled at the mention of Jeffery Anderson's name.
"Well, welcome to Hell-ton, Todd." Evan chuckled, smiling warmly at the boy.
"It's every bit as tough as they say, unless you're a genius like Meeks, or even like Evan." Charlie spoke.
"He flatters us, that's why we help him with Latin." Evan chuckled.
"And English and trig." Charlie chuckled. Just then, a knock was heard at the door, Charlie jumped up, throwing the cigarette to the ground and stomping it out with his foot and Neil fanning the smoky air as best he could.
"It's open." Neil called. Mr. Perry, Neil's father walked in, the man looking quite proper and intimidating as usual. "Father, I thought you'd gone." Neil spoke, standing up. A murmur of greeting filled the room as the group stood up in the presence of Mr. Perry.
"Keep your seats, fellows." Mr. Perry spoke. "And Miss. Brookes." Mr. Perry said with a polite smile.
"Sir." Evan greeted politely with a small polite and awfully fake smile.
"Neil, I've just spoken to Mr. Nolan. It appears you're taking too many extracurricular activities this year and I've decided you should drop the school annual." Neil's father stated.
"But I'm the assistant editor this year." Neil protested.
"Well, I'm sorry, Neil." Mr. Perry spoke.
"But, Father, I can't. It wouldn't be fair-" Neil began again.
"Gentlemen, Evangeline, would you excuse us for a moment?" Mr. Perry interrupted shortly. Neil sighed, following his father out of the room. The group waited a moment before Evan spoke up.
"God, I'd like to slug that man in the face sometimes." She scoffed.
"Wouldn't we all." Charlie sighed, standing up and wrapping an arm around his best friend's shoulder.
"It's not fair, is what it is." Meeks sighed, shaking his head.
"Nothing ever is." Evan sighed, leaning her head onto Charlie's taller build. Charlie frowned and lightly planted a kiss on the top of her head. "Whatever, I'm going to check on him." Evan stated, beginning to walk out of the small dorm, Charlie right behind her.
Evan was the first took peek outside the doorframe, walking into the hallway giving Neil a sympathetic smile.
"Alright Perry?" She asked. Neil chuckled a dry breathy laugh and nodded.
"Alright." He nodded; his eyes still planted to the floor where his shiny dark shoes stood.
"Why doesn't he let you do what you want?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah Neil, tell him off, it couldn't get any worse." Knox said. It wasn't all true though, everyone in the group knew of Evan's relationship with her parents.
"Oh, that's rich, like you guys tell your parents off. Well, not you Evan." Neil scoffed. "No offense." He added.
"None taken." Evan shrugged.
"Mr. Future Lawyer, Mr. Future Banker." Neil chuckled at Knox and Charlie.
"Okay, so I don't like it any more than you do." Charlie shrugged.
"Well, just don't tell me how to talk to my father. You guys are the same way. Even you, Lina, at some point the rebelling has gotta stop."
"Alright, alright." Knox said in defense.
"You're right, Neil." Evan shrugged. "So what're you gonna do?" She asked.
"What I have to do. Drop the annual." Neil replied with a small sigh.
"Well, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it, it's just a bunch of jerks trying to impress Nolan." Charlie spoke.
"I don't care, I don't give a damn about any of it." Neil scoffed. The boy chuckled an almost sad breathy laugh and shook his head. Evan gave a sad smile, knowing the Perry boy was just as sick and tired of being pushed around by his parents like she was.
"Well, uh, Latin, 8:00 in my room?" Meeks asked, directing the conversation away. everyone murmured agreements to the idea, shifting on the brown wooden floors.
"Todd, you're more than welcome to join us." Evan spoke, poking her head into the dorm room where Todd sat at his desk. Everyone one else nodded and spoke agreements and Evan sent the shy boy a small smile.
"Thanks." He nodded gratefully.