She thanked the taxi driver and took a good look at the lanky boy that stood proudly in front of her. She stayed quiet with surprise, you could only hear the crunchy leaves beneath their feet, he was not at all what she was expecting.
In her head, she was staying in an upper-class all-American family's house, Ralph Lauren sweaters and a golden retriever. Not an old factory in desperate need of a coat of paint and to prune those wild weeds.
Her grandfather had some explaining to do.
The boy was tall, muscular— not too muscular, a brown mat of hair that looked like a bird's nest sat on his head and almost entirely covered his eyebrows, that were a shade or two darker than his locks of hair. His eyes were half-lidded because of the direct sunlight—that made even more obvious the hazel color on them. He looked nice, she thought, but terribly pretentious, like he was about to jump and explain inflation to her. She examined his appearance trying to find an answer for all the questions she had made up from the moment the plane took off.
"I'm Gansey" He said "Richard Campbell Gansey the III" he let out a breathy giggle at her wide eyes "I figure your grandpa already told you about me"
"Not really" His name ringed a bell in the back of her mind, but it was strange for her grandfather to ever talk about his life.
He laughed "That sounds a lot like him" She couldn't help but found this odd, how would a teenager know him so well? "You're Guinevere, right?"
"Gwen is just fine" Guinevere made her feel like a porcelain doll in an iron maiden, or a paper ship in a wildfire, or a teddy bear in a pack of wolves... So yes, uncomfortable.
"You sure you don't prefer Mary Jane?" She laughed softly, the muscles on her face were still rigid from the flight, and she'd heard that jokes too many times before.
She was sent away from home mid-semester to go to this great school her grandad got headstrong about. He was like that, from day to night his wishes could change and everyone around him had to bent over backwards to accomplish them. That's how she ended up in Sussex again, anyway.
When she was twelve she moved to New York from London when her father got this great job offer, but then her grandfather wanted them lo live at the old manor with him, and she had to leave everything she knew to start over. Just as she was starting to feel at home again, he said that if she missed the States so much, she should go back.
He said Henrietta would be the place for her, that he had friends living there and that she'd stay with them, that she'd go to school with their son.
So both her and her parents assumed they'd be adults, but then again she found herself carrying my bags into the old factory, following a 18 year-old kid, at most.
"So... Your parents?"
"In DC" He said like it was the most obvious place for them to be.
"Oh... And when are they coming back?"
He laughed. "Oh, no, they live there"
Her brow furrowed and her feet stoped walking "So you live... on your own?"
"Well with some frie-" He paused and turned around with a confused look on his face "Did you not know?"
"Well... No. My grandad said I'd stay with his friends—like, plural."
He smiled "Nice surprise isn't it?"
She nodded trying not to show how awkward she felt about it all "And you're okay with me staying here?"
"Your grandfather is a good man, I owe him. And you don't seem too bad"
"Gee thanks" She sighed and smiled, that was probably the highest compliment she had gotten in a good while "So I'm three thousand miles away from home, living with no parents or responsible adult?" It was starting to not sound so bad to her.
"Well I'm pretty responsible and I'll be eighteen by next January" He said trying to make it all seem better.
"Capricorn or Aquarius?"
He narrowed his eyes, trying to remember "Capricorn" "Knew it! I'm a Cancer"
He nodded, his lips in a thin line "You don't know what that means, do you?"
He laughed and showed his perfectly straight, pearly white teeth. He probably had braces as a kid, she thought, no one is born that perfect.
They walked through a living area she didn't completely take in and he opened to a wooden door that led them an old library. "We don't use this one, I thought we could buy some furniture and make it into a pretty nice room, right?"
"Give me a mattress and I'll be fine, I'm just still trying to conceive the idea that your family is all the way across the country. Do you cook for yourself? You have to do your own laundry? Your groceries? Is it even legal?" Even though she tried to not sound like I was panicking, she said it with a concerned voice.
"We usually go to a restaurant or order take out, yes, yes, and totally"
She frowned "Weird... I got here expecting this numerous family, with flag and all..." Looking at him, she tilted her head "You do look awfully American though"
"And you look awfully British" He said back, not sure if she was insulting him or not.
"Thanks" She grinned and he smiled at it.
"I'll let you get comfortable, you can just shout if you need anything, I'll be out there, yeah?"
"Sure, thanks"
He was about to close the door when he stoped in his tracks and turned around, "Your uniform is also there and you'll start school on Monday at Aglionby Academy, I go there too. Since it's an all-boys, I thought a little help to get to know it wouldn't hurt, before you get too stressed with all the testosterone in class. I'm giving you a tour for the first two periods. Also, I'll give you a ride there, we'll leave at seven forty, school start at eight o'clock. I'm sure the boys'll make an exception and let you sit on the shotgun." He smiled
"Great, thank you for everything." She said nodding
He gulped and looked at her then, copying her mannerism, he gave her a firm nod and closed the door behind him, not before looking back again with a questioning look and a small smile.
She looked around the room, big windows and tall bookshelves covered the walls almost entirely. Brown was all you could see, from the furniture to the wooden floors and the sun-bleached pages of the old books. It was quiet for some minutes while she sat on the floor and stared at her bags, too lazy to unpack them. She drew shapes with the dust on the windowsill and got lost in the images of what could happed tomorrow morning, she thought about school and having to make friends all over again. It's not that she doesn't like people (sometimes she does, but not usually), but she's afraid people don't always like her.
Her grandfather always told her that she's not made to be loved by the masses, but by the great minds. That's his wording for saying that not everybody gets her jokes and therefore, most people think she's fucking weird. Besides that, he's got a great ego and gigantic superiority complex. He is convinced that their bloodline is only filled with geniuses. Maybe thats why he was so excited when I left for Henrietta, she though, that means he doesn't have to live with the reality of my mediocrity and can let his imagination fill up the blank spaces of me.
But she could only taste the silence for that little while before the boys who would not let her know it for what was left of her staying burst out laughing.
As she figured the only thing to do was walk into the living room area and introduce herself like a decent human being. Besides, she wanted to pick her uniform up and try it on.
She opened the door and took a good look at her surroundings, she hadn't had the opportunity to do so before. The so called living room was also seemingly a bedroom for god knows who. A mattress sat in the middle of the room, no touching any walls. It irked her. She heard voices from what she guessed it'd be the kitchen.
When she got in she saw the toilet. Why would they all be in the bathroom?
"Hey, Gwen" Gansey said
"Hi"
"Boys, this is our new roomie!"
A very pale boy was the first she saw. Blond and exhausted. She noticed a mark on his cheekbone, like he'd fallen on his face or something. He looked at her like making sure she was not looking right past him. He probably needs some sleep.
Besides him, a tall boy with buzz short hair and all black clothes looked at her questioningly. She really liked his hair.
"I'm Ronan, this is Noah." She smiled at them "Gwen, you say?" Uh-Huh, She hummed. "Gwendolyn?"
"Guinevere"
He laughed "Like king Arthur's"
Silence grew filled the room, she didn't know what to say, so she said nothing.
Gansey walked up to the fridge and spoke up "D'you want anything?"
"Do you have orange juice?"
The three of them laughed, even Noah.
She didn't get it "Huh?"
Gansey opened the fridge door wider for her to see the inside, four or five 1.5l bottles.
She laughed too.
"So" she sipped her juice "you live alone... Do you like smoke inside and eat as much garbage food as you want?" she asked
"Only he smokes" Gansey said, pointing at Ronan with his chin.
She took that as the confirmation she needed to pull out the pack from her back pocket and take two cigarettes out, offering one that he gladly took.
"And we usualy eat a Nino's" He exhaled the smoke
Noah noticed her expression and said "A pizza place not too far from here"
"We'll take you tomorrow after school" Gansey suggests
After a while of talking with her flatmates, she moved to her new room again, uniform in hand.
She held her red hair up with my hands, so she could see it all without it getting in the way.
A fitted white collar shirt and a surprisingly flattering khaki plaid skirt.
She put the navy sweater over her head, it looked nice with her hair.