Ryan's POV
I didn't like moving to a new town. It was beautiful, I didn't like it. I didn't like going back to school after I had spent a year off school premises. I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to smile and pretend everything was okay. I didn't want to be polite and make friends. I wanted to go back where I came from, but my dearest uncle wouldn't hear a word of that.
It was too late to register, but the school took me in. I immediately hated it when I saw the building. It wasn't a private school, but it sure looked like one. The building was huge and beautiful. The yard was clean and green. I didn't belong there.
My previous school hadn't been a dump, but it hadn't been classy either. The new school looked expensive. The halls were spotless with marble ceilings and floor-tiles that looked like mirrors. I knew my uncle was paying a lot for me to be there and I honestly didn't think it was worth it. I was going to fail, just as I'd failed before. I was repeating the 11th grade for the second time. It would have been for the third time, but I'd dropped out after 3 months the previous year. I'd spent that year doing odd jobs. My uncle decided my life wasn't going anywhere and forced me to move so he could monitor me. Part of getting me back on track was enrolling me at school in November, two months after formal classes started.
I hated moving, for more reasons than one. But I had been barely surviving. I had been getting more and more desperate. It became more and more impossible to fight my uncle. He was trying his best for me. His wife wasn't excited about my presence. She tried to make me comfortable, but I didn't fail to see the pretence. Her children's money was going to a nephew whose only talent in life was disappointing people. I was going to disappoint my uncle and he was going to send me back where I came from, making me feel worse than I already felt.
The first classes I went to were okay, and my definition of okay is: zoned out after 15 minutes. I was resenting my decision to move too much to even concentrate. Besides my aunt's fake smiles, I didn't have nice memories about the town and my uncle's place. I'd had great memories of when I was young and running around in snow throwing snowballs, but all those were erased by one potent memory. I remembered the only thing that I wanted to forget.
"Ryan, this is Pete, Caroline, Jason, Lilly, Wendy, Mark, Bolt, Kristine and Jesse", Rosaline did the introductions.
We were seated at the cafeteria, at what I had just learned was the popular table. I hadn't been at the popular table at my old school; I had been on the rebel table. The rebel table and the popular table hadn't gotten along.
I said my greetings and everyone said theirs. Rosaline sat next to Jesse who gave her a peck on the lips. I realized then I was seated with couples. There was a cheerleader for every jock. How typical. I felt a bit awkward.
"Ryan is new in town", Rosaline said.
"Oh, where are you from?" it was Caroline who asked. She was the typical ditzy blond, at least she looked it.
"Aqua St Parks", I said briefly.
Questions streamed in then about why I had moved, what it was like there, whether I played football and so on. I gave curt answers, not wanting to divulge too much and open old wounds. Soon the focus shifted from me. Everyone in the group seemed nice. They were of course nice to everyone they considered part of their clique. But was I part of them? You could say I had the build and the face. A few girls had already flirted with me. I guess in some aspects I did qualify.
I listened to the conversation and made a few remarks while I ate my food. At some point I zoned out and looked around me at the fancy cafeteria which had a fancy menu. Everyone looked like they fitted at the school, even the nerds.
Someone caught my attention, someone with black long wavy hair that reached a little below his chin. He certainly did have a lot of hair. I couldn't see his eyes but I knew they were a rare color: purple. The shade seemed to change depending on how you were looking at them, becoming lighter or darker. His face was caught between being manly and boyish, and admittedly, he was cute. I suppose he did look French. He was neither fat nor skinny and possessed a really nice smile. It was the guy who dotted his 'i's with hearts. He was sitting at the far end of the cafeteria with a couple of people. I could remember his name: Rainier. It wasn't a name you heard every day. Its uniqueness made it easy to remember.
I mentally laughed just thinking about the little words exchanged between us in class and of course what he wrote in his textbook. Odds are he was gay or...nah, he had to be gay. I don't know why that made my tummy tingle a bit. It was probably the food. It had to be the food.
I moved my eyes from him and settled on the group, simultaneously tuning back to the conversation.
*
After lunch I had one class. I met a couple more other people, but chose not to engage with them. The less people who knew me the better. It was less chances of them discovering things about me that I didn't want people to know.
After school I tried rushing out of the building. I would have accomplished it, had it not been for a boy who was walking like a turtle. We were near the main door and he was taking up the whole space. I was the only one rushing, since no one complained.
"Get the fuck out of the way!" I growled. I had somewhere to urgently be and if I was late I would never hear the end of it.
The boy turned and I instantly recognized him. It was Rainier.
"Sheesh, how about a please?" he said literally standing at the doorway.
I rolled my eyes. I had no time for him being smart with me. I pushed him aside callously, and didn't have to even try hard. He may have been average built but he was lightweight and I had good upper-body strength.
"What the..." he started, but I just waltzed past him.
"Dick!" he said behind me. I doubt he'd wanted me to hear. I turned at the foot of the stairs and smirked, giving him the middle finger.
I made my way out of school grounds, and started the long journey to town on foot. I hated having to walk, but I had sold my car, which was probably the second stupidest thing I had done. As I walked I remembered the events of that day. Nothing really stood out for me, but I knew I was going to be asked about how my day was. I was going to have to hide the fact that I hated it, the school, the town, everything.
I walked into my uncle's store 40 minutes after I left school. It was a hardware store. My uncle wasn't normally in the store but that day he was going to be there. I saw him the moment I walked in.
"You are late", he said.
"I know. But if you must know, I didn't make any stops. Looks like it takes 40 minutes to get here by foot", I said.
"It takes 30 minutes, and it's going to take 30 minutes from now on", he said sternly.
"Are you saying I'm lying?" I asked, stopping my movements.
"Get to work. We got new nails today, I want you to price them. Leo will show you what to do", he said.
I folded my arms in front of me. "Is this going to happen every day?"
He frowned. "I thought we agreed you are going to work for your allowance Mondays to Thursdays after school".
I shook my head. "I don't mean that. Are you going to accuse me of..." I went silent. I couldn't say it out loud. We'd had that conversation a million times.
"I haven't accused you of anything", he said casually.
I shoved my schoolbag in front of him. "Here, you can search me".
His eyes went from me to the schoolbag and back to me. "Get to work Ryan. I need those done by the end of business-day". He walked away, ignoring my outstretched hand and the schoolbag that was dangling.
I sighed. Had it been my imagination? Was it me who was obsessed with the whole thing?
A guy came to stand by me. "Hi, Leo", he introduced himself.
"Ryan", I said briefly.
"Put your schoolbag in the locker and follow me to the storeroom", he said.
"I don't have a locker", I said.
"You do now. Locker room at the end on the right, it is written Cyrus R", he said.
I thought about the situation as I went to where Leo had directed me. I had a locker. It looked like I was going to be there on a permanent basis. I wasn't enthusiastic about working there, but if I had to choose between the store and school, I would choose the store. The subtle monitoring was going to be annoying, but at least there I actually fitted. The guys there were my kind of people; they had no idea where their lives were going and didn't have bank accounts with money to throw around.
I put my schoolbag in my locker and followed Leo to the storeroom.