The bell rang as the teacher stopped writing on the board. "Make sure to review about our lesson for today, this will be on our test soon," Mr. Claude stated, as the students started to pack their things.
After Royce finished packing up, Johannes and a male with brown curly hair walked up to Royce. "Royce Lee, right? I'm the vice-president, name's Cameroon Smith. I'm Johannes' best friend, by the way. I'll be showing you around the school, Johannes will also follow us, of course," Cameroon Smith—the male with brown curly hair instructed with a smile.
"I don't know who you are, but I'm definitely going to beat your as—" Johannes's mouth was shushed by a familiar person, before he could even finish his sentence.
"Johannes. Stop trying to fight everyone, you're the school president," Richard ordered sternly as he retreated his hand.
"Richard! Just in time. Meet Royce Lee! He's the new student, and we'll tour him around the school," Cameroon told Richard.
Richard looked at Royce, who seemed to be clueless about the situation happening. Richard continued, "I already met him a while ago. I immediately went here after my class since I knew that you'd tour him around. I also brought someone with me." He moved a little bit, just slightly, to reveal a tall male with blond hair and blue eyes like Johannes.
He glared at Royce, who instantly felt uncomfortable at his gaze. "Jonathan, will you introduce yourself to our new student?" Richard said as he grabbed Jonathan's wrist and made Jonathan stand directly before of him, face-to-face to Royce.
Jonathan Brahms, the older brother of Johannes. Doesn't talk that much, a rather athletic person when it comes to sports. Only gets average grades, unlike his perfectionist younger brother.
"Are you sure that's a great idea, Richard?" Cameroon asked. "Jonathan is hard to talk with."
"Say hi and introduce yourself!" Richard exclaimed, ignoring Cameroons' comments, deciding to convince Jonathan to talk.
"Is he alright?" Royce asked as he raised a brow while staring at Jonathan, who turned out to be shaking the whole time.
"Yeah, he's just—shy. It's normal. He doesn't like talking with people unless it's Richard or Johannes, and I have no idea how Richard makes him talk, honestly," Cameroon responded.
Richard sighed and stopped trying. "Anyway, his name is Jonathan, the older brother of Johannes, since Jonathan is only 1 year older than Johannes."
Royce stared at Jonathan, then at Johannes. "You sure that Johannes isn't adopted? Jonathan seems... a lot taller than Johannes. " Royce said while putting his hand over Johannes' head, gesturing in a way that he was lots shorter compared to him.
Johannes slapped Royce's hand away as he huffed angrily and turned his head, not daring to look at Royce.
"I'm not that short! I'm still growing anyway!" Johannes yelped to Royce, fury steaming out of his ears.
"You're wearing shoes that have... heels." Richard pointed out. "—Anyway. Let's start with the tour shall we?" Richard awkwardly concluded, and while the others agreed, Jonathan just nodded in response.
The group of friends, not counting Royce, exactly, walked into the a hallway of, which was crowded by several students, some including familiar faces that were easily recognizable for Royce, only because he'd seen them on TV.
"This school is pretty special, huh? All the rich kids are here," Royce awed while he followed the friend group that he was forced to be with. Honestly, he thought that the friends was pretty unique, each individual being different from each other but still managing to stick together like glue.
Cameroon chuckled. "Obviously. This school is owned by my family, and my mother made it even better when she inherited it as her own."
Such an expensive friend group, huh?, Royce thought to himself as his mind brought up his current life, rather different compared to the people he's with.
Royce works a side job, in order to support himself and his younger sister. Life was too unfair for him. Honestly, he envied the friend group, just because of how lucky they are.
If good and bad luck are balanced in life, then why is bad luck the only thing that happens to him?
~~~
The mansion burned to crisp. He never knew that human jealously could go this far. Out of all people in the world, why was his family became the victim? His family only played fair in life, his family never did wrong to those around them.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"We found a survivor!" The fireman exclaimed, Royce turned to see his baby sister crying endlessly.
Along with the baby, was Royce's pet bird. The fireman explained that the bird was the one that helped them find Royce's baby sister.
"Deiji!" Royce yelled out as he approached the doctor who quietly was inspecting his baby sister for injuries.
"The baby seems to be alright, but if the little bird didn't help, this baby wouldn't have survive from the fire," Doctor Franklin examined.
---
That night, the authorities discussed where Royce and his sister would stay and live with after the death of his parents, and their home burning down.
Unfortunately, the wealth of the family was stolen away by the same suspects that burned down the mansion, leaving nothing for the two siblings and their sick and injured bird.
Other than that, the suspects left no trace of clues, leaving the case unsolved.
Royce's aunt, the sister of Royce's mother, took the two in to care for them as they were her own. She was even kind enough to book a flight for Royce and his sister to travel from Korea to England since she lived in England.
---
Royce's aunt was kind to them and treated them correctly, even if she was not rich like her sister. But yet, she managed to give the two a proper and normal life with her average job.
Her home wasn't big but it was enough for Royce and his younger sister, plus the little bird that helped the rescue of his younger sister. The little bird stayed by their side the whole time, imitating a doctor, or bodyguard.
He was a gift from Royce's mother, given to Royce on his 11th birthday. Royce treated the bird nicely the whole time it was with him, like his little son, but a bird instead.
--- (I'm not done throwing bad luck at Royce <3 curse them all)
"Deiji! Don't mess with Cedric, leave him be." Royce said to his young sister, Cedric being the name of Royce's pet bird.
"I prepared food for the three of us, Auntie will be home in a minute now." He wanted to surprise his aunt by preparing their lunch. At age 14, he started to cook food since he wanted to help his aunt to prepare food for the three of them. His aunt was a widower, beginning days after the detective reported that, in fact, her husband was found killed, and by his psycho ex.
It was nice, a nice evening, the siblings sitting on the couch with the TV on. That was, until the TV switched to breaking news.
"Breaking news!! A car has spun out of control, and hit another with a single person inside. The driver of the car, who started the accident, had major injuries but has survived the accident, however, the driver of the car whom was hit had their life taken away...," The news reporter sped as slowed footage of the car accident flashed on the screen.
Royce recognized the car that was hit, and immediately took out his broken phone and dialed his aunt.
But the one who answered shocked him the most, "Are you a relative of the owner of this phone, Mrs. Ava Jones?" An officer.
Royce's eyes widened at what the officer said next, "Unfortunately, Ms. Jones died in a car accident just this afternoon. My condolences, may I know who are you?"
Surprised, but not even caring, his voice came out in a brittle tone, as if he was about to break out into tears. "I'm the... the child she's taking care of."
~~~
"Hey! Hey, you alright?" Richard clapped, in focus to try getting Royce's attention.
Royce snapped out of his sky of thoughts, to realize that the group of friends was looking at him with worry. "You suddenly stopped walking, are you alright?" Richard asked again.
Royce just nodded in response, which Richard smiled at. "Alright. Well, we're done touring you around. Would you like to have a lunch with us?"
Royce raised his head and smiled, "I would love to."
"To the cafeteriaaaaa!" Cameroon instructed, like a child, as he lead everyone to cafeteria, ready and overenthusiastic to eat lunch.
They followed him. It was truly nice that Royce was put into a friendly group of friends that actually cared. A change, for once.
~~~
In the cafeteria, Richard and all of the friend group sat in one big table while ate the lunch they ordered.
Johannes kept trying to eat his fruit salad peacefully, unable to while Cameroon kept insulting him that he won't grow taller just by eating those. Jonathan drinking out of Richard's juice box, while Richard is still away ordering.
"You'll never grow,~" Cameroon insulted while Johannes, in response, shoved his hand onto Cameroon's face. Cameroon laughed as an answer, still adding several teases.
"Cameroon, stop. Leave Johannes alone. We don't want his father to think that we're bullying him," Richard said as he set down a truckload of cafeteria food placed organized in a tray in front of Royce. "Oh also, I bought lunch for you, Royce. I heard that you work side jobs to support yourself, so I bought lunch for you so you won't have to worry about the amount of money you'll pay." He smiled gently.
Royce was surprised, but much appreciative. He thanked Richard for his kindness, and Richard just chuckled. "No problem, I'm just trying my best to help people in need." "Oh also, Johannes, the principal passed by while I was buying lunch, and she said she wanted to give this letter to you," Richard copied as he gave Johannes the said letter.
Johannes grabbed the letter and started reading it. It was indeed a letter from the principal.
It was indeed a letter from the principal [https://img.wattpad.com/8f3da4e524f0f562e00fec7ff7290ad9efc88225/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f484246345063436e5861756a36413d3d2d313231373634373632372e3136663539346266623933363134396638393130323833303631342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
(I'd like you to assist Royce with catching up on previous lessons. I know you're a hardworking student, which is why I chose you to tutor Royce. I've learnt that Royce is a quick learner, so tutoring him won't be a problem. Because you are also the school president, it is your responsibility to assist students at Evergreen University.
Thank you in advance.)
~~~