The dorm rooms were big. Bigger than three times the size of my room back home. Even better, my roommate was one of the four late arrivals who wouldn’t show up till next week, so I had the whole room to myself. The first thing I did was set up my PS4. I’d pretended it had broken during the summer, and told Big Sis I’d thrown it in the trash. If she’d known I’d still had it, I would’ve never have been allowed to bring it with me. The only problem was that I didn’t have a TV, but I’d sort that out using some of the money I’d saved up to get one on the weekend.
I took the nicer bed, and moved around the wardrobes to make sure I got the slightly bigger ones too. The bathroom was pretty nice too, with a bathtub shower, and a regular toilet. I mean there were only 240 students in the school at once, and considering how big the dorm building was it didn’t seem that outrageous to have en suites.
I showered, and changed quickly, hopping into my bed. I still didn’t have my shoes back, which was annoying. I’m pretty sure we could wear them during non school hours. Eh, it didn’t matter, I could just wear my sliders in the common area. I texted Quinten to see what he was doing. He saw it but didn’t respond meaning he was either busy with work already, or he was probably hanging out with Rachael or one of the others from lunch. Annoying.
Hmm, what now? I’m pretty sure you needed permission to just leave, so that was off the table. Dinner from the cafeteria was open from 17:00 till 19:30. I glanced at my phone. It was 16:07 now so I’d have to wait for that too. I frowned. The principal had seen right through me, so any kind of suspension was off the table. That meant I really was stuck here. If I wanted to have fun I was going to have to socialise with the other kids.
I hopped up from my bed and slipped into my sliders and a hoodie before stepping out from my room, with the key I’d been given. I walked down the hallway, peering into some of the open rooms with other students talking to each other. I made my way down the stairs at the end of the hall and turned down the corridor towards the common room. I felt a small pit in the bottom of my stomach as I neared the common room, the sound of voices and laughter echoing into the hallway. The sliding door to them room was slightly open, and I peered inside to see a large nicely organised area with couches, a few tables, and a wall covered in photos. A set of stairs on the wall led to a mezzanine where a group of people were gathered. I stepped inside carefully. It felt like a well-designed library with ambiance lighting, and without all the books.
From inside I could see two pool tables in the back, and a TV in the corner surrounded by people sat in beanbags. In the middle of the room there were some people playing twister.
“Hey there, welcome to the freshman common room” an upbeat girl said. I stared at her blankly, and she laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Erica, a senior here at NYTA.” I nodded in response.
“I’m Lucas” I replied. She paused for a second, scrunching up her face in a slight frown.
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“Ah! I thought you looked similar. You’re Maria’s little brother, right? You’ve got the same mean look” she said laughing again. That was starting to get annoying. And what did she mean by mean look. I didn’t look anything like Maria.
“Right now we’ve got a bunch of different activities going on” she said. “There’s twister, pool and foosball tables, there’s a few board games over there if you want to play. Over by the chill zone they’re watching Terminator, and upstairs there’s a few computers for recreational use. Just remember not to do anything inappropriate with them” she said cheerily.
“…ok” I responded back. I quickly made my way over to one of the pool tables watching as two guys played together.
The game ended quickly, with the lightskin guy losing and the south Asian guy celebrating his victory just to rub it in. They both glanced at me.
“Do you wanna play?” the lightskin guy asked.
“Uh sure. I’m Lucas by the way” I said, taking the pool cue from him.
“James” he said sticking out his hand. I shook it. “And this is Kasun.” Kasun grinned and shook my hand as well.
Kasun quickly set up the table again and let me start. I fudged the break, and Kasun proceeded to wipe the floor with me effortlessly.
“Don’t worry man, I played a lot with my dad” he said, grinning ear to ear. Well, I guess some of the kids here would have the kind of money that allowed them to casually have a pool table.
“Well you definitely seem to enjoy winning” I laughed. I handed the pool cue to James, and sat on a couch as I watched them.
“So what homeroom are you in?” Kasun asked.
“Ms Jane’s. I think it was class 3” I replied.
“Oh, I heard there was some trouble with a kid in class three already” James said. I cringed internally.
“Huh? What happened?” Kasun asked.
“I overheard one of the teachers saying a kid from class three had gone missing during lunch” he said.
“On the first day as well, that’s kind of crazy” Kasun said potting two balls at once. He turned to me. “Did you hear anything about it?”
“Uh…it might’ve been me” I mumbled. They both turned to me surprised.
“I just got lost, wasn’t that big a deal” I said. Kasun nodded while James frowned.
“I’m pretty sure you were supposed to be in my English class. That was like an hour after lunch.”
“Yeah, they just let me chill in my dorm once they found me” I said, trying to play it off.
“Oh” James said turning back to the table.
We carried on chatting for a bit it when a large group of people came down the stairs and stopped to watch and play pool. I was relegated to an outsider in the conversation. I got up and moved over to the ‘chill zone’. I sat down next to one of the beanbags and watched a few scenes from Terminator 2. Suddenly I was being shaken awake. I sat up groggily, wiping the spit from my mouth as a few people laughed. I’d fallen asleep and fallen onto the girl next to me.
I stood up embarrassed as the others chuckled, and the girl shot me a glare. Even worse it was Yerin, the girl I sat next to in homeroom. I bolted, not wanting to stick around and make it even more awkward. As I ran through the common room I felt a wave of nausea pass through me. I felt weird. Sickly. I slipped out the door I crashed into someone. The collision sent shockwaves through my body, and it took everything I had to not throw up instantly. I glanced at the person I’d collided into, it was Rachael and she looked less than happy, clutching her stomach. I bolted past her not bothering to apologise as I sprinted for my dorm room. I stumbled and fell to the ground. I recovered and carried on running before barging inside my room and slamming the door. I dived for the toilet and barely managed to throw up into the toilet bowl.
I groaned leaning my head on the wall. I hurled again, before washing out my mouth. I was hungry all of a sudden. Really hungry. I was a shivering mess too, drenched from head to toe with sweat. I stepped out the toilet, and crawled into bed as I clutched myself tightly feeling like my veins were on fire. I closed my eyes as stars flew across my visions. I felt so tired.
“Help” I mumbled, “Somebody help.”