Nicholas is wearing Rafael’s jumper, with the hem falling to his mid-thigh and his fingers only just poking out of the sleeves, and Rafael can't stop staring.
"I'm dying," Stavros says when Nicholas flaps his long sleeves cutely at Luca as they talk, walking ahead of Stavros and Rafael down the hall to breakfast.
Rafael makes a questionable noise. "I want you to wear my jumper too. Do you think I could fit both of you in one?"
"It'd be too much, you'd snap and probably eat one of us," Stavros says gravely.
"It'd be worth it."
"Just," Stavros says. "Just - something, do something, this hurts."
"You do it," Rafael hisses back. "And then when he says yes to you, I'll come in."
"Fucking coward."
"Why don't you do something then?" Rafael complains.
Stavros throws up his hands. "When I kissed him last year, he thought it was a joke. The time before, he thought I wanted practice. What am I supposed to do?! How more obvious do I have to be for this dense motherfucker - Nicky! Yeah, what is it?"
Stavros jogs up to where Nicholas and Luca are crouched beside an entryway to an outside courtyard, waving Stavros and Rafael over.
"I found a ladybug!" Nicholas cheers, fingers clutching at the ends of his long sleeves.
"Simp," Rafael mutters, then walks over as well to go say hello to the ladybug Nicholas has now declared his other, other, other best friend.
"Aww, it's making a little rowing motion with its tiny little legs," Nicholas coos. He perks up even further at the idea. "Hey, you know what we should do today?"
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"Row!" Nicholas yells, sitting at the end of the rowboat, hauling back on the oars as Rafael and Stavros do, lined up behind him. They lurch forward again to reset. "Row!"
Luca walks down the busy corridor alongside the rowboat and, really, the boys are actually going quite fast with the modified sticking charms on the ends of the oars to help them along.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Students stream around the rowboat on the way to class, snickering.
"Row!" Nicholas cries and the rowboat lurches forwards (technically backwards). There's quite a bit of resistance doing this on carpet.
"What are you doing about the stairs?" Phaedra asks as she stands off to the side watching with her friends, snake around her shoulders and also watching in mild confusion.
"Oh fuck," Stavros says.
"Row!" Nicholas roars. "Come on, lads! A bit of stairs won't stop this rowing team! We’re going straight to the championships this year!"
Ms Connell catches them before they reach the stairs anyway so it's a moot point. They try to row away from her but she walks slightly faster and outpaces their rowboat.
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"If it wasn't carpet, we would have gotten away with it," Nicholas says earnestly.
"Why didn't you just do it in water?" Mariana deadpans.
"A good rowing team must be prepared for every terrain."
Luca pipes up with a little, "You could make a slip and slide instead, with plastic sheets then water and soap. We did that for graduation in primary school."
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The line wraps around the edge of the massive lake as what seems like half the school has stripped down to just their bare pants and shirts -some less- and they're all going to have a hell of a time finding their pile of clothes again.
Nicholas is straight up just in his underwear, still dripping wet from his last run, and takes off at a sprint over the grass towards the long plastic tarp, diving headfirst down the soapy runway on his stomach before pushing up and onto his feet for the last half, somersaulting into the lake with a splash that hits the other students floating around.
He pops back with a flick of his hair -forming a sweeping mohawk- to the cheering of the audience and throws up a peace sign with a grin. If you're going to do something, do it with style.
Rafael, with shirt and trousers on because his scars are really quite distinctive, takes off next and flips his legs around at the last second when he dives, spinning like a top down the slide on his back before splashing in.
Luca, down to his trousers, takes a step forward as the next in line then pauses. "Principal."
Selwood walks up with a smile, still in her usual pinstripe suit jacket and pencil skirt. "Excuse me, Mr Ayad, would I be able to use my principal privileges to cut in line?"
Luca gapes.
Stavros cracks up laughing and it ripples through the line as Selwood steps up and they realise she's going to take a turn.
"Yes!" Nicholas screams in delight, slapping the water. "Fuck yes, Selwood! Let's goooo!"
Selwood walks up, still fully dressed with even her short heels on, and stands on the end of the slippery slide. She casts a very simple summoning spell on the entire lake, and the mass of the water rips her off her feet instead. She takes off like a shot down the slide, standing perfectly straight as she gets launched off the end and gets airtime.
The students lose their shit and fall over each other laughing. Rafael has to help Nicholas float so Nicholas doesn't drown because he's cackling too hard to tread water.
Selwood pops back up out of the water and easily does a graceful breaststroke back to the shore.
"I fucking love this school," Stavros wheezes in hilarity, clinging to Luca's shoulders so he doesn't topple over.