Hayden School for Boys

That was it, enough Latin. The weather was mostly nice and vocabulary was starting to get mixed up in his head he'd crammed so much into it. Was he supposed to study this hard for mock GCSEs? Definitely time to work on music, or at least grab his guitar, find a secluded spot on the grounds and play. That counted as study time.

The spot he found was in the shade, back to a tree. He was rarely disturbed here, away from any official paths. It allowed Leslie to forget about other people and play as he wanted to. Even sing. Even songs he'd written himself. The sort he would never play in his room, for fear of someone overhearing.

Until he heard a branch crack under someone's footsteps, and he stopped mid-way through a line of the song, hand flat on the strings to stop the sound of the guitar. "Somebody there?"

Liam was in the gym, in the section where wrestling mats were set out.

He wasn't wrestling, he was alone. He was in shorts, his shirt abandoned while he was stretching carefully. His back bent neatly and he held it, face contorting in pain before he broke the movement, carefully lowering himself into a sit, feet pressed flat together and forehead on his big toes. "Fuck. Ow."

Monday morning after class, with lunchtime approaching, Jeremy was making absolutely no move to head towards the refectory. Instead, he was still at his desk in the classroom, flicking through a pile of papers and occasionally making a note on the pad at his elbow.

He didn't truly trust computers.

At the sound of the door opening, he lifted his head, blinking. "Yes? What is it?"

Liam had come back from the part and fallen into his bed, belly down and stretched out. He'd forgotten to take any pain killers before he woke up so when he rolled to his side early in the morning it was with a loud enough groan to wake James. He winced, fumbling up and into his night stand, the only thing really unpacked, and getting a bottle of pills which he opened, shaking two out into his palm.

He dry swallowed both of them before raising a hand and saying, "Hello."

Callum's parties were kind of like an orgy-- no one was exactly invited; they just knew to come. So once word got around (through chin-jerks, whispers, and the occasional fist-bump) that there was going to be a party off grounds, all that was left to do was get everything set up.

"Everything" included alcohol--both beer and all the hard liquor two enterprising teenaged hoodlums could drum up--townie girls, music, food, and some illegal substances that stayed well out of sight.

There was even a bonfire, though it was carefully set up, and a small plastic crate of things to fuck around with if the night got too dull. ..Including a bowl of condoms Callum had purchased, scowling little faces scrawled on them in black marker.

Liam's things were being put in his room- he couldn't really carry them- but his tour of the school had ended, his mothers had left, and Liam found himself alone in the middle of a hall, hopelessly loss. He rubbed his face, swallowed his pride, and asked the next passing student, "Excuse me. Where are the dorms?"