Chapter Text
Nico leads Will to his dorm. Hanging on the door is a pink sign with the name Andrea in gold cursive. Will feels like it’s a little overdramatic.
Will buzzes into the room, looking around to get a good view of his new living situation. The room is decently big, the main space is three fourths of the whole area, the other fourth a shared bathroom. From where you enter, if you look to your left pushed against the corner is a queen sized bed. It has soft pink sheets and fluffy white decorative pillows. A small plush of the school's mascot, a swan, sits against the pillows. On closer inspection it seems to be the Evelyn Swan Jellycat, which Will is freaking stoked about. Jellycats were one of his what mental health professionals call special interests. He has an extensive collection. He actually nannied all summer and spent about half that money on Jellycats. He might have a problem. Though Evelyn Swan wasn’t on his list, she is a new addition to his collection, and Jellycats aren’t cheap. Anyways, the bed has an intricate, golden frame that looked like it costed more than a new car. At the foot of the bed there was a dark oak dresser with gold swan-shaped handles, the side of the dresser against the foot of the bed and the back of it was against the wall. Over the dresser was a circular golden-framed mirror. Wow, they really are sticking to the gold theme here, huh? Finishing off the space was a fluffy white rug. Will shuddered at the thought that it was made of real bunny hair. He wouldn’t be surprised.
Straight ahead from the door was the same ordeal but it looked much more lived in. Makeup on the dresser, more blankets and plushies on the bed. The walls are adorned with posters of Taylor Swift, (Will doesn’t hate famous women, especially those who have gotten as far as she has, but he can’t help but feel uncomfortable at that one homophobic lyric and the fact that she’s engaged to a white supremist with white supremist friends. Dolly Parton is better).
A record player sat on the dresser on the side without any makeup, a basket containing records, the vinyl on the front being Speak Now by, you guessed it, Taylor Swift. That side definitely belonged to his roommate.
Even though her space was cluttered everything had an order, the bed and dresser looking almost spotless. Seeing Will’s confusion, Nico speaks up, “Cleaners come during morning class time on the weekends and during lunch on the weekends. Hide anything you don’t want them to find. But I guess you’d do that anyway since you have a roommate. I don’t have one. I can’t imagine rooming with one of the boys here, yuck.”
Will nods, for some reason that makes Will’s stomach feel icky. He moves to set his bags on the bed, they sink on the soft mattress.
The room is eerily silent. Will can hear the sound of both boys breathing and the soft hum of the air conditioner. The two stare at each other before Nico clears his throat and looks away.
“So, Will. Your uniforms should be in the dresser. You are required to wear them at all times except for parental approved outings, special events, or after building curfew.”
Will moves to his dresser to grab his uniform, “What’s building curfew?”
”Oh! I guess I forgot to explain that huh?” He chuckles in embarrassment. “Building curfew is where you have to be inside the dorm building at a certain time. That means you can be in your room, a friend’s room, the snack-shop, or the commons. That’s normally eight-thirty to ten-thirty on the weekdays and ten to twelve on weekends. After that you have to stay in your room till five. Unless you’re having a staff-approved sleepover in the commons, but those rarely happen until it’s a birthday or like a school break.”
Nico finishes but sees that Will seems a little distracted. Stupid Nico and his problem of not paying attention to people’s emotions while he’s talking. “Uh, what’s the problem Will?”
Will is staring at the open dresser with a blank expression on his face, but Nico notices the tears breaching his eyes and his lips pressed together in stress. It feels like the same symptoms from when Nico is about to have a meltdown. Is Will autistic too? That would be nice, there’s not a lot of autistic people at Azolla.
”Will, what’s the problem?” Nico asks while stepping towards Will and peering over his shoulder.
Will backs up a bit, away from Nico and the drawer. “I don’t know! I don’t know! I- There’s only skirts in here, no pants, not even for winter! My boxers are way too long for these and that would mean I’d have to wear the long, heavy skirts in the heat or god forbid ask my mom to bring me women's underwear! This is so dumb! There are plenty of women who would rather wear pants! Why the fuck would they not offer that! I cannot wear these. It’s way too demeaning! I don’t know what I’m gonna do!” Will moves to his bed, running his hands up and down his freckled arms, lightly scratching at his skin.
Nico is frozen. He doesn’t really know what to do. Normally he likes his weighted blanket or hugs during his meltdowns, and seeing how Will moved away from him, Nico assumes that he probably does not want to be touched.
Will pulls his knees to his chest and buries his face in them. You can hear his breath catch and see the panic in his movements.
“Will. I know that you’re overwhelmed right now, I mean I feel like that sometimes too. But I have an idea.”
Will mumbles a watery, “What?” Into his legs. His eyes peek up a bit and Nico can see a little bit of hope.
“How about I give you all my pants and you give me all your skirts. We can do a trade, we are about the same size.”
Will’s heart drops. This feels very suspicious. Why would someone as popular as Nico risk being bullied for Will? But maybe Will should take him up on his offer. Then never talk to Nico again, because he does not want to push his luck. “Fine.” He sniffles, and Nico leaves to go grab all his pants from his room.
~~~~~~
The pants fit perfectly and Will feels like he’s been sent to heaven. He thanks god that Nico was kind enough to wear skirts pretty much all the time just so Will is comfortable. Nico says that there’s still a bit of the tour left, and Will is dreading having to spend anymore time with the boy and risk him taking back all the kindness he seemed to give Will for free.
Nico leads him downstairs to the middle of three three levels of the living quarters, the women’s common room.
You enter through a spiral staircase in the center of the room, on your right is the snack store, which contains everything a hotel lobby would. Toiletries, extra clothes, and of course snacks. There was a drink stand that sold smoothies, coffee, and tea. It also sold delicious looking pastries like muffins, sandwiches, and donuts. On the side of the drink shop there was a shelf with candy, chips, and dried fruit. Finally, there was a freezer with ice cream treats, which Will was stoked about.
On the opposite side of the snack shop was a seating area with a big, long couch and around four sofa chairs. There was a coffee table in the middle, floor chairs surrounding it. On the wall was a whole tv system with a PS5, Switch Two, and an Apple TV.
Two beanbags were on each side of the tv system, big enough to squeeze maybe three people. All in all it looked like a pretty comfy area. Will wouldn’t mind spending time in here if it wasn’t glaringly obvious that he was in the girl’s dorm.
“Well I mean the commons is pretty self explanatory, but that’s the store,” he points to the right, “And basically how it works is that you get a certain number of points per month and you can spend that here. Your parents can also pay to add points but it’s barely necessary. You can also use your points for extra meals in the cafeteria but you don’t really need that either. The only reason for the points is so immature boys don’t buy like fifty bags of chips and explode them in the bathroom.”
Will nods, “That makes sense I guess. Are you always allowed in the commons?”
”Pretty much, unless you’re supposed to be in class or it’s after room curfew.” Nico starts moving towards the spiral staircase and motioning for Will to follow him. Will walks across the marble floors to meet Nico by the dark oak stairs, standing next to the boy and waiting for him to finish up whatever he needed to.
“So that’s pretty much the end of the tour I guess. You can go up to your room and unpack, maybe I’ll see you in class tomorrow. You should come say hi.” Nico turns around, the patterned, maroon skirt swishing as he walks. Will is surprised he hasn’t heard any comments about it, but maybe he was too preoccupied with watching the way Nico’s hips swayed- No! Stop! Will was watching for educational reasons only! What he was trying to learn? Nobody will ever know.
Will watches Nico disappear, he said to come ‘say hi’ which Will will not be doing. He does not want to take any chances. Plus most people end up hating the real, unmasked Will, so there’s no point in trying to make friends when they are going to leave him eventually. He’ll stick to focusing on school and not boys. No matter how cute they are in skirts.