Chapter Text
Theo was in the car with his father and stepmother. They were taking him to school, where he would spend the next few months with people he did not like, but that was reciprocal because there was no one in that school who respected him either. The day was clear out of the car and he could only see trees along the way, his father was driving and his stepmother was smoking on the bench next to him . 'For me, the good life ended when Mom died a few years back. Suddenly Dad married Kate, they were living in Dubai and I was in boarding school, in the middle of nowhere. A college where rugby was a religion. Where I was persecuted daily.' Theo thought, hell was about to begin.
"I mean, legally, you guys should not be able to force me to go to school. Legally, I'm basically an adult." Theo said, arms crossed and face full of discontent.
"You're basically an adult but you're actually like sixteen." Kate said, for the first time taking that fucking cigarette out of her mouth.
"Yes. Sixteen is your current age." Peter, his father said, looking in the mirror of the car. "That's why the idea of us letting you leave school is absurd." He said, this time looking at the road ahead.
Theo leaned forward. "So you're pretty much sending me to jail?" He said with a frown.
"But even prisoners make an effort to fit in. They do jigsaws together, play ping-pong with each other." Kate said, with the cigarette still between her fingers.
Theo clasped his hands in an act of supplication. "Could you please listen to yourself for the briefest of moments?" He asked, looking at his stepmother.
"Excuse me?" Kate said, turning her face to look at him.
"Theo, conforming is part of being a grown up. And letting you leave school early would be sending you to jail, in a way." His father said, taking a hand off the wheel for a moment. "Boys who leave school at your age doom themselves to the life of sweeping up supermarket floors..." He grunted.
'Dad was obsessed with the guys who swept supermarket floors.' Theo thought.
"... and then crime, naturally. Kate, Adam Quinn's boy, he was expelled from school last year and now, apparently, he's a bum in Paris." His father finished speaking, looking at his wife.
"No way. Really?" Theo said in a cheerful tone.
"Yes! Reading his poetry on the Metro for Money. Practically begging. It's desperately sad. So just think about that." Peter said, getting a confused look from Kate.
'A bum... in Paris! I would have loved that. But was I bad enough to get expelled? This year would tell.' Theo thought, looking out the window.
His dad stopped the car outside the school. Kate was still sitting in the car along with her life, the cigarette. Peter helped Theo get his bags in the trunk and soon he was looking at the hellish prison he would have to stay. He started walking toward the entrance and looked back a few times, thinking of running away as quickly as possible, but his father was still there, waiting. He saw some boys entering school together and another group playing ball. In front of the school there were a few cars. The entrance was all covered with red flowers and stones, with white windows and doors. Around him, as far as his eyes could see, it was all grass or trees.
He entered school, the walls with light colors and the floor with dark colors, nothing had changed. Some students were running down the hall and two boys were sitting on the stairs beside him, one of them was holding a banjo. All he could hear was the murmurs of the students talking. He started to walk toward the board that indicated the rooms of the students, when he got there he ran his finger on the board, looking for his name.
"Got my own room! Magical." Theo murmured, smiling. At least of that suffering he had been freed, he would not have to put up with any of the other school boys in his room.
"Did you just say you have your own room?" Theo heard a voice behind him. He looked to see a nasty face. "No way. Let me see." The boy stopped beside him to face the painting. "Oh..." he said, looking at the painting.
'Ladies and gentlemen, my tormentor-in-chief.' Theo thought.
"Okay. Maybe the reason you have your own room is so... nobody gets bummed, your know, in the middle of the night." The boy said with raised eyebrows , holding the banjo that Theo was sure belonged to the boy who was sitting down on the ladder.
Theo could feel some students approaching them. He lowered his head with a small smile on his face. "And hello to you too, Brett. I trust the summer treat you well?" He said with the small smile still on his face.
"I trust the summer treat you well?" Brett said, trying to imitate Theo with a bitchy face. That almost made Theo vomit. All the boys around laughed. "You are an utter bender!" He said, smiling.
Theo lowered his head, the smile fading from his face.
"Easy on this fucking lad! I have not seen you in ages." Another student pulled Brett back.
Brett did not take his eyes from Theo, he pointed his finger at him. "All right." He said, turning to start walking.
Theo bent over to retrieve his bags. 'Back to jail.' He thought and started walking. 'And just like prison, if nobody likes who you really are, then buddy, you better hide yourself away.' He thought, looking at the boys in front of him climbing the stairs. Everyone looking at him with a malevolent smile on their face.
As he climbed the stairs he remembered some things that had already happened to him at that school. He was sitting in the front row of the classroom and looking away as the teacher handed in the essays of the other students. 'Here's an example: for English essays, I stole the lyrics from obscure songs the very old Mr. Deucalion would never know.' He thought, watching as Deucalion placed his essay on his desk. A big red 'A' at the top of the sheet. 'But it was a private joke. Nobody else knew the song - or cared one way or other.' Theo looked at the essay with a silly little smile on his face. 'Everyone at Beacon Hills College was obsessed with rugby.' He saw a rugby ball fall on his desk and he held it. He put the ball on the floor beside him. 'And I did not hate rugby, but what happened if you did not love it...' He folded his arms and bowed his head, waiting the hell begin.
A boy began to make a noise, as if he were mooing, and all the other boys began to laugh. 'Yeah... that sound means gay.' Theo thought, he frowned and settled into his chair. 'I have no idea why it means that, but believe me... I heard it a lot.'
'I should explain.' Theo thought, remembering something that had happened. The professor was speaking in front of the group, behind him a male reproductive organ drawn on the board. "... you all recognize this..." The teacher said.
'Gay means crap, bad or different. And the fear of being in any different way ran through our school from top to bottom.' Theo thought, he was sitting among the other students. "... ask the lady to dance. And then, you know, you get into a sort of... remember... Right? But do not do that, okay?" The teacher tried to explain, gesturing in front of the students not to touch the girls' butts. "So, any questions?" The professor asked, looking at them.Theo remembered seeing the impatient advisor right behind the students.
'There were other kinds of school, of course. Cool, modern day schools where anything went. But not here.' Theo thought, remembering the day one of the students wetted a porn magazine and placed it on the ceiling just above the teacher's desk. "Today, we're going to be looking at..." The professor said, entering the room and holding some kind of object Theo did not know. All the students looked up, where the magazine was almost loosening from the ceiling. 'Talking about sexual identity to anyone in our school that was like staring at the sun.' The students continued looking at the magazine. "... anyone have any idea?" The professor asked with a frown. The magazine fell on the table in front of the professor's face and the students began to laugh. The professor looked disappointed.
'It seemed you could be whoever you liked out in the world.' Theo thought . He remembered several times that he heard some boys making that same noise.
'But our school was not part of the world.' He closed the door of his bedroom, leaving all the memories behind and returning to reality. He had finally arrived in his room, where it had two windows and two beds, with two tables with lampshade on top. He took a deep breath. Theo took a shower and put on the uniform, he went to the auditorium where the director would make an announcement.
He had already gotten there, he was sitting with all the other students. Some teachers were sitting on the stage, looking at the students, the principal knocked twice on the microphone before beginning to speak. "Firstly, some sad news. After a short illness, our dear colleague and friend Deucalion has passed on." Stilinski, a former sheriff and current school principal said into the microphone.
"Get in!" Theo heard some boy say next to him. And then some students began to clap and celebrate, all staring at the portrait of Deucalion on stage. Theo smiled, Deucalion was not a bad person, but he was a bad teacher.
"Students!" The director shouted into the microphone. "Which will mean some re-shuffling in the English department. In honor of our recently deceased English teacher, one victorious student will be chosen to represent the school in the National Essay Writing Competition. There is a first prize of five grand..." He said smiling. The students began to celebrate and clap again. Theo was excited, maybe that was his chance, he started to clap too. "... as a donation to the school." The principal finished and everyone made noises of disappointment.
"Now... Rugby!" Stilinski said quietly into the microphone and all the other students began to scream. Theo lowered his head.
'Did you ever meet an adult who wishes they were a kid again? That was our headmaster, Stilinski.' Theo thought, listening to all the students celebrate.
"This school has won seventeen Senior Cups, but it has been a long decade since the last. We have a good crop of players. And the entire school needs to support our fantastic coach, Mr. Scott McCall." The director said, reaching for the coach. He raised his hand and waved to the students.
'As for this guy, well... rumor had it Scott's wife left him because he was too obsessed with rugby.' Theo thought. He looked to the side and saw a woman open the door of the auditorium, a boy appeared next to her, he had brown hair, he stared at the coach with his beautiful blue eyes for a while, before leaving again. 'And that... that's the guy who changed everything.'