Chapter Text
Heathcoat Academy was a posh school, Ross knew that much. He had heard stories, at his old school. Tales about students getting dropped off in helicopters and Aston Martins in the parking lot. Back then, he’d listened intently to the gossip, laughing at the ridiculousness of the rich. He’d never thought he’d actually be here. But alas, his old school didn’t have a Sixth Form. Against all odds, he’d lucked out with a place at Heathcoat.
Looking down at his map of the school, Ross sighed. A new school came with a lot of new classrooms and buildings to memorise, brilliant. He tugged his blue and black stripy tie nervously, a habit he had picked up a long time ago. Most Sixth Forms didn’t have a uniform, unfortunately all the posh boys and girls had to look especially smart. Black blazers, stripy ties and white shirts were mandatory.
Standing outside the main gate, he looked back to where his sister was still parked. She gave him an encouraging wave and he pulled a face. Turning back to the gate, he walked over to where the card scanner was. His Sixth Form ID card had come in the post yesterday, every Sixth Form student had them, allowing them to exit and enter the campus when required. The machine bleeped green after scanning his card, and the gate swung open. Following the instructions he had received over the phone yesterday, he headed into the massive old building in front of him.
Out of all of his twelve years of school, he had never met a more stereotypical headmaster. He was a large man, easily over fifty. White tufts of hair were spread over his scalp and a bit of his chin, making him look like a shaven father christmas. His black suit and pointed gaze accompanied the disturbing sense of intimidation that radiated from the room.
After the headmaster had ‘welcomed’ him to the school and explained the basic rules and requirements, Ross had been sent meet his new form tutor where he would collect his paperwork and timetable. Unfortunately, all Ross had been told about his form room was that it was in G13.
At some point during his search, a bell sounded. Suddenly there were students everywhere, creating a sea of black blazers. Every student looked the same, only distinguishable by their ties. Ross’ was blue, meaning he was Sixth Form, but this was a whole school. Students in year seven and eight were Discovery Collage, meaning they had black and grey ties. In year nine, students picked their GCSE’s, meaning they got segregated into different Collages depending on the subjects they chose. Green for Arts. Red for Enterprise. Purple for World. It was all very confusing.
To his left, Ross heard a shout. Turning his head to look, he saw a flash of blonde before something heavy barrelled into him. He hit the ground with a large ‘thump’, wind completely knocked out of him.
“Oh shit man, sorry.”
He looked up to follow the voice, finding a large blonde boy looking down at him, a concerned look on his face. Behind the blonde, he saw two more boys approaching them, a short ginger sporting a curly beard and a taller brunet with tanned skin, their blue ties showed Ross that they were Sixth Form too. Ross blinked up at the blonde, too dazed to respond.
“Here.” The blonde said, offering Ross a hand. He was hauled up by the boy, surprisingly stronger than Ross thought. The boy’s friends arrived as Ross was picking up his rucksack.
“Duncan!” The tall one growled. “What did you do?”
“Accident!” The blonde - Duncan - exclaimed, raising his hands in mock surrender. The brunet shook his head and sighed.
“You alright?” The shorter one asked, looking up at Ross.
“Yeah.” Ross said, dusting dirt off of his black jeans. From the waist down, Sixth Form students were allowed to wear whatever they wanted. Within reason anyway. It looked like most people just went with jeans.
“I shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of the hallway.” Ross shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant about the throbbing pain on the bottom of his spine. Looking around, he noticed most students had gone to their second lesson. Ross bit his lip, he really needed to find his form tutor.
“Shit.” Duncan said, bringing Ross’ concentration back to here and now. The blonde was looking at his watch, his face troubled.
“You’ve got Chem, mate.” The ginger said, stifling a laugh at Duncan’s expression. “I’m in Woodwork, lets go.”
“Sorry again!” Duncan said, before turning away to walk with the ginger. Ross and the brunet boy watched them leave.
“That boy.” The brunet said, shaking his head again.
“I’m Lewis.” He said. Turning to Ross and offering him a hand. “You must be new.”
Ross laughed and shook his hand, appreciating the boy’s friendliness.
“Ross. Is it that easy to tell?”
“Nah, but I got told you were coming in today, and I know most of the face’s of people in Sixth Form.”
Ross gave Lewis a confused look and he smiled.
“I’m head boy, should have mentioned that.”
“Oh!” Ross laughed, that made more sense. “Right.”
“So, you need a hand with anything?”
“Yeah actually.” Ross said, smiling sheepishly. “Could you help me find my form room?”
Lewis was extremely helpful, not only leading Ross to his form room, but also pointing out all the different buildings on his way. It turned out that G13 was a Maths classroom in G Block (surprisingly). Each block was assigned with certain subjects and departments, G being mainly Maths and Computing. They stopped outside Ross’ form, a clear ‘G13’ stuck to the door.
“Thanks man, you were super helpful.” Ross said, he didn’t want to think about how much time he would have wasted wandering around the halls aimlessly before he found this room.
“It’s nothing.” Lewis said, shrugging off the compliment. Spotting Ross’ map sticking out of his blazer pocket, he gestured towards it. “Here, let me have that.”
Ross willingly gave the map up and Lewis pulled a biro out of the back pocket of his jeans. Ross watched as the brunet leant the map against the wall and started labelling it. He covered the map in the names of the buildings, the subjects they contained, where the offices where, something called the ‘pod’ and other little tips. Ross grinned and eagerly took the map back when Lewis was done.
“That should help a little.” Lewis said, smiling at the glee on Ross’ face. “See you later!” He called, walking off before Ross could thank him again. Ross watched him leave before knocking on the door of his form room.
His form tutor was a short blonde woman who blinked at about 40 miles per hour. Her black skirt and creme blouse showed off her youth, as she was clearly in her twenties. She wore quite a bit of make up, not that Ross had a problem with that.
“Ross!” She said, closing the lid of her laptop and beckoning him into the room.
He cautiously walked in. She was teaching a class, GCSE by the looks of their multicoloured ties. Maths was mandatory at their age, poor bastards. She grinned at him from her desk and started handing him bits of paper.
“I’m Miss Gloss.” She said, voice loud amongst the silent class. “I’ll talk to you more later, but I have a class at the minute. Here’s you’re time table, looks like you’ve got a class next.”
Ross nodded, eyeing his timetable as she gave it to him.
“Do you need any help finding anything?”
“Nah.” He said, thankful for his map. “I ran into the head boy and he showed me where most things were.”
“Oh, Brindley.” She nodded. “Nice lad, isn’t he?”
Ross agreed and thanked her for the timetable, going to leave.
“Nice to meet you!” The woman smiled, waving at him from behind her desk. Ross gave her a small ‘you too’ before evacuating into the hallway.
Pausing, he studied his timetable further. Looks like he had Physics second period. As much as Ross hated Maths, he loved Physics. It was a weird relationship. Deciding he might as well turn up for a part of the lesson, he headed towards L26.
It wasn’t long before Ross was, once again, lost. Unfortunately, every L Block room past 22 was unmarked, leaving Ross with a single random unlit classroom at the end of a hallway and a cleaning closet. Taking a chance, he opened the door to the unlit class.
It was a science room, clear by the circular tables sporting gas taps and shelves containing lab equipment lining the walls. He looked around the dark room, before spotting two people. They both turned towards him in surprise.
A small, tanned, purple-haired girl sat atop the shoulders of a ginger boy, trying to reach a particularly high shelf filled with flasks of liquids. The boy was tall, taller than Ross even. They both wore Sixth Form uniform, and their expressions showed that they were probably not supposed to be here. The girl blinked in surprise, before smiling at him.
“Perfect!” She said. “A tall person. Put me down Smith.”
The ginger haired Smith complied, setting the girl down on one of the tables. She hopped off and walked over to Ross.
“Um.” He said, backing towards the door. “I’m looking for L26?”
“No such place mate.” the boy grinned, following the girl over to him. “You must be new.”
“A newbie eh?” The girl smiled, Ross nodded dumbly.
“Alex Smith.” The ginger said, offering a hand and a smirk to Ross. Ross shook his hand numbly, Alex’s cerulean eyes taking over his vision. Shit. This boy was attractive. That floofy auburn hair and pointed jawline. He was fucked.
“Alright Smith, keep your pants on.” The girl joked, Alex elbowed her in the side.
“Just being friendly.” He said, defensively. The girl rolled her eyes and looked towards Ross.
“I’m Kim.” Her tone was kind. “Wanna help us out with something?”
Ross shrugged. He was getting a sort of dodgy vibe from the both of them, but they seemed nice enough.
“Sure.”
“Great.” Kim beamed. “Just hop onto Smith’s shoulders for us.”
“What?”
“Come on.” Alex said, patting his shoulders. “Up you get.”
“Why?”
“We need something from the top shelf.” Kim explained. “We did have a third guy, but apparently he’d rather play with is blonde prefect boyfriend than help us out.”
“And Kim’s a midget.” Alex added. Kim smacked him on the arm. They glared at each other a bit before turning back to Ross, faces expectant. Ross paused before putting down his backpack and cautiously climbing up onto one of the tables, wondering what the hell he was doing as he did so.
“Are you sure you can hold me?” He asked, standing on the edge of the table. Ross was quite tall and not particularly light. Kim dismissed his comment with a wave of her hand and Alex moved to stand in front of him. Slowly, Ross climbed onto Alex’s shoulders, the boy grabbing Ross’ legs to secure him. Precariously, they wobbled over the the shelves, swaying slightly with the new height.
“I’ll watch the door.” Kim said. Ross’ mind raced at that. Why did they need someone to watch the door? And what did they need chemicals for anyway? What the hell had he gotten himself into?
“What am I looking for exactly?” Ross asked, scanning over the phials and flasks.
“Hydrofluoric Acid.” Alex said. Ross blushed slightly as he was reminded of the handsome boy between his thighs. He didn’t even want to ask why they needed such a powerful chemical. Spotting a small phial of the stuff on the left, he grabbed it.
“Got it!” He grinned.
“Good.” Kim said. “Because Hannah’s coming.”
Alex swore loudly from beneath him. The ginger boy let go of Ross’ legs and reached up to grab Ross by the waist. Ross yelped slightly as Alex lifted him from his shoulders while bending, removing Ross from him and setting him down on the ground.
Clutching the phial in his hand, Ross looked from Alex to Kim with a panicked expression. He didn’t know who Hannah was, but from the looks on their faces, she wasn’t good news.
“I’ll throw her off. You two get in the store room.” Kim said. Running over to where she had put her bag, she pulled out a textbook and a pen. Alex and Ross picked up their bags before rushing into a dark supply closet in the left corner of the classroom. Alex closed the door behind them just as they heard the classroom door open.
Ross tried to calm his heartbeat and breathing down as he listened to the sound of muffled voices from outside the small closet. The room was dark and smelt of chemicals. He could vaguely make out the outline of Alex in the gloom, and the quiet brought attention to the fact that he was in a confined space with a stupidly attractive boy. A blush dusted Ross’ cheeks and he thanked the lord for faulty lightbulbs.
They stayed silent for a bit, frozen in place and listening to the sound of conversion between the two girls. Neither boy spoke for fear of revealing their hiding place. Ross could do nothing but look at his shoes and try and ignore the closeness of their chests and the soft sound of Alex’s breathing next to his ear. After what seemed like an eternity, he heard Kim’s voice from outside.
“You can come out of the closet now lads.”
Ross sighed as she opened the door, revelling in the ability to see again.
“God knows how long I’ve waited to make that joke.” Kim grinned at him. Alex laughed.
“Come on Kim.” He grinned. “You know I came out a long time ago.”
Ross’ jaw dropped at the news.
“You’re gay?”
Ross slapped his hand over his mouth, realising how dumb and ignorant that sounded. Alex simply smiled at him and offered him a hand to shake again.
“Alex Smith. Sixteen. Pansexual. Taurus. Nice to meet you.”
“Sorry.” Ross said, sheepishly shaking Alex’s hand. “Uh, Ross Hornby. Sixteen. Homosexual. Virgo. Nice to meet you too.”
“Wait.” Alex said, looking confused. “You’re gay?”
Ross nodded and Kim rolled her eyes at the pair.
“Great!” She said. “You’re both queer, now can we go please? Before Hannah come’s back.”
Alex nodded, his face blank and looking at Ross a little oddly. All three of them shuffled into the hallway. Ross handed Kim the phial of acid, deciding against asking what it was for. There was an odd pause between the three, interrupted by the bell ringing.
“Looks like it’s period three.” Kim said, looking around at the students spilling out of their classrooms. She turned back to Ross.
“If anyone asks, that never happened.” She warned, watching as Ross nodded before walking away. Both boys looked after her, one amused and one slightly terrified.
“She’s nice.” Ross said, Alex laughed.
“Where are you next?” He asked, Ross checked his timetable.
“English Literature with Mr Bennet, in C42.”
“Cool.” Alex said, sticking his hands in his jean pockets and grinning. “I have Music, so I’ll see you later.”
“Okay.” Ross said, blushing slightly and yelling inside about the vagueness of his words.
Alex gave him a mock salute and a smirk, before turning away and melting into the crowd. Ross watched him leave, a small smile playing on his features. After a moment, he snapped out of his daze and got out his map. He glared at the diagram, trying to push the thought of auburn curls out of his mind and focus on finding out where the fuck C Block was.