Six Feet Under the Stars

At quarter to five, Alex and Jack left the dorm building in full uniform, walking down the damp path. As they walked, a boy with longish brown hair came out of Building One. Spotting Jack, he started walking towards them, waving and calling, "Yo, Barakat!"

Jack turned towards the sound and shouted back, "Hey Zack!", waving the other teen over. When the boy - apparently Zack - got over to them, he immediately bear hugged Jack.

"Been too long dude," Zack said, pulling back. Now turning back to look at Alex, he asked, "Now, who's this?"

"Zack, this is my room mate Alex," Jack replied, gesturing vaguely between the two teens, "He's new this year, so try not to give him too much shit, kay?"

Zack rolled his eyes and responded, "Me give someone shit? Unheard of." He turned back to Alex again and pulled the blonde into a hug saying, "It's great to meet you man."

Alex pulled back smiling and said, "What is it with people and personal space here?"

"Get used to it dude," Zack said smirking, "Everyone worth while here is way too comfortable with each other."

As they started walking towards the school, Jack asked Zack, "So what's you do over the summer?"

Zack shrugged and said, "Nothing much. Went to Disney World for a week, but that was pretty much it. Rest of the summer was mostly easting, sleeping, and getting wasted at rich kids' parteis. How about you? What kind of shenanigans did Mr. Barakat get into?"

Jack seemed to be embarassed by the question, stuffing his hands into his pockets and directing his gaze tot eh ground. "Not really anything," he muttered, not elaborating any further.

Alex shot Zack a confused look, hoping for an explanation, but Zack just shrugged, and equally confused look on his own face. The little group continued to walk in slightly awkward silence until they reached the main building, which housed the auditorium. Whent they crossed the threshold, Jack finally looked up again, taking in the towering walls of expensive oak now surrounding them and the tall, spiral staircase in the center of the large entrance room. Jack just gestured to the left and said, "It's that way," which, honestly, hadn't been that hard to figure out anyway, at least going by the crush of students flooding the hallway off of that side of the room.

As they walked, Zack seemed to spot another familiar face in the crowd, since he yelled out, "Hey Robert!" and gestured for whoever he was talking to to come over to them.
Alex watched as a brown haired head came bobbing towards them through the crowd, finally emerging in front of them as an average height teen, with brown eyes and a freckle spattered face. "Hi Zack," he said, a small, shy smile on his face.

When Jack shot Zack a questioning glance, Zack smiled and said, "You aren't the only who's been making new friends Barakat. Waving a hand towards the younger boy, he said, "This is Robert, but don't call him Bob. He's a freshman and, by some administration fuck up, my roommate, but he's cool, so I'm not gonna argue." Now talking to Robert, Zack continued, "This is my friend Jack and his roommate Alex, who I just met a few minutes ago."

"Hey," Robert said, looking a little wearily at the two older boys, obviously a little bit suspicious. Alex recognized the guarded expression as one he had worn himself many times before throughout his school career, and knew that this kid was one of the ones that didn't trust people. Alex respected that.

"Hi," Jack said, smiling, "You're lucky, kid. You got put with the best roommate on campus. Aside from me of course."

"I don't know man," Alex said, smirking, "I think Zack might be cooler than you."

Zack laughed and said, "Fuck yeah, man. You know I'm the coolest person in this damn place."

Glancing down at the watch on his wrist, Jack said, "Shit guys, we gotta get into the auditorium, we only got five more minutes." As they started walking again, Jack added, "And screw both of you. I'm the most awesome person you've ever met."

"Sure," Alex said, smiling and rolling his eyes. Looking over at Robert, he said, "Don't listen to him. I've only known him for four hours, and he's the weirdest motherfucker I've ever met," which earned him a tentative smile.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Walking back out of the auditorium after the hour long assembly, Alex sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair, saying, "That was literally the most boring thing I have ever sat through."

"Just wait until the prayer services man," Jack said, rolling his eyes, "I swear to god, after those, I want to murder Jesus. I don't really blame the Romans, honestly."

"Blasphemy!" Alex gasped with an expression of mock shock, "Young man, the Lord is watching you."

"Jesus forgive me for my sins!" Jack replied, before noticing a teacher walking in front of him glaring at them. Leaning over, he whispered in Alex's ear, "Looks like we've already managed to piss off Ms. Mackarail, and only about five hours in. I think we just set a record."

Alex laughed and held up a hand, which Jack willingly high fived. Alex was beginning to feel like this would actually turn out being a good year.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Walking back into the dorm after consuming the barely edible food this school deemed fit to call dinner, Alex picked his phone up off his bed where he had left it to find a text message from Rian, reading, So, how'd your first day go?

Alex responded quickly, tapping out, Pretty good actually. My roommate's actually pretty awesome, but idk for sure yet I'll let you know after classes tomorrow just how much I hate this place

After a few seconds, Alex got a response back. I'm not being replaced am I? :P

Of course not. No one could ever replace my Rian-poo.

Ok dude, ixnay on icknamenay that shit's gross

I don't think that's how pig latin works, but w/e

Alex glanced back up from his phone as Jack walked into the room. "So," the brunette said, "What do you think of this place so far?"

Alex shrugged and said, "Not gonna lie, still not happy about being here, but it's definitely a lot better than I thought it would be, especially since you're here. But I don't know how tomorrow's gonna go. I'm not exactly that great with social interaction, and it's not exactly like I'm gonna have you and Zack to talk to all day."

Jack nodded and responded, "Yeah, I checked your schedule, and we don't even have a class togeher." Sighing, he continued, "Also, I'm kind of obligated to issue a warning: there are a lot of douche bags here, and they will probably mess with you, especially if they figure out you're gay, and more than likely, the teachers won't give a shit. If it gets bad, let me or Zack know, and we'll sort it out."

Alex just shook his head and said, "Jack, I've put up with that kind of shit my entire school life. I think I can handle a few Catholic guys. I'll be fine."

Jack still looked worried, but conceded anyway, saying, "Well, I just wanted to let you know. They can get pretty brutal sometimes."

"I can take care of myself," Alex assured Jack, and then said, "Well, I'm actually pretty tired, so I think I'm just gonna listen to music and try to fall asleep, if that's alright with you."

"Whatever you want man," Jack said, waving his hand in a dismissive manner, "I'm gonna go chill with Zack for a bit, actually. I'll try not to be too loud coming back."

"Bye," Alex replied, watching his new friend walk out of the room, flicking the light as he went. Smiling to himself, he fell asleep about an hour later listening to Blink-182. It was just that kind of day.

Notes

This chapter was complete filler, so sorry about that. Next chapter is when shit actually starts to happen, so its gonna be a lot better I promise. This is mostly just for the sake of character introductions more than anything else.
xokc