Chapter 1
With the final piece of his uniform hung up, the young man’s shoulders finally relaxed away from his ears and his muscles loosened. He had each article of clothing spaced out perfectly to make his closet look as full as possible. He slid the door closed and turned to face his bed with immaculately tucked in sheets, and his desk with everything in its proper space. His patched black Jansport backpack sat on the floor between the desk and his bed, open and ready for the books he wanted from the library. Taking a step toward the backpack, he banged his knee onto the footboard of his bed, just as a commotion sounded outside his door.
The door swung open as he turned towards the sound, revealing a young man around his height with his dark brown hair cut into a classic tapered style. The hairstyle accentuated his angular cheekbones and strong nose to perfection as the newcomer glanced around the room, before being pushed further in, by a petite girl with eyes the same brown as his.
“Move Noah. You’re blocking the door.” She continued shoving at his back, until he finally stepped aside and dropped his bag on the empty bed.
“Chill out Daphne,” Noah grumbled, but teasingly tugged at a lock of her hair.
Standing frozen in place, unsure of if he could grab his bag and leave without being noticed or if he should say something, the decision was made for him by a middle-aged woman stepping into the room with her lips pursed. “You must be Noah’s roommate. I’m Jeannine Adler and this is my husband, Thomas.”
“Kristian Baker,” he said, reaching his hand out for her to shake. “Kit. Nice to meet you.”
“You saw the place. Thanks for dropping me off and everything, but can you go now?” Noah crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.
“Noah, that is no way to speak to your mother and I. We could have just sent you with Carmichael.” Thomas grimaced, seeming unimpressed by his surroundings.
“Why didn’t you just send me with him?” the young man asked, shoving his hair off his forehead with a long-fingered hand.
The little girl plopped down on the bed. “Isn’t it obvious? They wanted to bribe the headmaster to make sure you didn’t get kicked out again.”
“She’s joking.” Noah’s eyes snapped up to Kit and then over to his parents. “Daphne is joking, right? You didn’t actually bribe the headmaster, did you?”
“Of course not, but it did cross my mind.” His father frowned as his cell phone began ringing.
“You know what happens if this place doesn’t stick.” His mother stared hard at Kit’s new roommate. “It’s not a threat Noah. It’s a promise.”
Noah plopped down on the bed next to the little girl. “Fine. Right. I hear you.”
Kit slipped over to the desk on his side of the room and pulled his secondhand laptop out, sticking his headphones into the jack as he sat. He loaded up the school website and began detailing his class schedule and combing through his different classes syllabuses to write down important dates in his planner. He couldn’t let himself fall behind and wanted to get ahead as soon as possible in his studies. Before he knew it, the clock in the bottom right corner of his computer screen read 6:25. He powered down the prehistoric device and looked around his roommates side of their dorm.
Several posters of different bands were hung on the walls. The bed was neatly made with dark blue sheets and a cozy looking duvet with a soft throw blanket at the foot and several pillows at the top. His desk was tidy with a brand new shiny computer and expensive headphones laying on top. There was a desk organizer and a fancy looking backpack tossed on the school supplied oak desk chair. The closet doors were open to reveal two weeks worth of school uniforms that comprised dress shirts of black and white, red and black ties, black blazers, and black and red sweater vests or knitted sweaters. Hanging alongside those were at least ten different pairs of dress pants and a fully stocked shoe organizer. Kit felt less confident about the two sweaters, singular blazer, and handful of dress shirts that hung in his closet next to his two pairs of dress slacks. His dresser was similarly stocked with only one pair of jeans and sweatpants, four pairs of soccer shorts, five t-shirts, and a hooded sweatshirt. Kit could only imagine what Noah’s day clothes looked like if his closet was so well stocked.
The past two years, Kit had shared a room with another scholarship student, but Xander had graduated the year before. He was already missing the soft-spoken young man who had dreams of being a doctor. Kit had no doubt that is what he would one day become. Frowning, Kit swung his backpack over his shoulder and stepped out of his room, locking the door behind him.
As Kit’s long legs led him out into the sunlight, he let out a long-held breath. Living at Walton Academy for the last two years had been the best thing to ever happen to him, and he had been lucky to be accepted. After having his guard up all summer, being able to walk down the cement path from the male dorms to the community center felt like coming up for air after a plunge in deep water. Kit crested the hill and smiled as he was able to fully look out onto his campus.
He still felt the same sense of imposter syndrome that he had the first time he saw the campus in real life at fourteen. The private boarding school only gave out four scholarships at a time, but it covered everything: tuition, room and board, books, activity fees, and uniforms. Kit had been able to snatch the only scholarship available his freshman year and never wanted to look back.
Directly in front of him was a monstrous brick colonial home with ivy crawling up its sides and sprawling across the front. Several additions had been made over the years in the same style, but it was hard to fake age with brick. Kit knew the original home housed the school dining hall and kitchen while the three additions accounted for the activities center, lounge area, and gym. Behind the community center, stood a small French colonial mansion that housed the female dormitories. Kit had never been inside, but he had been told their rooms were really comfortable, that they had access to a kitchen, and they only had to share bathrooms with four other people. There were far fewer females on campus than males – Walton Academy being historically an all-male boarding school, but the females who did come seemed to love it. They were always boasting about their dorm mothers, the house activities they did, and how they had breakfast available right in their own home every Sunday morning. The male dorm, however, housed one hundred teenage boys compared to the thirty females and was built in the same colonial style as the community center. Their dorm was large and sprawling with three floors and community showers. It had been built for the purpose of being a dorm. Kit would have loved to live in something more like where the girls lived, but the male dorm was still better than what he was used too.
Not seeing who he was looking for, Kit leaned against the old oak tree in front of the brick building and looked over to his favorite building on campus – the library. Another converted French colonial mansion, the books were separated into their different genres and categories, and tucked away into rooms labeled with their proper place. Amidst all the books, were private study rooms. Kit had been woken up many nights in one of those rooms by the librarian’s gentle shake so he wouldn’t miss curfew and end up with community service for a week. If he hadn’t been meeting his best friend for dinner, he knew he would probably skip the meal and spend the rest of the evening holed up where the books lived.
Further down the path, stood their academics and athletics buildings, also built in the traditional colonial style with ivy winding around their exteriors. Directly to Kit’s left was the headmasters home standing sentry in the middle of campus. The headmaster’s home was yet another sprawling French Colonial with two spiraling towers separating the main home from its two wings. The main part of the home served as the offices for the school, while the west wing was for the functions and events, the east wing housed the headmaster and any faculty who chose to live on campus. Kit had only been in the headmaster’s home four times since his freshman year and had felt out of place each time.
He glanced down at his watch. It was 6:45pm. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, wishing he had brought a book for his notoriously late friend, until he heard her southern drawl wash over him. “Only ten minutes late. I’m doing better.”
Chuckling, Kit pushed off the tree and ambled towards her, “Hey Vivienne. How was your summer?”
“We stayed at the lake house for most of it, but went to Vienna for a few weeks and that was wonderful. I went to the symphony a few times and Kit, it was to die for.” She gripped his shoulders before leaning in to kiss his cheeks and then smudged at the lipstick stains left behind.
“Every time Viv.” He chuckled and pulled her in for a tight squeeze. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad you had a great time.”
She dug around in her bag and pulled out a thin box, “I got you something.”
Kit eyed the box and shook his head as he took it from her, his chest warming at her generosity. Vivienne always got him something when she travelled with her family. “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.” Gently, he pulled the top off and felt his eyes go wide. “Oh wow. Viv. This is…” He swallowed, trying to find the right words, but she beat him to it.
“Don’t you dare tell me it’s too expensive.” She pulled it out of the box and shoved the sleeve of his hooded sweatshirt up. “This watch screamed Kristian Baker and I knew the one you had was on its last leg and belongs on the wrist of a ten year old, not someone who is about to take the world by storm in a pre-law program.” Viv snapped the watch into place and began taking off the plastic band of his old one as she explained what the new watch was made of, “It’s black stainless steel, so durable, and the stone on the band is a blue marble. No batteries to worry about as it uses automatic movement to power it, and it’s waterproof up to five meters. If you have any issues, it’s got a two-year warranty with Holzkern. And it really wasn’t that expensive.”
“I think that’s relative Viv,” Kit stated, shaking his wrist to adjust the watch’s placement, before pulling it up to admire. “Thank you. I love it.” He pulled her back in for a tight squeeze and kissed the top of her tight black curls. As he pulled back, he caught sight of his new roommate walking up with a group of male students in their year. Not knowing if he should say hello or not, Kit stared at him for a moment before raising his hand in a silent greeting.
“Who are you waving at Baker? No one here wants to talk to you.” One of the boys in the group grimaced, his nose scrunching up in distaste.
Another boy chuckled in approval as a sneer crossing their face, “Or look at you. Seriously, where did you find those clothes? A dumpster?”
Kit bit the inside of his cheek and put his hand down. He should have known better. They pushed into him on their way by, but not before Viv stuck out a long leg, tripping one of the boys. “Oh shoot Simon. Looks like you still haven’t learned how to walk yet. No wonder the football team keeps losing.” She flung her long braids over her shoulder and took Kit by the hand, leading him to the community center’s doors. “Come on love. Let’s get away from this stench of dismal failure. It might be catching, and we can’t have the soccer team start losing too or we’ll have no winning team to celebrate.”
