1.

There’s something about being shipped off to school that makes you feel like some sort of mistake someone’s trying to erase. For as long as I remember, I’ve been in a boarding school. Mother and father were always too busy to actually take care of me and when they were home, they always had some party to throw and couldn’t possibly have a small child there. So from the age of four, up until now, I’ve been in boarding school. Grade school, then off to middle school and now, my very first year of high school. I never had the same friends for all my scholastic years since most of them usually stayed for a semester, a term and then usually went to Switzerland to meet their parents or just shipped off to another school. The really lucky ones were able to break out of boarding school at high school and get to go to a real school. One that didn’t make you wear dress shoes, slacks and blazers as a dress code, one that didn’t teach religion and made it part of a schedule and one that let you go home at three in the afternoon.

The whole boarding school game had become second nature to me. I was rarely out of one, even when I was allowed to go home. My parents never picked me up, a driver did and I only went home a week for every major holiday. The minute the holiday was over, I was shipped back. It was isolation at its best. My new high school was Saint Marie’s about an hour away from New York City itself. It was a coed high school and the building itself echoed an old church crossed with high tech sophistication. The church where we were to attend mass was in the back, a bell tower stood high above the building itself and the main entrance had white steps leading inside and high arched doorways and gothic styled hallways. I walked inside, my bookbag on my back filled with all my necessary transcripts and information while I held a box in front of me with all my other things and a duffel bag hanging on my arm with the last of my clothes. It was all I had in the world. The other new students, all freshmen were coming in to dorm since it was the day before classes started. A lot of their parents also didn’t drop them off, they had butlers and drivers to do that. Also hired hands to help them bring their things into their rooms. I ignored it all and went inside, looking around for a moment before I set my box down and went into my coat pocket and took out the map of the school. Of course I had to open it up and spread it against the wall as I tried to find were my dorm room was. After searching for a moment, I found it was in the St. Alexander building, behind the main building. I picked up my box and went on my way.

After almost getting trampled by upper classmen and taking a few more wrong turns, I finally ended up on the sixth floor of the St. Alexander building. I walked down the hall were other guys were hanging out some took notice of me, but most ignored me. I then got to my room and I opened the door. Immediately someone stood up and said,

"I said leave me the…oh…sorry I thought you were someone else."

I was frozen for a moment, seeing what had to be my roommate. He was a little taller then me and had black, short somewhat layered hair. As he turned slightly, the lights caught hints of blue from it. He was a soft pale color, only noticeable because of the black blazer that was probably the uniform from school, an off cream sweater vest under it and black pants was the whole uniform. It fit him well enough, though his hair made it look messy. What made me stop completely was that on his bottom lip, he had a silver ring going over it. He then said,

"You look kind of young. You sure you’re suppost to be here?"

"That’s what my papers say."

"Let me see."

I set my things down for a moment as I started looking for the dorm room assignment. As I did he said,

"The Alexander building is usually for upper classmen. It’s not likely they’d put a freshmen here."
"What grade are you in?" I asked, handing him the dorm assignment.

"Eleventh. One more year and I’m getting the fuck out of here."

He took my paper as he opened it and read it as he said,

"Well shit, how about that. They did assign a freshmen here."
"Is that bad?"
"Not for you. Upper classmen usually get everything good, freshmen get the shit end of the stick almost every time. Teresa is where all the freshmen get jammed and there’s usually two or three in a little closet dorm and in the summer there’s no air conditioning and it sucks."

"Oh…"

"So I guess you and me are stuck with each other for a year."

I nodded as I said,

"What’s your name?"
"Paris. You know like the city in France. Paris Hatagami."

"Ah…interesting. You’re Japanese."
"Yeah but I try not to let it get in the way here. Nevermind the small Asian population going here. Those that do go here stick together like glue."
"Are you with them?"
"Not by a long shot. What about you? What’s your name?"

"Raphael Amano."

"Half breed?"
"Excuse me?"
"You’re half. Half what with Japanese?"
"Dutch-German."
"Shit you’re more then a half breed then."

He laughed a little as he then said,

"Well come settle in roomie."
I nodded as he let me come in and settle down. The room itself was a standard room, window in the middle between two beds. One half of the room was already decorated, all done by Paris. His bed was made and he had a poster of Monet’s Starry Night on the wall right next to his bed. There was a desk at the foot of his bed where more things were stacked along side a computer. A chair was missing from the desk though. On the small table between the two beds was a cell phone on a charger, a watch and a wallet. I set my box down on the empty bed and then took off my bag and set the duffel on the floor as I started settling in. Paris was on his bed the whole time, just reading some book as he stayed silent. Once I started hanging my clothes up, I noticed he had a lot of casual type clothes on his half of the closet along with different shoes on the floor. I only had four pairs of jeans, two sweatshirts and a couple of T-shirts to get me by. The other things I carried was just my change of uniform. I hung everything up without much thought as I then threw my empty duffel on the floor of the closet, shutting the door as he said,

"Did you get your books yet?"
"Not yet."

"I’ll go with you if you want. I haven’t gotten mine yet either."

"Okay…thanks."

He nodded, closing the book he was reading as he got up and got his shoes on as he gestured me to follow.

"The building itself is coed. Girls and boys alternate floors and after a certain hour, we’re not allowed to go on each others floors. There’s a security guard at every stairwell and elevator to make sure we don’t try anything."

I nodded, listening as we walked down the hall to the elevator.

"Girls here are really sweet and nice, a couple of skanks and whatnot but what school doesn’t have them right?"
"Yeah.."

"What class you have tomorrow? Oh probably orientation first thing."

"I guess so."
"Let me see your schedule."

I went into my jean pocket, retrieving my schedule and gave it to him as he said,
"Hey we got religion together. And chem. All right seems like I’ll finally have someone to talk to."
I thought that odd of him to say because the moment we began walking down the hall, any girl we came across usually greeted him happily with a hug and kiss and then went on her way. A bunch of them asked him if he was going to the junior-senior bash on the roof that night and he always said he wasn’t sure yet. I wasn’t sure what to make of Paris just yet. He seemed like a friendly guy, but a lot more complex then he seemed to be. When we got to the floor, he stopped his friendly chatter as he said,

"Oh no.."
"What?"
"Nothing, come on just walk and don’t say anything."

His pace quickened as we began heading towards the main doors, passing a group of guys as one of them shouted,

"Hey look it’s Paris!"

"Hey Paris, where you rushin off to? Got no time for conversation?"

They laughed as one of them then said,

"Hey don’t call him over, I don’t have any money with me."
They laughed again before they broke out into a mocking chant of

"I see London, I see France, I can get into Paris’s pants!"

They continued laughing until we got outside. Once we were outside, I said,

"What was all that about?"
"Nothing, just a bunch of dicks that think they’re big shit. Especially the guy who started it. His dad owns the school."
"Oh big man talking shit about you and he can get away with it huh?"
"Basically. No one can touch him because of who his daddy is."

"That sucks."
He nodded and then shrugged it off, going back to his friendly banter as he said,
"Come on, I’ll show you around after we get our books."

I nodded and went along with him.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around with Paris as he showed me around and told me about the classes and some of the teachers. He said it wasn’t too bad a day. He also said if I ever just wanted to leave that we could always go to the city.

"It’s an hour away. How would we get there?"
"There’s a bus station about twenty minutes away from here. If we walk there, we can catch the bus and get to the city."
"You’ve done this before I see."
"One too many times."

He laughed a little as I smiled slightly. Though the tour itself was informative and it was nice hanging out with Paris. I notice that every now and then, he was mocked, the same chant as before was often repeated and he always ignored it. He usually had an annoyed look on his face rather then a sad one. Girls still flocked to him. I saw a couple of the freshman girls also ogling him, admiring him as they sighed and gestured towards him. Only upper classmen girls dared to get near him. A lot of the girls also heard the same mocking chant and they often told the guys doing it to go away and leave Paris alone. When we returned to our room, I set my books down on the bed as he set his on his desk and said,

"So you wanna go to this party upstairs on the roof?"
"I thought it was for juniors and seniors only."
"It is, but you can be my guest if you wanna come."
"No, it’s okay. I’m not much of a party person."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, thanks anyway."
He nodded as he then turned to his desk and picked up a pen and opened up the bag where his books were as he took out some paper and wrote something down on it as he said,

"Here, my cell number. If you wanna come later on, just call me and I’ll go get you."
"Okay…thanks."

Later that night, Paris went out. He didn’t change from his uniform all day, he only took off the blazer and then headed upstairs to the roof. I stayed in our room and continued settling in, making my bed and going through my books.

The next morning, I got up and headed to the showers. After waiting a moment, I showered and then quickly got my uniform on as I then headed back to the room to grab my books and my schedule. When I got there, Paris was still asleep. I nudged him as I said,

"Are you going to class?"
He turned slightly, his lip ring still in place as he said,
"Yeah why?"
"Because, it’s almost time to go and you’re still in bed."
"Oh, I’m always late. Even on the first day."
"Ah…okay. Well…we have religion today…I’ll go ahead."

"Sure, I’ll be there soon."
I nodded as I then grabbed my things and went on my way. Before class, I had orientation in which the dean and the class president all welcomed us and informed of us where the nurses office and where counselors were. Then they all let us know we had to get ID pictures taken and we needed to carry them around at all times. They let us know about the dress code and how boys were required to always have their shirts tucked in, shoes polished and vests clean. Girls were to wear no heels higher then four inches and their skirts had to be no higher then the knee. Their hair always had to be tied up or kept short. No strange hair color was permitted and mass attendance was mandatory. After that, we were separated into genders and then waited in line to have our pictures taken and ID’s made. After about two hours, I was out of there, ID in hand. I was snapping it onto a small clasp they gave us to clip our ID onto our lapels as I headed to religion and went inside. I showed my ID and schedule to the teacher before I was asked to take a seat. I saw Paris near the back and headed to an empty seat beside him as he leaned over and whispered,

"I thought you ditched before I remembered you’re a freshmen."
"Sorry, I forgot for a second too."
"It’s cool. Let me see your ID."
I showed him the rather stern and serious picture I had taken as he said,
"You look so pissed off."
"I know. I always do. Let me see yours."
He reached into his coat, unsnapping the clasp and showing me his ID. Paris looked so different in his picture then. His hair was shorter and black and he didn’t have a lip ring in. I handed him back the ID as I said,
"You look different."
"I know, it’s my frosh picture."

I handed it back to him as the teacher then said,

"Mr. Hatagami if you’re done."
"Sorry, go on."
Some of the class snickered as the teacher said,

"It’s a little early in the year to start pushing my buttons isn’t it?"
"It’s never too early."
The class continued to laugh as the teacher shook his head and said,
"I will not have you repeating my class again Mr. Hatagami."
"I think you can call me Paris by this point Mr. Farwell."

The teacher turned and continued in his lecture, a few more freshmen coming in at different times. We then received our class work assignments that we would get through the year and then the bell rang, dismissing us.

The way that classes worked for an all year around school was that we had one class, five classes one for everyday of the week and they were about four hours each. It gave the teachers time to teach and the students a chance to learn. And it was great to only have the one class and then the rest of the day and weekends off. After religion, Paris and I left class as he said,

"You didn’t come to the party last night!"

"I said I didn’t want to go."
"How come?"
"I don’t really like parties."
"You should if you’re gonna live in an upper classmen building. Freshmen don’t usually get parties."

He waved to a few people that called his name as I said,

"I don’t think so."
"You’re no fun you know that?"
"I’ve been told."
"So what you got planned for the rest of the day?"
"I don’t know."

"Great, hang out with me."
"I guess…it’s not as if I have work or-"
"Come on! Let’s drop off this junk in our rooms and I’ll take you some place."
"All right."
After dropping off our books and stuff at our room, we headed towards the bell tower. I didn’t think about going in, but Paris led the way. Once we were inside, we began climbing a whole lot of stairs. They were spiraling upwards towards a floor that had a single gap allowing some light inside. Paris kept talking as we went upstairs, talking about something I wasn’t sure. One thing I picked up about my new roommate was that he could talk forever. Once we reached the top of the bell tower, we got up on the floor, watching the bell overhead as Paris then said,

"Come look at the view."
I was looking down through the trap door, seeing the straight down drop and my hands began to sweat as I got nervous. When Paris tapped my shoulder I jumped and said,
"What?"
"The view."
I nodded, getting up from my knees and ducking under the massive bell and headed towards the sides were we looked off into the distance. I felt as if I could see forever. A cool September breeze blew by as I said,

"Paris…why do all the guys say that stuff to you?"

He sighed, sitting down on the ledge as he kept looking off into the distance, the wind catching his hair as he said,

"I made a mistake my first year here. I wanted to be accepted and because of it, I was really nice to everyone I met. Including James and all his stupid friends. James is the guy from yesterday that started it all by the way."
I nodded as he continued.

"Anyway, they took advantage of my kindness and of me wanting to be accepted so…they just…had their way with me. When I said I would tell, James said his dad wouldn’t care and who was I to say anything and if I did I’d be a social outcast for the next four years. I was so stupid that I believed him so I kept my mouth shut and then the rumors of me being a slut floated around. Anyone that couldn’t score with a girl and was desperate enough came to me. Then that stupid chant started. I see London I see France, I can get in Paris’s pants. They say I’m easy. It’s why the guys make fun of me for it. Some of the girls know about it and they think its mean and stick up for me. But not all the girls are saints either. They say the same shit and some even offered me money for my services. Anyway, the rumors went on through each year and it’s not true just to be clear with you."

"I believe you."

"You’d be the first."

"It’s not right. Why don’t you say anything now?"
"No point. It happened years ago."

"So…you don’t care?"
"Not really. What’s done is done."

I wasn’t sure what to say so I stayed silent for a little while. Then I said,

"Paris?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks for taking me here."
"Any time."

So my first year at Saint Marie’s began.