After wandering around helplessly lost on campus, I finally found my dorm building. I swiped my card to unlock the door and went inside, checking my paperwork. I lived on the second floor of the building.

I climbed the stairs, glad I didn't live on the fourth floor. The only thing worse than physically and mentally abusive teachers was physical exercise.

I found my room and unlocked the door, stepping inside. I let the door shut behind me and looked around.

The room was a fair enough size, a bed pushed up on the right and one on the left. The one on the right was mine, draped in my covers and pillows. My parents had set up my bed and put my clothes away for me, but the little things were neatly stored under my bed. The bed itself was so high up that I briefly wondered if I'd need a stool to get on it.

The other side of the room caught my attention, though. My first real peek at my currently MIA roommate.

His covers were black with spatters of neon green. There was a poster of The Boondock Saints on his wall, along with several smaller band posters.

His desk was organized chaos. Papers and notebooks were strewn about it, but each had a specific highlighter marking sections. He had pens and pencils in easy reach, along with sticky notes that reminded him to do certain assignments.

I dragged my eyes away from his side of the room and checked my closet. Sure enough, several sets of school uniforms were there. Dark slacks, white button up shirts, maroon sweater vests, and a few dark ties. Great, I had to dress like a freaking nerd every day.

I looked over as the bedroom door opened, feeling my heart thumping wildly. Oh god, please don't be an asshole, please don't be an asshole, please don't be an asshole.

The kid who stepped into the room didn't look familiar at all, meaning I probably didn't have class with him. He wore the school uniform, but the sleeves of his white button up were rolled to his elbows and the shirt itself was lazily untucked. His maroon sweater vest was slung over his shoulder, and he had a skateboard tucked under his arm.

He noticed me and furrowed his brow. "Shit, I forgot my roommate came today."

"Here I am," I said, stepping away from the closet. Oh, the irony.

He set his skateboard down and kicked it off to the side, shutting the door. He had a boyish look to him. I was assuming he was my age, but he looked younger. He had a confusing appearance to him, because his features were thin, sharp, and petite, but his face had the hardened look of someone who liked to be at the center of mosh pits at concerts.

"I'm Leo. Welcome to this shithole," he said. He had a light lisp, a slight attack on his words, but not bad enough to make him hard to understand.

"I'm Killian," I said.

"How was your first day? They break you yet?" he asked. He went over to his bed, where there was a mini fridge stashed under it. He put his foot up on the top of the fridge and used it to propel himself onto the high up bed. Shit. I wish I had a stool.

"It was definitely a shock," I grumbled.

"Conversion Academy," he said, shrugging. "Place is hell. We probably have class together. I was going to show up, but then I realized how nice it was so I ditched to go skateboarding instead."

"Won't you get in trouble?" I asked.

"Oh, hell yea I will. Totally worth it though. I'm sure one of those bastards tipped off security that I was missing." He grinned a little. "I don't get caught, though."

I sat at the desk that was at the end of my bed. I had to keep reminding myself that I was here because I was gay, while other kids were here because they had legal trouble or were close to it.

Talk about a fish out of water.

From what I had gathered today, Kaz had been arrested before, the girl who sat behind me during my last class had done jail time, and a kid who thankfully sat nowhere near me in any class had an uncle who was a cannibal.

I would totally fuck girls if it meant I got to get the hell out of this place.

"Best read up on the rules here," Leo said, nodding towards a sheet of paper on my desk. "If you get in trouble, you'll drag me with you."

I picked up the paper and scanned over it. It detailed the rules of the building. No loud noises past 10, no staying out later than 11, no sleeping over in a room that wasn't yours especially if the occupants were of a different sex, no sex in general, no vandalizing, no stealing, always listen to the On Duty Resident or Building Resident.

"What's an On Duty Resident? Or Building Resident?" I asked.

"The ODRs are the rich kids here by choice who go to classes in a different building. They stick a couple of trained volunteers in these dorms to keep an eye on us and enforce the rules. They run the cage downstairs- that's the main desk - and basically make our lives hell. The BR is an adult in charge of each building. They also enforce rules, and they deal with people who break those rules on a scale too big for the ODR to take care of. If you get sent to their office, well, god have mercy on your poor soul," Leo said. "If you're going to break the rules around here, you have to be tactful about it. You'll learn quickly. And if you don't...well, survival of the fittest."

I set the paper down and stood up. I pathetically leapt and scrambled my way onto the tall bed, feeling my dignity sliding away even more.

"So what landed you here?" Leo asked.

"That's none of your business," I said, looking away from him.

He surprised me by laughing. "Damn dude, calm down. It's how roomies here kick off conversation. You don't need to give me your whole life story. Most people just give a specific situation that landed them here."

I shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it."

"So don't." He also shrugged. "Just trying to make some conversation. You and I are stuck with each other until either this year ends or our folks take mercy on us and yank us out of here. Guess which one of those is more likely."

Our door swung open and a girl came in. "Leo, what the hell! You can't skip math! Who the hell am I supposed to copy off of while you're gone?!"

"Let yourself in, Mikayla," Leo said, rolling his eyes. "It was nice out. I wasn't missing a good chance to board for a few hours."

The girl, Mikayla apparently, glared at him. "Next time, a little freaking warning! You have a cell phone."

"Turned it off and kept it in the room. I don't put it past this school to track me," Leo said.

Mikayla noticed me and I realized that she was in my classes. She raised an eyebrow as she eyed me.

"I should've figured you'd get tossed in with Leo. They've been trying to give him a roommate for a while," she said.

"Right, you've met Killian," Leo said. "I keep forgetting everyone in class met him today."

"It didn't go well. He's an ass kisser," she said, dismissing me and turning her attention back to Leo.

"We get a lot of ass kissers. Let them break him a little and he'll fall in line with the rebels," Leo said in disinterest.

"It's probably good for you that you ditched today. Miller was quick to pull a ruler on Kaz. Sudlow was even quicker to add to the wound," Mikayla said.

"Kaz pissed them off without me?" Leo said, looking genuinely upset. "Aw, man, I hate it when I miss that pissed off look on their faces."

"Kaz snapped another of Miller's rulers. I swear Miller has a ruler fetish," Mikayla said, shaking her head. "But Kaz was actually pretty tame today. Probably trying to see how things go with the newbie here." She smirked at Leo. "Also, they did operation pen click."

"That bastard," Leo cried in horror. "That traitorous, no good, two-timing, backstabbing fucker!"

He jumped down off of his bed, pushing his sleeves up even more. Mikayla's smirk grew as she watched him.

"That's it! Outta my way! Hey, Kaz!" Leo shoved her out of the way and left our room, his voice trailing back to us. "Kaz! CASIMIR WARRICK SQUARE THE FUCK UP AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!"

"Kaz lives on this floor?" I asked miserably.

"Sure does. He lives at the end of the hall," Mikayla said, leaning in the doorway and peeking out to see how the apparent fight was going. "Sucks to be you, newbie. We don't take well to 'yes sirs' around here."

I watched as Leo came stumbling into the room, followed by Kaz and a younger boy. Leo moved forward to hit Kaz, but Kaz easily ducked out of the way and punched Leo in the knee, dropping him to the ground.

"Shit, ow, cheap!" Leo hissed, rubbing his knee.

"I never said I fight fair," Kaz said, placing a foot on Leo's shoulder and kicking him onto his back. He looked over and noticed me. "Ah, I see you're the one who got stuck with the newbie. What was the name? O'Malley?"

"Killian," I said. "Killian O'Malley."

"Newbie?" the younger boy asked, looking up at Kaz.

"Not the good kind," Kaz said. "This one doesn't have any fight in him."

The boy snickered. "How lame."

I wanted to tell him to shut up because he was like 12 but there was the very real possibility that he actually was 12.

"Who's the kid?" Goddammit mouth, who gave you permission to speak?

"This is Beckett," Kaz said, shoving him forward a little.

"Look at that, newbie is meeting the whole gang," Mikayla said.

I tried not to stare at Beckett. I forgot that Constance Academy took in anyone from fifth grade up to seniors in high school. What the hell did you have to do to get yourself stuck here as a kid?

"Newbie tell you his story yet?" Beckett asked Leo.

"Nah. It's none of my business if he doesn't want to share it," Leo said, climbing back up onto his bed.

"It can't be that bad," Mikayla said. "I mean, honestly, Kaz is here because he got arrested too much. How much worse could you be if you don't even have the balls to piss off a teacher?"

"I did not get arrested too much," Kaz said. "Give me a little more credit, Mika. I know how to avoid getting caught. I just made a few mistakes was all. Live and learn."

"What's all the commotion? What party am I missing?" Pete asked, slipping into our room. He noticed me and grinned. "Newbie! They stuck you with Leo? Bad lot, kid."

"I dream of the day you overdose and I don't have to deal with you anymore," Leo said.

"That is rude and this is why we did operation pen click without you," Pete said, pointing at Leo.

Beckett was watching me with the air of someone who had better ways to waste his time. "So what do we do about the newbie?"

"We ignore him until he comes crawling to us bloody from the shards of his shattered hope," Kaz said.

"Quite a picture to visualize. Not overdramatic or anything," I said.

Kaz sat on Leo's desk, papers scrunching up under him. Leo looked annoyed but didn't say anything about it.

"O'Malley, you have a lot to learn. Every staff member at this Academy is trained to tear you down and crush you. The Blues are here to help them. Everyone here is against you," Kaz said.

"The Blues?" I asked in confusion.

"Blue vests," Beckett said impatiently. "The kids who wear blue vests. They make up the majority of students here. They're the 'good kids' who help keep us in line."

"Nightmare of a bunch," Pete said. "One time I pissed a guy off so he dumped all my pain meds down the toilet and pushed me down the stairs."

"They get away with anything they want to do to us. The adults all look the other way," Mikayla said.

This was too much information for me to handle, especially considering how crazy it all seemed. But I had seen the teachers hurting Kaz. I could only imagine what the students would do.

My eyes shot to Kaz's hand, which was dissolving into a nasty bruise. Kaz noticed me looking and held his hand up.

"This? This is nothing. You really piss them off and they'll make a mess of you." He let his hand drop into his lap.

"I didn't ask for this," I said.

"None of us did," Mikayla said. "Welcome to your new life."

The five of them left the room, talking easily about some movie that had been on TV the night before. I heard a door down the hall shut, cutting off their voices and leaving me alone in silence.

I fell back against my bed, unable to believe that this was all really happening. I had no friends and apparently no chance of getting out of here anytime soon. This was officially going to be the worst school year of my entire life.

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A.N.- Thanks for the amazing response you guys have had to this story so far! Let me know who your favorite character is so far! (They're all my precious troubled babies)