Extraordinary (Sign it Series; BOOK 2)

Chapter 37

Simon walked into his dorm at almost seven at night, but his dormmates, Max and Euan, were already there, talking quietly amongst themselves. When they noticed him, they both became uncharacteristically quiet, which left Simon awkwardly standing in front of his bed.

"You alright?" he asked rather harshly.

The other two boys frowned. "I realised that you barely talk to us over holiday." Euan said, "My mum asked me about my dormmates and all I knew about you was that you were friends with Maddy and made potions a lot. Didn't your parents wonder about us?"

Simon swallowed. "I've definitely told you at some point I'm an orphan."

Max nodded, "I remember that vaguely. Where did you go anyway?"

"I don't see how it's any bother to you." Simon mumbled. "But, if you insist, I went to Maddy's place."

"Oh," Euan said quietly, "So you stayed with a werewolf?"

"So?"

"Wasn't it scary?"

"No, not really." Simon sat on the corner of his bed. "There's gotta be a reason you're interested in me all of a sudden. I'm not dumb."

He was met with silence, and no attempts at reiterating.

"Well, nice speaking to you," Simon mumbled before he started to unpack his trunk.

One could've dropped a pin in the first year boys dorm and have heard it. It was that form of silence that makes your ears start to ring; where you cling to the sound of the wind against the glass and the songs in your head for sanity. The stark silence was interrupted by the door opening to reveal their final two dormmates: Quincy Graves and Wyatt Grey.

In all honesty, Simon barely heard the two mutter a single word all through the first part of the year. There had been times he forgot they existed, though he felt guilty about that, and times where he thought about the mystery clouding his two dormmates. It was like he knew of them, but never about them. That never bothered Simon much. In general, he had a very tough time making friends; he didn't have Maddy's thirst for friendship, though that could be because the latter was raised in a secluded little cottage and he stayed at an orphanage for a few years. And Ophelia's Orphanage, as anyone who's been there can tell you, has a certain disregard for personal space.

So, one can imagine Simon's surprise when Wyatt walked over to him and asked if they could sit on the corner of his bed.

Confused, and already weary because of Euan and Max's early attempt at small talk, he took a few seconds before responding that they could.

"Am I missing something?" Simon questioned. "Has today been dubbed Let's Confuse Simon Day, because you all succeeded." He sat on his trunk, not bothering to sit on his own bed with Wyatt. "Look, if you only want to be my friend for some reason other than genuinely wanting to be my friend, I'm not interested."

Wyatt frowned, "Does wanting to be tutored count as wanting to genuinely be your friend?"

That took Simon by surprise. "Tutored? In what?"

"I can't tell if you're pretending to be daft or not." admitted Wyatt. "I'm talking about Potions."

Simon felt his cheeks start to redden and he refused to meet Wyatt's eyes. "Oh, yeah, sure, I guess." He stumbled over his words. "That's alright."

"Alright, great then. I really don't want to go to Professor Snape for extra help, but I'm one of the worst in the class."

"I can see why." Simon stood up, and lowered his voice. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know what Euan and Max are conspiring over there, would you?"