TUINSTRA: or The Chronicles of Schoolboys and Their Infallible Deeds

Chapter Two: Amos

September 18th, 1904

Professor Dekker's Classroom, Tuinstra Academy

Amos Bradshaw was proud to say that he was horrendously untalented. Nate always looked at him with contempt when he said that, but he couldn't live in denial. Arithmetic perplexed him, he found reading a taxing exercise, and both his piano and cello playing sounded like it had come out of the mouth of a creature from Hell; nor was he good with a paintbrush or particularly athletic. To most, Amos was a complete lost cause and not worth the effort of trying to improve upon. He disagreed, though. All of the talented people he'd ever met had seemed positively miserable with it.

That's what he told Professor Dekker, at least, when the older man had taken him aside to discuss how Amos was failing his class after only a fortnight. The older man had raised his eyebrows comically at him. He had made a high, clicked noise in the back of his throat, the sound somewhere between amazement at his student's bold show of foolishness and pity that he thought it would work. "Well," He mused. "Hopefully you can find your talent with helping Cook Heide in the kitchen." Professor Dekker gave Amos' shoulder a friendly pat and strode back inside to the buzz of chatter in his classroom, leaving Amos out in the doorway. He cursed and ducked through the doorway to follow his instructor inside.

The classrooms at Tuinstra were medium sized rectangular rooms with several long oak tables set in straight rows from the front to the back of the room. The professor's desk was set right in front of the dusty black board, tall above the low seats. Virgil and Agosti were at a table near the back and Amos slipped into the seat between them.

"How was it?' Virgil asked, glancing up at him with pale green eyes as he absentmindedly swirled his pen in the jar of ink.

"Waste of breath. The old man didn't even consider my words." Amos sighed and turned to the ginger haired boy. "Can you believe that? I practically prepared an entire speech and he brushed me off like some petulant toddler."

"I don't particularly blame him either," Agosti drawled suddenly from beside him. His dark hair fell into his eyes as scrawled onto a sheet of paper, presumably the classwork he had been supposed to do last night. He had no time to do it, as he had been practicing football "I wouldn't listen to a single word coming out of your mouth."

"Agosti, you haven't said a single intelligent sentence since you were sucking on your mother's tits. You are in no place to antagonize me."

Agosti acted as if he hadn't heard his insult, but by the flash of irritation in his eyes, Amos could see he affected him. That fact brought him a bit of triumph. "Horatio has a point, Amos. Even you have to admit that your grades being so poor so early is quite a feat." Virgil supplied.

"I don't think it's that much more impressive than excelling at the beginning of the year. Besides, you know how horrid teachers can be, being so jealous of my youth and charm." From behind, he felt a tap on his shoulder blade. He glanced over his shoulder to see the familiar face of the fifth year boy who happened to be his current interest, Reinhard Ladstatter.

He'd met Reinhard at the homecoming feast the first day he'd come back, right after he'd interrupted Headmaster Baas. Amos remembered when the boy first introduced himself, his expression full of shock and awe, how he'd never seen someone so blandly handsome. Everything from the square shape of his jaw to the perfect slickness of his brown hair seemed so predictable in a way he hadn't thought was possible. It was only after they had made meaningless small talk through dinner, that he began to feel charmed by him. Reinhard had a dewy, uncomplicated air about him that was reassuring in its simplicity. He was the type of boy who discussed his family stocks and what he fed his parakeet. Even his previous conquest, Pieter, discussed politics and controversy regularly, even when it wasn't relevant. He'd never met someone so deliciously dull before, and truly, it charmed him. He'd pleased Amos so much in fact, that he'd thought it only fair that he charmed the other boy in return. It would be easy, anyways. Reinhard already looked at him with a bit more shine in his eyes than was normal.