roompartners

-t w o-

BLAKE

     "This place is fucking massive," murmurs Blake, surveying the seemingly infinite corridors and stairwells he passes as he follows Spencer. "How am I going to find anything here?"

      "Did no one give you a tour?" Asks Spencer,  sounding a bit surprised. He turns down another hallway that opens up to a large doorway.

      "Nope. I know nothing about this place. I just got brought to my room. In all fairness, my transfer here was a bit..." he hesitates, biting his lip. "Sudden."

       "Good luck, then," snorts Spencer, leading him outside to a large courtyard. It was nearing winter and Blake hadn't expected the trip to the cafeteria to take them outside, so he didn't bring a jacket. Needless to say, he was freezing.

"So you're really new here?" Asks Spencer, glancing warily at Blake. It was the first time he recognized anything other than cocky hatred in Spencer's eyes.

"Yeah," replies Blake quickly, interested in the intense meaning behind Spencer's seemingly meaningless question. Instead, Spencer just shrugs and continues down the courtyard.

       "Hey, wait!" Blake calls, running to catch up to Spencer. Why does he walk so fast? "Was I supposed to be given some sort of warm welcome?"

          "You're supposed to be shown around and given a schedule, plus introduced to your teachers." Spencer stops walking and turns to him. "Do not expect me to help you deal with this, at all."

      "Spencer! What am I even supposed to do? I don't even know where the main office is!" Blake chases after him, following him into a large brick building.

          "Figure it out yourself. I got you here, that's the best you're gonna get." Blake leans his head back and lets out an exasperated sigh. "This is the dining hall."

         "You cannot just leave me to navigate my way around here. It's massive!" He continues to follow Spencer through the dining hall.

        "I can, and I will. Now stop following me, I'm not your friend. I got you here, that's the best your gonna get. Leave me alone." Obviously, Blake does not leave him alone. They're now waiting in line for food, but they both don't talk.

        Why is he so quick to hate people? Blake had only known Spencer for what, two hours? So why was he so nasty? At least he led me to the dining hall, but why is it so difficult for him to help me on my first day? Blake tries to stop thinking about how incredibly annoying his roommate is and instead surveys his surroundings. He stood in an absolutely ginormous room that was filled with tables of varying sizes. Some sat only two people, others around ten. The doors they had entered in were towards the southern wall, as said the large plaque on it.

        "Did they really have to label the walls as their compass direction? How pretentious," he mutters to himself. A few people glance at him and Spencer snorts, looking up at him.

         "You can't say that, Blake, how could the Lynxweather Academy ever be pretentious?" Spencer laughs, rolling his eyes with a slight smile.

       Feigning disinterest, Blake glances away. Why was Spencer paying attention to him, at all? I thought you hated me. Blake continues to gaze around the room, distracting himself. The Northern Wall was made of brick and adorned with portraits of various people Blake didn't recognize. Probably past students or teachers. The eastern and western walls were basically huge windows, the ones on the east gazing out over the trees surrounding the school and the others displaying the courtyard. The line continues moving and they're almost at the check out area. For some reason, you gave them your ID first and then continued on to get food. Thank god they gave me that, the bare fucking minimum. He handed the lady his card and watched her type in his number. She gave it back without a word and he continued on. For some reason, he didn't find himself anxious about being new to the school and having nowhere to sit. He had imagined himself freaking out, but he just grabbed his food and sat down at an empty table. Blake hadn't really checked out what the options for dinner were, the counter with food was super long and crowded so he just grabbed the first thing he saw, a salad. He watched Spencer pick up a sandwich and an apple and cross the cafeteria to a two person table in the back of the room. Clearly, he did not want to be disturbed.

          "Oh my gosh, hi!" A girl slides into the chair across from him, staring at him intently. "You're the new kid, aren't you?"

       "Yeah, I'm Blake," he says, smiling warily. He just wanted to be alone. The girl had wavy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She wore glossy red lipstick and eyeshadow with her school uniform.

           "I'm Rosie," she says, introducing herself. Then, cutting straight to her point- "why'd you walk in with Spencer Greene?" She scowls as she says his name, as if the words in her mouth disgusted her.

         "He's my roommate," says Blake, suddenly feeling a bit antisocial towards Rosie. He was glad to make new friends, but she seemed rather conceded.

            "Oh my gosh, no way. That sucks so bad!" Rosie's eyes widen as she speaks and she casts a hand over her mouth- quite the dramatic gesture. "Lana, Jared, come listen to this!" Two more people walk over to his table. "Tell them what you just told me!"

           "Spencer's my roommate. I'm new here. Why is that such a big deal?" The boy raises his eyebrows and looks at the other girl Rosie had called over. He sits down slowly.

         "No fucking way. That's quite the way to start off the semester. I'm Jared." Blake frowns, starting to really dislike these people.

         "Blake. What's so bad about Spencer?"

          "What isn't?" The person who spoke was the new girl Rosie had summoned, Lana had she said? "He's a liar, manipulative, rude, absolutely bizarre, and have you seen him? He looks like he eats oxygen for breakfast!" The trio all laughs, almost completely in sync. It was actually rather disturbing.

         "I try not to judge people on looks," Blake says slowly. "And what do you mean he's a manipulative, rude, bizarre, liar?"

         "Well, for starters, we would NEVER judge someone on looks either!" Rosie says, widening her eyes and pouting in a sort of 'I'm innocent!' face. "We just know how horrible he is, and then we make fun of him. Not that you'd have to worry about people making fun of your looks, when you're so hot."

      "I'm not like that," Blake mutters uncomfortably, ignoring her comment about his looks. It felt extremely backhanded and manipulative. He hated that. "And, again, why is Spencer bad?"

        "About two years ago, he kept spreading these awful rumors about his roommate. Saying he did all kinds of terrible stuff. Poor guy was an absolute angel, would never. He had the alibis to prove it and Spencer even admitted it was a lie. Piece of shit," Jared says, grimacing.

       "And the way he's always walking around by himself, snapping at people and scowling, he's so weird," Lana says, tilting her head pointedly towards Spencer's table. Blake glances over at him, too. He doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd do that, but he is pretty mean, so I don't know. "We were shocked that he was your roommate because he wasn't supposed to be able to have one anymore. All that stuff went down when he was a freshman, he didn't have a roommate in sophomore year, and now that he's a junior... well, we expected that pattern to continue."

          "Sister Renee said that his room was the only open one."

        "That explains it," says Lana, frowning pitifully. "Good luck, Blake. Don't let him be too much of a dick."

      "Thanks, guys," he replies, still staring towards Spencer. "That's good to know."