Chapter Text
John was reasonably excited to start high school again.
Wellston Private High, or more commonly referred to as Wellston High, is one of the most prestigious high schools in the country. The school featured an intense and, frankly scary, academic presence, an in school dormitory, and a massive multi story campus with security and an infirmary.
With a resume like that, both William and John were reasonably optimistic that there would be a higher focus for learning rather than gearing toward the ability hierarchy.
That doesn't even factor in that the school was halfway across the country from his old one.
New life, new city, new….everything.
A fresh start to be whoever he wanted; a stand up guy, a man who stands up for the low tiers, or even a background character. It was the perfect chance for him to enjoy high school. A chance that was a paragon of infinite beginnings and endings.
Of course the staff and teachers there would know of his past-they all had taken a look at the gnarly stain of crimson that colored his record, but the headmaster assured him in a virtual meeting that the staff and teachers would treat him with open eyes and non assuming attitudes.
So yeah, John was reasonably excited to start high school again.
He sighed contentedly and melted back into his first class airline seat. For the first time in a while he felt truly at peace, no overbearing sorrow at his past actions, no searing anger, no hot rage, and more importantly, no dissenting voices in his head. It had been so long since he felt this unburdened and he was living for it. He pulled down his sleep mask and took in the white noise that was the AC blasting.
He smiled internally.
Just a pure and unadulterated amount of comfort and warmth. A luxurious existence by all means.
Now that he was standing in front of Wellston High his excitement had gone down a considerable amount. The images and pictures of the school did not do it justice. He glared up at the ominous enormous structure of sleek walls and too many windows. He stood there at the gates of the school for a few minutes to take in and familiarize what would be the new norm for him.
He took a first step forward when a young man walked out of the school to greet him.
"John!" He called out with a friendly wave. "It is John right?" He repeated once he was closer.
John nodded hesitantly before offering a small smile. "Yes that's right."
The young man offered his hand and an introduction. "I'm Keene, the head of security here at Wellston. "
John took Keene's hand with a firm grip and shook it. "Right, Keene, I think I remember you from the call I had with Headmaster Vaughn."
"You do?" Keene asked with a small chuckle. "I was pretty sure my lack luster introduction was swept away with all the technical talk during the call." He said cheerily before dropping the hand shake and turning back toward the school. "Lets take a tour, help familiarize you with the buildings layout before class on Monday."
John followed behind Keene a he started the tour. The tour itself was nothing to note, just walking up and down several flights of stairs and pointing out which wings applied to which classes. Eventually after what felt like four and a half hours, the tour concluded in front of the Headmasters office.
"And here we have the Headmasters office." Keene gestured to the door before knocking on it twice and opening it.
John walked past Keene into the Headmasters office and stopped a few feet in front of the desk that seated the Headmaster.
"Headmaster Vaughn, John is here to see you. " Keene closed the door to the office behind himself and walked around the desk to stand beside Vaughn.
John found himself standing straighter in front of Vaughn. The man was incredible kind and patient during the call they had two weeks ago, but to be before him in the flesh was something else. John fell back into old habits and unintentionally scanned Vaughn's aura. He felt the tidal wave of physic aura held at bay behind kind emerald eyes.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to stop the tremors that were shooting through his hand. Headmaster Vaughn was nothing like the past authoritative figures he had met and not at all like Keon. Once he steeled his nerves John took a step forward and spoke, "Headmaster Vaughn it is nice to finally meet you. "
Vaughn looked up from whatever report he was reading and smiled. "John," he greeted, "I trust that Keene has given you the tour already?"
John nodded. "Yes sir he has." He answered.
Vaughn looked back at Keene and nodded before looking back to John. "Good, good now there is just a few things left to conclude your transition into Wellston. First, I hope you had a comfortable flight here? Wellston City is quite a distance away from New Boston after all. "
"Indeed it is sir. Thankfully my dad bought first class seating for me to help "ease my nerves" while I flew." John rolled his eyes, remembering his dads insistence to getting him first class seats.
Vaughn smiled at his answer. "That is great to hear. Now we just have to go over on-boarding and cover a few more things and we'll be done. As discussed you will have a dorm all to yourself so you won't have to worry about any roommates during your time here." Vaughn reached into a drawer and retrieved two books, one was heavy duty and the other was more of a pamphlet, he set the books on the desk and slide them to John.
"This book," he picked up the thick book," is the student handbook and this book," he picked up the thinner book," is a detailed list of your classes and information about both the teachers and the subject." He put the thin book back down on the desk and turned to Keene. "Would you take John to his dorm?"
John picked up both books and tucked them against his hip, he nodded to Vaughn, then turned to follow after Keene. Keene opened the door and nodded to John while holding the door for him. John walked past him into the doorway.
"Oh, and John please keep the violence tolerable while you are here." Vaughn smiled again as the door closed behind John.
John shivered and shook his head before looking at Keene. Keene was watching him with a knowing glint and a small smile.
"That may have sounded ominous, but I swear Vaughn is just trying to get you comfortable enough to talk about your troubles so they don't well up inside you and boil over." Keene's smile grew and he started walking. "Now then the dorms are a five minute walk from here."
John's dorm room was located on the third floor at the end of the hallway, door number three-eleven. Perfectly secluded and isolated from anyone else in the building. Obviously John was looking forward to making a few new friends, but he was not ready to room with someone else, especially not a stranger. Too often now did he find himself ripped from a restless sleep by night terrors.
He loathes how scared and small he feels after waking up from reoccurring memories during his "readjustment" classes. The frayed lines between memory and real life drown him long enough that he wakes up gasping and clawing.
He sighs.
He might as well get saddled in.
The room was spacious when you took in account that it was supposed to be a dorm. It had a living room furnished with a coffee table and a couch. John put the books on the coffee table before continuing to the bedroom.
Inside the bedroom was a twin size bed, two bedside desks on either side of the headrest, a wardrobe sat in the left corner at the foot of the bed, and a desk in the corner, probably for schoolwork.
On the bed sat a freshly dry cleaned school uniform.
John picked up the clothes with a smile, the bag they were in crinkled as he did so. This, in the palm of his hands, was the heart of his new life. This was the face of this new person. He smiled at the uniform some more before taking the clothes out of their dry cleaning package.
They were the first things put away in his new wardrobe.
Seraphina sat with a strict posture in front of the bathroom mirror, her hands were currently busy tying the ponytail behind her head. Her eyes narrowed, over and over she made little modifications to the tie, trying and trying to make it perfectly even on both sides.
Seraphina knew. She knew everyone would be looking, judging, and analyzing her every move. She knew she could be nothing less than perfect, she knew no one would accept anything less than perfect. So she has to be perfect.
Finally satisfied with the even proportions and secured grip of her tie, she stood up and stepped away from the mirror. She admired her reflection one more time before leaving the bathroom entirely. She closed the bathroom door with a firm click before grabbing her completed work and stalking off to class.
Homeroom picked up as it usually did; a soft launch to the start of the school day. Kids were chatting, making loud, distracting, conversations. The teacher sat at her desk grading turned in work and let the kids carry on unimpeded. Seraphina sat, isolated from the rest of the class in her own world. She sat straight and rigid, textbook perfect posture.
She tuned out the boisterous conversations and focused on finishing the homework for tomorrows set of classes.
The class continued like that for the next half hour.
Then suddenly the class quieted as the teacher called all attention on her. "Quiet down everyone!" The teacher surveyed the room then carried on, seemingly satisfied with what she saw. "Now I know that it's late into the year, but we have a new student." She gestured to the door.
Seraphina pointedly turned away from the door and looked out the window. She didn't care about another pair of watchful eyes, she didn't about another mouth to be spoon fed rumors, she didn't care in the slightest.
John was nervous.
Today was his first school day at Wellston Private High school and he was glowing for it.
He had gotten a decent amount of sleep, by his standards, and when he was ripped from his sleep by nightmares he decided to put his energy into more productive means.
Thirty minutes before school found John inspecting himself in the mirror. He had the whole school uniform on. It was a bit stuffy, with all three layers, but overall?
He thought it looked good on him. The white dress shirt, the gray vest, and the blue jacket made it feel less like a jumpsuit and more like an actual outfit.
However, he felt as though something was missing. He leaned closer to the mirror and rubbed his chin in thought. A near carbon copy of his father stared back at him.
John snapped his fingers as he figured out what was missing. He guided two fingers up to his hairline and pulled down a gel covered swirl to sit upon his brow line. He leaned back from the mirror and smiled. William stared back at him with the same smile.
John nodded to himself once more before leaving the common bathrooms of the dormitory. He had a quick meeting with the headmaster before finally starting his new life at this prestigious private high school.
Walking to class, John spotted a purple haired girl with a stiff ponytail. The sight of her made his heart stutter and tripped him up.
She was Utterly and entirely ethereal. A goddess cloaked in the rising rays of the sun was walking past his own eclipsed form.
Her regality stole his breath away as he gazed upon divinity embodied and for a moment he wished that he was an ordinary boy who could go up to her.
He sighed wistfully before resuming his walk to school.
The meeting with Headmaster Vaughn concluded rather shortly. All the meeting entailed were a quiz on the rules and the dress code and whether or not John needed help getting to his classes. Of course John had lied and said he did know where his class were and that he didn't need Keene to guide him.
However, this lie had led to him finding his homeroom thirty minutes after the bell rang.
On his way to class, John was keenly aware of the eyes that followed him as he walked through the hall. He was sure half the kids were staring because seeing a new face halfway through the year was definitely not common and that the other half were so take aback by his hair style that they could do nothing but watch him in horror.
None of the two reasons helped ease his nerves. Violent flashbacks of his reign in New Boston brought little ease to the situation, in fact the memories only served as cold and terrible shocks to his already trembling nerves.
John shook his head and rid himself of the memories by trying to smile at every face he passed. Eventually he arrived in front of his homeroom class and breathed a sigh of relief.
He could hear the voices of over a dozen students that were happily chatting and carrying conversations. The noise helped ease his nerves even further.
John stood awkwardly at the door trying to build up the courage to walk in when the teacher saw him. She made her way to the door of the class and quickly introduced herself to John.
John smiled at her and introduced himself back. The teacher nodded sharply before turning around and calling to the class to quiet down.
"Quiet down everyone!" She called out, only speaking again once all the chatter had stopped.
"Now I know that it's late into the year, but we have a new student." She gestured for John to walk in. She smiled at him as he stood next to her. "Now, please introduce yourself to the rest of the class."
John thought for a moment about how he should do this. This very moment would mark the birth of this new person he wanted to be and he didn't want to take it lightly. After a beat of silence he opened his mouth and said.
"Hello! I'm John! I hope we can all get along in this class." He smiled and mentally patted himself on the back for such a stellar introduction.
"Alright class, this is John he just transferred in so I expect everybody to treat him with the kindness and common courtesy expected with Wellston High." She turned toward John and directed him to his seat.
"Now then, John, why don't you go sit over next to Seraphina." She pointed at the empty seat to the left of a purple haired girl.
John nodded before making his way to his new seat. He sat stiffly in his new seat and took in the class.
He was seemingly forgotten as his classmates resumed their conversations and the chatter hit the same volume it was at before he interrupted it.
He spaced out and listened to the meaningless chatter of his fellow classmates with a smile.
No one here raced to be quiet around him, no one here watched him with analyzing eyes, at least not in a bad way, and no one here knew what monster he kept beneath the surface.
He zoned back in to realize that his eyes had unconsciously found the purple haired lady from this morning. Seraphina, the teacher had said her name was.
John didn't know what that name meant but he knew it had to be just as beautiful as her.
Perfect posture with a ramrod straight back. Radiant purple hair tied into a stiff ponytail that fell down to her mid back. Ice blue eyes that could freeze—oh shit they were glaring at him.
John smiled at Seraphina.
Now that he had introduced himself as a regular boy maybe he could get to know her.
"Seraphina right?" He asked as an ice breaker.
The ice in her eyes grew colder.
"I'm John, in case you didn't hear earlier, and I'm new to this school." His smile shrunk when Seraphina didn't react in any way. "Well I was hoping you could show me around this school? I have math class next and I'm—"
"Hi, John." A shadow cloaked the left side of his body.
He looked left and found another cute girl standing before him. She had nice baby blue hair and lush green eyes that stood out. She felt kinda…tropical with the colors.
He smiled at her, eyes crinkling from the smile.
"I'm Elaine. Welcome to Wellston." Elaine said with a smile and a cute little wave. "How's your first day so far?"
John blushed, not used to such direct attention from a cute girl. He itched his cheek sheepishly before answering. "Not bad, I guess…" He said awkwardly.
"Wonderful!" Elaine clapped her hands together in a show of excitement. "So which school did you transfer from?" She carried on, unbothered.
John's heart stopped as ice filled his veins. He started sweating at the question before desperately trying to reason with himself that, yes the question was perfectly honest and was in no way trying to resurface the monster he hid.
He steeled his facade within the second she asked that question and carried on with the same awkward, stumbling tone that he held before. "Erm, actually I was home-schooled before this!" He lied coolly, although technically it was only a half lie but that fact only helped sell the lie.
"Whoa really?" Elaine brought a hand to her mouth and gasped softly. "We've never had one of those before…" She trailed off quietly, as if lost in thought.
John smiled and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He could see out of his periphery that Seraphina was listening in on his conversation. She was looking down at her schoolwork but her eyes had softened and she kept stealing glances of him out of her periphery.
"Well, you've come to the right place!" Elaine spoke up again, her voice carrying a new hint of jocularity.
Then suddenly the air changed. It was almost imperceivable but John felt the shift.
A sudden heaviness encompassed the air and settled its presence upon John's shoulders. The hair on the back of his neck tingled and he subconsciously went to scan for any active auras near him. He found nothing, no activated auras, no eyes looking at him, nothing.
"So, John." Elaine's smile turned saccharine as she spoke.
The smile made his nerves shoot up and the more he stared at the smile, the more he realized that the sweetness it exuded wasn't sweet at all but rather a thinly veiled sadistic expression. As if she enjoyed the oppressive feeling in the air.
"What kind of ability do you have?"
His heart stopped. He didn't even need to look around to feel all of the invasive stares.
The class was dead silent as they waited with baited breaths to hear his answer.
Of course.
Of course this place would be just like the rest of the world.
His face lost its smile and fell into a neutral expression and suddenly he felt like he was King again.
Eyes crinkled by sneers, faces of hard emotion as people got ready to judge, and worst of all: impatience to hear his ability.
He bit his tongue as a white hot rage slithered its way up his back and coiled in his mind.
A small, vindictive, part of him wanted so dearly to tell them who he was. To let them know that their entire royalty were a bunch of fodders against his power.
He wanted to so badly see Elaine's face fill with regret as she was dragged underneath the surface to be face to face with the monster.
But…. then he looked to his right and met Seraphina's and now so so suddenly did that hate and rage slip back under the surface.
He wanted to be a ordinary boy with an ordinary school life who might be able to have an ordinary friend.
He sighed and looked back up at Elaine. "My ability? Well…." Sweat dripped down his brow line. "To be completely honest… I don't—"
Then the bell rung and he was storming out of class, he was walking so fast that he was practically riding the coattails of the only person in front of him.
Seraphina, who had somehow out sped him, was currently only a couple feet in front of him.
"Hey! Seraphina right? I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of my math class?" He asked, stopping as she froze.
Seraphina turned slowly, as if internally debating on whether or not to speak to him. It seems like luck was in his favor since she did eventually turn to face him and raise an eyebrow.
John stepped forward and offered her his schedule. "I was wondering if you knew how to get to this math class from here?"
Seraphina took his schedule, read it, gave it back and looked to their left down the hall. "Follow this hall until you see stairs, then take the stairs down and your class is first on the left." She spit out robotically.
John received his schedule from her with a fat beaming smile on his face. His champagne colored eyes turned gold with how bright they were shining.
"Thanks a bunch Sera!" He gleamed.
She stared at him weirdly before turning around and stalking off to her own class.
John smile grew before he turned around and walked to his class.