The students had stern faces as Cade stood in front to introduce himself. It wasn’t what he expected. Their gazes criticized his entire existence. He was thrown into a lion’s den.
“Hello. My name is Curtis Fleming. You can call me Curt. I hope we get along,” he said like a good boy, intimidated by their stares. Cade sat on an empty chair at the back.
As the class began, everyone was silent, and they listened attentively to the discussion. Everyone except for him raised their hands when the teacher asked a question. So the teacher called his name.
“If the value of f (x) changes signs from one value of x to the next, then there is a zero between those two x-values. What do we call this idea?” the teacher asked.
Cade gulped when everyone was observing him, waiting for his response, and wishing for a wrong answer.
“Location Principle, Ma’am,” he replied.
“Very good! Keep up the good work and you’ll rise to the ranking.”
The students seemed to dislike the teacher’s feedback or Cade was just imagining things.
During the lunch break, Cade decided to be alone at the corner of the cafeteria. He was observing the students and the way they interact with each other. Most of them were sophisticated and well-mannered. He listened to their conversations and the subject of their discussions. All he heard was about politics, history, and science.
Cade blinked when someone blocked his view. Three male students seized the remaining chairs beside him.
“Hey,” Cade uttered in an awkward tone.
“Hi. I’m Lewis Stevens, the MVP of the basketball team,” the student on his left said.
“And I’m Liam Baker, the captain of the football team,” the student on his right said.
Cade paused as he stared at the student across from him.
“You look familiar. You are the campus president!” Cade exclaimed.
“Yes. I’m Luke Harris. The three of us are known as the Triple L. But we are best known as The Generals,” Luke said.
“Oh, wow. So all of you are on top of the ranking. Amazing.”
“Yes. But the ranking changes every quarter, so we can’t slack off.”
“So, why are you sitting with me?”
The three boys looked at each other.
“We just want to know the newbies.”
“I’m so lucky.”
Cade was delightful while eating his lunch. He never expected to be friends with the coolest boys in school even though he was dressed like a low class.
Cade spent the remaining time looking for Elsie Lynch. After all, he could not set aside the main reason why he was there. He took a stroll from the first floor to the fourth floor, but he couldn’t find her. So he rested on the veranda for a while.
Cade looked down at the wide field. The students were everywhere—playing soccer, walking around the oval, sitting on the stairs near the entrance while chitchatting, and having a picnic under the trees. He sighed and wondered where his cousins were. He wouldn’t be a loner if his situation wasn’t so bad.
In a few minutes, he finally spotted them. Stan and Theo were under an enormous tree. Theo was sleeping while using his bag as a pillow, and Stan was reading his favorite manga. Cade blinked three times to zoom his contacts and see them closer.
“Some things don’t change,” Cade said to himself.
***
The fruity smell of apples and oranges meandered inside the Science laboratory while everyone was preparing for their activity. Lily Holmes, a petite blonde girl, was eating a piece of orange beside Cade. The juice dripped from her mouth and it was all over her hands. She licked her finger and use it to put the strands of her short hair behind her ear. Her actions made him look so disgusted.
“Hey, stop eating. We are going to use them for our experiment,” Cade said.
“There are a lot more.” She pouted.
“Fix yourself.”
You smell like trash.
Lily threw the rind of the orange with her wet hands. When she came back beside Cade, she accidentally slipped in front of him. She landed her wet hands on his chest. Lily lifted her face and looked him straight in the eyes.
What do you think you’re doing? Get off my face.
“A-are you alright?” Cade said. Lily pulled back and covered her mouth with her hand when she saw her handprints on Cade’s white lab coat. The orange juice sipped in his coat, leaving some stains.
“Oh my gosh. I’m sorry,” Lily uttered.
Cade stared at the stains for a few seconds.
How dare you touch me with your dirty hands? Who’s gonna wash this right now?
“It’s okay. It was an accident. Please be careful next time,” Cade replied.
“Don’t worry, I will wash it after class.”
“Turn around,” he said.
“Why?”
“Just turn around.”
Lily obeyed him even though she was clueless. Cade got a rubber band from his pocket and tied her hair.
“Th-thanks,” Lily said.
“I can’t stand seeing messy things,” Cade replied.
“I’m so sorry.” Lily sounded offended.
“It’s fine.” Cade wore some white gloves and wiped her mouth with tissue paper. “Let’s focus on our activity today. Okay?”
How can someone look so dumb?
Lily nodded.
“Today, we will find out if a fruit or a vegetable’s density indicates its nutritional value,” the teacher said while holding an orange and an apple. The students created a chart of each fruit’s nutritional value using their background research. They weighed each of the sample’s records in grams. Then they placed the sample into the graduated cylinder and submerged it in the water. Cade calculated the volume, mass, and density from the weight and displacement measurements.
After an hour of measuring eight fruits and vegetables, everyone took a seat and ate the remaining fruits. Lily roamed around to ask for excess vegetables from other groups.
“What are going to do with that? Are you a vegetarian?” Cade asked while looking at her plastic bag filled with veggies.
“Nope. I’m going to give it to someone.”
“To your mother, I guess.”
“To my friend. She enjoys cooking vegetables, and she can save a lot of money with this. This is a week’s food supply.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Well, she’s not rich like most of the students here. She doesn’t want me to lend her some money, so this is the least I can do for her.”
The teacher clapped her hands to get their attention. “Okay, class. After our activity, what can you conclude?”
Lewis raised his hand. “When nutritional adequacy was calculated by weight, calorie, or unit cost, foods ranked differently. Although fruits and vegetables are an expensive source of dietary energy, they deliver essential nutrients at a reasonable cost, according to the findings.”
“Very good, Mr. Stevens. How about the others?”
Cade raised his hand. “The correlation between energy density and nutrient density score was negative, validating the generally held belief that energy-dense foods are nutrient-poor. Fruits and vegetables, as expected, earned the greatest nutrient density score due to their high nutrient content in contrast to their low energy content. They also had a high nutrient-to-price ratio, indicating that they supplied nutrients at a fair price in comparison to other foods.”
“Excellent answer, Mr. Fleming. Let’s wrap this up and clean your areas.”
Cade removed his lab coat and tossed it to Lily. “Make it shiny.”
“He’s so weird,” Lily whispered as a little smile escaped from her lips.
After the classes ended, Cade walked alone by the street when a black Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse stopped him.
“Hey, newbie. Hop in,” Lewis said.
Cade’s eyes shimmered in amazement. He missed his car back home.
“Would it be okay?” Cade asked.
“Of course. We are heading in the same direction as the boys’ dormitory.”
“Alright. How can I decline something so fancy?”
The boys’ dormitory where most of the male students in Mchalmmond High stayed was only a few meters away. Lewis drove so slowly that everyone was looking at them.
“Why don’t you speed up?” Cade asked.
“Chill. The dorm is too close. Let’s enjoy being in this car. All the ladies are staring at us. We must also enjoy that.”
“So you don’t have a girlfriend?”
“That’s not possible. I have three girlfriends.”
“What?”
“One in Mchalmmond high, one in Paris, and one in our rival school.”
“Wow. That’s crazy.”
“I know, but what can I do? I’m too charming.”
The red gate opened, and they arrived at a wide, three-story building. There was more than enough space for the parking area where luxurious cars are displayed. “Here we are. Welcome to the Prestige Mansion.”
The exterior design of the mansion was a mixture of maroon and blue, while the curtains were colored green. The place was exclusive for Mchalmmond High male students from grades seven to ten. Three blocks from them, the seniors had their own dormitory.
“I can’t remember how many rooms they have in total, but there are rooms for a single person, a room for two, for three, and for four people. It depends on the availability of the rooms. Currently, they only have one room available for you, which composes of four people,” Lewis explained.
They checked the Cinema room, which had gray and brown colors. When they opened the Study room, some students were already there silently reading a book while drinking some cola. It had pleasant colors of white and brown. The cushion chairs were colored mint grin and yellow.
“Is it difficult to have multiple girlfriends?” Cade asked out of nowhere.
“Well, it is. I have to manage my time and expenses. Girls can be so pricey sometimes. It’s good that they know our setup.”
“You mean they know that there are three of them in your life?”
“Of course. Love is business. You invest, and you get something in return. We’ve been negotiating for the past 5 months.”
They got inside the gym, and Cade tried some equipment.
“What kind of negotiation? That sounds a bit complicated.”
“My schedule. I go to Paris once a month to celebrate our monthsary and we talk virtually often.”
“What do you gain from them? Is it even worth the time and money?”
“Pleasure. It is priceless. Attention. Pretty and rich girls worshipping me feel great like I am some kind of God.”
Cade tried the seated leg press machine. “What about them? What do they get from you?”
“I don’t just date ordinary girls, if that’s what you think. I date fashion icons and conglomerates. Aside from expensive dates and fun activities, I give them fame.”
They proceeded to the Common room where most of the boys were chitchatting and playing.
“I’m impressed that this place isn’t chaotic at all,” Cade said.
“It’s temporary. You know how boys are. There’s always a first time for everything.”
Lewis guided him to room number 404. “This is your room.”
There were four beds inside, one circular table at the center, and a sofa. There were mixtures of colors: blue, gray, black, and white in the interior design.
“Organize your things and feel at home. I’m just going to prepare for dinner,” Lewis said and left.
Cade took off his uniform and chose the bed near the window. He opened it to welcome some fresh air. He forgot to ask Lewis where to find the Laundry room, so he went in search of him. In perfect timing, Stan came out from the other room too. The room just beside his. They looked at each for seconds.
“Hey, Stan. Have you seen my—” Theo paused when he saw Cade.
“Ca—I mean Curt, right?” Theo asked.
Cade nodded.
“It seems like we’ll see one another more often. We’re neighbors now,” Cade said. There was a hint of delight in his voice.
“What are the chances?” Stan said.
Cade took a step back to his room when he heard the bathroom door crack open.
“Hey, newbie.”
“Luke? Why are you… here?”
Luke was fresh from the shower with a towel around his waist. He grabbed the glass of milk from the study table and drank it.
“My stomach hurts from the pizza earlier,” someone said while coming from the toilet.
“Liam?”
“What the—” Luke blabbered as the milk glided to his six-pack abs. He suddenly removed the towel that made Cade cover his eyes. Luke wiped the milk with his towel and grinned.
“Don’t get too shy. We are roommates from now on.”
“Roommates?” Cade asked.
Lewis came back with a tray filled with a plate of Bangers and Mash, Spaghetti Bolognese, and a bottle of wine. “Have I told you that the four of us will stay in the same room?”
Cade shook his head in slow motion. They printed uncertainty and shock on his face. If he would live in the same room with The Generals, he had to be careful not to expose himself.