A gentle love

Episode 2

The morning came earlier than Julian expected. The relentless ringing of his alarm woke him right in the middle of a beautiful dream. What a bummer. For a while, he toyed with the idea of closing his eyes for a few more moments, just to try and pick up where his alarm clock had ripped him from. After a couple of minutes of rolling all over his bed, he finally concluded that being late on the first day of the new school year wasn’t the absolute best idea and climbed out with a determined sigh.

With a quick glance at the clock, he made sure it was only 6 a.m., which meant he had exactly 40 minutes to leave the house. His family's house was on the outskirts of Sully and it took Julian a good hour to get to school.

Fortunately, his daily routine did not conflict with that of his mother, who, due to her illness, worked only part-time and did not get up until an hour later, when Julian was already on his way to school. This slight fact made morning Julian's favourite part of the day.

After completing all the necessities in the bathroom and deciding that no amount of water would fix last night's sins, he came out of the bathroom and headed for the kitchen, where he set up for coffee. After assessing the groceries for this week, he prepared himself a sandwich, that was to be a breakfast as well as a lunch.

Since he still had a little over ten minutes left before he had to leave, Julian took the time to choose his outfit for today. Not that there were many clothes to choose from, but he was proud of what he was able to get together with his very limited resources. He considered himself the uncrowned king of thrift stores.

Julian always liked to play with his clothes. It wasn't that he wanted to stand out or draw attention to himself. The opposite could not be more true. But the opportunity to at least express his creativity in this way gave Julian some sense of control. And having control over something was just so rare in his life.

After getting dressed, he set off for the bus. There was already a group of young students standing at the bus stop when he arrived and as soon as Julian managed to find the ID in his messyTM backpack, the bus had already emerged from around the corner.

Julian hated taking the bus, but in the current season it was a necessary evil. Since neither he nor his mother had a car, Julian had no choice but to go to school by bike or bus. The September weather was known for its unpredictability, and Julian didn't want to risk the rain catching him halfway to school. Today he felt too nice to arrive for the first lesson soaked. Again.

Not that Julian was full of confidence. His mother and partly also his father had many years to successfully knock it down as low as possible. On his mother's side, it was simply a malicious hobby. His father however lived his life under the slogan "expect as little as possible and you will never be disappointed" and he raised his son in the same spirit.

And now, many years after his departure, Julian has felt like his father has finally achieved his goal.

It was especially sad, since Julian hadn't been like that before. When he was younger, he even actively resisted his father's ideas by creating the wildest, most unattainable dreams he could and believing in them with all his soul. He wanted to study at a prestigious university, travel the world and become a physician. He had the brains and the marks for that.

He especially wanted to be a paediatrician and help young children. And even though his father, who had never left the city limits and worked all his life on construction, discouraged him from dreaming, he persevered because he wasn’t alone in his dreaming. He had HIM.

But everything changed six years ago when he was waiting under the big oak tree that stood exactly halfway between their houses. That day was the first day his heart broke. Sadly it wouldn't be the last. That day most of his dreams and desires also disappeared.

A hard knock on a glass woke Julian from his contemplation. Looking up he found Luke, one of his two only friends, who was smiling behind the window. He quickly jumped on the bus and sat down next to him.

“Hey, what’s up with the daydreaming?” Luke asked with his signature crooked smile.

"Nothing, I'm just a little tired today." Julian answered half-truthfully. He didn't feel the need to burden him with his depressive mood on the first day of school.

“On the first day already? What are you going to do in a week?”

"Let's face it, you'll be sleeping here next to me in a week. When I look at you, I guess the plans for the break probably didn't work out, did they? Did you work for Mr. dad all summer?”

“Heh, why do you think so? Is it because of my radiant, tanned skin or those calluses on my hands?” Luke chuckled sarcastically and then continued “Yeah, I worked my ass off. Dad was busy with the store over the summer and needed people there, so there was no one left to work on our construction site. But at least the house is starting to look good again. After the last flood, we had mold everywhere, perhaps we managed to get rid of it after we replaced the floors and insulated the house.” Luke rambled.

Though Julian didn't mind since he enjoyed listening to Luke’s stories about his family. Thanks to him, he had an idea of how a loving family can work. He had another brother and a younger sister, whom he guarded like a hawk.

His family was not rich. They had to do a lot of things on their own, such as repairing their house, which was almost destroyed by last year's flood. But even disasters never broke them. It was quite the opposite actually. They were close and there for each other whenever needed. When Luke talked about them, Julian always imagined them as a bunch of birds huddled inside a nest, pressing close together to warm each other in a storm.

Absorbed in Luke's dramatic narration of his summer sufferings, he realized that they had already arrived and the students were getting out. He poked at Luke, and together they packed up and got out.

Their bus had one of those longer routes, so the parking lot was already full of students who had arrived earlier and were now slowly scattering to their respective buildings. Julian and Luke were both students of the science branch, so they headed for the building at the back next to the labs.

Although he was fully focused on Luke's relentless analysis of the properties of different sealing foams, Julian couldn't help but notice that a strange atmosphere was in the air. Students were whispering enthusiastically to each other, and some even seemed to be deliberately waiting in the parking lot for something or someone.

"What's the matter with them today? Did I miss the latest gossip? ” he asked curiously.

Luke laughed as if he had just heard the best joke. "You miss all the gossip. That's the problem with people who don't care about others."

Not true! But also a little bit true.

“Hey! I care about you. And about Ava.” Jalian said almost accusingly. Julian just wasn't interested in the lives of others. The good or the bad. He just generally didn't like to get involved in the lives of others, since whenever he did, he always ended up being the one who got hurt. Therefore, he eventually decided that the best remedy was prevention and keeping others at arm's length.

His friendship with Luke and his younger sister was one big accident. Julian once helped Ava when she tore her school uniform and didn't want to go to school. After that day, Ava decided that Julian absolutely must become her friend, and she would not be persuaded otherwise. Not even by Julian himself. For about five months Julian felt almost like a hostage to that little lizard. And then he just gave up.

But this little victory was just not enough for little Ava whod decided, that it was absolutely essential that her brother be also friends with Julian, and so the whole hostage situation was repeated.

"You know very well that I did not mean it that way. But back to the point. Since you are clearly missing all the essentials of social life at the Big Oaks High, let me enlighten you. Apparently, we will have our own royal family. Actually, the royal family probably won't be the best comparison, since I think they aren't all related. So rather our own noble class. It was apparently reported that Ginny and Gregory Morgentall are due to transfer here.” He looked at Jamie, his face full of anticipation.

"Okay, who is it? Morgentalls, aren’t they the family who owns those hospitals in Sacramento? "

Luke looked at him as if he didn't understand that someone might not know such crucial information.

"Yeah, it's them. How can you not know?! Their father is on TV literally all the time. Anyway, the important thing is that nobody knows why they're transferring. I heard from Martin Uhoy that Gregory was involved in some sort of a scandal. And apparently, they won't be here alone since a whole bunch of super rich kids with trust funds will transfer with them. For whatever reason there may be.”

"Great, one more group of spoiled and ungrateful brats with the potential to make my life the living hell." Julian said acidly.

Just as he said this, the sounds of several engines broke the chirping of the awaiting crowd. Luke and Julian turned their heads just in time to see four rather luxurious cars that obviously did not belong here entering the school driveway. They all stopped at the parking lots closest to the entrance.

As the car doors gradually opened, five people, who clearly did not belong to this place either, stepped out of them. A boy and a girl got out of the first, dark blue supercar. They were both dressed as if they just escaped from some posh preppy school somewhere on the Upper East Side and got their newsletter signed XOXO. It was obvious from the look on their faces that they also thought they did not belong there. They were clearly a brother and a sister. Both had dark blond hair, and while his was short and tousled, hers was long and drawn into a sleek and sharp cut ponytail ending just under her shoulders.

From the car next to them emerged a boy who must have had trouble getting into his low sitting Maserati. If Hulk and Victoria's secret top model had a love child, this is what it would look like. The boy could have had almost six foot five and was all muscle and tendon. All this made his angelic face and the bright blond curls framing his face even more contrasting. Julian's first thought while looking at him was that the boy would be able to stun a grown man with the movement of a single hand, but he would do it with the utmost tenderness.

Next to him emerged a smaller boy with longer brown hair tied in a small bun on top of his head. His face didn't look so angelic, and his expression showed an absolute displeasure at where he and his friends were at the moment. His dark brown eyes framed by thick-rimmed glasses critically ran over the school building and then his new classmates. He obviously did not like what he saw.

However, Julian stopped concentrating on him the moment another boy emerged from the last, elegant and much less conspicuous car. His whole visage screamed trouble. His black, slightly wavy hair was cut short at the sides and was left longer on the top of his head, styled into an obviously intentional dishevel. His eyebrow above his right eye was pierced.

If it wasn't for his car, nobody would probably guess, unlike with the others, that he could buy the whole school and its teacher just to skip afternoon classes.

When he turned, Julian saw that he was gorgeous. And when their eyes met, all he could do was gasp. The new guy’s gaze did not linger on Julian and continued to explore and seemingly judge his surroundings. But even though they only looked at each other for what was maybe a hundredth of a second, Julian felt petrified and couldn't move.

Jesper Lavine. What the hell was he doing here?