once-a-pal

Chapter one

MY dearest friend

My name is Donavan Wilhelm. I’m a seventeen year old student with a knack for engineering, mathematics, English and anything saddled with the title ‘physical activity’. I’m a pretty good student, seeing as I’ve been head of my year for every year of school I’ve lived, and even good enough to get into St. Vassil’s academy. It’s a place where money and prestige come first, a place where rich snobs would go for their education. Needless to say, it was top class and I was lucky enough to get here by the skin of my teeth. But I digress.

The term ‘nothing will ever surprise me,’ was the leading statement of my life. When you came from a family like mine, you were told to just accept it as it is and move on. And this I did with exceptional skill; that was until I came to St.Vassil. It wasn’t the brick tied with the blossoms of the cherry trees that caught my attention. The life changer was the moment I met Seamus Vassil.

As I walked down the white brick path that led to the headmasters office building –I was pretty surprised to find that it wasn’t part of the school, heck there were at least thirty buildings on this campus- I passed by one of the larger cherry trees and noticed a small figure. It looked like a doll, one of those life-size ones that girlie women faun over. He was stylishly dressed in a dark blue uniform, which looked very old fashioned; on one ear he had a sapphire blue jewel stud. His complexion was pale but very smooth. At first I thought it was too pale and small to be Human. But then the doll’s eyes opened and a book came soaring at my head. His blue eyes coarsely stared me.

It took me a moment to compose myself, and to realize that this wasn’t a doll come to life, but a miniature human being. “What are you doing here in my garden!” the young child demanded. I could tell from the beginning that it was a boy, still too young for his voice to change but old enough to be violently irritated. The boy continued to glare at me, or rather, past me for a moment, muttered some choice words under his breath and marched off to the nearest brick building. I stood there stunned and attempted to compose myself… again.

Like I said the term ‘nothing will ever surprise me,’ was thrown out the window as soon as I touched foot on the grounds of St. Vassil.

I shook my head in bewilderment and continued on my way to the large redbrick building titled ‘Deans Office’. Out of shear curiosity I looked over to where the book had landed. It was a beautiful garden, full of pinks and purples and all different kinds of spring colors and in the middle of it all sat Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s; Sherlock Holmes.

It was a thick leather bound volume no doubt a refurbished collectable. But like I said, it was thick and could have taken my head off, maybe, if it had hit home. I allowed my legs to continue walking to the office building, wondering in my irritation; how a doll could throw with that much force. But then again it wasn’t really a doll, was it.

I ran a hand through my hair and let a sigh escape. Who ever that kid was I hoped I would never see him again.

            After I finally arrived at the glass doors to the dean’s office I grabbed one of two gold colored handles but before I even opened the door one centimeter, the door next to me suddenly opened wide and a man, who didn’t look more then twenty, poked out, a wide grin plastered to his face.

“Donavan!” He exclaimed cheerfully. I was confused for a moment, how did this man know who I was?

“Forgive me but—.” I began to say but he grabbed my wrist and whisked me inside and into, what I can best describe, was a bear hug. I struggled and then finally pushed away breathing deeply and staring at the man. I was astonished, I had no idea who this man was let alone why he’d try to suffocate me with a hug. I stared at him for a brief moment. He was a twenty-something man with dyed red hair, and a plain black suit.

“Donny don’t ya recognize me?” the man pouted. A flair of irritation added to the flame that had started earlier. Nobody called me Donny; it was demeaning, childish and just plain annoying. The only one who called me that with such ease was a childhood friend of mine. Then it hit me probably as bad as that book would have.

“Jamie!” I cried with excitement.

“The one and only,” he replied with a flourish of his hands

“What are you doing here I thought you were overseas.”

            “Yeah, I was until recently, I came to see about getting a job here once I finish school.” He stated with a smile. Then his face changed and he whistled. “Boy did you grow, Shorty.” He joked.

That was probably the truest statement in the world. Back then, before Jamie went abroad I was probably one of the shortest people in the world. Now I was as tall as he was, maybe a little taller. Needles to say it puffed my pride just a little.

“So what’s a street-rat like you doing in a fancy place like this?” He asked casually.  I took a sharp breath. Yeah, that was also very true. Normally it would have been ‘street mouse,’ but only before the extreme growth spurt.

“Look, sorry I don’t have time to talk James, I have an orientation to—” I didn’t even get to finish my statement, Jamie had me in a headlock faster then I could blink.

“How many times have I told you? It’s Jamie. Yer way to uptight Donny-boy.” He snickered before releasing my head. “So you’re goin’ too orientation huh? My man, that’s really something.” He patted my back and gave me a wink.  I scowled. Something about those cocky green eyes made me want to hit him. But it made me feel good to hear that he was excited for me, so I smiled.

Afterwards we began talking and laughing about the past and our adventures with the rest of the ‘clan’. I would go into detail about this, but that’s another story entirely.

Jamie laughed and then we parted ways. I had finally reached the headmaster’s door.

I took the time to straighten myself, then opened the door and entered the office.

            A man with black-hair flecked with grey looked at me. Apparently he had been reading, because he had a half distracted look on his face. “Hello sir, I’m Donavan Wilhelm.” I stated rather militarily.

The man smiled. “At ease soldier, this is a time for relaxing.” He chuckled “Donavan Wilhelm, the scholarship student, we’ve been waiting for you. I am Arthur Vassil, the headmaster of this school it is a pleasure to meet you Donavan,”

            “The pleasures all mine sir,” I said with a bow.

 I suppose I was trying too hard to impress him because all he did was laugh. “Well, Donavan as our scholarship student, you have to follow certain guidelines or else your scholarship will be revoked. Although we mostly only accept nobles and the high class, Donavan you are a rarity and we can’t waste it. We at St. Vassils are proud to have such a promising student among us and we welcome you Mr. Wilhelm,” the man said. It kind of made me feel like furniture but at the same time I could purr with pride. “We have all the necessary paperwork. You will be staying in the north-east dorm, closest to the art room. My assistant James will be your guide around Campus.” At the mention of “James”, I began to wonder if he was talking about Jamie or not.  The man got up out of his chair. He was lot taller then I expected and thinner too. His face held very little age, which contrasted the gray hairs. I would have thought he was no older then thirty-one. He took my hand and shook it, then opened the door for me. “You will be measured for your uniform later, best of luck to you Donavan.”

 As I left the deans office, I noticed Jamie was holding his nose. “I will be your guide to day, master Donny.” Jamie said with a plugged voice. Yep. The dean’s assistant and my obnoxious compadré were one and the same.

“You practicing for when I break your nose are you?” I joked.

“Nah, the door beat you at that one,” he answered and shrugged.

Jamie was telling me all about how he became the dean’s assistant as we walked back out to the cherry trees. As we got halfway through the orchard we both stopped. Beneath one of the trees sat two beautiful young women. One had long blond hair that was in perfect ringlets and the other straight black hair. I was immediately entranced and apparently Jamie was too.

One of the things that I could prize myself on was my looks. Yes, I was pretty vain sad to say, disobedient raven hair, golden eyes and a very healthy athletic physic. Jamie straightened his hair and we changed directions towards these angelic beings. They looked at each other and giggled.

 “Good afternoon ladies, might we take it upon ourselfs be your company today?” Jamie said in his most gentlemanly manner. I wanted to laugh, but I did my best to hold it in since he was trying really hard to be a gentleman. I smiled at the blond with my most dazzling smile.

“My dear ladies, tell me how is it you came to smother us with your beauty?” Jamie asked.

“I think what he means is ‘what brings you here?’ It’s a little early for school isn’t it?” I asked.

The blond answered first. “Well, the dean said we could stay at the school until this fall. We were here to keep Seamus company but he doesn’t take well to us.” The blond looked kind of down cast. But I was only paying part attention. 

“Who’s Seamus?” I asked.

“He’s the dean’s nephew; he’s a snob who believes that anything on this campus is his property,” the other girl sniffed pushing back some of her long black tresses over her shoulder.

“And that’s not even half of it, he doesn’t even go to school here and he barely shows his face to anyone.” The blond concluded after her friend.

The girls looked away and then smiled again, Jamie fidgeted. “Sorry, but we have to go. It was nice meeting you, umm…”

“I’m Donavan and this is James,” I said

“Well it was nice meeting you Donavan and James.”

The girls left and my curiosity got the best of me. Why would the dean pick two girls to be the companions of a twelve year old boy? And who was that boy anyway? Immediately what came to mind was the boy that had nearly brained me with that book.

“Well, come on Donny, let’s show you to your room,” Jamie said leaning against my head. One of the biggest problems with that guy was his total disregard of other people’s personal space.

At the time we walked to the dorm. I had no clue that I was in for a rough time. The ‘good luck’ statement from the dean probably should have tipped me off. But I didn’t pay attention. I really have to break that habit.

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