A few minutes later Warren had all of his boxes in the empty, one-person room. He sighed, “Well it is better than nothing,” he said to empty air, but having a severe case of da’ja’vu. He walked into the room, leaving the door open to circulate air, and started to move boxes around till he found one in particular. He opened it and took out three thick CD cases and a small, red, tabletop boom box. He plugged it in and put a CD in, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat started to play, and Warren started to hum along with the songs.
He started to move other boxes around and unpacking them, putting books and notebooks in neatly stacked piles.
“Can I help you guys?” Warren said turning around to see five kids standing there.
“Yeah Warren, we thought that we should help you out with unpacking.” One said, a girl with a pure black outfit said.
“How’d you know my name? He said. Inviting them in, the kids filed in, closing the door behind them.
“We’ll explain in good time. For now lets just get your stuff up,” the kid with the wild blonde and purple hair said.
After getting all of his stuff up Warren looked at the group of kids that had helped him, they were loose and trusting in their body language, but still had a protective stance, but the girl with the pink hair, Aelita, was the most interesting, she was loose but seemed to be afraid, like she was waiting for something bad to happen.
“Isn’t dinner at seven?” Warren asked, leaning back in his chair smiling, the others nodded, “ Does anyone know what is for dinner tonight?”
“Yeah it is Salisbury steak. And tomorrow for breakfast it is chicken fried steak.” Odd said.
“So how did you know who I was and where I was?” Warren asked.
“We know because of something that is better to show you than tell you.” Jeremie said.
Warren looked at his watch, “Well we got about fifteen minutes till dinner, so if you can explain all of it in that much time go ahead, but if it takes longer then wait till after dinner.” He said.
“Then lets wait till after dinner, so why do you have so many CDs?” Urich said, while Warren picked up a folder of CDs and started to flip through it.
“I’m a music person, I find that when you have music you can express yourself no mater what mood you are in.” Warren said, pulling out a CD and putting it in the boom box. He fast-forwarded it through a few songs and then the song Carrying the Banner from the Newsies came on. “Like now I am in a good mood, so I choose a piece of music that suits my mood… If I have something on that sounds depressed or angry, just leave me alone for a bit and I will eventually calm down. Why don’t we go down to the cafeteria that way we can be there when they start?”
“That sounds good,” Jeremie said, getting up along with the others. Warren turned off his boom box and picked up the book Eragon.
“Did you know that they are making a movie out of this book?” Warren asked.
“No I didn’t. Have you read the second book?” Urich asked.
“Yeah I have, but if people haven’t I don’t really want to discuss it and ruin it for people.” Warren said.
“Fine by me.” Urich said, shoving his hands into his pockets. The group walked out of the boarding house and into the courtyard. Lots of kids were working on homework, lying in the sun, or just standing around talking with friends. One group, with three kids, in particular started to move toward Warren’s group. At the head of the group was a girl with a bright pink and red outfit.
“No Sissy I will not help you with your Algebra, I want to get in and eat.” Urich said, even before she had opened her mouth, she stopped for a second, looking shocked, and then stormed off her toadies on her heels.
“Nice.” Warren said, smirking. “I wish I was psychic, that way I could tell when there was a pop-quiz in any class before it happened.”
“He’s not psychic, he just knew she was going to ask that, we will show you why after dinner.” Aelita said.
“Fine by me.” Warren said, and then looked up just as the cook unlocked the door to the cafeteria. “Lets eat.”
Though Warren ate more than the other five he was still done before all of them. He had gotten seconds before they had barely started.
“How can you eat that fast and keep it down?” Jeremie said after Warren got a third tray.
“A: I learned real fast at my old school that it was best if you don’t taste the food, and B: I like Salisbury stake.” Warren said, and then shoveled down the food, while the others laughed. “I mean it, some of the food you expected to come alive and eat you instead of the other way around.”
“Sounds like you were in a pretty low class school then.” One of the toadies that had followed that one girl, Sissy around, said.
“Public school food is like that, they get it from the government.” Warren said, after looking at the guy.
“So you go from a low level school to this. Probably a bit more fancy than you are used to.” The boy continued.
“No my school wasn’t low level but the activity level of the acne stuff you use is.” Warren said, straight faced, continuing to eat. A few seconds later the chair was pulled out from under him, “Bad choice kid.” Warren said, standing up to see the chair in his hands.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This section you might have read before cause of the reversal in tine, but i DID tweak it a bit.