Chapter 10

Ash sat bolt upright in bed, and screamed.

Quickly, Eagle released his grip on Matt, and got out of bed.

Neinna climbed out of bed, and went threw her arms around Ash, "What's the matter?" she asked

"I, I" stammered Ash, who was hyperventilating, "I had a bad dream."

"Aww, poor Ashley, what happened,"

"I, I, They," Ash sobbed, "They closed the Claire's in my town"

Art, still sat in his corner by Seiji's bed, started to laugh. "Don't worry Ash, I'm sure they wont"

"I know," Ash sniffed, "But it was still a really scary dream,"

"Oh yeah," said Art, as he took one of Seiji's T-shirts out of his drawer, "I've sorted out that dorm thing," he methodically started to tear the T-shirt into strips, "You guys are all gonna move into where the U6 boys are at the mo, and the other freaks will move into where the U6 girls are at the moment. The U6 boys are all fighting so it's kinda a good thing we can split them up."

"Why are they fighting?" asked Ash, bad dream forgotten with the chance of gossip,

Art glanced at Eagle, who shrugged, "It's just half of them love Eagle to peices, and the other half not so much."

Eagle laughed, "Not exactly, its more that half of them would kill me if I even went in their dorm, and the other half are prepared to put up with me."

"Awww," Ash stood up, and went and hugged Eagle, "Why do they hate you so much?"

Eagle laughed, "Cause I'm thick and I'm gay."

Raven slipped down the ladder and went and put her arms around her big brother, "You're not thick, you're one of the cleverest people I know,"

Eagle grinned at her, "Hardly, most of my year are taking History, Maths, Science and French or such like, I just do Art and P.E."

Art sniggered, "Drawing too,"

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Ash called,

"Uh," called Seiji from outside, "Is Fergie in there."

"Yes?" answered Fergie uncertainly,

"Well get him to shut his eyes then,"

"Uh ok," said Fergie, and obideintly shut his eyes.

Seiji walked into the room, his white top stained crimson by the blood spilling out of his arms.

Calmly, Art sat him down on the bed, and rolled up the sleeves of his bloodstained shirt. He picked up the strips of T-shirt he had torn, and started to wind them around Seiji's arms, using safety pins from his pocket, he laughed, "I thought I'd better be ready for when you came back,"

Seiji leant forward and kissed him on the forehead, "What would I do without you ey?"

Art laughed, "Well, you probably wouldn't cope without me." He pinned the last one in place, "I'll get you some proper bandages to redo them, before this evening."

"Uh, can I open my eyes yet?" Fergie asked,

"Yep," Seiji laughed as he pulled on a clean shirt,

Fergie sat up, took one look at Seiji's blood stained shirt and passed out.

Art put his arms around Seiji, and kissed him, "I love you Seij, you know that, don't you?"

Seiji didn't need words, he just glanced across at Eagle,

Art bit his lip, "I love you more than anyone," he whispered, "You don't want breakfast, do you." It was a statement, not a question

Seiji shook his head, "When do I ever eat?"

"Good," Art glanced at the clock, "The rest of you had better bugger off though.

Clothes were hastily pulled on as everyone noticed the time and rushed down to breakfast.

Art lay down beside Seiji, holding him close, "I really, really love you." he muttered

Seiji laughed, "So you keep saying," he said, stroking the side of Art's face, "You look shattered, go to sleep."

"I can't" murmered Art, before dropping off to sleep.

Just before 9 o'clock, Seiji shook Art awake, "I've gotta go to lessons now, and I didn't know if you did too."

"What day is it?"

"Friday,"

Art sat up, "Yeah, I've got an upper sixth lesson," he groaned, "I'm not sure I can face it."

Seiji kissed him gently, "You can, and you will," kissing him again he added, "Just think, only a few more hours, then it's lunch break, come and find me,"

Art grinned, "And I'm coming to observe your gym lesson this afternoon,"

"There you go. Now get up, and go to your lesson." Seiji stood up and pulled him out of bed.

Art hugged him closely, "What ever would I do without you?"

Seiji laughed, "I thought it was you said I couldn't cope without you."

Art smiled, "We'll just have to stick together then."

Seiji was late for his Maths lesson, he stumbled in, pulling his shirt sleeves over the makeshift bandages, "Sorry I'm late."

Mr Crosswin, whom Nienna had filled in on the morning's events, smiled, "That's alright, you're not too late, just take a seat."

Art stumbled across to his upper sixth lesson, looking very tired. "Allright, I'm in no mood for fun today," he growled at them, "Get out your sketch books and carry on with whatever we were doing last lesson. What were we doing last lesson?"

"Charcoal portraits,"

"Right, thanks, well, charcoals wherever it normally is, where is it?"

"Your desk,"

"Right, well," he got the charcoal out of his desk drawer and placed it on his desk, "Sketch books out, you can carry on now." He put his head in his hands.

A few minutes later he looked up, "Eagle, where's your sketch book?"

"I don't know," mumbled Eagle,

"You don't know?"

"I 'lost' it," he looked pointedly at a couple of the other boys,

Art looked at them, Thomas Delacroix and Phillip Marshall, he shook his head, bastards. "Has anyone seen Eagle's sketch book?" he asked

Silence.

Art walked over to Thomas and Phillip, "I really, really don't want to give you a detention today, infact I know for sure I wont, so just tell me what you've done with his sketch book and I'll let you off."

Phillip looked up at him, "That's stupid, if we know you won't give us a detention then why should we tell you."

Art sighed, "I'll still have you punished, I just won't give you the soft option of a detention."

Phillip remained silent, but Thomas spoke up, "It's on top of the cupboard over there." he admitted.

"Thank you Thomas, and Phillip, stay behind after this lesson."

Phillip shrugged, "You can't hurt me."

Art smiled to himself, "Yes, you're right, I can't. But there are plenty of other people in this world." He turned to Eagle, "Eagle, get Alex, Raven, Seiji, Matt, Ash and the twins to come here for break time will you." He smiled. Art went over to the cupboard and retreived Eagle's sketch book from it. He flipped through it until he found the half finished charcoal drawing of Matt, and shook his head. "Eagle, start a new picture today," he thought about it for a second, "I want you to try and remember as much as you can of what Seiji's arm's looked like this morning."

Eagle nodded, "And draw that?"

"Yep,"

"Uh, why can't I finish the other picture."

Art knelt beside him, "Just try and go one lesson thinking about something else," he smiled, "Just see what you can do, I reckon you could do it much better than me."

Five minutes before the end of the lesson Art picked up Eagle's sketch book, "That's good, blood's a bastard to draw." He smiled, "Go and fetch the others, okay?" he ordered, and as Eagle left the room, he started to pull all the blinds down across the windows.

As the bell rang for break, Matt, Seiji, Ash, Raven, Alex, Fergie and Tor turned up at the doorway.

"Alright guys," Art told his upper sixth, "You can go, except Phillip, who has to stay."

Phillip laughed, "Is this my punishment, a bunch of lower sixths,"

Art laughed back, "Yup," As the upper sixth left the room, he walked over to the lower sixth, "You go too Eagle,"

Eagle obediently left the room.

Art turned to them "I was just going to get Seiji to do this, but he's probably not 100% on form today," he grinned at them, "This boy, I'm not going to tell you his name, but this is the boy who makes every day of Eagle's life hell." He didn't add, just like Matt does, "I'm going to leave the room in a moment, and no-one can see in, understand?"

The boys nodded, "Uh, why's Raven here?" Alex asked

Art smiled, "Because I happen to know Raven can pack a mean punch." He turned to Seiji, "I'm gonna make things a little fairer, blades please."

"What, all of them?"

"Yep."

There was a click, as Seiji's palm knives slide into place. He shook them out of his hands and gave them to Art. He took off the knives strapped to each ankle, and took one out from each pocket.

"All of them," Art reminded.

Seiji grinned and lifted up his shirt, and took off the knife strapped to his stomach, "That's all."

Art grinned, "You look funny unarmed," he laughed, and gave Seiji back one of the palm knives, "Not too evil, and for god's sake, don't kill him." He said, and left the room.

Lets just say, Phillip crawled to his next lesson, and Seiji couldn't get the blood of his knuckles for atleast two days.