to the top

Damian Fitzgerald’s downfall was a ladder to his own success, and he was already eagerly plotting his next move of ascent. Maria was a challenge he had yet to tackle. She’d beaten him out for the position of student council president, and although he acknowledged they worked well as a team, he was reminded of his resentment at every meeting when she sat at the head of the council table, this afternoon included.

He’d just begun to head back to the dorms in order to change for practice when a heavy clatter pulled his attention. Just across the hall, a student’s book bag appeared to have snapped at the straps, plummeting to the ground and spilling the contents across the floor.

There was nothing Tristan wanted to do less than waste the sparse, precious time he had in between student council meetings and cross country practice, but he had an image to upkeep. Tristan crossed the hall, shifting his bag behind him so he could have a clear reach as he knelt to gather the scattered items. “Are you alright? I have a spare bag in my room if you need one.” He gestured to the broken strap of the bag.

Kat nearly jumped out of her skin when she finally caught sight of Tristan flailing about in front of her. “Oh my God,” she whined, scolding him for frightening her as she pulled her headphones out and realized he was asking her about her setup. “No, my bed is leaking,” that wasn’t right, “My bed- bedroom, is leaking,” still not quite there, “The- there’s like a hole in the ceiling near above my bed and there’s water, so,” she still hadn’t quote provided a reasonable explanation for why she was camped out in the hole but hey, it was more diplomatic than telling Tristan that her best friend had just dumped her but unfortunately the pair still had to room together. “They’re going to fix it this week but there’s no spare bed for me,” though she’d gladly bunk with Tristan if that was on offer, God he was sexy. Sexy in a nerdy way. It made her want to read a book and learn her times tables.

She dismissed her dorky fantasy for the moment, focusing back on whatever the fuck the Keough captain had been saying to her moments before, “- but yeah, I’ll be careful of fires and everything,” she’d picked up on the keywords ‘fire hazard’ and had paid attention to little else he’d said, making it quite clear that Katherine had missed the point of his brief lecture altogether. Oh well.

“Are you supposed to be in Girls’ dorm? It’s almost lights out- there’s a lot of bras off,” hers included. Fuck. “-not that it isn’t nice to see you visiting but…” she allowed her voice to trail as she attempted to correct herself, not wanting to sound like a total asshole after she’d just lied through her teeth to him and then questioned his presence in a slightly accusatory manner.

Tristan jumped in shock at her rather explosive response. Apparently, his attempt at subtly attracting her attention by waving had only resulted in her being equally or more frightened than if he’d just called out her name. He made a mental note of it. “I’m sorry.” He offered her a smile, a light laugh punctuating his voice as she whined. The action was utterly reminiscent of his little sister, warranting a rare expression of genuine emotion from him. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought it might be a better way to get your attention with the headphones.” He pointed at his own ears to demonstrate. “Leaking?” He frowned. That wouldn’t do.  He was about to offer to inspect the leak himself and fill out the necessary paperwork to file a repair order when she mentioned there was already someone on the job. Still, Tristan wasn’t satisfied with such a delayed response time. A student being forced out of their own room due to an incompetent staff was unacceptable for a school of this caliber, at least in Tristan’s opinion. “That’s unfortunate.” He straightened his glasses. “If you need, I can have a word with the custodial staff. It seems completely unreasonable that you should be put out of your room for so long.”

Tristan chuckled, completely at ease with correcting her. Either Katherine hadn’t been listening or she wasn’t particularly bright, and in Tristan’s opinion, either could be equally likely. Of course, to Katherine’s face, he’d be nothing but flattering. “That’s a relief.” He spoke with what would be perceived as utter sincerity. “Although, I think the main concern would be for your fellow students trying to evacuate,” he added, demonstrating to the blocked pathway. Of course, returning to a soaked room hardly seemed like a fitting alternative. “Maybe we can find some other accommodations for you, at least until the room is repaired.”

“Uh-” It was rare for Tristan to feel flustered, but Katherine managed to catch him off guard. Was it odd that he was in the girl’s dorm at this hour? He’d thought he had sufficient time to speak with Maria and leave without any issues, but perhaps he had miscalculated. Of course, turning and leaving now would only reflect poorly on him. He hated looking like he lacked forethought. So instead he checked his watch. “I’m meeting with Maria. I had some concerns about our last Student Council Meeting. But you make a good point. It is getting late.”

The moment he started to laugh at her, whether it was intended as a harmless gesture or not, Allie looked up at him with an unimpressed squint. What’s funny? She wanted to ask, and perhaps if she’d been within the safe barrier of her quiet hometown where she could get away with that sort of thing and not currently trapped in fucking Hogwarts, she just might have. Instead, she just continued to stare at him through dark raccoon eyes as if daring him to be nice to her, see how far it got him. ( Spoiler alert; not far )

But her tone changed a little when his introduction led with the fact he was a House Captain. Hers, actually, if she remembered the names well enough. If things weren’t bad enough here, Allie hated yellow and people who wore it, so go figure her luck. Still, albeit as smooth as a barbed-wire fence, she was bright. Tristan, House Captain of Keough, was probably not somebody she wanted to be a trollop to in the first five seconds of meeting him.

Oh but teenage girls were just creatures of habit, she she found it so counterintuitive to be pleasant. “If by a lot you mean it makes me want to guzzle a chainsaw, you wouldn’t be far off, Tristan of House Keough.” God, what was this, fucking Game of Thrones or something? 

“So you already know me. Cool. I guess House Captains are above common student confidentiality. Look, not to be weird but can we just keep that between us? I don’t like spotlights.” What she really meant was she didn’t want to be served a preemptive judgment by people if they learned Katherine Bishop was her sister, though she hadn’t considered it might actually be the other way around just yet. “I’ve already got a badge of honor at home for being the family inconvenience, I don’t need to put them through it here too.”

It wasn’t the first time Tristan had dealt with a difficult student. Rooming with his fellow Keough Charlie North was evidence of that, but Tristan could already tell Allie’s particular breed of surly could pose a challenge, and apparently, he’d already made a misstep. He shifted his feet, brow rasing in response to her...vibrant descriptions. It was funny, objectively speaking, as most hyperbolic statements were. He filed the note away, pegging Allie as someone who might be predisposed towards the literary arts, possibly even the debate team if she could manage to get her attitude in check. But only if her knack for language, metaphor, and predisposition to criticism turned out to be a talent rather than an unfortunate result of teen angst. 

“Only of you.” An important specification, although given Allie’s apparent predisposition to having a personality akin to spoiled milk, not one she’d put much stock in. “But I’d like to get to know you.” And he did. There was always value in understanding someone, whether they were an ally, an acquaintance or an issue to be dealt with. 

“Of course. I understand completely” He nodded to emphasize this, although it couldn’t be further from the truth. He could understand not wanting to be recognized by association with another. Tristan prided himself on being an individual, recognized for his accomplishments, capabilities, and leadership. Even if he made a point of acknowledging the efforts of the collective, it was a token to make himself more humble than he was. This was the opposite of what Allie said, but Tristan believed even if the reasoning was individualized, the sentiment could be applicable to multiple situations. “As far as anyone else is concerned, your shared last name is just a coincidence.” The other students wouldn’t have to know he was lying, and he might be able to ply some feeble trust out of Allie Bishop.

The Family Inconvenience. He took note of that. For someone who seemed to hate spotlights, she certainly seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve. Such blatant vulnerability, in Tristan’s eyes, seemed rather attention-seeking to him, in spite of what Allie might have claimed. “Well, you’ll never be an inconvenience here, at least not to me.” So long as she was easier to wrangle than Charlie North. “If you have any questions or need help with anything, just let me know. I’m always happy to help. Unless it involves guzzling a chainsaw. I might have to take a pass on that,” softening the offer with a joke, one corner of his mouth hitched in a loose smile.

Instead of sharing a bedroom with her backstabbing best friend, Katherine had decided to drag her mattress out into the hallway, without any regard for the fact that it was more suited for pedestrian traffic than for her accommodation overnight. She knew she’d get into trouble if she was caught there, so she planned on dragging her mattress, as well as her potted plant, Richard, back into dorm C4 before breakfast but for now, she was settled away from Andrea Pearson. She certainly wasn’t worried about obstructing people or leaving too little room for them to comfortably pass her on their way to common areas or to their own bedroom, that was obvious as she set her hydroflask down beside her, shoved her earphones into her ears and pulled her blanket over her body. No, she was only worried about herself (as per usual) and the fact that she had been so unfairly betrayed by the people she trusted the most. How cruel, she thought, as she hit play on Justin Bieber’s ‘Yummy’, that a girl as nice as her should be treated that way. She was a good friend, if you asked her. Was it too much to ask for the same decency in return?

Tristan was only in the girl’s dorm because he was looking for Maria. He had a few concerns in regards to the Canned Food Drive proposed at their most recent student council meeting, particularly about how they would select the recipients of the donated items. While he had expected to encounter several girls on his voyage, a lone mattress left adrift in the middle of the hallway with one Katherine Bishop marooned atop it was the last thing he expected. Although, over the years he’d grown relatively familiar with his fellow Keough, at least enough to know that the frequent exclamation of ‘Bishop,’ was indicative of her propensity for getting into trouble. So perhaps he should have at least expected that if any girl were to set up camp in the middle of the hallway, potted plant included, it was Katherine Bishop. She appeared to have headphones in, so he waved his arms to catch her attention and avoid surprising her. He gestured to the sprawl of her items across the hall. “If I remember correctly, section three of the student handbook specifically obstructions of hallways as a fire hazard.” He might have seemed to condemn her if he weren’t smiling. The sight was rather amusing after all. “Is the camp out some kind of protest?” He knew she was passionate about that sort of thing.

When her Mom had said; sweetheart, make a choice. Allie hadn’t realized she’d chosen an actual concentration camp over literal freedom. It had been a grand total of one entire school day at the academy, her new little slice of heaven to call home for the next year or so, and Allie was about as close to throwing herself off a tall building as she was to exposing herself as a major fucking idiot for having thought Catholic boarding school was a good idea. Call her tragic, but the idea of going to a boring little public school in a quaint suburban town had seemed like the end of the world and this was the easy option, especially after Kat had made up so much bullshit about it not being that bad. Whatever, it was only for the rest of her junior and senior year, it wasn’t the worst thing… or that’s what she’d thought before she’d come, she’d seen and she’d decided that her step-sister was a gigantic pathological liar.

Academy Card lost in the depth of her bag, Allie didn’t want anybody seeing her last name and connecting the dots. Not yet anyway. Not when she’d already twisted her head at an angry “Bishop!” once that day, only to realize it wasn’t her that was gaining the exposure but her twiggy adopted counterpart. Already sufficiently pissed off by entry to the world against her own free-will, Allie now sat on the low wall of the cloisters, reflecting on her traumatic first day. Her uniform had been corrected not two, but three times already, she’d been told to remove half of her makeup and all of her nail polish, and if that wasn’t traumatic enough to her fragile identity, being talked to like she was stupid by teachers and leered at by senior boys was tipping point.

A shadow fell over her and Allie was a hair-trigger from bashing her skull into sandstone. “Let me guess — I can’t sit on the wall. Breaking School Code four-hundred and twenty-eight. Give me a sec, I’ll just add that to the extensive list of wrong shit I’ve done today, thanks.”

Tristan had been informed of a new student being admitted into Keough, and a Bishop at that. He had a personal rule about making assumptions, more specifically, not making assumptions because he believed they predisposed one for failure. However, he couldn’t help making a few assumptions about the sister of someone as...spirited as Katherine Bishop.

Yet as he exited the doorway leading into the cloisters, catching sight of Broadripple’s newest student seated on one of the stone walls, he promptly took note of the fact that every assumption he made was wrong. Of course, he couldn’t truly place the girl until he observed her over the coming weeks. Watching was often more informative than speaking to a person. People said all sorts of things. They lied, they were honest, they were wishful, or depreciating, but rarely were they ever accurate. However, speaking to a person offered a rare form of information - the way someone chose to portray themselves, or at the very least how they saw themselves. All of which were important to his position as House Captain.

The school was on edge. Rumors of Izzy and Maggie’s disappearance buzzed amongst the student body, random occurrences had somehow become the source of activity for an unofficial club founded by two new students, and the Academy was on edge. Tristan couldn’t blame them. Images were fragile to maintain and Broadripple’s seemed precariously balanced on the edge between order and chaos. But Tristan knew where his vested interests lay.

Even if it weren’t his responsibility to make Allie feel as welcome as possible to her new home-away-from-home, he would have made it a point to introduce himself. He wanted to know if she’d turn out to be a nuisance, a threat, another face passing him in the halls, or something else entirely. These days it seemed anything was possible, and he needed to be prepared for that.

She was overwhelmed. He could read it in her posture, the slight pinch of her expression. And if he had been oblivious to her body language, her tone was the equivalent of a sled-hammer to the temple.

He adjusted accordingly.

He chuckled, tipping his head downward. “Technically if you sit with both legs inside and don’t put your feet on the wall, you should be all clear.” He offered her his hand. “I’m Tristan -- House Captain of Keough. I was told today was your first day.” He doubted asking how she was liking the school would warrant a positive response. “Just thought I’d check in and see how you’re doing. This place can be... a lot at first.” A common complaint, one he felt she might resonate with.

                                           M E E T   T R I S T A N