When the five of them stepped out of the entrance of Dampgate Senior Academy, they found themselves in precisely the kind of day where one would expect it to start raining any moment. The blanket of grey clouds hung heavily, nearly touching the tips of the dark pine trees that grew all around the crest of the hill where the Academy building stood.

He glanced back behind him as they walked the gravel path down in the direction of the town. The structure was exactly as one would expect something that calls itself an “Academy” to look – walls built from a light brown stone loomed large before being capped off by little spires and contained windows that stretched nearly from floor to ceiling, which flooded the cavernous classrooms in light even on days like this. On either side of the complex were the dormitories, divided by gender, even though Vic wondered why they even bothered.

When his eyes fell on the grand door to the Academy, which had to be pushed with not-insignificant force to open, and the sides of which met at the top like the tip of a leaf, all he could think about was Mrs. Laramie; how her own soft and wet folds between her legs met at the tip that hid the precious little nub that she taught him about. He could still feel its small firmness between his lips and –

“Hey you coming?”

It was Owen calling him and Vic realized that while he was craning his neck he’d fallen a good five paces behind the others, so he did a little awkward jog to catch up.

“You thinking about Mrs. Laramie again?” Owen asked with a light elbow jab into Vic’s ribs.

“What? How did you even know?” For the millionth time that day, Vic had to look down at his pants to see if they had been betraying him and thankfully this time they were not.

Owen laughed an easy laugh. “Oh you just have that startled new student look about you is all. All you newbies take some time getting used to it.”

“I take it you’ve been here a while then?”

“Long enough to feel like I’m the experienced one,” Owen said, thrusting his hands in his pockets. Vic marveled at how confidently Owen carried himself, especially for a guy who was fairly short – about the height of Agnes, though a few inches taller than Liz. When Vic walked side by side with him, he could look down at the top of Owen’s head – his well-trimmed curly hair growing thickly on his head. Everything about him seemed thick except for his height – thick eyebrows, wide chin, but also wide shoulders. Not an expert in these things by any means, but Owen didn’t seem to Vic too handsome for a guy, though again that confidence seemed to make up for it in spades.

“You get a lot of new students here?” Vic probed, hoping to not feel so lost and alone if he wasn’t the first one to be caught off guard by Dampgate Senior Academy.

“I don’t know about ‘a lot’,” Owen shrugged, looking down the path ahead of him, allowing the three girls to gain a bit of distance on them, “But they come around occasionally, new students, transfer students, substitute teachers. Always new faces abound. So … it pays to talk to people. If you get shy, you might get frozen out, you know what I’m saying?”

“I’m … not sure I do, but thanks for the advice.”

“No problem, buddy,” Owen said clapping a hand on Vic’s shoulder, having to reach a bit. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine here.”

“Thanks,” Vic replied, not as certainly as he hoped, and then threw one last glance at the Academy building before it disappeared behind the trees as the path to Aphrodite’s Landing took a turn.