This was it; this was definitely it. Seb looked up at the crumbling building before him. Alright, admittedly it was not what he had been hoping for, but it was what he was looking for, and he really didn’t have the option to be picky at this time of night. His shoes crunched almost painfully over the gravelled path as the boy made his way past the rather ominous looking bushes, and towards his new home.

Maybe he had been a little too harsh in his first impression; it was in good condition despite its obvious age. Someone seemed to have taken a good deal of time in making sure that all of the fallen leaves were swept out of the way, and the flowerbeds were all neatly full, despite the cold months leaving them rather bare of life. The house itself was okay too; from the outside it looked like a stately mansion that an ordinary person such as Seb would never, ever consider living in. But the rooms inside, and the light breaking through the closed curtains, seemed to radiate just enough warmth to make him smile, just a little, but enough. He advanced to the dark wooden door, and rung the bell.

For a small moment nothing happened, but then a bustle of noise arrived on the other side; someone was letting him in. Bright light blinded Seb’s eyes, and in a rush he was suddenly confronted with several faces.

“Jeez… I told you to take your keys with you…” there was a pause. “You’re not Adriel?” If this house was a pack, then no doubt about it, the girl standing before him now was the alpha wolf. By no means was she tall, she didn’t act threatening, she looked younger than him, and Seb could probably knock her into the ground with one strike. She just stood out so much from the group bundled behind her, unafraid.

“Erm, is this the boarding house… for the school down the road…” Ugh, Seb couldn’t even remember its name, and he was acting so nervously in front of a group of people that were clearly younger than he was; must be the other boarders. The girl quickly eyed him up and down, before motioning behind her with a thumb.

“Alright, get inside. It’s cold out.” And with those simple words, Seb was dragged into the sea of faces, none familiar, but all welcoming, and most of them looking at him excitedly.

“What’s your name? Where are you from? What’s your favourite food?” Seb suddenly found that he had a girl attached to his arm, and had to drop his suitcase in order to avoid completely falling over onto the wooden floor.

“My name’s Seb… it’s nice to meet you,” he smiled down at the hyperactive girl, leaving the other questions unanswered for later. Hmm, she was pretty cute, although she looked about fourteen years old. She obviously had some kind of Asian background; her looks and unusual accent gave it away. Not quite sure of what to do, the older teen gave her a pat on the head, hoping that she wouldn’t think that he was treating her too much like a child. Luckily, this action just received a beaming smile and a tighter clench on his arm; as if it didn’t feel broken enough already.

“Ugh… when you’re done perving on Shina, will you come into the dining room?” It was that girl again, with a tone of mild annoyance in her voice. Seb pulled his arm away from Shina in embarrassment, who just looked happily oblivious to what was going on and skipped off into the next room humming to herself.

“Alright, alright,” Seb half smiled as he picked up his battered suitcase and walked up to the person barring half of the doorway. “Jealous?” He couldn’t help smirking as he reached out to pat this girl on the head too. For a second she paused, seeming to be unsure of what to do, perhaps even looking a little frightened. But then the moment was over, and she returned to the girl Seb had met at the door.

“Haha, you’re cute,” she smiled back at him cheerfully, and Seb had the time to inspect her too. Hmm, she probably could have done better in more revealing, or at least a little less… boring clothes. He made a mental note to buy her a nice, tight fitting T-shirt for her birthday. She did have quite a good-looking face, and long, soft reddish-brown hair. It was a shame that it was merely tied up in a boring ponytail. So far, it looked like there was only girls staying here… of course it was unlikely, but if it was just he and several girls all living in a house, it could turn out like one of those stories he’d read….

“Aww, now why don’t I get a friendly greeting?” Brightly accessorised arms clamped themselves tightly around Seb’s chest from behind, probably crushing a few ribs in the process. Apart from the pain, the first thing that he noticed was the overwhelming amount of sweet, flowery perfume. He didn’t have much time to think however, as he was swivelled around so that whoever it was could get a better look at him.

The first thing that entered Seb’s mind at that moment was that this person was not female. All right, it wouldn’t have been such a strange statement if this person had been anything but completely effeminate. Seriously, what boy dyed their hair bubblegum pink? At least he was just wearing jeans and a T-shirt, albeit being covered in junk of every colour of the rainbow.

“My name’s Ash,” he smiled, while looking the older teen up and down rather like a tasty meal that he was about to enjoy eating. Talking of meals, Seb couldn’t help but feel the inescapable pangs of hunger setting in. He hadn’t managed to buy any food on the stressful journey there, and judging by the timing, everyone here had already eaten.

“Er, I’m Seb… say, is there any chance I could get anything to eat right now?” he replied, feeling a little guilty at Ash’s disheartened face that came with his brief reply. If he was going to be living here, they would provide food for him, right?

“Didn’t I say, come in here, you can’t just stand around there all night…” the girl interrupted; Seb had totally forgotten that she was still there. Ah, the dining room… maybe they would feed him after all? Perhaps she was even going to cook something especially for him…

What actually followed was about an hours worth of paperwork, with not even any snacks to fill Seb’s grumbling stomach. The time wasn’t totally wasted though; he did find out that her name was Erica, she was somehow the landlady, and she was aged sixteen. Hmm, a couple of years younger than he was; it wasn’t bad. It also appeared that he was the oldest of the current boarders, and that Ash was in fact male. There were also a great deal of people that he hadn’t met yet, but all in good timing.

After a while, Seb was delighted to see that the thing placed in front of his face was not another form to fill in, but food. He identified the short, dark-skinned boy who had just put the appetising meal of pork, rice and broccoli on the placemat as Thomas and, after thanking him greatly, tucked into his meal. It was delicious.

“I hope you know how to cook.” Erica said presently, at the well-placed timing of when Seb had just stuffed more meat into his already crowded mouth. “We all take turns to cook dinner for everybody.” Seb hoped that everyone would be alright with eating baked-beans on toast; cooking had never been a skill that he had mastered. You would have thought that living alone for the past couple of years would have taught him how to cook more than instant food, but sadly this was not the case.

When he had finished eating, Erica took the empty plate into the kitchen, and started up the wooden staircase, Seb obediently following in her footsteps with his suitcase. They stopped on the first floor, at a door right at the end of the corridor.

“Well, this is your room!” Erica turned the handle, the hinges creaking a little as she swung it open. Well, it was definitely a nice place to live. It matched the exterior and hallways in its superior build, but at the same time seemed warm and homely. Even though they hadn’t been expecting his arrival, it was in a good, clean condition. There was little furniture: an already-made bed, a desk and a wardrobe. Luckily he’d noticed on one of the forms that you could buy your own furniture; Seb liked to have clutter around. He dumped his suitcase by the bed and peered out of the window. Okay, so a tree probably wasn’t the best of views, but he supposed it would look kind of pretty in any other season.

“Okay, I guess I’ll leave and come and check back in an hour or so? I’m on the floor up if you need me,” Erica waved cheerfully as she began to pull the door shut behind her. “Oh… one more thing,” she added, looking rather nervously around her before moving in closer to Seb.

“Er, yes?” The male replied, wanting to back away from the advancing figure. She was a metre away, a foot, soon mere inches from him. He was surprised that she had moved so close; he could even feel her breath, her soft fingers on his cheek, his neck. Seb was almost frozen in shock; she was so close… he couldn’t help but be pulled down a little; their faces were almost aligned as she drew in even closer. It felt like his heart rate had doubled, it was just like she was going to…

“I forgot to tell you,” she whispered gently, still clutching him tightly in her grasp. “Did you see the room downstairs… the locked one.”

“No, I didn’t, I’m sorry…” Seb admitted. He couldn’t tell if he was relieved or disappointed; she had only been meaning to whisper something to him. All the same, he couldn’t shake off that feeling of tension and fear enveloping him as she spoke; so gentle, but so coldly too.

“Please, for you own sake… don’t go in there. Don’t go in that room. Promise me you won’t go in the room. Promise me…” Words escaped her lips faster, nails almost cutting into Seb’s face. “Please…” he could no longer see her face, but the grip loosened, and he was suddenly free; released to look at the sad figure before him.

“Look; if it’s that important to you, I won’t go in there. I promise.” Seb tilted her chin up to face him, feeling like he was comforting a small child, not someone a couple of years below him. “Alright?” Her face half brightened, and Erica smiled sadly up at him.

“Thanks… you’re cute,” she said for the second time this evening, giving Seb the feeling that she was playing the older role, which seemed pretty funny considering the scene just past. But it was good to see her bright side again, even though he had absolutely no idea what on earth had caused that strange outburst. Hormones, maybe? He would never understand girls.

The rest of the evening passed pretty uneventfully. Erica called in again, but he didn’t see any other boarders except for Ash, who Seb had a suspicion wanted to stay and sleep over in the older teen’s room. But he was having none of it, and ended up almost literally pushing the flamboyant boy from his room. It had been a long day. He needed his sleep.

------------------------------ Hmm, a pretty strange chapter, (or prologue)

A lot is left unexplained here.

I’ll probably come back and edit this a little; finished at 2:14am, so tiredness probably missed the mistakes xP

Auugh, plus checking through took me around 5x longer with the compulsions… urrr…

Seriously, writing and planning this story scares me… I wonder if I’ll make it through x’D

This story is so far un-named, but I will try to think of a name soon