Derek blinked, trying to get clear vision because of the hit on the ground. He heard what Cadence said, just like Diana told him not to do, he did. He took it to heart but he didn't show it. "It's okay. I'm okay Damien." Derek said, feeling like he was more of a girl than a guy. He was acting like he cared too much instead of just not caring. He liked it oddly. Derek felt the drip of blood go down his cheek from his temple. "Oh I guess I'm bleeding a little bit." Derek said touching the blood. The sting of her slap lingered on his cheek. "Okay actually I'm hurting everywhere, fuck. Take me home please." Derek begged. Harry picked him up dragging him to the car. Cadence was crying on the porch while other girls were trying to calm her down. Derek heard her but didn't care.

"You drive Damien, and I think we can get into our own rooms without being too much of noise since most of the administrators live on the top floor. When you get to the top floor, you will need to be very quiet with Derek. I think he's out of it." Harry said waiting for Damien to start driving after everyone got onto the Jeep.

It hurt Diana to see Derek like this. She hoped he'd forget about it by tomorrow morning with his hangover. "Yes, don't worry Derek, we're going home now," Diana spoke gently. "I'll help clean you up when we get there, then you're going straight to bed. It's been a long day." Perhaps that wasn't the most 'masculine' thing to say, but she wanted to reassure Derek she'll be there for him tonight. "Okay, Harry," she said as she slipped into the drivers seat. She stuck the key in the ignition and turned on the Jeep. Putting an arm behind the passenger's seat, she reversed the car as she looked backwards to make sure she wasn't about to hit anything. Then she put the car back in drive and made their way to where they had parked the car earlier.

She was doing the route from memory, which made her even more grateful that she didn't have any drinks that night. Every now and then she'd glance into the rearview mirror to see if Derek was doing alright. It was peaceful driving at night, especially now that they were away from the party. If she listened closely, Diana could hear nearby crickets chirping. Before they knew it, they were parking where the Jeep had been parked earlier. Diana took the keys out of the car and hopped out before shutting the door. She waited by the side door for Derek to come out as well.

Despite Harry being drunk, he had helped cleaned Derek's head while on the car ride. He then looked down at the mark on his cheek. Ouch.. He thought and pulled away from derek when she pulled into the parking lot they were in earlier. "Okay Derek," he started while picking him up again and standing straight. He had the others help him get down. "Are you ready?" He asked derek. Derek nodded starting to feel like he'd throw up.

Alvin was the tallest of the group. He jumped up grabbing the latter and used his weight to pull it down. They all started to climb up going into their own hallways with their own keys, and returning to their beds. Derek got onto the latter last yawning as he went up there. He had been thinking the whole way. Cadence wasn't wrong, his father didn't hold grudges against him. He didn't even know why but he just did. He didn't think his father hated him like she said but he didn't really love him like all fathers should. She was also right about living up to his family name. It looked good to the public but not to his parents. Derek reached the top without even thinking of Damien.

"Oh, Damin?" He called out looking around. "Pull up the latter so teachers won't get all suspicious." Derek said finding his key to open the door. When it was opened, he waited for Damien.

Diana trailed behind the others, being the last to climb up the ladder. "Alright," she replied to Derek as she began climbing up the ladder. As she climbed up, she took a second to look down across the town. Even though she wasn't terribly high, there was still a fairly nice view. Diana always liked the outdoors. She even signed up for an outdoors class they offered here. That was something she never had at her old school. The more she thought about it, her old school was pretty damn trashy compared to this one. She never really realized how run down it was until she arrived here.

She made a mental note to text her friends in the morning. Her closest friends, that is. Back in Hagsbe, she had two main best friends. They were like the three musketeers. One of them was also on student council. Her name was Reneé. She had soft brown skin and curly, dyed red hair. Her mother had passed away a couple years ago. She was very sensitive and very creative. The other friend was Gretchen. Gretchen was a stubborn girl who one wouldn't expect Diana to be so close with. They knew each other since they were children because they lived on the same street. Unlike Diana, Gretchen was a social party animal. She was also a loyal person who was always there to protect Diana and Reneé from the creeps at their school.

Drifting out of her train of thought, Diana looked back up and kept climbing. She soon approached the top and pulled up the ladder like Derek told her to. Then she stood up and quietly walked back into the building.

When Derek got inside, he looked back behind him closing the door so quietly. He smiled going over back to his room. When they made it into their room, Derek just let himself fall onto his bed and let out a loud sigh. "I never want to sneak out again.." he said loud enough for Damien to hear but not loud enough to wake up anyone inside their room. "Thanks for being the sober friend in every group. We really need one of those. Otherwise, I'd have to sleep over there and hurry before the morning because they do a morning check." He said.

Derek closed his eyes, not really thinking. He wanted to just fall asleep and not think about anything Cadence said to him after she pushed him down. But he knew in the morning that her words were going to start to bother him. Derek's family was suppose to come check on him and his progress on Monday. His stomach dropped when he remembered that.

Back at their room, Diana flopped onto her bed as well. She laid her forearm across her forehead and sighed. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over what happened tonight. Cadence said, and did, some things I know she's going to regret later." She paused to wiggle under the covers of her warm bed. This would be her first night of many spent in this boarding school. Once under the covers, she turned to look over at Derek. Continuing, she said, "If you really never want to sneak out again, that's fine. But make sure that's 100% your choice, not hers. Don't let her harmful flame withstand your water." Diana chuckled at her cheesiness. "That probably doesn't even make any sense. Goodnight."

She turned so her back was facing Derek and closed her eyes. Her body was exhausted, but her mind was awake. Her mind wandered to her family. What are they doing right now? ...Probably sleeping. I bet Gretchen's awake, though. Are Harry and the others awake, or have they passed out already? Hopefully their hangovers tomorrow aren't terrible. Diana's mind slowly shut down as she drifted off into sleep.

Derek just gave him an odd look, and smiled after he turned around going to sleep. He thought about it. Maybe he should just do what he wants to do and Damien was right. Cadence shouldn't be an effect of his decisions. Derek just fell asleep letting himself build his self confidence back again not even going under the sheets.

In the morning, Derek woke up to a pound on the door making him fall onto the floor from being scared to being awake. "What the-" he was about to snap but it was the religious kids.

"Hello Derek! Do you want to go to our wonderful church services today?" They said all preppy and happy.

Derek glared at the door and looked up at his clock which said 7am. "Fuck off!" He snapped getting back up rolling his eyes at the kids who were just pissed he didn't want to come. Derek let himself back into the bed that he was resting on before. "Fucking mormons, Catholics, or whatever the hell they are.." he grumbled under his sheets. Suddenly he opened his eyes when he heard his alarm go off. "Oh right fucking soccer practice is starting today." He growled under his breath getting up.

Diana snapped awake when the religious kids pounded on their door. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes as Derek snapped at them. "What time is it.. seven?" She groaned. Part of her wanted to go back to sleep, but the startle helped wake her up. "You'd think they'd be more considerate of others, especially considering how early it is." Diana ran her fingers through her tousled hair and swung her legs over the bed, still sitting.



She picked up her phone off of her nightstand and looked at Derek as he mentioned practice. "Oh, you're in soccer?" She inquired. "That's cool. My little brother is in it as well." Smiling, she added, "I'll go to one of your games sometime." She turned on her phone and saw she had received a good morning text from her mom and a plethora of 'how's the school??' messages from her friends.

Derek rolled his eyes at the thought of the religious kids inviting him over again next Sunday. "They will probably do the same thing next fucking week." He said sighing taking off his shirt looking down at Damien. "Well, I have played soccer my whole life." He said. Derek looked back over to his dresser, grabbing his practice clothes and changing there not minding she was right behind him. He quickly changed then looked back at her. "Are you texting your girlfriend?" Derek teased.

She kept her eyes down and typed up this message for her friends as Derek was changing:

hey guys, sorry for the late reply :) move in day went well. i met my roommate and his friends. they're all very funny and nice

Diana looked back up when he was done changing and smiled. "Yep, just wishing my nonexistent girlfriend a good morning. Long distance relationships, man." She laughed and stood up, sliding her phone into her hoodie pocket. Walking to her wardrobe, she opened it and pulled out a loose-fitting navy blue t-shirt, some casual grey jeans, and boxers. When she was sure Derek wasn't looking, she very discreetly took out a Calvin Klein sports bra and a razor as well. She hid those between the other articles of clothing. "I'm just gonna hop in the shower now," she announced, walking towards the bathroom. In a teasing voice, she added, "Sorry, but you're not invited."

Derek raised an eyebrow at his last statement. "I hope not.." he said awkwardly and looked back at the mirror. "I'm heading out." Derek announced. He turned around to see a razor on the floor. A pink razor? He picked it up. "Hey you dropped your um.. razor. This is not a very good razor to shave your face with." He said assuming that's what that was for. "It's a girls razor and men's are better so.." Derek said awkwardly.

Maybe this kid is gay. He thought then thought about it for a moment. Any signs he had missed from this kid possibly being gay. He did care for him in a odd way when Cadence pushed him down. He does say really cheesy weird things. Maybe he was.

Diana turned around and looked down at her little bundle of clothes before looking up at Derek. She blushed lightly and quickly walked over to him to take the razor back. "Thanks," she said softly, not quite meeting his eyes. Then she quickly turned back and rushed into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her.

Fuck. Why am I such an idiot? She closed her eyes and sighed. If anything else like that happened again, her secret would be out for sure. Diana shook her head and turned on the water. She didn't want to think about that. If her secret got out, she could be called a liar. A phony. A pervert. A fake.

Her life would be over.

She took off her clothes and stepped into the warm shower. As she did so, a bunch of tension was released from her body.

Derek didn't say anything back just watched him go into the bathroom. He just shrugged it off, and went out of the room. He ran downstairs to see all of his soccer team waiting for their team leader. "Derek!" They all shouted his name. It had been a while since they had soccer practice since the season was over but now they were back at it again. Derek smiled while everyone was high fiving him.

"let's do a mile run." Derek said smiling at everyone. They started to run and about 25 minutes in, Derek realized he had the wrong shoes on. "I have to back up to my room I forgot my shoes." He shouted and turned to run back to his room,

By then, Diana was out of the shower and had put her things away, making sure to hide whatever needed to be hid. She took some time to look at herself in the full body mirror hanging in their room. Wearing slightly big shirts all the time was going to take some getting used to. Thank god she had a fairly small chest. She looked at her legs. These pants were flattering, but also a little long. Whatever company made these wasn't expecting somebody who was 5'4 to wear them.

Diana walked back to her bed and jumped back on it. Facing the ceiling, she quietly talked to herself in her normal voice. "Hello... this is my voice... this is creepy why am I doing this. It's just me in an empty room," she spoke softly. It was nice to finally speak normally, though. "La de da... classes start tomorrow, hopefully those goes well... my best friends are Gretchen and Reneé... I have to wear a school uniform now that I'm at a private school... that's pretty cool... hey, that rhymed!" She sat up and smiled a bit.

Derek ran up the steps, skipping one each time he went up. He got onto his floor and heard the religious students all in a group talking really really loudly so when he walked into the room, the door wasn't so loud. He didn't want to be too loud just in case Damien fell back to sleep so he didn't close the door all of the way. When he came in, he heard a girl's voice and froze in his steps. It was from Damien. "What the fuck.." He said.

Ahh short post sorry

When Derek spoke, Diana froze. How did he get in without her noticing? Stupid, stupid, stupid... She looked over to his direction. First the women's razor, now this. There was no turning back now. "Oh- hi Derek..." she said in her normal voice. Her face was a bright red. Caught. She looked straight ahead again, then down at her lap.

Ahh same

Derek raised his eyebrows. "Your voi-ice." He stumbled on his words, and he was so confused on what was going on. He stopped, connecting it in his head. Damien was more like a girl than a guy. He was small as fuck, he acted more like a women than a dude, a razor, and his voice just sounded weird for a guy. "You're a fucking girl?!" He yelled freaking out. Derek wanted that to be fake, and for him to be completely wrong. Maybe this was why he felt more comfortable to act like himself. It was a feeling of his. "A-are you? D-don't lie to me dude. I will fucking grow through everything you have." He said going near the closet that his stuff were in.

Diana bit her lip. This was going terribly. "I-" she squeezed her hands, bracing herself for whatever his next reaction would be. "...yes. I'm a girl. I'm a girl who's attending an all boys school. But I swear it's for all the right reasons, I really do! I'm not here to creep." She looked at him pleadingly. "Please promise me you won't tell anyone. And please don't yell again. Please."

Derek's upper lip was twitching while he stepped back. There was a girl living in his room with him and he had no idea how to live with a girl. Would this make his reputation look bad? He could just deny it if it did make him look bad. It won't make me look back.. I think it'll be okay.. He thought not speaking for a moment, going to his bed and sat down. There was a good side to this, he didn't have to worry about this guy- girl telling anyone anything especially when she has her own secret. He stood up, pulling this girl up to her feet to see what she looked like now that he knew Damien actually had boobs.

"Wait, are you the girl who Cadence showed me on her Facebook yesterday?" Derek asked. It was, and he knew it so his face turned a bright red. "Oh my god." He said hiding his face.

She stood up, still not being able to meet his eyes. This was embarrassing. But at the same time...it felt nice to have him in on her secret. They were roommates, after all. She'd no longer have to speak in a lower voice 24/7. She wouldn't have to be so secretive every time she went to take a shower. She could simply be herself without having to worry if she was sounding or acting like a guy.

She nodded as he asked about the girl in the Facebook photo. "Haha... yep. That was me from a few months ago. I'm flattered you think I am- er- was beautiful." She rubbed the back of her neck and looked up at him. "So my name is, in fact, Diana. Cadence and I were best friends back in elementary school. Everything I told you about myself was true, besides my gender and name. I really am from Hagsbe, I really do have a little brother that plays soccer, etcetera."