When The Snow Falls

Daniel exhaled irritably and was even more disheartened to see how visible the vapour was. Not only was he starting school at a snobby all-boys boarding school, it was the coldest winter for decades. It had been snowing on and off all day and the school was surrounded by snow several inches deep. The school was also in the middle of nowhere and was hard to get to. It was a depressing combination of factors. It didn't help that this was his second life either.

He shot a dark look at his father who was warm and cosy in the car. Daniel had been sent out the car to open the gates so they could then drive another mile to actually get to the school. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long to get in contact with the receptionist who opened the gates remotely. That would be his only stroke of good luck that day.

He knocked the snow off his shoes before getting back into the car. Pulling out of the school he had been attending before was not his personal decision. His father had turned up outside the school the day before and told him that Kingston Royal Academy had a vacancy for someone his age and he was going to fill it before some other son of an aristocrat got in. It was an understatement to say that Daniel was annoyed with his father.

Kingston Royal Academy had a reputation for being a very strange boarding school that was still in the Victorian era from its buildings to its values. Daniel himself had attended a standard private school until the day before that he had no issues with. The original intention had been for him to attend from Kingston Royal Academy from the start; an untimely skiing 'accident' in France during the Christmas holidays five years ago had caused him to miss the admission interviews. He hadn't been anywhere near as disappointed about it as his father had been. In fact he had orc.h.e.s.trated the 'accident' himself.

For over a century his male ancestors had attended the school so his father had been rather annoyed about it. It didn't help that his cousin had got in and made sure to let him know every time they saw each other at family gatherings.

His father, Earl Entwhistle chose the mile drive from the front gates to the actual school to impart some fatherly wisdom and advice. Or rather Entwhistle family style advice.

"Make as many powerful friends as you can make in your time here," he informed him. "Of course I will be paying attention to your grades, but make sure to come home at Easter with a list of your friends."

Daniel pulled a face. He wasn't a natural socialiser like his parents. He found it easy to make acquaintances, taking the step to friendship never happened to him. Not that he was interested though. He had gone through with no friends in his past life, he could do it again.

"I'll see what I can do," he replied with a deliberate hint of vagueness.

"At least two," his father warned. "With titles or political connections. No scholarship student friends- they don't have those things."

This time Daniel didn't resist the urge to roll his eyes. The main problem with being raised by an Earl was the pure snobbery.

Fortunately the conversation was put on hold when the actual school came into view. The photos in the school prospectus hadn't quite done the gothic architecture justice. Unlike other schools that had added onto their original buildings with modern architecture, this school was completely Victorian with statues, turrets and a clock tower. The roof, spires and turrets were blanketed with a thick layer of snow.

The grey sky behind it helped give it a dark atmosphere. Daniel felt that the school wouldn't look out of place in an old horror film.

"It hasn't changed at all," his father said with a tone of satisfaction. "It's probably still ice cold inside. Old buildings don't lend themselves well to modern heating."

Daniel was suddenly grateful to his mother for packing him two hot water bottles, a thermal vest and three blankets. He had thought she had been going over the top because he was going to be living away from home. Now he knew why she had gone overboard.

"You're lucky the uniform was updated a few years ago; I had to wear shorts all year," his father explained with a grin.

Daniel shuddered at the thought of wearing shorts in this weather. He was feeling the cold enough in his jeans.

***

Being an Entwhistle meant that his father ditched him at the entrance of the school instead of coming in with him and drove off almost immediately after telling him to make some contacts, the shadier the better. Daniel wasn't too sad to see him go and walked into the dark building without looking back to check for the car. If this was his first day five years before, he probably would have cried.

He stood in the reception for a few minutes, appreciating being inside from the snow and waited for the promised head of house and prefect who were supposed to be coming to meet him. The receptionist had explained he had been placed in the Scarlet Wren house which was taken care of by a housemaster and a prefect.

Daniel was acquainted with the prefect system as his private school had them, but the concept of a housemaster felt strange.

The housemaster turned out to be a kind looking middle aged man that was eager to make him feel at home. The prefect on the other hand, looked like he didn't want to be there.

"The Scarlet Wren house prefect, Liam Brown here will take you on a tour," the housemaster said once the introductions were done. "The Easter term starts next week, some pupils are already back here to study for the mock exams."

"Do I have to do the exams?" Daniel asked.

His housemaster levelled him with a surprised look.

"Of course you do. You have a week to study for them, the relevant books have been left in your bedroom."

Another aspect that Daniel hadn't liked about Kingston Royal Academy was the shared rooms. Whilst it could have been a whole dormitory of boys to share with, he still wasn't looking forward to having a roommate.

"I saw your admission test scores, you should be fine," the prefect said encouragingly. "That's why you were placed in this house."

Did that mean he was in the house destined for nerds?

***

"This is the humanities department," Liam pointed. "Across there is the theatre- it's mostly used for drama students they have to write and perform the annual school production. Here is the science department. The numbering system means that you should find all the rooms easily."

Kingston Royal Academy was definitely an old building. Daniel was feeling a chill and he was still wearing his coat. Liam on the other hand, was dressed in full school uniform and wasn't showing any signs of being cold.

"The teachers' bedrooms are on the floor below our bedrooms so they can hear when someone is up late past curfew," the prefect continued. "We are coming up to the canteen now."

The first thing that hit Daniel about the canteen was the warmth. It also had a slightly more modern interior compared to everywhere else. That meant no wallpaper, lots of white walls and plenty of radiators.

"This is the new canteen so it's actually warm," Liam commented cheerily. "The desserts are good as well."

The mention of desserts made Kingston Royal Academy rise slightly higher in his estimation. Having central heating would have done more, but he would take what he could get with this school.

"The area where the old canteen was located is off limits to everyone because it's unsafe," the prefect explained. "Anyone caught there gets worse than a detention."

"What's worse than a detention? Suspension?" Daniel asked.

Old fashioned private schools were known to have strange punishments. His school, a more modern private school had made troublemaking students come into school at the weekends for detention.

Liam chose to smirk mysteriously instead of answering.

"Try not to find out," he warned. "Anyway, the last stop will be your room. Your roommate arrived back this week. Unfortunately, we have to walk outside again to get back to that building; this school needs more modernisation."

With that the prefect turned away and walked quickly out the canteen. Daniel struggled to catch up with him due to his short legs. They stopped outside a door marked 12 – A.

The prefect knocked on the door and pushed it open when there was no answer. Daniel looked around for his new roommate whoever he was, and found the room empty. His suitcase had been placed neatly by his bed by someone else. Both sides of the room were mirrors of each other except his side was limited to b.a.r.e furniture.

"He must be in the library," Liam explained. "If you don't see him before dinner you'll see him at curfew. Curfew is 11pm until the term starts. It's 10pm after that."

The prefect left him after that which left Daniel alone to unpack and poke around his new bedroom. He placed his clothes in his slightly mouldy smelling wardrobe and placed the blankets on the bed. Judging by the temperature of the room in the afternoon, it was going to be a cold night. He discovered a radiator underneath his desk that was sadly stone cold. Resting on top of his desk was a stack of textbooks from the curriculum and his new school uniform.

With his luggage unpacked and nothing much to do before dinner, Daniel elected to cross to the other side of the room. The door had no lock on so it was going to be easy to get caught having a snoop. It would be helpful to know a few things about his roommate before he met him.

Luckily his new roommate was neat and tidy from the appearance of his desk and bed. There weren't any posters on the wall to indicate his interests or personality as sticking posters on the walls were banned. There were however, a few post it notes with mathematical formulae stuck on the side of the wardrobe. Daniel read the name off the exercise book lying in the middle of the desk.

Felix Albury.

The name wasn't familiar to him. He knew or had heard of titled males around his age. Daniel reminded himself that he could be a scholarship student. He debated having a deeper search through Felix's side of the room and decided against it for now.

Instead he started reading through the books he had brought with him. His interest was detective novels due to his past life. He flipped through the worst looking one idly and amused himself by guessing the solution halfway through the novel and skipping to end to see if he was correct.

Of course he got it right. Solving a piddly locked room murder puzzle was nothing after all the cases he had solved in his previous life.

The next thing he knew it was six in the evening which was when the dinner period started and his roommate still hadn't returned from wherever he was.

Daniel's stomach rumbled and made his mind up for him. He could judge his roommate after dinner that hopefully involved a good dessert. He was about to leave the room when he remembered that all students had to wear school uniform at all times, including dinner.

He pulled on the uniform hastily. The uniform consisted of black trousers, white shirt, black waistcoat, a tie that was black and red striped to represent his house and a black blazer with a gold name badge pinned to it. Daniell felt a cold chill once he was dressed and immediately put on his coat.

He looked out the window to check the weather as the route to the canteen involved walking outside and frowned when he saw that it was snowing again. He would have to ask Felix whenever he turned up about how to not freeze to death at Kingston Royal Academy. He was somewhat disconcerted and relieved by not encountering any other pupils on his route out of the dormitory.

Daniel shivered the moment he stepped outside due to the snow and cold wind pummeling his face. He screwed up his eyes in an effort to keep the snow out so he could see where he was going in the darkness. His shoes were also feeling inadequate as they were sinking into the deep blanket of snow on the ground. There were a few old fashioned streetlights casting dim light to illuminate the path which he was thankful for.

Suddenly he heard a loud thud behind him and he whirled around. At first he was completely confused and then he realised something had fallen down onto the snow.

He bent down and saw in the poor light from the streetlight that it was a person in a Kingston Royal Academy uniform. He stood still for a moment in shock and then lurched into action.

Whoever it was had dark hair covering his face and had a small pool of blood around his head that was leaking into the snow. Daniel checked for a pulse and found a weak one. He could hear faint breaths coming from whoever it was. The pupil was still alive, probably due to the snow cushioning his fall. He thought about finding someone else to help and knew it would take too long considering the only pupil he had seen was the prefect two hours ago so he grabbed his phone with numb fingers and dialled 999 and to request an ambulance.

As he talked on the phone he looked up at where the student should have fallen from and for a moment, he could see a figure on the roof. He blinked and the figure was gone when he looked again.

He dismissed it from his mind as he had much more important things to do. When he leaned cover the pupil in his coat, he noticed his name badge glint in the light and let out a faint gasp when he read the name.

It appeared that he wasn't going to be sharing a room with Felix Albury for a while.