Winter still felt off. He breathed deeply and could feel his binder protecting him. Surrounding him. It was there.
In the class he once again had to introduce himself. A few of the guys had already seen him, but most of them were new. Winter just introduced himself in kind of the same way as the last time, the boys laughed, and he fit right in. Hiding the discomfort and anxiety that was slowly engulfing him. Did he really seem like a guy? Did he really pass as one? Was it okay for him to be amongst the other guys?
“Hey, Winston wh-“ A guy started to say, but quickly got cut off by another one.
“He said he preferred being called Winter. Respect him, man” he said, looking at Winter and winking.
‘What was that?’ Winter thought as he could feel himself get a bit more out of his head with all of the noise around him, filled with laughing boys.
“Sorry – Hey Winter, what kind of club are you going to join?” The first guy tried to say again. Winter hadn’t really thought about clubs, so he just gave a bit of a shrug.
“I don’t know, is there a nap-club?” Winter asked as he felt himself smirk a bit. The guy let out a little laugh.
“Nah, but there is a sewing club. Isn’t that almost the same thing? Both are equally boring and makes you sleep” He said. Winter chuckled a bit at this.
“How many times do I need to tell you. The sewing club is NOT boring!” The boy that had respected Winter wanting to be called Winter said, a bit offended. Winter was surprised. He didn’t think this boy would be a member of a sewing club. He looked tall and muscular and most of all reminded Winter more of a jock than a sewing person. However, Winter also knew that not everything was as it seemed and couldn’t be judged as such.
“Maybe I should check it out” Winter said after thinking a bit about it.
“REALLY?” The boy lit up in the eyes and moved over to Winter quickly, seeming like an animal hunting down its prey. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, Winter thought as the boy stopped in front of him.
“I’m Couch, but I prefer being called Coach. My parents said they named me that ‘cause I was made on the couch…” Coach says as he reaches out his hand, finding Winter’s and giving a proper handshake.
Winter thought it was kind of fun how most of the people here preferred to be called something other than their name, while he just wanted to be called Winter.
“Nice to meet you, Coach” Winter said, giving a proper handshake back. The two boys smiled a bit at each other until the guy that had asked about clubs came running towards them.
“And I’m Max, but just call me Awesome, ‘cause I’m THAT awesome” Max said, not wanting to be left out, holding out his hand.
“Nice to meet you, Max” Winter said with a bit of a smirk, taking his hand with his free hand, standing very awkwardly, shaking hands with two people at once.
“Yea yea, nice to meet you WIN-TER” Max said as he took the chance to make a bit more fun on Winter’s behalf, just because he could. After which he let go of his hand. As did Coach.
“What’s your next lesson?” Coach asked,
“Maybe we can go together” He continued, taking his own schedule out of his bag to look.
“I think I have Professor Heart in room 4-U” Winter said, thinking back to his schedule that he memorized earlier.
“Oh, me too!” Max interrupted and slingshot himself at Coach, going all up in his face, while taking his arm around him.
“Jelly?” He smirked, going back towards Winter, taking his arm around him and pulling him closer, much to Winter’s surprise.
“Come on now, let us move forth to our adventure, best friend Winter!” Max said in a dramatic voice. Coach took himself to the head, and Winter just smiled awkwardly not knowing exactly what was happening, other than Max and Coach seemingly were super good friends.
“I’ll drop by to pick you up after your class so I can show you the sewing club!” Coach called after them as Max hurriedly went out of the room with Winter in tow, not having much to say.
Funny fellows, Winter thought as Max rambled on and on about how they would save the world from a large crocodile before lunch. Not that Winter knew what that meant.
The next lesson was another introduction, but this time with Max sitting and yelling at Professor Heart that Winston wanted to be called Winter.
“Haha, yes, I was getting to that, Max. It’s nice to see you are protecting the new student” Professor Heart said as he continued the introduction. Max just sat beamingly in the background with Winter smiling a bit at him. He felt like Max was a bit all over the place, but he didn’t dislike that at all.
Just as Coach had said, he came to pick up Winter, and with Max following along for some reason, they went to the sewing club in the break.
“And this is the master sewing machine” Coach explained.
“We mostly use this when we are sewing denim and other difficult fabrics, so we don’t ruin the needles”
“And this is silk” Max said, pointing to some fabric, seemingly enjoying to interrupt Coach.
“No, that’s a cheap copy” Coach said, seemingly enjoying to correct Max.
Yes, good friends indeed, Winter thought, as he saw their continued exchange. And in that manner it continued a bit, until it was time to the next lesson and the next introduction. This time Dean was in the class. Winter got through the day rather quickly and easily despite his panic attack earlier.
He calmed himself with inhaling deeply and feeling the binder whenever he felt the anxiety creep in.
He got back to his room by himself, having figured out the hallways, and laid on his bed with closed eyes, enjoying to be alone for a second. Even though being alone for too long wasn’t good for him at all.
It was some good guys that was here. He felt like he was already pretty friendly with Dean, Thom, Coach and Max. Maybe McCoy. Maybe he could do this after all.
And thus, the second secret continued with newly found calmness.
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