Gavin Miles had never been so excited for the start of a school year. College! It was finally here! After all the preparations that took place the last two years for this new chapter in his life, and now it was finally here. Studying relentlessly for IMPs, all the applications filled out, the stress over money—it was all worth it, because Gavin was attending CHESS University, and for only half of the cost for all four years. Getting a whole bunch of free money from the EGT scholarship basically rocked. Gavin was nervous about how well his presentation appeared, but it couldn’t have been too crappy if he got the scholarship.
Before apparating to the campus, Gavin spent the afternoon with a portion of his family, including Chris, Allison, and his parents. The second youngest boy by all of 5 minutes was on the edge of his seat, so excited to leave, but the rest of his family sat there in a solemn mood. Allison and his mom had a box of tissues next to them to dry up their tears; his dad kept glaring at him in a disapproving manner, as if choosing to go to college was as bad as Chris getting his girlfriend pregnant; and his dear twin, Chris, looked lost. Gavin understood Chris’ feelings of loss, however—he had been worrying about what life would be like without Chris constantly at his side, and he knew it was going to be hard. The twins were incredibly close and did everything together… who was Gavin supposed to get completely wasted with, and do so many other messed with things with? Leaving behind Chris would be like leaving behind a big chunk of his life. Still, at the same time leaving behind Chris meant opening new doors. It had to happen sometime, and besides, maybe he would cherish time with his brother now.
“Be good kid,” Daniel Miles told his son, a comment that Gavin couldn’t help but roll his light, crystal-like blue eyes to. He was pretty smart and knew how to slip out of trouble. He’d been doing it since he was eleven, possibly earlier. He knew how to stay out of trouble—befriend authority, do good before you decide to do bad, and be sneaky when you do some real stupid stuff; don’t make it obvious. Gavin was stupid, but at the same time he was stupidly smart… if that made any sense.
“Will do, Pop,” he said, and then stood up to give his immediate family members a hug. His mom hugged and kissed him, his little sister held on tight and cried on his chest for about five minutes until he could rip her off; his dad gave him an awkward hug (Gavin hadn’t been very close to his dad in years), and Chris gave him a regular old bro hug, patting his back. He then went into the family room to say goodbye to his twin little brothers, Eddy and Jake, but they didn’t pay much attention. They were used to not seeing Gavin for long periods of time—sometimes it was like they didn’t even have an older brother, so to make sure they didn’t forget him Gavin often bought them presents and sent them. He’d probably have to do that for Allison now too.
“B-bye,” he said, grabbing his bags, a lump forming in his throat as he bid them farewell. This was it—for the first time in his life, he was truly going to be on his own, completely away from family. The former Draco was put into the house where family values matter most for a reason—he had always been a strong family guy. His family had always mattered most to him. But, at CHESS… well, with it being such a small community, maybe he’d make a new family. He had made one at RMI, why couldn’t he at CHESS? Before he got too sentimental about the whole thing, Gavin turned on the spot and apparated to LA.
The somewhat familiar campus (Gavin had visited it once already when trying-out…or whatever they called it for the EGT scholarship) came into view as Gavin neatly apparated. Apparating was one of the few things he was really good at, along with flying and healing. It was weird to see the sun closer to the east, as it was just higher up in the sky from where he came from: Philadelphia, PA. Anyone close by who saw Gavin appear out of thin air must have been quite mystified—it wasn’t everyday that someone whose attire screamed MUGGLE appeared out of thin air. The 6’1” tall eighteen-year-old hardly ever looked to fit in the magical community—his Philadelphia Phillies tee-shirt, blue jeans, and Adidas sandals with a pair of visible old white socks weren’t typical for a Wizard to wear, but Gavin was never one to follow magic customs. He embraced his Muggleborn heritage! Also, Muggle clothes were a helluva lot comfier than Wizarding ones.
First, trying his best not to get lost, Gavin decided to follow someone he supposed was a fellow freshman until they stopped at some garden-like area Gavin hadn’t seen during his first visit here. Soon some young professor greeted them and announced the start of the tour. The campus was pretty awesome—there were so many different places that it was almost dizzying. This place totally beat RMI. Then again, with it being a college and all, Gavin expected at least that much.
Several times throughout the tour Gavin checked his dark, some-what short and choppy cut black hair and face—he was making a first impression on all his peers (especially the ladies) and had to look great. It was going to be amazing to finally have some available , magical girls around to hit on. He’d only had one magical girlfriend before in his entire life, and that relationship was awesome while it lasted for sure. Hopefully there was a really hot and cool girl in his freshmen class. Or, even better, there would be several cool and hot girls here! Gavin had been excited about the new girls since decided he was coming to CHESS.
After the tour Gavin hung out in the Student Union area for a while, making polite conversation with the people around him, as well as buying a CHESS sweatshirt and sweatpants. Yay for college gear! Still, he hadn’t really talked to anyone crazy fun, which kind of sucked. Then again, Gavin thought Keith was totally lame for three years, and then he found out he was one of the coolest people ever and that he loved his former roommate!
After buying tons of CHESS merchandise to send back to his younger siblings, Gavin decided that he’d fix up his dorm before the cocktail party. The fact that they were throwing a cocktail party just made this school ten times better. They were encouraging drinking! Gavin loved drinking! He knew that it was unhealthy to indulge too much, and that sometimes the people he drank with tried to make him snort and smoke other things which were just disgustingly unhealthy, but when there was alcohol involved, fun things always happened. Chris’ bachelor party this summer was so much fun—Gavin had planned it himself. It was just him and Chris and their old friends from RMI, including Keith, Rob and Simon. Gavin had never seen Chris so messed up in his entire life, and it was freaking hilarious.
The college freshman wasn’t exactly sure what to do with his dorm. He’d never had so much freedom with a room, because his whole life he’d shared one with either Chris or Keith. He finally decided to put green bed sheets on his bed, papers, pencils, books, and first aid materials on his desk and a bean bag chair in one corner. It wasn’t much, but maybe over the year he’d get more stuff in it. Like a refrigerator. Or a keg tab.
After being very lazy and laying on his new bed thinking about how the day had gone so far, Gavin decided that he should dress more formally for the cocktail party. Cocktails were a lot classier than what he was used to. When he went to the bar occasionally over the summer with his brother, he usually wore a normal tee-shirt with jeans, but he supposed that wouldn’t be classy enough for cocktails. Gavin wasn’t a very classy man by definition, but he could try for class. He pulled out a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt and pair of nicer black jeans, as opposed to his old and ragged blue ones. He contemplated putting on a tie, and after seeing how awesome a skinny black tie looked with his boring outfit, he decided to give it a go. He loosely tied the tie around his neck, put on a pair of colorful Nike running shoes, rolled up the sleeves of the somewhat tight oxford to right below his elbow, and left for the Atrium.
First problem with the guy introducing the cocktail party: he looked old enough to fall over after one drink. He was ancient, and didn’t look like he’d had any fun in years. He would probably be a party pooper. Other than that, the other teachers looked pretty cool, and a couple of them were surprisingly young.
After the college Coordinator’s speech, Gavin went up to the table with all the cocktail glasses. He was more of a fan of drinking straight out of a bottle or from a beer mug, but then again, this was supposed to be classy. So, Gavin grabbed a regular old triangle cocktail class, put it on the table, and spoke, “Red Bull and Vodka,” a small grin creeping on his face. He was going to be awake for a long time.
It was a good thing nobody here knew his major yet, or they’d all be scolding him. Healing. He was supposed to be a health wizard (pun intended), and here he was, about to give himself a heart-attack with this drink. The Healing Major, however, was generally a healthy person; he never smoked, ate right (minus the alcohol), and exercised regularly to maintain his six-pack. He had a thick build, but it was mostly from muscle. His body build was thanks to his dad’s genes and military work-outs he made Gavin do. It took him several years to get to this body build, and he hoped to maintain it for a long as possible.
“Hey!” he said enthusiastically to someone who just stepped up next to him to get a drink. “I’m Gavin,” he said, extending his hand out to the person he conversed with. He needed to get to know people. “This is pretty sweet, right?” He asked, starting to get a little bit jittery as he drain the rest of his drink, set it back down on the table, and requested another red Bull and Vodka. He drained the rest of that drink and requested another as he listened to the person he addressed talk.