Chapter 7: Welcome to your initiation day

Xavier walked down the stairs coming out of his bedroom, like every morning he found his servants had already done all the cleaning before he woke up.The porcelain tiles were already freshly polished, a gourmet made buffet breakfast set out for him while a new head chef waited eagerly to serve him. Xavier stepped into the breakfast room. The smell of delicious pastries, and savoury items were already filling the air. Xavier looked at his chef “Morning young master…today I haav prepared for you an African themed breakfast cusine..with an array of meat choices from ostrich meat, kudu meat, dried biltong..” Xavier held his hand up, signaling the man to stop talking, taking half a look at him …it must the African chef today.

Xavier stared at his chef, there was a nametag on his uniform it said “Taleninawa..from Namibia” on it…“Er.. Thanks Taleninawa..it looks really good…” Xavier said. His chef stared at him in shock, he could feel his other maid servants also just staring at him in awe, as if he had said something very strange. Getting slightly annoyed he asked the chef “What? What is it?”

“its nothing sir…just that …well it’s the first time you’ve ever called my name before…or even looked at the food..” Taleninawa said.

“well its my first time seeing you! Since how long have you worked for me?” Xavier asked

“for five years sir..”

“what ?!”

“ I mean ive been your chef for five years sir…”

“oh right…er…well I have a short term memory..” Xavier finished. Feeling embarrassed he looked like what he thought was a roasted chicken wing, and hastily walked out of the breakfast room. Taking the flight of stairs down he saw his driver waiting for him with his SUV. “Good morning young master” he said pleasantly, while opening the door for him. “Good morning Jeffrey ! How do you do today?” Xavier responded. Jefrey stood frozen at the door, staring at his young master.

“Er..are you ok young master Johnston..” he asked rather cautiously. “yes Im perfect Jeffrey..why?” Xavier asked .

“well …ive been your driver taking you to school since preschool, and never have you ever once said good morning back to me…” Jeffrey beamed at him. To Xavier’s shock, Jeffrey’s eyes were tearing up a little bit. That old lunatic ! Xavier thought to himself. “well right, I’ve been doing some soul searching as of late…and yeah…I think mornings are good…” he finished rather awkwardly. “Ok that will be all Jeffrey, come on now, or we are going to be late ! “ Xavier said with mild irritation.

He didn’t even notice driving up past the gate of Royal high, as soon as the car stopped, he jumped out. Walking past the glass entrance door, he went to the cafeteria, looking for Nico and Taylor, he almost didn’t notice him, standing alongside the cafeteria entrance door smoking a cigarette, still with a few bruises on his face. He just stared at Xavier as he opened the entrance door, as if the two didn’t know each other. That’s the way things were between them. They had hurt each other far beyond the point where they could never be friends again, but had been friends for too long to actually destroy each other. Entering the cafeteria, he could see Nico and Taylor deep in discussion about something, when they saw him entering nico enthusiastically said “Ah..well here comes the devil himself! Let’s ask him than..”

“ask me what?” Xavier said sitting down.

“we were wondering…since its initiation day coming up…who was going to tattoo Leila’s chest…? “ Nico said.

“Or better yet…were we going to tattoo her chest in the first place?” Taylor said, as Nico gave him a playful punch. Xavier froze, realizing that they were absolutely right, and from their perspective, he got exactly what they were getting at… sighing he thought to himself having a girl charity case really does have its complications. And when you have one that looks like Leila, and that has the body of Leila ..makes matters exceptionally complicated. He didn’t want to think of her chest…it made him feel hot..uneasy..the small structure of Leila, would she even be able to handle a tattoo? Or would that be two tattoos across her chest? The only person comparable to her in body size was maybe Justin,the 8th grader, but he too was an overweight 13 year old, which didn’t match Leila’s body mass, and also Justin was not his beggar, only Zach would know how he reacted to the pain of getting a tattoo. For some reason, Xavier could feel that initiation day; which every year was something the whole school looked forward to with anticipation was going to be a cause of worry. As the morning bell rang, he turned to ask Taylor “what’s the first class of the day?”,

“P.E. my brother…” Taylor responded getting off the cafeteria table.

“I hope fatso gets a heart attack today…” Nico said , mimicking the panting of their school P.E. teacher. Xavier and taylor laughed, while walking out of the cafeteria, and heading to the glass building together. This was one of the class’s he, zach and Leila had together. Hopefully today will go by without incident he thought to himself, he was sure he and zach had scared Leila enough to last her a whole month.

As soon as he entered the gym, he started scanning the room for her, but yet..she was not to be seen. He could see Pearl showing off her new diamond earrings to Alicia and Oliya, he saw Zach leaning against the wall smoking in doors with a bunch of other guys he looked to be entertaining, as he was doing some animated movements with his hands.

But as Xavier watched him closely, zach too kept frequently scanning the room as though he were searching for her. The gym door opened again, and a small figure entered the gym, she had already changed into her gym clothes, her hair up in a big bun almost as though it were pulling her face back a bit…she looked breath taking. Xavier stared at her, something was off…her eyes seemed swollen like she had been crying, and her body language looked like that of an exhausted person. Xavier turned to look at Zach, and could see that, he too was staring at her…urgh what a pervert, Xavier thought to himself chuckling. However to his surprise as he started scanning the room he realized that he and Zach weren’t the only ones who kept glancing up at Leila…she was getting constant glares from most of the guys in the gym….and for some reason..that made Xavier feel very…angry.

He saw zach get off the wall and head to Leila, she seemed to look up at him with worry in her eyes...or was that fear? He said something to her with a smile (but knowing him, he could very well be making a threat to her while smiling politely in her face.) She stared with shock on her face, and then slowly started blushing. Before he could think any further of what Zach could be saying to Leila, the P.E. teacher walked in, huffing and puffing as usual…he is such a disgrace Xavier thought to himself.

“Gather around people!” he said loudly making movements with his hands which signaled that they should encircle him. “Since we have worked on our strength training for a while now, I thought we could go to more advanced stuff. Lets learn the basics of our taekwondo today…. I know some of you obviously have more superior knowledge when it comes to martial arts…” he said while giving a stern glance to both Xavier and Zach “so let’s try to help those who are at the beginner’s level…” he finished. Xavier could hear Zach snort at his comments. Xavier could understand his sentiments. One of the things about beings heirs of global conglomerates was that your life was always in danger, and it would not suffice to just have bodyguards…you needed to know how to defend yourself. Xavier and zach were sent to the same martial arts training academy when they were both two, ironically they had learnt how to fight together, defend themselves together…funny how life has a sense of humour too.

“Alright…everyone get into pairs than…” Mr. Preston said. Brandon and Taylor teamed up, Pearl and Oliya teamed up, Zach teamed up with Alicia, Xavier teamed up with Nico, most of the people were well acquainted with their partners, Xavier looked to see whom Leila had teamed up with, and it seemed Thomas had asked Leila if they could team up. Xavier didn’t like it..not one bit.

“Ok today we are going to do the basics of the Harai goshi step..the shoulder throw if you will…” he said,

“Huh …Huh..” Nico said, as he jumped up and down, with his fists pointing at Xavier, Xavier rolled his eyes, “Please...that’s not even the correct posture…” Xavier continued. He turned to look at Leila, she seemed to be worried, although her face seemed to look like she was concentrating.

“Ok so you grab onto the collar of your opponent, as you step across and begin to wind in, than you bend your knees as you begin to pull on his collar and throw him straight over your back…” He finished, as he tried to show the knee bending position. “Alright …got it ? ” he said without waiting for a response, “Good ! Let’s start now, and I will be walking around, and checking how well you all are doing…” he said.

“Alrighty partner…who should go first?” Nico asked, still jumping up and down like a spring. Rolling his eyes, Xavier went to Nico, grabbing him roughly, and bending his knee at the same time, and in one swift motion he swung Nico over his shoulder, and his body made a loud thud on the mats they were standing on. “I think you should go first ..” Xavier said, smilling at Nico’s expression of shock, and reaching his hand to him to bring him back up.

“Hey ! You were so taking advantage of me !” Nico said mockingly whilst covering his chest. Xavier laughed while grabbing him up roughly.

Looking around the room, he caught site of Zach and Alicia, however Zach was not even paying attention to Alicia, who was attempting with all her might to push Zach over her shoulder but failed to move him even by an inch. Zach’s attention was completely on Leila and Thomas. Whom he was staring at indecently. Thomas was making hand gestures, trying to reenact the teacher’s instructions to a worried looking Leila. From there he started to bend his knees, and started grabbing Leila’s collar, just than Zach aggressively shoved Alicia off him, “Sorry partner….looks like my assistance is being needed elsewhere…” he said sarcastically,

“Hey !” Alicia shouted indignantly at him as he walked towards Thomas, picking him up with one hand, by the collar aggressively “Lets switch partners shall we?” he said with an almost demented look upon his face.

“Hey ! whose beggar do you think you are touching?” Xavier said, walking over to the site of zach and Thomas.

“Now now boys ! No fighting !” Mr Preston came to quickly intervene to calm the situation down, “Er...now that I think about it..Since you two are the most experienced, maybe you can help our new comer here learn the basics..” he said staring at a completely perplexed Leila. “Thomas, why don’t you come and partner up with Miss Alicia over there?” he said gently.

“sir..can I please just sit this out..?” Leila said meekly, Xavier could see the colour starting to rise in her face.

Mr preston looked uncomfortably at her “Er…sorry about the rearrangement ..but honestly I think pairing them up with a neutral party will prove quite….beneficial in keeping them well behaved…” He said looking kindly at Leila, walking away fast as though he wanted to get out the situation he had put Leila into, he immediately started giving suggestions to Thomas and Alicia, while Alicia looked less than impressed at her new partner.

Leila looked up from Zach to Xavier, “Well behaved?” she said to herself. It just now dawned on Xavier how really small she was. He had always known that she was small statured, but standing this close to her, he didn’t realize how tiny she was.

“Don’t worry new comer…we will do our best to behave with each other and best to misbehave with you…” Zach said jokingly. Leila stared at him in disbelief, Xavier could tell by her expression, she was less than enthusiastic with her new partners, smirking to himself, who could blame her Xavier thought.

“Should I have a go or do you want to go first?” Zach asked. Leila stared at him “Why don’t you two go first?” she asked, zach turned to look at Xavier “Lets save the best for last shall we?”

“Come on ! You three over there ! stop with the chit chat and lets get practicing !” Mr preston said, shouting from the corner where Nico, taylor and brendon had teamed up.

Sighing with her head slightly hanging low “Ok let’s do this than..” Leila said to Zach.

“Great ! well how about you show us your skills than new comer?”

“ok..” Leila said, walking to the front of Zach. With a look of determination on her face, she bent her knees, and tried to reach her arms up to grab his collar, but he was way out of her reach. She tried pulling the collar of his p.e. uniform trying to bring him down, and he while smiling, willingly bent down to Leila’s height, “Im all yours…little one…do what you will..” he said smiling at a shocked Leila. With what strength she could muster, she tried to push him down to the ground rather than pushing him over her in one smooth move. Zach and Leila both stumbled onto the mat, with Leila falling awkwardly on top of Zach. Xavier felt an immediate unexplainable rush to anger. He roughly tried to grab Zach from under Leila, and zach seemed less than enthusiastic to getting up. “Aw come on now…just ten seconds longer..” he said grumpily, Leila’s face had turned a bright red, as she awkwardly tried to get up off of Zach.

“dare I say…I thoroughly enjoyed that…” Zach smiled at Leila, while aggressively shoving Xavier’s hand away from him. “but now..i think its time ..i had my turn with you..” zach said, while moving forward into the direction of Leila, who seemed instinctively took a step back. Zach’s face froze for a second as though he seemed to interpret Leila’s action. “what…are you scared already?” he asked her, Xavier turned to look at Leila, she was not looking at either one of them..her face looking down, and he was surprised to see sweat accumulating onto her forehead…taking a big gulp..as though trying to muster some courage..”no..” she said softly her voice shaking. Zach smiled a wicked smile “Well…you should tell me to stop…when I become too scary..” and with that, with one smooth sophisticated move, he flipped Leila over his shoulders and bought her body onto the mat with a small thud. Leila’s eyes were closed, and her hands were clenched into fists. “it should look like that…” zach said while staring down at Leila, with a naughty grin on his face. Holding his hand out for Leila to grab, but Leila turned herself over and got up slowly from the mat. “ohh….not mad are we?” Zach asked provocatively still with a naughty grin on his face. Leila looked at zach, as though she wanted to say something, but then changed her mind midway. Shaking her head, she heaved a big sigh. “Don’t do that…I might just start catching real feelings for you…” zach said looking closely at Leila.

Xavier knew zach ..almost like he knew himself. And although zach joked around a lot…there was usually a lot of truth hidden behind the jokes. There was a real possibility that zach if he hadn’t already..would ‘catch ‘ feelings for Leila. And for some reason, that worried Xavier more than it should…

Zach Williams had no one to go home to. One of the unspoken secrets of the William household was how disconnected their ‘family’ was. Zach learnt most of his trades from his father…which was not a very good thing. On his 18th Birthday he got his first hotel as a present from his father…no call, no cake, just a visit from the family lawyer with the transfer documents. While growing up for several birthdays in a row, he would make sure his phone was completely charged, and always on loud mode. He would wait expectantly to hear from his father… but by the time he reached his 18th birthday he knew better than to expect anything of that nature. The most he would see his father during the year was maybe 4 to 5 times. Basically ever since he could remember the only consistent people he had in his life, were his servants, and Xavier of course. Zach’s father always had a temper, even his employees knew of his vicious tantrums..growing up around a male figure who was constantly angry..definitely rubbed off on Zach. It was one of many many negative characteristics he inherited from his father, the only person who could handle him was now just Xavier.

Turning around in his king sized bed, staring up at the ceiling, zach smiled wickedly..look at me..getting so sentimental. He turned to look onto his side, where he had his bed side table, opening the ivory coloured drawer he took out a thick leathered long book, on the cover written in gold read “Williams Hotel and Resort Menu” , flipping through the pages with utmost boredom, he tried looking for something appealing. The benefit of owning your own chain of hotels was you got to live at the executive suites..and since it was constantly surrounded by people, it felt less lonely than living in the Williams mansion alone. Flipping through the menu with no interest, all of these items were very nice ..but he had been used to gourmet buffets since the time he started living alone in the hotel which was when he was 10…if he was honest with himself he truly missed homemade food. He never grew up knowing what it was like to have the affection of a mother. Zach’s mother left his father for another man. She got remarried and never kept in touch with zach, she didn’t want to have the inconvenience of having to deal with the child of another man..not now, that she had started a new family with her second husband.

Zach wanted very much to hate his mother for leaving them…for abandoning him…but yet she was still his mother after all. Wishing he could hate her…and than hating himself for not finding it in his heart to feel negativity towards her for her life decisions. Maybe if he was a woman, who was married to someone like his Father he would’ve left him too. Sighing to himself, he knew he would never though. Abandoning someone who you once loved, who once meant something to you was a very big sin in his eyes.

Checking his watch, holy crow ! It’s almost time to start with his Initiation day. Something he and Xavier had started a while back, which took a life of its own, and ended up being a tradition of sorts within the Royal High School. All the students looked forward to it each year, all…except for the beggars. Smiling wickedly to himself, he had never been so excited to an initiation day quite like this one…to be honest he has never had anyone to initiate quite like Leila. They always had a certain amount of tasks that the beggars had to do..more or less same like last year, they were some who had been beggars so long that they actually got good at the tasks..but one person would really not be up to the tasks..judging by her small weak frame..she would not do well at all. Zach was not sure if the news excited him…or made him feel regretful to let her do the tasks.

Walking down the stairs, Leila felt as though there were eyes on her. The hair on her neck stood up and although she had checked several times behind her, there was no one. Feeling a bit uneasy she hastened her pace, she was headed to history, and didn’t want to be late. She remembered how stern the professor was, although small in stature, he could be quite intimidating. All of a sudden she felt large hands grab her by the waist lifting her off the ground. Before she could turn around to see the face, someone had placed a huge black pillow case around her face. She tried to break free from the grip, but it was much too strong…this time there was no gentle pressure lifting her up..it was done with aggression, vigour and most of all purpose. Still screaming her guts off, Leila thought she heard some muffled noises. Keeping quiet for a second, she realized she did hear noises. Like there was another person in her close vicinity…or wait…two…or three…she lost count of how many other people she could hear. Feeling like the light around her had suddenly dimmed, she was put down onto the ground..though gently this time. This time Leila could hear the muffled sounds closer to her. Than the black pillow case was lifted off her face, and to her shock she saw Zach’s handsome face, indecently close to hers…smilling.. “Hello!” he said with cockiness.

“What the heck!” Leila said, backing her face away..get me out of these ropes ! she said angrily. Turning around she saw what looked like 10 or so people, also placed on the floor, with their hands tied to their backs. She recognized them..they were all charity cases.

“Tadaaaa !” Zach said melodramatically, “welcome to initiation week folks!” he said with much enthusiasm, he had a pen in his hand which he used like a microphone.