Summary: I love romance. But romance is only a slice of the tale here! In these stories you will will be taken on a adventure with two British twins who have moved to Salzburg where the international school they attend is full of crazy, sexy, smart students from around the world as well as a cast of teachers who all feel differentially about the students they are in charge of. With drugs, family troubles, romance drama and plenty of twists the Porter twins will have a long year ahead of them.

PART 1

Chapter 1: Ferenium

Date: September 4th 2014, Location: Salzburg, Austria

"We're going to be late Fern! Hurry up!" Haran shouted to his twin sister.

"High school can wait for my make up Haran!" Fern teased. Her long black hair covering half her face as she stuck out her tongue at her impatient brother."

"You wouldn't want to be late for your first day in the eleventh grade now would you?" their mother appeared from her study.

"Well we wouldn't be late if powder face didn't spend so long making her ugly face even uglier." Haran laughed.

"Hey!" Fern exclaimed at her brother's comment.

"Come now! I want both of you to act your age! It's been ten years since you two were six and I don't want you to go back to that!"

Both of them went quit, "Yes mother." they said in unison as they turned around and walked out the door.

Salzburg was an old city, the English twins had only known two things about it when they first moved here: it is in Austria and it's where Mozart was born. They went to about 25 different places where he was raised and still couldn't figure out which house he was actually born in. The first restaurant they went to had had the best schnitzel they had ever had. Actually it was the first schnitzel they had ever had!
The city itself is quite touristy but they don't mind.

The one thing they miss from England is their friends. Here they are alone; all they have is each other and their misunderstanding parents.

"Hey Fern, I'm sorry about what I said. I hope you'll forgive me." Haran said with his head aimed at his feet.

Before they moved away Fern would have usually replied with a barrage of remarks back at him, but here she just hugged him as said "its fine Haran. I forgive you. After all, all we have is each other here. We need to forgive and forget, right?"

"Right." He replied lifting his head up and wiping away a tear.

Haran's black duster coat covered his entire body. On his head sat a black golf cap that matched his wire frame glasses well. Haran loved black, everything he got he wanted it to be black. His hair was naturally black but Fern's was blonde. She dyed her hair when they moved and it never faded. She wore a white hoodie with a red dragon on the back and a pair of tight blue skinny jeans. She was slightly shorter than Haran all her life and now he stands at just over five inches taller than her.

"Mum's probably going to be depressed all day now." Haran sulked. "She's going to be really pissed off when we get back.

"It's not your fault, you were just teasing."

"Yeah I guess so."

"The move has been really hard on her. Don't forget why we moved, Haran." Fern grabbed his arm and looked into his dead blue eyes.

"How could I forget that, Fern?" He replied.

The street was empty, the cold cobblestones and eerie buildings gave the twins a dark, empty feeling. They had walked the path to school more than a dozen times and they knew it was just around the corner. This time it felt different.
A boy who was slightly taller than Haran stepped out of the shadows, his long blue hair waving in the breeze. Fern was mesmerized, his white suit was oddly clean and his head was carrying a fedora of the same shade.

Fern noticed Haran was staring the same way as she was. "Umm, Hello?"

"Guten tag, I am Zephier Olivander. I was sent to collect our new students, would they be you two?" Zephier inquired.

"I suppose that's us, but we don't really need anyone's help." Fern snapped.

"Oh no need to be rude Fern. He seems... nice." Haran said with an odd grin.

"It is fine. The school is just around the corner, let me give you a tour!" Zephier boasted.

"All right. But just a short one." Fern said exhausted.

"Wunderbar! Don't worry there are no classes on the first day. Just some meet and greets!" Zephier grabbed Fern's hand and practically dragged her to the school with Haran in tow.

The school was average for Austria, not huge but not small. The building was relatively new compared to the surrounding buildings. The gray brick walls made it look more like a nice prison than a high school.

"Okay so are we going, somewhere specific?" Haran asked nervously.

"Just around the school. Then I will take you to get your classes assigned." Zephier explained.

"Okay Zephier, show us then." Fern furrowed her brow and crossed her arms.

"Please call me Zeph." Zephier smiled and turned began walking towards the doors; the two big, red metal doors.

"He so cool. Isn't he?" Haran whispered to Fern.

"Oh please, he wouldn't know cool if it slapped him on the ass." Fern rolled her eyes.

"What? You're acting weird. You usually obsess over boys like him."

"No, I don't." Fern began following Zephier.

"This is the entrance hall!" Zephier waved his arms around the large hall.

The blue and orange painted walls seemed kind of tacky to Fern but they weren't ugly. A banner that bestowed a Phoenix and the words 'St. Günter International', hung from the ceiling. A receptionist was typing away in her office to the left and a lounge was through a door to the right.

"Looks nice enough." Fern sighed.

"It's not the highest budget school in Salzburg but it's not cheap." Zephier laughed.

"Zephier, who are they?" a girl with long blonde hair and black hipster glasses said timidly from across the room.

"New students from England! Come say high Leona!" Zephier answered.

"Hi." Leona said as she walked over and stuck out her hand quickly.

"Well hello!" Fern shook her hand in return.

"Hi there." Haran smiled.

Leona shook his hand and immediately after left to go and read the Learning German for Dummies book in her arm. It had just occurred to Haran that everything in the school was written in both German and English.

"Don't mind Leona. She's just a little bit shy, you know. She has lived all alone in the school dorms since her parents sent her here from Canada." Zephier explained.

"I see." Fern was staring at a boy who looked about 5'7, Haran's height.

"That's Ducan Lichfield. He's from Scotland and is studying to become an astrophysicist." Zephier explained.

"Okay, who's that?" Fern asked referring to the girl walking towards them.

"I'm Abel LeBeau. I transferred from America last year. You two look like you might not be total assholes so maybe we could be friends." Abel's long red hair covered the headphones in her ears.

"Sounds good, I'm-" Fern began.

"I know who you guys are. I work in the office from time to time so I have some time alone, I read your applications." She grinned.

"Oh, well okay then." Fern finished.

"I still don't understand how you know what we're saying when you always have headphones in Abel." Zephier laughed.

"Lip reading Zeph, it's not that hard." She replied rolling her eyes.

"Where do you buy your clothes? There so dark and creepy! I love them!" Fern glowed, looking over Abel's Gothic outfit.

"It's all custom, well, most of it is."

The four of them walked down to the first meet n greet together. A teacher named Mr. Farway was sitting in a desk at the back of the room. A huge Russian flag was hanging on the wall behind the enormous man. He scanned the teens as they entered.

"You here to steal my Laptop again, Ms. LeBeau?" he asked harshly in a deep Russian accent as he eye-balled Abel.

"No Mr. F." Abel mumbled.

"Who are they?" Mr. Farway asked referring to the twins.

"They are the new students from England. Ferenium and Haran Porter." Abel answered.

"All right then. It's a pleasure to meet you." Mr. Farway said as he locked eyes with Fern.

"Hey Zeph, how will we know which classrooms to go to?" Haran asked Zephier.

"You will pick up your schedule from reception at the end of the day." He replied.

"Okay now, kids you should go see the other teachers before they decide to go on another coffee break." Mr. Farway smiled at his own joke, nobody else thought it was funny.

The group of new friends left the classroom and continued their trek down the hallway. Tall lockers crowded the sides and large ceiling fans oscillated above them. Haran turned to enter the next room and he clashed head with a girl. She had medium ginger hair, blue eyes and pale skin, short in height and average in weight. She wore a cute blue summer dress and matching flats.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't watching where I was going!" Haran apologized, looking over to who he had just bumped into.

"It's fine, I shouldn't be walking so quickly! I'm Erin, Erin Chastire." She smiled and rubbed the bruise on her forehead.

"I'm Haran and this is my twin sister, Fern. We just moved here from England."

"Really! I used to live in England! Where in England are you from?" Erin asked.

"London, and you?" Fern answered with a smile.

"Manchester."

"We went there on a road trip once, nice area." Haran said.

"Well I will have to catch you later, Ms. Bound is waiting for me!" Erin disappeared in a flash.

"Who's Ms. Bound?" Fern asked Zephier.

"The Art and Sculpting teacher. She's the best in west Austria if you ask me."

"She's all right I guess." Abel agreed.

"Anyway, let's stop in here and say hello to Mrs. Zin, the Biology teacher." Zephier opened the door and held it for the others.

The room was full of tanks and aquariums, each containing different animals. Some contained fish, frogs or snails and others held bigger animals like rats, turtles and snakes. In the centre of the room was a huge cage with an enormous Komodo dragon in it. Mrs. Zin was standing in the cage feeding the beast raw meat right out of her hand!

2: Chapter 2: John Highly

Chapter 2: John Highly

Zephier smiled as he walked over to the cage. He reached inside the cage and petted the giant reptile on the back.

"How are you Mrs. Zin? I heard they were cutting your, um, funding. Slightly." Abel took a long break before finishing the sentence.

"Oh well you know, I got most of my funding from the South Korean board but they can't afford it anymore." Mrs. Zin sighed as she stepped out of the cage. "And who might these people be?"

"These are the new students." Zephier began.

"I'm Fern and this is my twin brother Haran." Fern finished with haste.

"We'll it's very nice to meet you both." Mrs. Zin said with a large smile.

Mrs. Zin retreated to a back room which Haran had theorized was a storage room. Zephier took Fern by the hand and brought her over to where some turtles were swimming in a large aquarium full of sand water and artificial plants. He picked up a turtle with a large black mark on is back.

"We call him Curse. Abel and I spend a lot of time in here." He said as he put Curse into Fern's hands. "I am not cursing you, but rather giving you a curse that you may choose what happens, that is what love is."

Fern froze with the squirming turtle in her hands. "Wha- What?"

"I want to be a novelist or a poet! So I need to be creative, did you like it?" Zephier asked as he took the turtle from Fern's hands, his face glowing with pride.

"It's interesting, creative. Kinda sweet in a way I guess, but I don't think of love as a curse." Fern stated as she relaxed herself.

"I thought it was great!" Abel butted in.

Fern looked at Abel for a while. She had no clue as to whether or not Abel was hitting on him.

"Not like I care who likes him." Fern pouted to herself.

"So are you two? You know?" Haran made a heart shape with his fingers.

"NO WAY!" They both shouted at him.

"No?"

"We may be close friends but Zephier is basically my brother!" Abel explained.

"I took care of her for her first month here." Zephier added.

"You're so kind!" Haran smiled brightly.

"Yeah, kind." Fern looked away into one of the tanks.

"Holy fucking shit!" A short boy came running through the door at break neck speed, his oversized trench coat billowing out behind him. "I heard that there is a Komodo dragon in here!"

"Yep, in the big cage, mate!" Haran pointed out.

"Mother of god!" The boy examined the lizard for a bit before looking at Haran. "I'm Marvin Steelwood. I'm from New York City. And who might you be?"

"I'm Haran. I'm from London, England."

"Cool, who are they?" Marvin asked Haran.

"The Black haired girl is my twin sister Fern, Blue hair is Zephier and Red hair is Abel." He explained.

"Nice to meet you all! Perhaps we could be friends! Do any of you by any chance like discounted product, if you know what I mean?" He opened up his trench coat to reveal bags of pills and herbs as well as packs of gum and condoms.

"Depends on the mix. How old are you by the way?" Zephier asked.

"Fourteen, and it's all clean and clear Stelinos man no worries." Marvin grinned with his beady eyes hiding behind his aviator shades.

"Look I love Stelinos as much as the next girl but I'm buying until I know that they are one hundred percent safe." Abel frowned.

"I will take any of them myself to prove that're safe!"

"What are Stelinos?" Fern asked.

"Stelinos are a pill that make your brain percept differently. They can make you focus better, slow down, make you sleep, make noises sound different and so on." Zephier explained. "I use them to relax sometimes."

"That sounds risky." Haran said taking a step back.

"Well here's a free sample." Marvin put one Stelino into each of Zephier, Abel and Fern's hands.

Marvin scampered away at the sound of Mrs. Zin coming back. Everyone else pocketed the Stelinos that Marvin had given them. Fern was nervous about the having the clearly illegal drug in her pocket so she began to head for the door.

"We leaving already, Fern?" Abel asked in a calm voice.

"Sure, we got other teachers to see right?" Fern asked nervously.

"Yeah I guess so." Abel walked over to Fern "Relax, you're not going to die because of a little relaxing pill, and if anybody asks just say it's a painkiller."

The group spent the day walking around the school and meeting new teachers. The halls appeared quite empty. Zephier had explained that not many of the old students came to school on the meet n greet day. Fern was okay with that, she didn't want to admit that she was nervous about meeting new people. She had been watching Zephier since they met in the street. She liked the way he was so open and kind, but, she didn't like that he was always talking to Abel.

"Why would I care who talks to him?! None of this makes sense!" Fern thought out loud.

"What?" Haran asked overhearing his sister's little slip of the tongue.

"Oh, nothing Haran. Just thinking." Fern said with her eyes locked on Zephier and Abel laughing away ahead of them.

"What's so funny?" Haran asked with a look of confusion on his face.

"We were just talking about our friend John! He was a DJ at one of our school dances and half way through the slow dance he threw on 'I Like Big Butts'! It was great." Zephier laughed again.

"Yeah it sure was!" John suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

His shaved head dawned a pair of large headphones that matched his purple and black hoodie. Farther down he wore some black sweatpants and a pair of black and red Nike shoes.

"Hey John!" Zephier gave him a bro hug and a fist bump.

"Hey man! How's it going? I just got back from Canada! Had to visit the home front, ya know?" John said as he put his headphones down around his neck.

"The home fronts more important than us?!" Abel said sarcastically as her face turned into a large grin.

"Of course not!" John picked up Abel spun her in the air and kissed her on the cheek.

"John what the heck?!" Abel smiled.

"It's an Italian custom to kiss people on each cheek when you greet them!" John Laughed.

"You only kissed one, idiot!" Abel laughed back.

"I'm only half Italian! Ha ha!" John turned to Zephier and planted a big kiss on his lips. "That's a highly custom!"

The twins stood there in a confused daze.

"Who are they?" John whispered to Zephier.

"Oh their new here."

"I'm John Highly! Pleasure to meet you!" John kissed each of them on the cheeks.

"I like him!" Haran chuckled. "I'm Haran and this is my twin sister Fern."

"Uh, yeah." Fern was frozen.

"Oh relax I'm like this with everyone! Your nothing special babe!" John put his arm around Fern.

"Oh really?!" Fern pushed John away.

"Jeez don't take it so seriously. I'm just having a little fun." John teased.

Haran was getting really excited about all the new friends they were making. On the other hand, Fern was getting more and more nervous of all the weird friends they were making.

"Keep your crazy Canadian lips of the new guys John." Abel grinned again.

"Fine then I'll just keep 'em on you." John kissed Abel without hesitation.

Abel kissed him back and grabbed at his back with her long painted nails.

"These people are insane!" Fern looked like she was going to have a heart attack any minute.

"I think they're fun! You need to relax a little before you pull a Grandpa Ed!" Haran said after he took a good look at Fern.

"Not funny Haran! He only died, what, a year ago?!" Fern's confusion turned into anger.

"I know, too soon. I'm sorry."

"Lighten up you two!" Zephier had put a hand on Fern's shoulder. "Life's too short to be unhappy."

"I can see that you all feel that way here." Fern began to relax herself.

"Yes, pretty much."

"So are they together or something?" Haran pointed towards John and Abel who were still going at it.

"Nope. John, in case you didn't realize, loves to have his fun." Zephier grinned and wiped his mouth. "As does Abel.."

"Yeah we noticed." Ferns face was as blank as fresh drywall.

John broke away from Abel and ran away down the hall shouting something that no one could understand.

"I missed that psychopath." Abel said as John turned a corner.

"We all did Abel. Hey look it's almost lunch!" Zephier pointed out as he checked his phone.

"Well I could certainly eat. Is there a cafeteria here or do we need to find food somewhere else?" Fern asked.

"Sure there's a cafeteria here. Come on Zeph, let's go get lunch!" Abel poked Zephier in the back.

"Okay, sounds like a good idea." Zephier agreed.

The cafeteria was fairly empty. Only a few seats were taken up in the large room. Along the back wall was a buffet style set up where all the food was in locked containers with coin slots on the sides. They each had to pay about ten dollars for their meals.

"Burgers and Chilli? I kind of expected to be eating different food in Austria." Fern said as she picked up the enormous burger.

"Yeah this is pretty American." Haran agreed.

"What? Don't like American?" Abel asked with a hint of false anger, leaning over the table so she was right in Haran's face.

"Well, no, I was just saying it's not what I expected here." Haran stuttered.

"Abel calm down." Zephier pulled her back.

"I'm just having a little fun, Zeph." Abel smiled as she moved her red hair out of her face.

Fern thought Abel was quite terrifying to say the least but she also seemed like she could be nice. That little run in with John was absolutely mad. Who kisses everyone they see just for fun?!
Haran didn't mind at all, of course he didn't. Fern bit down hard on her burger and a large piece of meat was sent sailing across the room.

"Holy crap! Flying cow!" Abel snorted, almost choking on her food.

Everyone at the table laughed. Haran looked across the room at Erin who was sitting all alone. Her table was located in the very far corner of the room, it looked like she was crying. Haran wasn't the kind of guy to let someone cry without him trying to help. He stood up and began to walk over to Erin. Fern took one glance at him and immediately looked down at her food. She knew exactly what he was going to do and she wanted no part of it.

"Hey, are you okay? Is it because I hurt you earlier?" Haran smiled as he sat down beside Erin.

"No, it's not your fault. I just miss my old friends from England." Erin explained, daintily wiping away a tear.

"Well I can be your new friend from England." Haran hugged Erin as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I know how you feel."

"Thanks Haran, It means a lot to have someone who understand me." Erin said as a slight smile appeared on her face.

Erin's blue eyes stopped tearing after a while and the two of them ate their lunches together. Haran loved to make people happy, it made him feel important.

"Look at that! He's a real sweet heart isn't he! Ha!" Abel laughed as she pointed a fork towards Haran and Erin.

"Yeah, something like that." Fern kept her head down.

"Something wrong with you?" Able asked Fern.

"No, just worried that he's going to make another mistake like he did in England." Fern sighed.

"Let's not stress about anything now Fern! Your here now and you should try and start over." Zephier reached across the table and pushed her long black hair behind her ear. Her bright green eyes gave Zephier an odd feeling.

"Hey guys what's up?!" John was standing behind Fern who had almost jumped out of her seat at the surprise.

"Where did you run of to!?" Abel asked the grinning idiot who had left them earlier.

"Had to go give Principle Dufrene a kiss." John's grin grew even larger.

"Of course he did, why am I not surprised." Fern sulked down with her head in her palms. "I'm surrounded by idiots. I guess this could be fun." A dark grin began to develop as she hid her face.

Fern liked this feeling.

I really enjoyed writing the character of John. He was a lot of fun to bring to life and he will play a key part in the story. Follow the story so you can read chapter three as soon as it's out ;) - Jon Dalzotto