Hi guys! As promised, here is my version of a high school AU Merlin fic :D It's going to be Merthur and is rated T in case of future chapters (I'll admit I haven't exactly planned this out). Don't hit me if I get too cliché or my writing turns to blah D:
Sadly I don't own Merlin, trust me, you'd be able to tell if I did ;)
And now, the story:

Merlin ran, he could hear his attackers close behind. Turning around a corner, he amused himself briefly with the fact that he hadn't tripped over anything yet, a feat he could brag to Will about after school, then -snap-, and suddenly he was on the floor. Merlin cursed the rock that had so inconveniently tripped him over and quickly stood up again, ready to run. But it was too late, his attackers closed around him, trapping him in a circle. One of them, most likely the leader, stood forward and laughed.

"You shouldn't have tried to run kid, we just wanted to give you the proper welcome all the scholarship kids get is all."

Merlin was hopeful for a second, maybe they were just going to give him a welcome certificate or something, shake his hand perhaps. Maybe the whole thing had just been a misunderstanding and he had misinterpreted the evil glints and sniggers and the "well well well, looks like we have fresh meat." No such luck, Merlin was hoisted up by two of the attackers, and was promptly being carried over to a nearby dumpster. He groaned, it really was just his luck to already have enemies within the first ten minutes of setting foot in his new school. He had come from Ealdor, a small town outside the city. His mother and him had been struggling to get by, the crops in the past few years had been particularly bad, and so to hopefully relieve his mother from having to pay for his school fees and his food, Merlin had taken a test for a scholarship to Camelot high, a school in the city and close by to his Uncle Gaius who had offered to take him in almost immediately. Merlin had gotten the scholarship easy, the test had been a breeze for him, and though the acceptance was a relief for him, he hadn't particularly wanted to leave his mother and his friends behind just yet. Hunith was extremely proud of her son, making sure the whole town knew about his scholarship. Barely any kids had ever gotten a scholarship into Camelot high, and even few had ever gotten full scholarships as it was considered the hardest school to get into with money and connections. Will had been reluctant to let his friend go, insisting over and over again that there was no reason for him to leave since he only had two years of school left. Finally Will had settled for a signed contract, stating that Merlin had to call at least twice a week, email every day and visit once per month. To be absolutely honest, he hadn't been looking forward to his first day of school as he knew everybody would no doubt be rich save for a couple of scholarship kids, and it would be terribly hard to fit in. Still being the optimistic person he was, Merlin strode into school early, thinking of his mother the whole walk to school, and asked the nearest group of kids whether or not they knew where the office was. It had been going fine, none of them had taken too much notice of him until they looked at his clothes. Wrinkling their noses, they asked where he was from. Smiling, Merlin had introduced himself, telling them that he was the new scholarship student. And then everything went downhill, and that's when Merlin decided to run.

They were getting closer to the dumpster, Merlin could hear sniggers on both sides of him. Waiting for the right moment, Merlin sucked in a breath, then when he was close enough, he kicked out hard at the dumpster. Surprised, and being pushed back by the force, the two holders lost their grip and Merlin sprang out of their grasp, doing a sort of a flip before landing and stumbling momentarily. Then without wasting any more time, he ran, looking for a place to hide.

-----

Arthur sat on a particularly fat branch, hidden quite well amongst the leaves, listening for the tell-tale sound of the bell. He was going to skip school again, he really just didn't see the point in going anymore. He had gotten everything that he possibly could out of school already, and for the first time, life had started to become relatively boring. He was head boy, and no doubt the most popular boy in school. His father was Uther Pendragon, and conveniently the richest most influential man in Camelot, and because of that, the kids at school were all on strict orders to not ever get in the younger Pendragon's way. He had the normal cliché bunch of popular fake friends, his only true friend was Morgana, but she was his sister and there for, in Arthur's logic, did not count. The tree had recently upon discovery become his favourite place to hide out when he occasionally could not take school anymore. Fiddling with his shirt and waiting for the moment when he could finally leave without having the teachers guarding the gate catch him, Arthur was surprised to hear a large rustling at the trunk of the tree. Climbing across to the trunk, Arthur peered down only to come face to face with a frantic looking boy with raven black hair.
"Climb up, climb up!" he screamed, and for some reason Arthur scrabbled back up, pulling the gangly boy up with him. Upon sitting safely on the branch again, Arthur stared at the strange boy who was now slumped against the trunk, panting and trying desperately to regain his breath. Arthur couldn't quite place who the boy was, concluding in the end that he was definitely new, there was no way he could have seen those blue eyes and forgotten them. The boy had a refreshing look about him, his pale ivory skin, raven black hair and blue eyes contrasting quite nicely together. Finally realising what had just happened and slightly embarrassed to realise that he was looking, Arthur caught the attention of the boy.

"What, the hell?"

Looking up, the boy moved across the branch towards Arthur.

"Right. I'm Merlin, nice to meet you."

Smiling a wonderfully goofy grin, the boy wiped his palms on his jeans before reaching out to shake Arthurs hand. Raising an eyebrow, Arthur hesitantly took the other boys hand,

"Arthur... by the way, what may I ask are you doing?"

Merlin cocked his head to the side and with a look that seemed to suggest that it was rather obvious Merlin replied with a simple "Hiding." He then proceeded to poke his head over the branch, peering down to ground. Curious as to what exactly Merlin was hiding from, Arthur siddled up next him, looking down towards the ground. There was nothing he could see that could possibly have been a danger, really, all there was down there was Mordred and his gang of friends. Confused, Arthur wondered why on Earth Merlin would have to hide from them unless... oh.

"Merlin, are you by any chance a scholarship student?"

Merlin glanced up momentarily at Arthur.

"Hmm. If I say yes are you going to try throw me in the dumpster as well?"

Arthur twitched slightly before saying a slow "no". To be honest, if it had been any other circumstance and just another regular scholarship kid, then he would have probably dragged the kid into the dumpster by now. Not that he had anything against the scholarship kids, really, that's just how the school hierarchy worked. Scholarship kids were at the bottom and were generally mistreated in their first week before being ignored for the rest of their school life, effectively making them outcasts, and as one of the popular kids, it was expected of Arthur to comply with this rule. But Merlin was different, there was just something about him that separated him from everyone else, he just couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Merlin grinned, peering up at Arthur while still half looking at Mordred and his gang, "then yes, yes I am. Merlin Emrys, scholarship student."

Then before Arthur could say anything else, a small branch broke off the tree, dropping down to the ground and revealing their hiding place. The group of boys looked up, Merlin immediately pulled back, then cursing he jumped up and swung himself to onto the branch above them, seemingly moving quite swiftly and impressively from Arthurs point of view.

The gang climbed up the tree, struggling at first but eventually getting the hang of it, they moved towards the branch in which they swore their victim was hiding. "You're going to pay you little freak." Sneered Mordred upon getting to the branch. But instead of the scholarship kid he had been chasing, he saw Arthur instead, arms crossed and clearly not amused. Sneers disappearing and replaced with uneasy smiles, the group of boys tried to hide their surprise and fear.

"Oh, hi Arthur. Sorry, thought you were someone else, we didn't mean you when we said..."

Mordred trailed off as Arthurs glare intensified,

"Well clearly there's no one else here so if you don't mind, leave."

"Yessir." They mumbled as they struggled to get down the tree as quickly as possible.

Looking up, Arthur tried to spot Merlin but instead was met with a messy array of leaves. Squinting to try get a better view, Arthur was surprised yet again by Merlin who popped out of no where, hanging upside down, feet wrapped around the branch up above and face directly facing Arthurs.

Arthur looked in awe at the dangling boy,

"Wow, how are you doing that?"

Merlin smirked before replying, "I'm Spiderman of course, don't you remember that scene from the movie? If you want you can be Mary Jane."

Blushing slightly, Arthur turned around and scoffed.

"I'm head boy, do you seriously want to be asking me that?"

"Ooooh, scary!" replied Merlin, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Are you always such an idiot?"

Merlin responded with an equally quick-tongued "Are you always such a prat?"

"Well, Merlin, considering I just saved you from an ass kicking, no, I wouldn't say I'm always such a prat."

Merlin disappeared back up into the leaves before jumping down next to Arthur with a sheepish grin.

"Thanks for that by the way. And to answer your question before, I have a friend back home who used to teach me all these tricks. He'd get us into so much trouble its hard not to develop certain skills to stay alive," chuckled Merlin.

Snapping off a small branch, Merlin tapped each of Arthurs shoulders and then his head.

"I dub thee Sir Arthur sometimes-a-prat-but-apparently-not-always. I owe you a chocolate." Merlin grinned as he stuck out his tongue slightly.

Arthur rolled his eyes and suppressed a small smile, Merlin was seriously unlike anyone he'd ever met before. Upon hearing the bell ring, Merlin's eyes widened and he pulled out his printed out time-table from his bag. There was no longer any time left to sign in at the office, he'd just have to go straight to class.

"Any chance you could tell me how to get to lab four?"

As so it happened, that was Arthurs first class as well. Perhaps he would end up going to class after all, there was just something about Merlin that seemed to make school suddenly more refreshing and interesting.

"Well, actually, that's my first class as well. "

Merlin smiled cheekily before moving towards the trunk of the tree,

"Brilliant. Come on then, let's go!"

Arthur smiled, Merlins idiotic smiles were strangely contagious, and then after pausing for a beat, Arthur hurried down after the raven haired boy.