Hi first Merlin fanfic but here goes. Rated M for slash later and possibly some language and violence.

Disclaimer: Merlin does not belong to me nor do any of it's characters they all belong to the BBC for now...

Hope you enjoy it and please review!

Merlin was dreading this day. Only his mother would convince him to apply for a scholarship at this place. Then again only he would take it. The deal though wasn't as nice as it might have been he got a full ride but had to work outside school hours as a cleaner and helper for older student who paid the school extra to provide them with go fors and helpers. His room was tiny it looked like they had converted one floor of servants quarters for the scholarship students.

That tells you exactly how they were treated in the school. They were charity cases no one wanted them there and they were servants that haunted the lessons thus the name toms a shortening of phantoms though they would say it was because they were like stray cats. Merlin had read up on the school though and new the terminology well. They had a very big old boys thing going. People whose families had been going to the place for years, parents on the boards and things till they were like royalty. Merlin had been there a week and today he was up at five in the morning to clean shoes, iron shirt and pants and make breakfast to the orders of his assigned student. He was in lower sixth and his tormentor in upper. He had the room number but that was it.

He finished and bagged the cloths carefully hanging them on one arm and grasping the shoes in the same and balancing the tray on the other. He had been told to sort these things and wake him at exactly seven in the morning with breakfast. The clothes were expected to be ironed that morning. The breakfast well cooked and the shoes shinny. There wasn't uniform in the sixth form but the students tendered towards wearing smart shirt and trousers with ties and jackets. Merlin wasn't really that bothered and wore jeans and a t-shirt. He was ostracized anyway as a lower sixth scholarship student taking two A2s that year along with three ASs. He had made no friends in his time already there.

The only encouraging thing was his tutor, Mr Gaius, a king man who had been teaching chemistry there for years and knew his mother who had worked there for a while. He wasn't like most of the teachers a oxford graduate who was the best in his field who was willing to teach. He was a practical man who had been hired having turned a small school science department on it's heals a few years out of college and got a year to get over B's across the board. He wasn't that keen on his placement and didn't put up with superiority in his classroom. Most people called him cat lover. He liked his scholarship students because they were capable. The curse of the scholarship was that generally in order to get one hear you had to have an unbelievably high test score and that's was an extra strike against you.

As he approached he noticed that the entire floor had four rooms on it in comparison to his, which had 30. He swallowed and knocked lightly on the door glancing at his watch to see it was five past.

"Come in." Merlin pushed the door open to see the boy stood starring at the door in dressing gown. "You're late. Run me a bath leave my breakfast over there and for god's sake where is my newspaper. I expect it to be here when I wake up." Merlin put the food down and lay the clothes on the bed. "In the bathroom. I will be bathing before dressing you buffoon. Really you toms are supposed to be intelligent." Merlin said nothing moving through to find the bathroom, hanging the clothes on the back of the door and placing the shoes by a chair.

"I expect my bath warm and full!" He shouted. Merlin quickly turned the taps to start the water and made sure it was the right sort of temperature before returning to the room for the rest of the cloths opening the wardrobe he got a jacket out and a tie. He decided to leave the boxers and he would obviously complain he needed them. Then he moved out to the room.

"Sorry about the paper. No one told me." He was sat eating his breakfast while he waited for the bath to run.

"What's your name?"

"Merlin."

"Last name to go with that?"

"Emrys."

"Never heard of it."

"It's not that common."

"Well, I am Arthur Pendragon, no King Arthur gags please. It's an old name and one you will respect. I'm sure you've heard of my father head of Camelot industries and of the school board here." Merlin was silent this was about normal for an introduction around here. Name and where the power of the family came from.

"If you expect me to pay homage you'll be waiting a while. Is there anything else you expect to be done in the morning?"

"No, but I expect you to be here by four this evening." Merlin turned and left. He stormed down the corridor to the kitchen to have breakfast. Most people ate in their rooms or the hall but free riders like Merlin did their work then ate in the kitchen with the servants. A girl sat next to him.

"So your Arthur's new project." She was quiet young and not unattractive. "Sorry, I'm Gwen my father is head of the workshop. I've been here most of my life."

"I'm Merlin. What do you mean by 'Arthur's new project'?"

"Oh well, every year Arthur gets a scholarship boy working for him, we wanted to give him one of the men but his father had some notion of his getting to know those below him better, only Arthur manages to get every one to leave within a term of starting at the school and has another take over. You might say his goal is to get through you so fast he can rid the school of all the scholarship students by the end of the year." Merlin swallowed.

"Well that's not as reassuring as I had hoped."

"Yeah, Arthur's a prat at school anyway. In the holidays when he's not around the others he's actually a descent person but you'd never know it."

"Half term only what? Seven weeks away?"

"Yeah, if you last that long and stay over the holiday you might get to see the real him."

Will Merlin out last Arthur's previous servants or fall at the first hurdle? Slash will come in next and later chapters. Review please or I may not write the next chapter.

Kajosxxxxx