Return What Was Lost

1: Always The Same

The clock seemed slower than usual. Every time the minute hand shifted, it seemed to be going slower than it had before. The gears must have been broken, it had been doing this since the beginning of the year. The whole classroom felt as if it was on pause. Or maybe the people were just getting predictable so their movements did not surprise Julian anymore.

Without looking, he could tell what each person in the room was doing. Cole, who was next to him, was avidly taking notes as if every word coming out of the English teacher's mouth were words from God. Brady, who was across the room, was staring at a girl as he exchanged notes with her. Nikki, who was in the front row, was peaking glances of concern at Julian as she took notes. Julian knew why she was worried, he had gotten detention, again. Now he would miss basketball practice and Coach would maker her take his place at practice. She hated playing point guard.

Julian knew better, he shouldn't have been caught. It was dumb on his part, if he was going to skip class, he had to get a note with a fake excuse. He knew the unspoken rules of Hartfield well. With it being a boarding school, there were no parents to excuse absences, he was supposed to go to the school's guidance counselor or nurse and get a note. He hadn't, and now he had to pay the price for his stupidity.

Julian sighed as he rested his head on his hand. This class was so boring. He wasn't even sure what was so important about what they were learning. Whatever it was, he probably already knew it anyway. His eyes were still focused on the clock that was moving too slowly. When they were finally dismissed, Julian got up at once. Instead of his usual walk to the gym for basketball practice, he walked to what was becoming his usual walk to the detention room in the administration building.

No one else had detention today so it was just Julian and Mrs. Merriwether. Not a fun duo. Merriwether despised Julian's "blatant disrespect of the rules" as she had so kindly put it. While Julian despised Merriwether all together. He impatiently tapped a pencil on his desk. Next time he would have to forge a note or something, this was just plain torture.

Julian glanced outside, just out of pure boredom, and he saw an interesting sight. A cop car was parked outside the school in the parking lot. He watched as the cop practically shoved a small, dark-haired, girl out of the car. She was in handcuffs. Julian watched curiously as the cop, the girl, and another woman walked up to the school. They were too far away for him to make out if she was a student at Hartfield or not, just that whoever it was, she seemed to be quite angry with her situation.

Just then, the door to the detention room opened and Headmaster Davidson walked in. Julian was surprised, certainly an unexcused absence was not cause for the man in charge of the school to come into the detention room. He watched as Headmaster Davidson conversed with Merriwether for a few minutes. Then, he came over to Julian.

"Good afternoon Mr. Aldine, I was hoping I could talk to you about something privately," he said.

Julian nodded. Anything to get out of the hell of detention with Merriwether.

"Great, follow me," he instructed.

Julian quickly grabbed his bag and followed Headmaster Davidson, giving a smug grin to Merriwether as he left the room. They walked down the hall and then he pulled Julian into an empty classroom.

"Given our shared. . .connection," Headmaster Davidson said, almost as if he was struggling to find a name to call how they knew each other. "I thought it would be appropriate to tell you first that Avery Davidson will be joining us at Hartfield."

Julian's mind went blank. He tried to think of something to say, but his mouth went dry and he struggled to make sense of it all. Avery? Avery Davidson? Had he heard correctly? The oddity that connected Julian to Headmaster Davidson was coming here?