Valley Forge Boarding School

Chapter 2 - Late Night Secrecy

I sat up in bed and looked around me. Both Alex and Lafayette were completely still in their beds, and so I was very careful not to make noise standing up. I felt a little bit dizzy, but I brushed it off as thirst, and decided that maybe fresh air would do me some good.

I carefully opened the window, the curtains drawing back slightly, illuminating the room. The windowsill was wide enough that I didn't have any second thoughts before climbing it and letting my feet hang over the edge.

Even though we were on the third floor, I wasn't really bothered by the possibility of falling, I wasn't one to stray away from it.

The moon was so bright that I could see the ground clearly, the branches of the trees planted along the path below hadn't been cut in a while, and so if I had stretched out my foot far enough, I could've most likely touched one of the twigs.

I didn't test that theory, instead letting my gaze wander beyond the trees and to the small town which the school belonged to. It was a good mile away, down in the valley, while the school was built on a plateau higher than the rest of the land surrounding it.

I thought about the town and its history, atleast what I knew about, before my thought were interrupted apruptly, by movement behind me.

I turned, still firmly planted in my seat on the windowsill, and watched as Alex pushed his blanket aside and sat up. The light that was coming from the open window put his face in a cool light, and for a moment I was stunned by the unusual picture.

"Jack? What are you doing...?", he whispered, drunken with sleep. I shook my head, gesturing towards Lafayette, attempting to quiet him down and not wake Laf up as well. He seemed to understand, because he carefully got up out of bed and walked over to me.

"Were you not able to sleep?", he whispered, and I shook my head no, turning back to look out at the city. "Jack, you need to ask Washington for sleeping pills or something, you can't be constantly running on 3 hours a night."

The tone in his voice was caring, and I immediately felt like giving in to him, from the slightest hint of affection. I guess it just wasn't the norm at home.

"I'll ask Prof Washington. Thank you, Alex." He smiled at me very gently, and took my hand to get me to come down from the windowsill. I squeezed his hand gently, and opened my mouth to say something, but I didn't get the chance as the sound of footsteps on the dirt path below became noticable.

We shared a confused look, and I quickly leaned down to see who it was, as did Alexander. Mr. Lawson and another, to us unknown, man were walking down the path together, the moon lighting up their faces and making every detail clearly visible.

They stopped right underneath our window, and I held my breath, but neither of the men thought to look up. Their voices were as clear as day to us, and so we had no other choice but to listen in on their conversation.

"I'm telling you, we shouldn't wait around too much, the longer we do the higher the chance of something getting in the way!" "What would go wrong, Hansen? There's nobody here except for children and a demented professor."

That was Mr. Lawson, and I bit my lip at his words. None of us loved school, but professor Washington was like a second father to most of us. Alex's expression told me that he felt the same way, he stared down at the agent in disgust.

"Mr. Franklin is waiting for us, you dumbass. I'm eager to meet with him", the other man laughed, much to my confusion. I was unaware of any Franklins at this school, especially not Mr. Franklins.

"You're right, you're right..." "Tomorrow night, Pete. Be there, I can't afford looking for you all night." Mr. Lawson nodded, and the two parted ways, leaving only me and Alexander, sitting at the window silently. After what seemed like forever, Alex spoke.

"What do you think they were talking about? Who's Franklin?", he whispered. The only thing that I could do was shrug, I didn't know any more than he did.

"Maybe...", he started before quickly shaking his head. "No, let's not think about this right now. It's probably private business, and you desperately need sleep, I can see your swaying."

Without being able to get a word in, I was dragged away from the window with a gently but firm grasp, and found myself back in bed only seconds later. "Now, try to sleep, and if you can't then we'll call Washington and ask him for medication for you."

"No, Alex, I'm not gonna wake him up in the middle of the night!", I protested in a hushed tone, still careful not to disturb Lafayette, who was sleeping tightly not even ten feet away. Alex glared at me before sighing, his expression softening.

"Fine. But we'll go to him first thing in the morning", he whispered, and I knew that that was his final decision, the only thing I could do was nod and give in. We both lied back down, and I pulled my blanket over my head again to make the room as dark as possible for me.

We layed silently for a bit, but I knew that Alexander was still awake by his occasional sighs or shifting in bed. Now, I felt bad for having woken him up, I didn't want him spending so much time on my issues when they weren't his responsibility.

I pushed the blanket back down and sat up. "Thank you for caring", I whispered. He let out a sound that sounded almost like a chuckle, a soft sigh, as if to say 'you're lucky I love you so much, because otherwise I'd slap you', in caring way.

"Laurens, if you don't go to sleep then I will personally drag you down the hall by your hair", he whispered. With a sigh, I lied back down.

"I love you, goodnight."

"Goodnight Jack, I love you too, you dumbass."