Chiron Academy

Chapter 24.5 If A Fool Believes

Wyatt was relieved when no one seemed to notice him and William enter. Everyone seemed to be milling about, talking to each other like bees flitting from flower to flower. A few people sat in the chairs around the long black table, but most appeared content to stand as they conversed with each other for the moment. 

Counting the chairs, Wyatt noticed they were going to have a hard time fitting all of the captains plus the vice captains. Hopefully they some spare chairs they could grab or else some people would have to stand. 

And it probably wouldn't be the captains, Wyatt thought to himself.

A few more people trickled in behind them, some of them still carrying their trays of food from dinner. 

Wyatt was surprised by that. Most of the time, the cafeteria workers were very strict about not allowing trays outside of the cafeteria itself. It seemed that skipping the food lines was not the only perks of being a squad leader.

Looking at his watch, Wyatt noticed they still had a minute or two before the meeting was supposed to start. Which was good. It was early enough to have time to disappear into the walls but not so early that you would stick out for being too early. 

 Though his still growling stomach did wish that he hadn't left his meal quite so fast. Now that he saw he could have brought his meal with him and no one would have said anything, he kind of wish he'd done that. Not that he would be eating much, even if he still had the food with him. His stomach was churning like the butterflies in his stomach had decided that just flying around wasn't enough and had decided to take up shooting mortar charges at the walls of his stomach. 

He tucked his hands into his pockets and was just about to find a spot on the wall to lean on when William spotted Todd near the head of the table.

"Diverman!" William said excitedly, practically dragging Wyatt behind him as he walked to the boy. "How are you today?"

Todd was bent over the table, glancing through a small stack of papers.

Probably refamiliarizing himself with whatever announcements or business they were going to discuss during the meeting, Wyatt figured. Each of the sheets looked pretty meaty and looked more like memos, except for the top sheet which had the bullet-pointed appearance of an itinerary.  

It made sense. It wouldn't do for the big boy captain of the school to forget his lines and Todd always did like to be thorough about things. It made sense for him to want to appear professional for this.

"Hi, William, I'm doing good," Todd said raising his head. 

He brushed his long bangs out of his eyes. Judging by the increasing length of his hair, it looked like he was doing that more and more lately. Todd's had been getting a little long before they'd left Baltimore and that had been weeks ago. Now, it was definitely entering that awkward 'not long enough to be Long Hair but too long to be just regular 'Guy's Haircut' stage. He'd probably cut it soon. Todd usually kept his hair as a loose tousled mop on top of his head. That and his trademark grin were the two things that set Todd apart from his generally controlled appearance. 

Then again, maybe he'd actually grow it out this time. He normally only cut his hair after a few weeks of nagging from his mom. She always said she didn't 'raise her sweet baby to look like an unwashed hippie'. But maybe now that his mom wasn't there, Todd might change his mind.

"Hey so,Todd," William said, using the guy's name in the same way you might handle an instrument you'd never played before. "Look who I've got with me."

"Oh, hi, Wyatt," Todd said, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. "It's good to see you."

"Yeah," Wyatt responded. "Is it always like this?"