The head boy

Part 34 - I always have a plan

(William's POV)

"Alright...say hi to mom and dad for me...yeah I know it's still awkward between you guys but just say I said hi and that's it...okay thanks...you I'll call you next week...bye," Paul is always the one hanging up the phone first, it really annoys me when he does that while I'm in the middle of a sentence but today I'm in a good mood, he called me, said things were better at home, still not normal but better. I received my grade in deepened economy and it's exactly what I wanted it to be. All that adding up to something more general, something that's more...in the air. I'm liking my job as vice-Head student more and more.

The cold days where it was just Lin, Tom and I seem long gone and now it's the four of us, it's more fun, it's less predictable.

"William," Tom's voice echoes from behind me as he enters the kitchen where I'm currently making myself coffee. "I require your presence for today. It's umm...a more personal request."

"Personal?" I inquire.

"I need you to come with me today to act like a shield between me and my family, I would have asked somebody else but they're all...busy," by 'busy' I gather that he didn't even ask to Lin because he knew she would say no and because the two of them going somewhere alone is probably as unlikely as Micheal Jackson rising from the dead again. As for Ida, he's furious and hurt and probably a bunch of other emotions he hardly ever experiences and all that because of her.

Which leaves him with me.

I wanted to spend the day outside, exploring the forest that lies around the Royal, it's huge and extends out of campus. "I have plans."

"Not anymore, I'll wait for you in the car," Ida needs to bewitch him back quickly because I'm not used to this tyrannical version of Tom anymore...

***

It's the first time I'm going to the Edmonstone's huge mansion. Tom is brave for leaving all this, or maybe dumb.

"All you need to do is to stand there and remind my family that they can't act like they usually do because we have a guest, as soon as an unfamiliar face appears they usually remember how to behave themselves. I don't intend to stay here for too long, I have a business, a few business maybe but I'll be done with them soon enough," My tyrannical boss, who happens to be my age explains as we walk up the stairs to reach the front door.

He rings the doorbell, a valet appears on the other side of the door with a neutral face, "welcome back sir, may I take your coat?" He does his job and disappears somewhere.

The house seems or rather sounds empty, so empty actually that I can only hear the sound of our footsteps as we walk from the foyer to, according to the size of it, the living room. This place really is out of time, I might be in Versailles, or maybe in Elon Musk's house. They have fancy furniture probably inherited from their ancestors and right next to the three hundred year old sofa stands a state-of-the-art model of hi-fi stereo. I'm sure that when it's on, the whole neighbourhood can hear Mozart playing.

"Mister, welcome back," an old lady with greyish hair tight in a neat bun slowly walks up to us with a warm smile on her face that forces her eyes to squint. I utterly wonder how such an old lady can take care of such a big property...

The response appears in sight when the latest model of automatic vacuum cleaner passes around us silently. I seem to be the only one to pay attention to it.

"Hello, Samantha, would you be so kind as to tell me where my parents are hidden? Why is it so calm here?" Tom queries as he scans the room with his eyes.

"Oh, everyone is waiting for you in the glasshouse," Samantha gestures for us to follow her, as she leads the way I notice a small paper taped on her back: 'Can't walk faster than that?' is written on it and I gather it's a trick from Tom's younger brothers, the twins, the 'devil's spawns' as he fancies to call them. I can see why...