The Numbers on Our Arms

Partial Chapter 39

A/N: This chapter isn't only not complete, it is also not edited. 

Isen's head rested on the desk in front of him as he shut his eyes. The Safehouse barely had supervisors anymore and that was on top of the new students, who didn't understand why it was there in the first place. There were new comers as well, but they didn't cause the hassle.

He had had to accept John as a supervisor as the only founder of the club remaining (if he could count as that, all he did was make the leaflets). The club seemed mostly okay with it, though he wasn't there when he was supervising because otherwise he would be the one supervising. He knew the first-years were a bit cautious with him due to rumours and other things the upper years would say, but he hadn't done anything to prove that he hadn't changed over a new leaf (that he had seen).

He brought his head up as five o'clock rolled around. "Hey, everyone, club is over now." There were a group of groans around the room. "If anyone could put away what they had out, that would be greatly appreciated."

The students shuffled about through the room: playing cards where collected up put back in the small box, laptops carried across to the charging point across the room in the shelfs in one corner, and boards games were cleared up from the tables and put away into the cupboard. Isen himself turned around to look back at his desk and the open exercise book that he had been using as a pillows just a minute ago. The room slowly drained out of students in the next fifteen minutes until he was the only person left in the room. Then he reached to a cupboard in the corner that kept a broom in and took it out, brushing off some of the crumbs on the ground.

The door clicked as it was slid open and he glanced up to the doorway. There stood a short boy, now a third-year, with dusty blond hair and bright green eyes who wore the school vest. "Hey, Terrence. Did you forget something?"

After he met his eyes, Isen quickly looked away and attempted to smother his expression as his heart quickened in pace. Thoughts of the previous year and two other students filled his head, even as he tried to wipe his mind clean.

"Yes," he replied as he began to walk through the room. Isen tried to focus on the sweeping of the gathered dust, tiny paper pieces and other random items that had gathered up on the floor, but his eyes kept flicking up to him. He didn't immediately go to where he had been sitting before (which to be fair to Terrence, Isen didn't know where he had been sitting) but up to the laptop station. He looked around the shelfing unit. Did he forget to put his on charge?

"How was your summer vacation?" Isen questioned, steadying out his voice. All the thoughts running through his head were about Terrence's suspicious background and the fact that Remi and Blyke were missing (unofficially). And, of course, the connection he quite possibly had with some secret organisation that wasn't Ember. Not that he knew what it was.

"Ah, dull." Terrence looked back to him, scrunched up his eyebrows, before he looked back.

"Do you not live near anyone?"

He shook his head as his hand slipped into his pocket. "And no money."

Isen bit his lip and attempted to smother out his annoyance with himself. Of course, Terrence was on some sort of scholarship. Or was he? He did supposedly work for some organisation as a spy (possibly, he wasn't involved with everything that happened to Seraphina anymore). They could pay for him. Or he could have a scholarship to stop any suspicion?

"Ah, my summer wasn't that great either. No one lives near me either and Remi and Blyke were much more caught up in seeing each other." He bit his lip as he looked away. Would he realise anything from it?

"I guess it would have been much more stressful than that with everything going on." Isen's eyes flicked to him – wide – and stared as he was now analysing the outside of the cupboard.

"What going on?" he cautiously asked, pressing his lips together.

"Ah, you know. This and that," he replied. "It's your final year. I've heard from others that it's really hard and that it starts full on, so you have to pre-prepare for the start of the year."

Isen raised an eyebrow to himself. He had never heard that before. Yes, Wellston was a very academic focused school, but it wasn't quite like that. Or at least it hadn't been so far in the past two days of school and there wasn't any warning about it, though it wasn't like that he paid attention that often. No one had mentioned him, or he wasn't aware that they had.