What We Stay Alive For

Chapter Five: Thank God, Thank Sunlight, Thank Me

30 August, 1959. And finally, night.

Around nine o'clock, the boys take a much-needed break from their studying, now more occupied with catching up and telling stories than they are with Latin conjugations or chemical formulae. As the clock ticks towards ten, the first yawn sounds, coming from Knox. Then, the group agrees that their night is due for an end.

"Are we meeting again tomorrow night?" Meeks asks, closing his textbook with a relieved thud.

"Tomorrow?" Charlie makes a face that looks a lot like he had accidentally taken a bite from the world's most sour lemon. Todd laughs, having seen this face every day for the past ten years at any slightest inconvenience. "We aren't gonna study every day like last year, right? I almost died halfway through the first semester."

"I mean, the near-death experience would definitely be worse if we weren't studying every day, yeah?" Meeks responds. "If you got low grades and your parents saw."

"Nope, not worse," Knox adds to the conversation, "my brain was fried doing school and group every day."

"Then let's balance the days and take breaks," Neil suggests. "Let's do what we can ourselves and only meet when we think we have to."

"That's too complicated, we should have set days to study together." Cameron butts in.

Meeks makes an offer. "How about Mondays and Fridays? That way we can meet tomorrow after the first day and Fridays, right before the weekend."

"Sounds good to me," Charlie says for the group, standing up from his seat. He throws up his arms and stretches them tall. "All right. I'm going to my room. You comin'?" He looks at Cameron, who has his books neatly stacked and pressed to his chest.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm ready to leave, too." Cameron, now sharing the sour lemon look, stands up and pushes in his chair. "I was just about to say that curfew is soon, anyways. We should go before someone has to come get us."

There's a competitive air between them, one that follows Cameron everywhere he goes. Charlie is the only one able to combat it with a calm, straight toned demeanor.

"Ah!" He replies, "Then we better get outta here, Cam. It's too bad I didn't just ask if you were ready to leave. Might have saved us some time and we wouldn't be having this conversation if I just asked." Charlie catches on quickly that this conversation is something Cameron is looking to win.

"That's not-"

"Wouldn't want to get expelled for missing curfew on the first day."

"Actually, you wouldn't be-"

"Huh? What's that?" He holds his hand up to his ear. "I think I hear Nolan coming down the hall now!"

"You do? Cameron's eyes, wide as the bowls they serve Welton hash in, looks towards the door fearfully. Without another word, he rushes out, taking an extra second to carefully shut the door behind him so it won't make a sound. This second is wasted, contradicted by Cameron running down the hall, feet slamming loudly against the floors.

Todd's mouth hangs open until Cameron can't be heard any longer. Cameron did a lot of things that could be considered insane during his time at Welton in order to please the higher-ups and the more wealthy, but running down the hallways like a child afraid of being caught by his parents was not something expected.

Though, Todd remembers that Cameron had run away when he was caught speaking poorly of him in his room earlier. Hm. Maybe, Todd thinks, he doesn't know Cameron at all. Or very well, at least. No, he only remembers being mad at Cameron after Welton on behalf of Keating and Neil. He didn't want to remember Cameron's humanity or good naturedness or cunning personality. He refused to remember it. But if Neil's ending was going to change, so was Richard Cameron's.