Dead Ravens Society

Chapter 7 - The Marrow of Life

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

- Henry David Thoreau

Adam 

Adam was peacefully minding his own business, ignoring Ronan's loud chewing next to him, when Gansey sat down opposite them.

"Hey, I found this old senior annual in the library," he said. His usually well-combed hair fell into his eyes and his glasses had slipped down his nose. His Agionby jumper had some grey dust on its shoulder. If an outsider were to see them then, Adam thought, they might think Gansey was the scholarship student. Somehow that thought didn't make him feel as good as he'd thought it would.

Gansey held up the annual for Adam and Ronan to see. A picture of an only slightly younger-looking Mr Czerny, or Noah Czerny, looked back at them. The quality of the picture wasn't the best, as he looked oddly smudgy, and the shadows made it seem almost like his temple was caving in. He was dressed in the same uniform Adam currently was; a white dress shirt with Aglionby's standard dark blue sweater vest over it. The raven emblem that symbolised the school was sewn onto the breast pocket.

As far as Adam knew, it might actually be the exact same uniform he was wearing, as all his Aglionby stuff was hand-me-downs from the school. Without meaning to, he shrugged his shoulders, trying to make a loose bit of thread less visible.

Gansey turned the book back to himself and read aloud. "Listen to this;  editor of the school annual, Cambridge bound, thigh man and the Dead Ravens Society."

"Man most likely to do anything," Ronan read when Gansey handed him the book. "Mr C was a troublemaker." He looked up at Gansey's grinning face. "What's the Dead Ravens Society?"

"I've no idea, there's only one other mention of it."

"Where?" Adam asked, simply because it seemed that's what Gansey was waiting for. Only a second later, Ronan did the same. The two glared at each other, although Adam wasn't quite sure why.

Gansey turned forward a few pages, finally finding what he was looking for and pointing to the name Barrington Whelk. It was slightly harder to recognize Mr Whelk, as the man had been unfortunate enough to have his hair start residing when he was twenty, and he had lost a few pounds, making his current self look sickly in comparison to the youthful boy in the picture.

"Mr Whelk and Mr Czerny were friends?" Adam asked. The two men didn't seem to have much different of a relationship than Mr Whelk had with all other teachers; distant yet respectful. They'd exchange pleasantries but never seemed eager to speak to one another. 

"They must have had some fallout," Ronan said. 

Adam wondered if Mr Whelk and Mr Czerny had once been as close as Gansey and Ronan. If they had shared looks with each other and immediately understood what the other meant. If they'd break out laughing at random phrases that were funny only because of some memory they shared. If Mr Whelk had been as protective or Mr Czerny as Ronan was Gansey. If Mr Czerny had had as much fate in Mr Whelk as Gansey did Ronan.

But he doubted it, for no other reason than that it didn't seem to Adam that what Ronan and Gansey had was breakable. They were too in rhythm with each other. They trusted one another more than Adam trusted himself. They were different but somehow understood one another without needing words.