In Our Heads

Chapter 32

*****

Theodore leaned back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He watched the woman talk to Zion, occasionally joking around as she inspected him and pausing to write some things down.

It was quite early in the morning, though both their schools had already started. They were currently in a hospital getting Zion checked out because he had been a little sick all weekend. It was not too bad, but Theodore figured it was better to get it out of the way quickly before his brother became sicker.

Since Zion seemed to be doing well at the moment, they were still going to head to school once they completed the visit.

When the doctor was finished checking on Zion, she turned to Theodore and he straightened up, pushing away from the wall so he could step closer to her and listen to what she had to say. She handed him a prescription for some medicine before Zion hopped off the bed and they began to leave.

"Are we skipping school today?" Zion asked once they were outside.

"No," his reply was met by a dramatically disappointed groan that made him laugh.

They got into the car and Theodore drove towards Zion's school figuring that he would get the medicine on his way back from school when the pharmacy was open. Upon arrival, he had to give one of the staff members an explanation of why Zion was late before he greeted his brother as they split up.

The drive to his school had much more traffic than usual, and made him ten minutes later. So, when he finally arrived at school he parked quickly and jogged to the office to get himself marked present as it was already the second period.

He ended up getting an afternoon of detention to 'make up' for the time lost; the woman at reception wanted to hear nothing about his excuse for being late. Once exiting the office, he walked into the empty hall with a sigh. He did not like the idea of leaving Zion at school for an extra hour and a half, but could not think of anything else he could do except skip detention, which would only result in more detention.

He began to walk towards his class but stopped as he heard speaking from inside. After weighing the options of either walking in while everyone was busy and then having to explain to the teacher where he had been or just skipping the rest of the class, he stepped back quietly as he looked around to make sure there were no staff around and then walked away from the class.

Heading to his locker, he dropped some of his books into it before making his way upstairs as there were still twenty minutes left of the class and he needed somewhere to hide until the next class.

Once on the roof, he sat on the bench and began sketching. Theodore felt surprisingly calm about skipping class considering that he had never done it before, even a little happy while sitting in the warm sun as he crossed his legs on the bench and began to draw with the book on his lap. His sketching slowed as he remembered the time he had spent at Zion's new friend's house.

Corbin's mother had offered to have them over again or watch Zion if he could go over some time. It would probably be overstepping to ask her to watch him until Theodore left school... but he would rather ask her than just leave Zion there without anyone else around. Placing the pencil down, he dug for his phone.

She was probably at work, but he did not know when she would have a break so he scrolled down to the number preparing the question in his mind before dialling the number. If she did not answer, and he was kind of hoping she would not, he would text instead. As it rang, he repeated the question in his mind; practising answers to her possible answers until a voice sounded.

"Hello. Theodore?" she sounded surprised to be hearing from him.

"Um – Hello, Mrs Scott."

"Hey!" she greeted cheerfully. "Aren't you at school?"