Being a Barrow - A Sequel to Barrow's Boy

Ghosts of the Past

      There was a light snowfall as Teddy and his friends left their class that January afternoon. Monty, arms wrapped around himself, had snowflakes decorating his knit maroon hat, while Dansworth was letting them fall into his outreached gloved palm, watching them melt away as they hit the black leather.

     Teddy and Ashton were leading the way- likely for the best, with how unaware the other two seemed. This was typical for the group, and nothing that bothered either Theodore or Ashton. 

     They walked past a group of St. Agatha's nursing students who were heading back to their campus from the library, then continued on toward Danny and Monty's dormitory, as the group had agreed to do some of their studying there. As they walked, however, Theodore had to pause, looking beyond the students walking down the path to a familiar face standing on the grass. 

      Ashton had taken a few more steps before he realized that Teddy was now veering in another direction. He and the other two boys followed without question, heading with Teddy to the grass as Theodore called out:

     "Everett!"

    Everett took his gaze off the leashed puppy walking in circles on the grass to look over in their direction. Upon seeing Teddy, he grinned.

     "Ted! Hey!"

     Theodore, hands in his pockets, started approaching, about to ask his next question, when a gasp from Monty interrupted.

     "A puppy!" He exclaimed excitedly, passing by Theodore to go over to where Everett and the dog were. Ev gave a motion toward the dog, an affirmation that Monty could approach her, and he quickly crouched down to start petting her. "And what is your name?"

      "This is Lua," Everett said. Monty grinned, running a hand along the puppy, Lua's, head. Theodore focused on Everett.

      "I thought Miguel was taking care of his dog?"

      "He's working, and she needed a walk," Everett answered with a shrug. "I don't mind."

      "And what brings you to campus?"

      "It has grass," Ev said, shrugging again. Teddy chuckled, shaking his head. 

      "Fair enough," he offered. He opened his mouth again, ready to give some excuse to keep the group moving, when Ashton cut in.

      "How's your show been going?" Everett turned to him and dramatically sighed.

      "Not as well as we'd hoped, I'm afraid, but that's show business for you."

      "What do you mean?" Teddy asked, brow furrowing. Danny had now crouched down to join Monty with Lua, so he figured that the two of them were suitably occupied. 

     "The reviews seem to realize that there's no real narrative arc, and they're making it known. Which I'm not exactly surprised about, I mean, Vic and I had pointed it out alone with each other, but we'd hoped everything else would make up for it, you know? How could we tell Clara that her writing's kinda shit?"

     "I see," Theodore said carefully, unsure if he should admit to also agreeing about the lack of plot. 

     "And then Mae comes in the other day and outright says they're quitting-"

      "What?" Ashton exclaimed. Theodore and Everett turned to him, and Ashton's mouth fell slightly ajar. "I only mean- I don't know. It sounds like it was sudden."

    "It was," Everett agreed. "They come in, say they don't want to act in the show anymore. Clara flies off the handle. We've not even been going for a month, as you both know. But Mae insists that they do not want to be on that stage anymore and that they want to be replaced immediately. Victor and I tried to get the reason out of them later, but they just said-"