Blood, Sweat, and Hanon - A Ranger's Apprentice fanfiction

Chapter Nine - Will

Will systematically avoids his friends all morning. He feels awful about it, but he just can't bring himself to deal with the fallout from the morning's argument right now. And what's worse, he decides, Horace is right. Will is nervous.

In World History, Will can't concentrate. His knee bounces up and down beneath his desk and he twists his pencil anxiously in his grip, pretending to take notes on the lecture he's not listening to. Thankfully the teacher isn't asking too many questions. It's only the first day and no one knows enough to answer questions.

In the hallway, heading to his next class, Will thinks he spots Alyss. He ducks into a shadowy little side hall and hides there, out of sight, until the hallways are mostly clear and the rest of the students have gone to class. Then he has to sprint to make it to Beginning German on time.

German is horrible to learn, Will decides. He respects the language - after all, it's the language of many of the greatest (and his favorite) composers, like Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Handel, and many others - but he simply can't make heads or tails of it.

Then it's on to Trigonometry. Will can't say it's his favorite subject, but at least it's not too hard. Will's always been good with numbers, so he's not struggling too badly.

At lunchtime, Will doesn't go to the cafeteria with the other students. Instead, he returns to the tree outside the cafeteria and climbs high into its branches. He knows he should probably eat - he'll regret it later when he's in the middle of class and ravenously hungry - but he knows if he eats now, he'll probably puke in the middle of his lesson. Which is not the first impression he want to leave his new teacher with.

He sees his new friends enter the cafeteria as a group. They seem more subdued than earlier. They're still joking around and laughing, but it's as if they're trying to defuse a tension within the group. Will wonders what happened, not realizing it's the fact that he's been missing in action all morning that's causing his friends' discomfort.

A few minutes later, Horace walks by. Will's lip starts to curl, but he freezes as he realizes Horace isn't alone. There are three older boys following him, jeering at him.

"Come on, Baby!"a tall, blond boy says. "You crying, are you?" The boy would have been handsome except for the extremely unpleasant look in his eyes.

The other two boys, who seem to be the sidekicks or henchmen, snigger. "Good one, Alda," one of them says.

"Yeah," the other says. "Go home and cry to Mummy, then!"

They give Horace no chance to answer, but round on him all at once, shoving him around. "Oh, that's right!" Alda taunts. "Baby doesn't have a mummy. Baby's mummy ran off with a riverboat sailor."

Alda shoves Horace to the ground and puts a foot on his back, keeping the younger boy from getting up. "Isn't that right, Baby?" he jeers.

Horace's face is ground into the dirt. He picks his head up enough to say, "My mother is dead."

The older boys simply laugh. "So sad," Alda says. "So very sad. Come on, boys, let's go get lunch."

They leave Horace lying in the dirt and swagger off toward the dining hall. Will doesn't move a muscle as Horace lies there.

Then he distinctly hears Horace say, "I hate it here."

Will sits in stunned silence as Horace finally picks himself up, brushing himself off, and heads off, not toward the dining hall, but in the direction of the dorms.

Will is thoroughly confused. Part of him feels sorry for Horace. He knows what it's like to be picked on. But another part of him cheers viciously at the sight of Horace getting bullied. Will hates that part of him and pushes it down. But then that brings up the question of what Will should do. Should he find a teacher? Would Horace appreciate Will interfering, or would it just make him dislike Will more? Would telling on the three older boys bring their wrath down on Will, too?