Let Me Be Your Missing Puzzle Piece

Chapter 3

The two remaining lessons went by pretty quickly for Jeff, considering all they did in English was discuss poetry notes and since their art teacher had called in sick, a sub had taken over and had decided that she didn't have the patience to be dealing with teenage boys and paint in one room, so she had allowed them to have a free period. Which was a relief for most of the boys who had just suffered through a depressing prolonged day and really didn't have the motivation to paint the remaining unequivocal features on to their pieces.

Jeff had taken advantage of this free time to head back up to his dorm in an attempt to straighten up the room, in his mad rush to find his shoes this morning he had left the dorm in a right state so he knew at some point he would have had had to come up and sort it before he and Nick would be lectured about their messiness by the dorm inspectors. He had turned down the offer to join Flint and Cameron who had decided they were going to use the time to get some extra lacrosse practise in, Jeff didn't even play the sport so he saw no point in spending an hour watching the two run up and down the field with a stick. Even though his father had pushed him into joining sports in his hope that one day Jeff would become captain of a Dalton sports team, Jeff just didn't have much luck with sports, he was more of a creative person – his time spent well singing or dancing or painting, not getting down and dirty on a field. He had given up trying to play lacrosse at the start of freshmen year when he had accidentally launched the ball at Miss. Carlson's face and shattered her glasses. That didn't mean he didn't go to support his friends during matches, he still stood in the stands cheering them on like a true supporter, even though half the time he had no idea why this person couldn't move there, or this person couldn't have possession of the ball here and so on.

The corridors of Dalton were deserted, everyone would still be in class working away at this time, with the exception of the seniors who would either be lounging around in the common room or taking a stroll around the grounds, but judging by the weather outside, Jeff thought the common room seemed like a more realistic choice for the students.

He quickly made his way up the staircase and along the corridor to the dorms, stopping outside his and Nick's room to fiddle around inside his blazer for the key. After retrieving the little silver object, he turned the lock and entered the room, quickly dumping his bag on the bed and walking over to the small cabinet that sat sandwiched between the twin beds on one side of the room. He began to take off his watch and set it down on the wooden surface, it had been a gift from his grandfather a few years ago who had unfortunately passed away not that long ago, so Jeff treasured the item a lot, it really had sentimental value as it had been passed through generations of the Sterling family, he had been given a duty to take care of it, which meant keeping it safely tucked away when it was not being worn and out of the reach of his best friend, who had a particular bad habit of misplacing things.

Jeff then made a start on clearing up the room, he began to pick up the many sheets of paper that lined the floor around the desk, and began to sort out the pile of clothes that lay untouched in the corner, most of whom were Nick's. Jeff had to admit, he did have a touch of OCD, for he even sorted out the piles of dirty and clean socks into order of colour and placed them neatly back into their places before making a start on the wardrobe.

It had taken Jeff over half an hour to fully clean out and organise the shared wardrobe, which in that time he had managed to neaten up both his and Nick's side, separating their uniform from their casual weekend clothes and gathering up the many empty packets of Red Vines and Twizzlers that lay scattered at the back of the wardrobe, he didn't even have to think twice about which one of the warblers had decided to stuff all of their rubbish away into the back, for he knew that holding the two boys responsible for owning an insane amount of sweets would be an easy way for the sassy warbler to get a Wes Montgomery off of his back about having a sugar addiction.