Boyish Secrets

2-Minus One

September: Ghosting
Fact#3: Boys brains are designed by a different architect.
In the first five years of life a girl's brain is busy developing fine motor skills, verbal skills and social skills, which are all highly valued by parents and teachers. Meanwhile, a boy's brain is busy developing gross motor skills, spatial skills and visual skills. These are all handy hunting skills. So boys often start school with a distinct disadvantage when it comes to learning and fitting in.
2-Minus One
Edward woke up on a school day in the month of September very early as usual, he always either woke up relaxed and well rested, or with a headache, on this day fortunately for him it was the former, he did not need any additional nuisance over the gossip that was being traded all over town about him, the fact that he was asked for interviews by major TV networks -which most of his peers would've considered a good thing since they saw it as a gateway to becoming a celebrity, but when you're being harassed to go on national television to confirm whether or not you made your best friend disappear, your response would most likely be an instant refusal.
After it was mentioned several times on national TV that the four boys were with William before he disappeared, they were accused of being responsible, and they became the muses of several online communities, the internet addicts who liked to pretend to be detectives started coming up with theories and scenarios, trying to paint a picture of what happened that night, and the ones who liked mysterious crimes, began idolizing Seth, Edward, Morgan and Eric, eventually the four boys gained a huge popularity online and their social media accounts started getting spammed, but none of this was good, a lot of people were convinced they hurt William.
On this particular day, the boys' parents have had enough of their determination to ignore each other, which started shortly after William went missing, thinking it was uncalled for the parents made their boys promise to talk to each other. It was a bit suspicious to the town's people when the boys weren't seen together during the summer after the night of their sleepover, and the fact that they were avoiding each other became noticeable when they didn't talk to each other all throughout the second half of August and the first week of September.
After brushing his teeth, getting dressed and having breakfast, Edward placed his lunchbox in his backpack and waited for his little brother James to finish his toast and orange juice. Mr. Thompson and his two children were gathered around the Kitchen Island, he was sipping his coffee and smiling at his youngest son James who was smiling also while taking big bites of toast and big gulps of orange juice, while Edward waited with a sad look on his face as usual after not eating very much.
Mrs. Thompson died giving birth to James, but before she passed away she used to talk all the time about wanting to move to the glamorous Crimson Falls, so her husband Tom honored her dying wish and brought then ten year old Edward and newly born James to the North Carolina suburban paradise.
"I'll pick up your brother, so you just come straight home after school or stay outside and hangout with your friends, whatever you want" Mr. Thompson said to Edward.
"I think I'll just come straight here" Edward responded as he rested his hand lightly on James' shoulder "Are you ready to go?" He asked his brother. James was four years old and he went to Crimson Falls prep school, made to prepare kids under six years old for the high pressured environment they were going to enter once they were old enough to enroll in elementary school.
Edward finished school at 15:30 pm, the same time that his father came back from the studio he worked in which was near Tabor City, and upon returning to Crimson Falls Mr. Thompson would drive straight to James' prep school and pick him up while Edward had already been back in their house 20 minutes in advance.
"Yes" James answered.
"Have a great day at school kids, and say hi to Rachel for me" After saying that Tom took three sips from his mug which he was holding by his left hand while adjusting his brown belt with his other hand, he was wearing a red polo shirt tucked in under blue jeans, with his silver watch, golden pushed back hair which was lathered in conditioner, well trimmed mustache, shaved beard and a dark blue jacket he was planning to wear once he stepped out of the house, his look was complete.
"I will dad" Edward said "We'll see you later dad" the two brothers held hands and walked out of their domicile.
"I love you" Tom said at the same time Edward closed the door behind him.
They took the usual path to their right, just three houses away Rachel was standing next to her family's mail box with her pink skirt, black sweater and her white shirt tucked in, she had her pink backpack on, her chocolate brown flowing hair looked gorgeous.
The street on which Edward and Rachel lived consisted of mostly renovated Victorian houses painted with harmonizing colors, after she moved in her father soon became good friends with Edward's father -probably by bonding over the fact that they were both widowers, until one day the two dads indirectly encouraged their kids to hang out with each other, and not in a platonic way, but not in a sexual way either, Edward seemed like the kind of boy who would respects girls enough to not mind being friends with them but at the same time still be open to the possibility of dating, and although he knew a lot of girls wanted to date him, he didn't care much about having a girlfriend, and in a world where men are constantly encouraged to have much sex as possible, Edward's obvious disinterest in girls left a lot of people pointlessly wondering if he was gay.
"Good morning Eddy" She strolled towards them "Hello James" She and Edward held hands for a while. Edward had a rule of not hanging out with people his brother didn't like and James liked Rachel ever since the day he met her.
"How are you?" She asked, Edward opened his mouth slightly as if he was about to speak, but he couldn't think of an answer "Can you believe that my dad is making me attend a beginners acting class in the community theatre?!" Rachel went-on
"How tragic" Edward said sarcastically.
"This is serious, he doesn't want to drive me once a week to an on camera class in Wilmington"
"Wilmington is very far" James unexpectedly chimed in, both Edward and Rachel looked down at him "Dad refused to take Eddy last year to a crazy people hospital that he wanted to write about, William told him about it" Edward and Rachel both felt a sudden anxiety peak upon hearing William's name "I wanted to go too, William said it was an awesome place"
"Does he mean a psychiatric hospital?" Rachel asked "In Wilmington?"
"Yes" Edward answered "I wanted to write an essay about it last year for English class"
Edward was talking about an asylum William had told him, Seth, Eric and Morgan about in the summer between sixth and seventh grade, William said that a male relative of his was institutionalized in it because he had suicidal tendencies, was angry at the world, had unhealthy eating habits and was overly sensitive and paranoid, William once joked that this relative was like fifth grade Eric times ten, and Edward wanted to write an essay about it for English class in seventh grade, the assignment was to write an essay about a place you wish to never find yourself or someone you love in, but his dad refused.
"Well" Rachel said "It's a shame; I would've loved to read that essay"
"Eddy?" Morgan showed up with a shoulder bag "Good morning"
"Good morning Morgan" Edward replied and the two best friends shook hands with Morgan smiling, Edward trying to smile, and Rachel failing to hide how unpleasantly surprised she was.
Edward thought for a second why Morgan would be coming from the opposite direction of where the school was, Morgan's house was one of the farthest houses from the school in town and it wasn't built on a street, it was an old renovated plantation house that you had to go through a fifteen minute walk on a wide path sidelined right and left with trees to get to it.
"Good morning Rachel" Morgan said. She immediately looked down at his black shoes, and as she brought her sight back up again she saw he was wearing grey jeans, a blue shirt with short sleeves and no collar and a brown unbuttoned shirt with long sleeves over it, "Good morning James, how're you doing buddy?"
"Good morning Morgan" Rachel said "How's your mom?" Morgan's mother worked at the community theatre as a production designer, and Rachel had auditioned many times for their plays and she got most of the glamorous parts, which made her a local celebrity, and because of working at the community theatre a lot and attending acting and singing classes there she became very familiar with Morgan's mom.
"Great" Morgan answered.
"That's good to hear" Rachel waved her hand and stepped forward ahead of the three boys "Send her my regards, I'll let you boys catch up, and I'll walk James to his school if you want"
"Sure, if it's okay with James" Edward answered "James, is it okay if Rachel walks you to school instead of me?" Conveniently James' prep school was just across the street from Edward's middle school.
"I don't mind" James answered.
"Later" Morgan said as Rachel walked away with James.
"Later" Edward said at the same time.
"So" Morgan put his hands in his pockets "How are you?"
“Good and you?” Edward said.
“I’m okay” Morgan answered with an unadulterated smile “You’re heading for school earlier than you usually do”
“Yes” Edward said “I woke up early, plus my dad likes to head out for work early as well but he won’t if we’re still in the house, he always has to be the last person to leave, and I didn’t want to slow him down”
“I got out of my house early today too and took Jane to school on my way” Mike said. Jane was Morgan’s half sister and she was the same age as James, as well as the same age as Eric’s little sister Annabelle and Seth’s little brother Sam, ergo they all went to the same prep school facing their older siblings’ middle school “Then I decided to come to your house and see if we can go together, the school was practically empty and I couldn’t handle the stares from the people who were there”
“You got stared at?” Edward questioned Morgan.
“I always get stared at” Morgan said after a brief pause “We’re here” Morgan said as they came to the end of their walk and reached the wide staircase leading to the entrance of their middle school which became narrower at the top “I don’t remember what I was taught there, do you?” Morgan said as he nodded to the blue prep school building facing their middle school, which was predominantly painted in maroon from across the street
“I didn’t go to school there” Edward answered “I was born in California Morgan, I moved here when I was nine, remember?”
“Sorry” Morgan said “I forgot”
        Morgan and Edward waited until the school bell rang, when it did they made their way to their class, in Crimson Falls, the schools were all built very close to each other and to the central suburban houses, and kids were put into classes of 15 up to 20 students while attempting to create perfect male to female and excellent to mediocre students ratio, and the teachers were all brilliant educators.
        While they were waiting Morgan and Edward made small talk in a very awkward manor because they were both terrible at it, as the number of students in the building increased the two boys had to endure more stares and whispers.
        Morgan, Edward, Seth and Eric were all in the same class, they sat on their seats, Morgan and Edward were seated at the front, Morgan was in the middle row and Edward was in the right one which was the farthest one from the door. Eric walked in with his winning smile and firm posture. Eric waved at Edward and Morgan and they waved back.
Half a minute later the class was all there ready to start first period with their English teacher, a dapper man in his early forties, only Seth was missing, he was the class president and was in the school secretary’s office about to speak into the microphone and tell everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance, as his familiar voice came out of the PA speakers, Edward’s mind drifted into a distant memory, the day he met William.
        Edward met William a week after they moved to Crimson Falls, North Carolina all the way from San José, California. Edward was in the car with his dad and younger brother who had just turned one at the time, they were going to school to get Edward registered, William suddenly emerged from the bushes and jumped along the side of the road on his right foot.
“Shouldn’t we see if he’s okay?” Edward asked struggling with his seatbelt to turn around, stick his head out the window and look at William.
“You’re right” His dad said after thinking about it for a second. He pulled over and turned to Edward “Well, he looks your age, why don’t you go and talk to him?” Mr. Thompson had a habit of pushing his son to talk to people –usually strangers, he knew Edward was shy and wanted to get rid of that trait in him. 
“Seriously?” Edward looked in the rearview mirror, Edward was bending over and holding his left foot.
“Yes” Mr. Thompson said. Edward got out of the car, Elliot was still limping.
“Are you okay?” Edward called when he crossed half the distance between William and the car.
“Yes” William turned; he looked at Edward for a second. Edward’s reddish blonde hair covering his entire forehead at the time, and William’s brown hair was wavy and split in the middle.
“We can give you a ride to your house if it’s painful to walk” Edward offered.
“No, it’s okay, my house is there on that hill” William pointed to his right, where behind the bushes was a clear plain of dewy grass then a slope that led to a barrier of trees, from where they were standing only the top of the house which was the attic was visible.  
“Is your foot okay?”
“Yes, I was just trying to catch my ball, there it is” William pointed again, this time to his left to a small red ball on the opposite side of the road “And I hit a big rock with my foot while running after it, didn’t see it” William examined Edward for a second then looked at the car behind him “Are you new here? I have never seen you before”
“Yes, I just moved here this summer, and I’m going to school now to register” Edward answered.
“Which school?” William asked
“Crimson Falls elementary” Edward replied
“That’s the same school I go to” William said with a beaming smile “I start fourth grade this year”
“Same” Edward said enthusiastically.
“Then I’ll see you around maybe” William said “I’m William Elliot Taylor by the way, and you?”
“Edward Thompson, it’s nice to meet you” Edward said.
“It’s nice to meet you too Edward” William said as the two boys shook hands.
        At 15:30 pm the boys didn’t interact at all as they were stepping out of their geography class, instead they had all decided to go to their homes without saying a word to each other, they had sat next to each other during lunch but barely spoke about anything.