Chiron Academy

Chapter 23: butter and victory (Part 2)

Wyatt's cheeks were still warming up when he noticed the noise coming from the open door to the cafeteria.

He glanced at his watch. Yeah, it was nine o'clock. What were people doing in the cafeteria?

Poking his head in, he was surprised to see what must have been at least twenty people sitting at various tables in the large room. A few sat alone, but most sat in groups of two or three. They seemed to be chatting or working on homework.

Were they waiting for something? Wyatt hadn't heard anything about any evening activities going on. He tried to keep an eye on the school messaging app ever since he'd been blindsided by the intersquad competition. It had been bad enough the first time that he tried to look a couple of times a day just in case. Maybe he'd just missed this one?

He was about to grab his phone out of his pocket to double-check the app when he spotted William making a beeline towards him.

"Hey, Wyatt!" the boy said brightly. His dark, almost black, skin contrasted with the glaring fluorescent lights reflecting off the white squares of linoleum covering the floor.

Wyatt could feel the high he'd been experiencing since leaving the police station trickle away. For a few glorious hours, he'd been able to forget all about William. He hadn't thought of his roommate a single time in hours.

Wyatt was actually a little surprised the William was talking to him, let alone seeking him out. William had been very quiet the last few days, barely speaking a word to Wyatt since the shooting incident. Not that Wyatt had really minded, honestly. Most things William said were either him nagging Wyatt to do better or else they were pithy pump-up statements. Neither of which Wyatt needed.

Wyatt half wondered if William was mad at Wyatt for being stern with him back in that alley, but if that was the case, Wyatt certainly didn't regret having done that. If he hadn't pulled William out of the line of fire, William would be dead right now. If his feathers were ruffled, that his own business.

Whatever the cause of his silence, his feathers seemed quite unruffled now.

"Wyatt, I was wondering where you were hiding," William said brightly. "I looked for you during dinner, but I didn't see you anywhere."

"Yeah, I cut out right after training," Wyatt replied honestly.

William didn't respond, just continued staring at Wyatt as if he expected him to continue.

Wyatt sighed.

"I had something important to do in the city," he explained.

"Ah, okay," William said, nodding his head a little enthusiastically than he probably should have.

"Have you eaten yet?" he asked innocently.

Wyatt thought for a second about lying and saying no, but he was too hungry to make a play at the charade. Getting William off his back wasn't worth having to answer all of the follow up questions the boy was likely to ask.

"No," he replied honestly.

"That's okay. I thought that might be what happened," William replied pointing to a table against the wall. "I got you a plate."

Wyatt looked and, lo and behold, on the table, there was indeed a meal tray piled up with mashed potatoes and what looked like chicken fried steak. The portions looked bigger than the cafeteria usually gave out. They were normally very conscious about portion control for the kids, but this one looked downright bounteous. Even the paper cup full of green beans extra full. It was no doubt cold after hours of sitting out. But from Wyatt was standing, it looked heavenly.