𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ²

11

11 . 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀 .

    𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐘, just after lunch, and while everyone else in Mr. Sunn's classroom was writing a test, Charlotte was at the back of the class with her laptop open. She'd been exempted from said-test, because her curriculum of online school wasn't as up to date as Mr. Sunn preferred. So, she sat in the back of the room, with her laptop open, looking at the review sheets he'd told her to study for the next classes.

    Her body was aching with boredom by the time it hit one o'clock, and she thought she just might fall asleep on her keyboard and head-slam the keys. But the boredom kicked away when, halfway through the class, they got a knock at the door. At first she didn't look up, assuming it was something unimportant. A man entered the room, wearing a nice suit, and spoke briefly to the teacher. But then his voice interrupted the class, asking for none other than Pope. Charlotte looked up from her computer.

    Pope turned around to glance at all three of them, first to Kie, then to JJ, and then to Charlie. His eyes looked concerned, and so were they, only a little bit just yet. Pope turned back around, and solemnly followed the man out the classroom door.

    In the mean time while he was gone, the rest of the class continued with their test. Charlie, in the back of the room, looked back to her laptop, but didn't focus on the words she was supposed to be reading. Rather, she waited for the door to open again. She tapped her pencil on the desk in a repeated manner, and then gazed around the room. She'd never done an in-person test before, and so she found some sort of interest in observing the way other people acted during one.

    She gazed around the room until the door opened again. Really, she hadn't been expecting much to come out of this little interruption— but it was something to take her mind off history. But she should have expected more, because when Pope came back, he was walking with a stride that meant something was wrong. And the look on his face was filled with tension, and proved that something was, in fact, wrong.

    She watched closely as Kiara leaned over her desk, whispering lowly to him with concern. He didn't answer. Instead, he rose his hand and held up a brown envelope for them to see.

    Charlie leaned in close, squinting her eyes so she could see it from across the room. Kiara asked him something, her body tensing up as she spoke. Charlotte couldn't see what was on the envelop from that far, but it was okay because Kiara turned around within a second, and mouthed the words "wheat symbol".

    And suddenly, everything went quiet in her body and her mind clicked with realization.

    "What the f—" JJ exclaimed, his voice too loud. Then he realized everyone was looking at him. "F... mm, fu— fudge," he laughed, uncomfortably.

    Charlie let out a shocked breath, and leaned back in her seat. JJ swiveled around in his seat and looked at her, with the same wide-eyed expression she held.

    With the revelation in mind, the rest of the class went by painfully slow. She couldn't really sit right in her seat, and if it weren't for the laptop in front of her, she would've gone absolutely mad. For the last half an hour, she looked up pictures and articles about the wheat symbol. Technically, it was still history-related.

    When the bell rang, the four of them didn't waste any time to join one another, quickly hand in their tests and rush out.

    They were in the hallway now, walking side by side, shoving past the people walking to their lockers like normal. They scurried down the hall, sharing whispers to one another, and burning questions that Pope wouldn't answer. They rushed all the way to the library.