The head boy

Part 8 - A long day

"Ida, are you ready?" William asks as he walks down the stairs of the Royal. He looks neat, he always looks neat. And pure, he always looks pure! Focus!

It's time to start another day of work. Since we live a bit far away from the core of the campus we use the car with a chauffeur that is at Tom's disposal and so at our disposal, hehe.

"I am, but aren't we waiting for Tom?" I ask as Lin walks past us and toward the car, without a word, like a ghost. She freaks me out.

A silent chuckle escapes William's lips, "Tom left an hour ago, he has many things to do so he always makes sure to get there early to not mess with his schedule," he explains as we join Lin inside the car.

She proceeds to put on her headphones as soon as we sit next to her.

Charming.

"Isn't he putting too much pressure on himself?" Fastening my seatbelt I suddenly have a vision of Tom doing it too, an hour ago, alone in this car. He always seems to be alone, knowing him it's probably what he wants but...I find it pretty sad.

William shakes his head with a knowing smile flashing on his lips, "there's nothing in this world he'd rather do. Working hard, harder than everyone else, I don't know if he enjoys it or if he's just doing it because he has plans but in the end, he never complains,"

I nod, understandingly before looking through the window of the car. Summer is dying, leaves lose their lustre, the once lush forest is slowly taking its autumn colours as September slowly bows out.

It's a beautiful campus, very ancient and with every day passing by I realise how much of an honour it is to study here.

***

My first class is at nine a.m today but I still need to be at the Head Boy's study by seven thirty, which sucks for my sleeping schedule but I guess it's necessary. We generally work early in the morning and during a few hours in the afternoon after our classes are over.

When we penetrate the room, Tom is already at his desk, working in silence.

"Hi Tom!" I exclaim enthusiastically as I take off my school sweatshirt that I bought at the beginning of the year. I'm really proud of it. It's a crimson colour with the PAAZ written on it with the school's banner.

At the sound of my voice, his grip tightens around his pen and I don't know if my eyes are fooling me but it looks like his eyes widen for half a second...in surprise?

"Mr Edmonstone..." he grumbles without lifting his chin from his desk.

"Of course," I smile widely. It's cute that he thinks I'm gonna call him by his family name, it's sweet that he still has hope.

Lin joins her couch, in silence. We say it's hers because she always sits there and once I tried to sit next to her but changed my mind when she threw me the most terrifying glare ever.

William walks over to Tom's desk and starts perusing through a few files, in silence too. These three are always awfully silent, it feels like working in a cemetery.

I take the papers from the idea box which is basically my job. The idea box is the place where students can leave notes, questions, requests, complaints and basically anything they want us to know.

What do we have today? Apparently the toilets of the second floor in the Galileo building have a deficient sink, it's a good thing I don't live there anymore. I note it down. What else? Someone's unhappy with the vegan day at the cafeteria. It only happens once a week. Oh! And apparently someone's unhappy because the vegan day only happens once a week. Something fun would be to arrange an encounter between these two, it would probably give something like Gladiator or something...