History Hates Lovers • Cole Mackenzie

010: A Broken Lightbulb

"Cole." Xavier dragged out the 'ole' in his name as he stepped into their fort.

"Yes?" Cole asked, dragging out the 's'.

"School was horrible without you there, you should've seen Anne today." He groaned. "It was so embarrassing."

"It couldn't have been that bad." Cole responded, quickly looking up from his sculpture.

"Oh, it was bad." Xavier emphasized 'bad'.

"Speaking of Anne, where is she?" Cole asked.

"Miss Stacy said that she needed to speak to her after class." Xavier said. "So Anne's probably still there."

"Miss Stacy?" He looked up at Xavier in confusion.

"She's our new teacher. The progressive mother's thought it would be a good idea to have a female teacher." Xavier answered.

"Ah. Makes sense." Cole nodded, going back to his clay.

The two sat in silence, Cole sculpting while Xavier watched from his right side. Xavier smiled as Cole continued to get better everytime he saw him, happy Cole found another form of art he was passionate about.

Anne was panting and knocked over one of Cole's sculptures as soon as she walked into the fort.

"Whoa." Cole exclaimed.

"Argh! Why can't I do anything right today?!" Anne yelled. "Sorry."

Anne knelt down and picked up the knocked over sculpture, still panting while doing so.

"Have you seen my fox?" Anne questioned both boys.

"I have not seen a fox, yours or otherwise." Cole told her.

"Nor have I." Xavier responded.

"Wait, you have a fox?" Both boys asked at the same time.

"Can you think about an opener for an essay on the perils of gossip?!" Anne exclaimed, ignoring the question and making Xavier jump.

"Will you please slow down?" Cole said to the girl.

"And lower your voice a bit?" Xavier chimed in, rubbing his ears in pain.

"Will you please come back to school?! I need your support!" Anne told Cole.

"I'm not coming back." Cole said at the same time Xavier said, "He's not coming back."

"Life's too short. I'm not accepted there, and you know that." Cole continued.

"Trust me, the new teacher won't let anyone bully you, I'm sure of it." Anne said, talking fast. "She's a champion of good. Ugh!"

"Anne, this is what I'm going to do with my life. So I'm doing it." Cole reminded.

"And you're doing it amazingly, might I add." Xavier whispered to him.

Cole blushed at the close proximity, but smiled and thanked him none the less.

"I can't think of what to write! What am I going to do?!" Anne yelled. "I have to impress her! She has to like me!"

"Maybe you just need a change of perspective." Xavier responded.

"To... Clear your head and save my arts life?" Cole looked at Anne, who was now crouched on the floor.

"Sorry." Anne apologized.

"Do you have a special place we could go that might inspire?" Cole asked.

"Get the ideas flowing?" Xavier added.