The following four days went by in a blur.
Football continued to come easily to Calum. The coach continued to be impressed, and decided that if it stayed this good, he would bump Calum to that position he deserved come Thursday before the game.
Peter continued to watch Chad and the tenures. The tenures continued to watch Calum. The situation did not improve.
Luke continued to think of things he could say to Calum, ways he could challenge him to think. He continued to be nervous that Calum wouldn't need him anymore. He continued to consult with Ashton, but he had yet to mention the elephant sitting on his chest to his best friend. Maybe because he couldn't see it yet, only felt it.
Calum continued to play football, play bass, write lyrics, and listen to music. His grades continued to improve in all of his classes. He continued to enjoy debate, and to think of things he could say to Luke. He continued to worry that he might not impress Luke any further—that he would peak and drop. And of all things involving his teammates, he continued to be oblivious.
...
And then Tuesday's class was suddenly here.
Calum had moved up two more rows. Now he was only four rows from the front. He noticed Luke noticing. And if the other kids were looking at him weird, so what? He could sit where he wanted. This was where he wanted.
He took his notes and listened, watching Luke move lithely across the floor, watching Luke's shirt come slowly more and more untucked as he reached higher up the board to write.
At one point Calum tasted copper. He frowned and ran his tongue over his lower lip and realized he'd been biting it to the point of breaking the skin. Two reasons he did that: focus and interest. Well...he must have been really focused.
Luke put down the white chalk and picked up blue. "All right, everyone. Bring this in on Thursday for me." He began to write an assignment in the lower right corner of the board.
Is class over already? Calum thought. He swore they got shorter and shorter every time. Maybe because he was enjoying it now? He looked at the clock on the wall. No, Luke was ending class eight minutes early. Just as Calum was thinking he was disappointed, his brain came up with another explanation: eight minutes subtracted from class time meant eight minutes added to office time. But that probably wasn't it. No. He was delusional. He wrote down the assignment.
"This one's a bit more structured than your last, yes?" Luke said, packing up. "You can still write about anything you want, but I want you to actually give me the pros and cons of each side. Don't bullet them; I want full paragraphs. But don't write me ten pages either." He glanced up at Calum. On reflex, Calum pouted out his lower lip a little—But I want to write ten pages!—then wondered why he'd done it. Luke cleared his throat and shut his bag. "Uh...write like you're actually debating. But again, any subject—appropriate, please—is fine. You don't have to rebut yourself or anything. Really, I'm getting you to be able to see both sides of a topic, because when we start debates, sometimes you get to choose your side and sometimes you don't. Have a good day. See you all Thursday."
And the hall began to empty once again. This time, Luke waited in an obvious manner at the front of the hall. Calum didn't need the hint. He was already walking against the stream of like-minded tadpoles eager to get out of the water, and all he wanted to do was sink deeper into
(Those ocean-blue eyes)
this ocean that was the academic world.
"Sure is funny we ran out of material so long before class was supposed to end, huh?" Calum said.
Luke blushed a little; Calum was not ignorant. He wanted to say Oh, you got me. Just thought we'd have a little more time together, you know? But he could only shrug and say, "Uh...I guess so," and smile shyly.
Calum smiled back, confused once again by the vast difference between Professor Hemmings and Luke. "Should we head over before I have to run to practice?"
"Yes. That would be just fine."
Luke gestured forward and Calum led the way.
They couldn't help but talk. As awkward as their conversation was at this point, any silence was even worse. So they came up with little things.
"Have any ideas for the assignment yet?" Luke asked.
"I do, actually. I was thinking...you're going to laugh."
"No! I won't laugh. I did say any topic. It's not, like...weird, is it?"
And Calum was the one to laugh. "No, no, of course not. I was actually thinking video games."
Luke opened his mouth, closed it to reconsider, then just said, "Video games?"
"I know. But I'm taking a psychological angle. Apparently that's what I'm good at, right?"
Luke nodded, smiling. "Seems that way."
"So I was going to discuss the controversy over video games teaching kids good or bad things. Behavioral effects and stuff."
That was actually really good, Luke thought. He couldn't wait to read it. "Nice."
Calum smiled. "Yeah. I mean...well, I used to play a lot of FIFA before I was in university and when I was really young. To be completely honest, as weird as it sounds, it taught me a good bit about football. Got me into the game, really. So that's kind of an example I might use for a pro. But then there's all the stuff on the news about violent video games—Call of Duty and Halo and things like that—that are said to make kids more violent and desensitize them to traumatic experiences. So that's, like, a con. I guess."
"No, yeah," Luke agreed. "You came up with all that just now when I wrote the assignment up?"
Calum shrugged. "That's kinda how it works for me. Either the idea hits me immediately, or I'll have no clue what to do for a week and then suddenly it'll hit me while I'm in the shower or something. And I'll be like yes, that's the one."
Luke thought about that phrase, part of the ironic process theory of mental control: don't think about a pink elephant. Of course, we all immediately think of a pink elephant. He was telling himself not to think of Calum in the shower.
"Uh...r-right. Yeah I usually—" he shook his head a little, "I usually have to develop an idea over time. I'll get a bit of a thought and then I'll build on it." He cleared his throat again and looked at Calum. "Your way seems far more expedient."
Calum laughed. "I suppose so."
They walked in silence for a little. Even with the sounds of the cars on the asphalt and the campus buses and the wind in the trees and the students on the bricks, the silence was heavy. Within the span of a few seconds, Luke thought all at once how talented Calum was in this subject and how great he'd been doing in the office and in class and how quick his mind was and how much he liked to see him and he wondered if Calum would want to sign up for the big debate in Feldmann in a group or maybe even individually and he thought that maybe he should ask him right now.
But in the next second he reconsidered. He thought it still might be a bit too soon. The last thing he wanted to do was scare Calum away from debate forever by overwhelming him.
They turned a corner, and H Building was in sight. He tried to come up with something else to say. Calum beat him to it.
"Have you ever heard of The Brobecks?" he asked.
Luke tilted his head. He was about to say that he might have heard something from them a while back when—
Calum's phone suddenly started to ring in his pocket. "Jesus, again?" Calum said. "I'm really sorry." He looked at the caller ID, thinking it might be his coach telling him he was majorly late, but it wasn't. "Oh. It's just my friend. I'll call him back."
"It's fine Calum. I mean, unless you'd rather."
"Either way. Actually, it might be about football...I should probably..."
Luke waved his hand and smiled. Calum made an apologetic face and opened the call.
"Hey, Pete. Mind if I—"
"Calum. Pick up your phone, man! Cal—Jesus what do I... Cal, you need to talk to Coach. As soon as you can."
Peter sounded flustered. Calum frowned. He stopped walking, and Luke turned to face him. "Why? What happened?"
"You just need—ow."
"Peter? Are you okay?" He crossed his arm over his chest and looked at Luke. Now Luke looked concerned too.
"I'm fine. Just talk to Coach. And try not to run into Chad or his guys okay?"
"Peter, what happened?"
Luke put his hand out, not knowing what he was supposed to do with it. He put it on his hip instead.
"Talk to him," Peter said finally. "I'll see you tomorrow, buddy."
"What about later?"
Peter had hung up. Calum took the phone away from his ear, looked at it blankly for a moment, and returned it slowly to his pocket.
"Is everything okay?" Luke asked.
"I don't know. That was my friend, Peter...he's on the team with me. He sounded really nervous or something. He sounded like...said 'ow'..."
"Is he hurt?"
"I have no idea. He said I need to talk to my coach ASAP. I don't know what's going on. I think I better go."
"Of course," Luke said. And let me know if everything's okay. "I hope everything's okay."
"Me too..." Calum was staring at the ground, trying to figure out what could have happened. Now he looked back up at Luke. "I'll see you Thursday, Luke."
Good luck, Calum? Be careful, Calum? "Okay. Go."
Calum nodded, and turned to make a beeline for the practice field.
- - - - - - - - - -
Author's Note:
So, I read the article. All I can say is that it made me realize they're people. I think it just brought them down to earth for me: they're not gods, they're not angels. They're people, just like the rest of us. So I started to feel a little bad about the fic, like I was intruding on their private lives. I thought maybe I should stop. But then I realized that this fic is freaking amazing and I can't wait for you guys to really meet the other two boys and it just makes me happy.
Thank you so much to those of you who are reading this. Again, I hope you're liking it!
L
Any quotes, song titles/lyrics, and things of that type are not my work, and I take no credit for them (though I do thank those who made them for their incredible artistry).