First 1,000 words

[cinaed]

“When the day goes by
And I do not see your face--”

The teacher paused, well aware that only one student in the room of twenty-seven was paying any attention to him. Sighing and laying the book down, he said in the tone of someone who has had a very frustrating day and needs just one more thing to break the camel’s back, “Speaking of faces, where is Theo’s?”

No one met his eyes.

He tried again, and this time his voice was sharp. "Where is Theo?" In the ensuing silence, he pinched the bridge of his nose, remembering all that useless advice that his therapist had given him during those anger management sessions. That therapist had never had to deal with a teenager like Theoharis Buehl. He turned his gaze upon one of the boys who seemed especially eager to keep from meeting his gaze. "Adorior, you wouldn't happen to know where your troublesome doppelganger is, would you?"

Slowly, unwillingly, Adorior Buehl looked up. His expression was guarded. "I don't know, sir." The teacher raised an eyebrow, and Adorior dropped his gaze. "I really don't! He wasn't at lunch. You can ask Vaschel - I was looking for Theo the entire time."

At the name, the teacher's ill mood turned even darker. He would have to question...Vaschel? The period would be over by the time the boy was done with a rant about some conspiracy with aliens and Theo being abducted. Just as unwilling as Adorior had been to meet his gaze, he turned towards a boy who had been reading Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage instead of paying attention. "Is this true, Vaschel?"

The small, wiry boy looked up. If Adorior had looked guarded, Vaschel Worth looked paranoid. Then again, the teenager was paranoid, believing nothing and yet claiming everything was dangerous and/or out to get him. Sometimes it was aliens (which afterwards Vaschel would say scornfully he had never believed in), but all too often it was the government, which he was insistant was turning into a 1984 prototype. When he spoke, there was a slight sarcastic bite to his words, and at the same time almost a mournful whine, as though Vaschel regretted being pulled away from the book of the Civil War. "Rio was looking for his miscreant brother the entire lunchtime, sir."

"I see."

"Maybe you should ask Stuart?" The boy's comment was deceptively casual, but the teacher shot him a sharp look. He knew Vaschel was just trying to get him to speak to Eamon Stuart and make him the butt of everyone's jokes, for every time Eamon opened his mouth, he said something insensible. "Well, he's Theo's best friend, you'd think he'd know--"

"I don't."

Unlike the cutting undertone of Vaschel's voice, this one was soft and mellow, and the boy who had spoken matched that voice perfectly. He sat at his desk, gazing vaguely in the direction of the window, his round face serene. Still not looking at anyone, Eamon repeated, softer this time, "I don't."

"Maybe you would if you paid attention to reality," Vaschel said, his voice now harsh with sarcasm and disdain. "But no, you'd rather just stare at the sky like you expect an angel to come down and take you back to Heaven, don't you?"

A slow smile lit up the other boy's face. "That'd be nice, Value."

"My name," hissed Vaschel, "is Vaschel Worth, not Value, or Means, or Merit, but Worth! Get it right!" He glared at Eamon, and kept glaring even after the teacher shot him another look. "You really expect us to believe that you don't know where your partner-in-crime is?"

"I asked him first thing, Vas," Adorior interjected, exasperated at his best friend's attack. "He said he didn't know, and I believed him-"

Thud!

Slowly, as though afraid to, everyone turned towards the closet. Even Eamon looked away from the window to stare.

"Not...again," the teacher groaned, and closed his eyes as the door to the closet opened and a tousled-haired boy stumbled out.

Theoharis Buehl looked at his audience, grinned, and bowed. "Hi!"

*

"I can't believe you did that." Adorior groaned as they filed out of class. "Mr. Jackson's face was so red--"

"I didn't mean to!" Theo objected, and ran a hand through his still-tousled mane, which stuck up every which way. "I was just trying to surprise Jackson but I fell asleep...."

Behind them, Vaschel smirked. "Just like you did when you wanted to jump out at Mr. Tyler, and then Ms. Rodriguez, and then Mrs. Reese?"

"Hey, it's not my fault closets are surprisingly comfortable," said Theo, and then swung a friendly punch at Eamon's shoulder, grinning as the other boy blinked and just looked at him. "Right, Eamon? Closets are comfortable."

"Not the custodian closets," Eamon said thoughtfully.

Everyone ignored Vaschel's groan.

A breathless voice called out and made the group turn. Sofia Rimona grinned at them, and then thrust a piece of paper at the blonde. "Eamon! Eamon, you forgot your geometry homework." She had a tinge of exasperation to her voice, for Adorior's girlfriend somehow always ended up taking care of Theo's best friend, whether it was defending him from Vaschel or reminding him to do homework. No one was quite sure how it worked, but it had become an accepted daily event for Sofia to cluck over Eamon like a mother hen.

Eamon's grayish-blue eyes widened. "I did?" He stared at the paper as though he'd never seen it before, but nevertheless accepted it. It was certain to be forgotten and dropped in the trace, but at least later Sofia could say she had tried. "Thanks...."

Watching as the blonde absently began to fold the paper into an origami box, Adorior turned to Vaschel. "Meet you after Calculus in front of the auditorium, Vas?" He shook his head even as he asked the question, unable to understand why his best friend would go into Calculus willingly. Rio was quite happy with his Advanced Algebra with Trigonometry, thank you very much.

Vaschel just nodded. "And then we're going to help put up decorations for the dance."

"Oh yes, the dance." Sofia had somehow sidled up to her boyfriend without his notice, and he smiled as she wrapped an arm around him. "You'll be helping out too, right, Theo? Eamon?"

Both boys stared back, with slightly anxious expressions, and then shared an identical look of dread. "Uh, well...actually...."

"They'll be there," Adorior assured her, and almost relished the dismayed look on his brother's face. Hey, if Rio had to suffer, so did Theo. It came with being a twin. And since Theo's twin happened to be dating the most spirited girl in school and was forced to be school spirited as well, Theo also had to put on a pretense of school spirit.

"I guess I have geometry...."

Theo grinned. "Good guess." He gave his friend a gentle shove. "Get going or you'll be late." They all watched Eamon wander off, bumping into a freshman and vaguely apologizing to her before he disappeared around a corner, hopefully to Geometry. Though last time he'd headed for Geography he'd ended up in his US Government class instead, so maybe one of them should have followed him. But they all had classes to get to, and the tardy bell was going to ring in about three minutes.

And so the group dispersed, Eamon to Geometry, Vaschel to AP Calculus, Adorior to English, Sofia to Russian, and Theo to Study Hall.