Capítulo 38: An Educational Start
(Mark Grayson POV)
Something is up with Carter today.
As much as he's trying to hide it, I can tell something major is on his mind. This would sound absolutely ridiculous to anyone else. I've always had a sense of what my older brother is feeling; it's more of being able to read his micro-expressions.
He's hiding it well but holding something back, which hurts because he's not willing to tell me what's wrong. It's kind of alarming, as it was just yesterday. I saw him go about his day as if nothing was wrong, and then today, I woke him up, and he looked like he'd aged over 50 years.
"Mark, we need to get off the bus. Unless you very much enjoy this method of public transportation, which I do not judge; it is 2022, after all." Giving him a bit of a stink eye, I stand up, and he lets me out first.
After we got out, I saw William already at the front entrance reading what seemed to be a hairstyling magazine.
"Hey, Will, looking to see if you can style your own hair?" We look at each other as if I'm some kind of uncultured peasant, and Carter shakes his head in disappointment. What did I do wrong?
" Mark, there's nothing wrong with someone reading a hairstyling magazine. I'm sorry about him, William. It seems his sense of decorum is still developing." Yeah, and your vocabulary is seemingly aged over six centuries, bro.
William silently nods and goes for a handshake, to which I return. However, as he tries to do the same with Carter, he seems to hesitate, but after a couple of seconds, Carter does the handshake.
William, with a questioning look, doesn't seem to ask anything as we head into the school for the first period, to which I shall always despise the field of mathematics.
" I know that look, Mark, and trust me, if you don't focus on the pain, it goes by faster." I turn around to look at Carter. I just give him an accepting nod , but I can't escape the feeling that something is up. Even the way he walks seems different.
If I didn't know any better, it seemed as if somebody had replaced my brother, but even with all the craziness from my dad's job, even that seems really unbelievable.
Besides, he still has that look in his eye. Whenever he looks at me, I can feel his support, but it's as if he's again seen centuries pass.
I'm just going to chalk that up to my paranoia and the fact that I haven't had enough coffee today.
(A Few Hours Later)
" I swear, Carter, that teacher must be some type of alien with the language she was speaking today." Carter, who was looking over a previous final for mathematics, simply gave me a sideways look as I gathered some things for history class.
" I'm pretty sure she was speaking English, Mark, but it is understandable. Mathematics is a very complex form of study, but if you think about it, our dad quite literally lives with the subject every day." Thinking about it for a second, he is right. I don't think our dad would want to crash into any buildings as he's trying to fly away.
" Yeah, you're right, by the way. Why are you checking old finals?" He then handed me some of the old tests that he'd been looking over.
" There's nothing wrong with being informed, Mark. And besides, since the teachers make the finals here, it's a good idea to get a heads-up on what their style of testing is. And I tell you what, if you do not like the classes we have today, you are not going to like the finals for first periods." My eyes widen with a bit of fear as I give my brother the classic pleading look, which I know he cannot resist.
"Mark, don't give me that look. It's high time that you stop relying on me to help you study for tests. What are you going to do about this in college if we have to go to separate schools?" I keep giving him a look, as I can see his defense is wearing down.
As I continue to look at him, even physically, I see that he seems to age as he size in exasperated exhaustion.
" Look, Mark. If you really need my help, let me know, but I can't always be your first option. What about you, William? Do you have any classes you're struggling with?" I see he's trying to divert, but he is right partially.
" For me, it's history to this day. I still don't understand why we continue to study the same ten slavers or so from over 200 years ago." Carter just gives him a disapproving look as he explains.
" I understand the hustle, William, but those flavors quite literally created the country we are currently standing in, and for better or worse, we got to look them up and study them." William then returns to his hairstyling magazine as I grab the rest of the needed stuff.
" By the way, Carter, why do you never seem to use your locker?" Will asks as Carter pulls out a binder the size of an encyclopedia.
" If you're going to study hard, you need to organize hard, Will; I have everything I need for all of my subjects in this one binder." Bro, that binder looks like it's about half the size of you.
William just seems to be looking in horror at the sheer amount of paper in front of them.
But before we could comment further on my brother's ridiculous amount of organizational skills, a particular pain in my neck made his presence known.
"Knock it off, Todd!" Amber's voice echoed across the hallway.
"Come on, hot stuff. I know you're into me; I heard it from Marcy a few days ago." The human brick says as Carter looks over his notes.
Before I can move, however, Carter grips my arm as he gives me a look that says, "Wait."
However, it seems that Todd is willing to wait as he tries to reach towards Amber's right hand, to which she slaps away.
"What are you, some lesbian?" If looks could kill, Amber would have killed Todd 50 times over by now, but damn, does she look hot.
But before I could say anything, Carter handed me his giant binder, which I almost embarrassingly fell over due to its pure weight as he walked over to the two before William could stop him.
"Hey, Todd. Would you mind lending me your ear for a moment?" Before Todd could say anything, Carter had already turned him around, almost causing the single-brain cell guy to trip over himself.
"Hey! What's the big idea, Grayson?!" the ignoramus asks as he tries to regain his balance.
" Oh, it's nothing other than you being you, but we can't help that. However, I assume you don't want certain information spread around the school now, do you?" Not getting the message, Todd grips my brother's color, which he doesn't even seem to register.
" What are you talking about, little punk?" Honestly, the last thing I would call my brother is a little, as he is nearly 6 feet tall.
But instead of saying anything, Carter grips the back of his head and whispers something in his ear.
I wanted to hear what he was saying, yet after a couple of seconds, Todd recoiled in almost fear.
" Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we don't need to tell anyone about anything. All right, I'll leave you alone. Forget this ever happened." What the hell did my brother say to this guy looks like he's about to piss himself.
Todd, then let him go and walk away. He almost seems to be running away, with Carter just dusting himself off and picking up Amber off the floor after Todd has tried to grab her arm again.
After lifting her back up with Amber, giving a little bit of a yelp and surprise, Carter just walks back over to us as if nothing ever happened and grabs the binder.
Walking a bit closer to them, I asked, " Yo, Carter, what did you say to him to get him to back off?"
Looking me in the eyes with a smile that almost sent chills down my spine, he simply said, " Oh, nothing. I just wanted to inform him that I may have access to certain information that he does not want to come to light."
OK, I think my brother has been watching way too many spy movies. William, on the other hand, didn't seem very bothered. He almost seemed excited about what happened.
" That was so cool. I didn't know you had it in your Carter." But before William could say more, someone else entered the conversation.
" Yeah, I agree. I'm surprised you got involved with this Grayson." Carter, lifting his eyes from his notes, simply waves placidly.
" It was nothing much. I have seen much scarier people than him. It's kind of like comparing the level one boss to the final secret boss." Amber almost seemed surprised by Carter's answer as she then asked.
" Do you play video games? I didn't think it would be something you would take the time for." After saying this, Carter looked her directly in the eye.
" Well, I would like to think that I keep people on their toes. Besides, Mark likes to play, and so do I, and I don't like to feel left out. These two would barely be able play without me."
That hurts, Carter. Right in the heart.
Chuckling with amusement at our pain, she looked my brother up and down, almost checking him out, which was weird.
" You've been working out, Grayson? You seem a bit more fit than the last time I saw you in math class." It was less of a question and more of a statement. Even though I noticed that he seemed a bit more toned, I assumed that was due to his exercise.
" Nothing wrong with trying to keep in shape, Ms. Bennett. Now, if you excuse us, we have to get to our history class, even though William does not seem very happy about that." After mentioning history class, I could see Will start deflating.
" Well, I don't wanna keep you. See you around, Carter." Amber then turns around and heads to what I assume is our math class. Carter finishes packing everything we need and hands some of it to me.
After I closed my locker and William did the same, we all had history class, but that inkling that something was up didn't leave me. In fact, it almost seemed to grow, and after giving my brother a bit of a side eye, I pushed those thoughts down. Now is not the time to be asking such things.
(By the way, feel free to give recommendations for any pairings you would like to see; if they are reasonable, I might try to make them happen.)
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