Chapter Text
Silence was all that Scott needed at the moment. Unfortunately, it was the one thing he couldn’t have.
“That makes no sense!”
“Yes it does! You just aren’t getting my vision!”
It was like this every single day. There were always, at least, two of his friends arguing with each other. Most of the time, the arguments were about the most random things ever that weren’t even important but somehow, they’d always end in chaos or with the people arguing, refusing to talk to one another until one of them admitted that they were in the wrong.
Scott usually didn’t mind these arguments, he actually found them quite funny at times, but this time it was different. He was already unbelievably tired and annoyed because of his brother who didn’t let him get a proper night's rest.
His older brother, Xornoth, was more of the quiet type but for the past few weeks, he had been acting strange. During the night, he would often walk around the garden loudly speaking to himself. After some time, he’d quiet down but would still continue walking around. Scott’s room wasn’t far from the garden so he would always be the one to hear Xornoth every night.
Everything was going as it did every day until one of his other friends who wasn’t involved in the argument noticed how he was acting and decided to check up on him.
“Are you alright, Scott?” The gentle voice snapped him out of his thoughts as he looked up to see his friend, Gem, who was looking at him with a genuinely concerned look on her face.
“Yeah..I’m fine.” Scott’s reply was so dry that Gem could almost immediately tell that he was lying. She was going to say something else but before she got the chance to, the bell rang and everyone in the group started walking away to their classes, Scott being one of them. Gem looked at Scott as he walked away and let out a sigh before walking in the opposite direction.
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Lunchtime was pretty much everyone’s favorite part of the day. They’d get a break from class and if they wanted, they could leave campus until classes started again.
Scott was sitting at the table where they all usually sat together for lunch. Some of them were actually in other places which wasn’t weird since they’d often be doing unfinished projects they’d have elsewhere. What was weird was Joey actually showing up for lunch and eating with the rest of them.
“Can you guys stop looking at me like that? I don’t like that!” Joey looked at them all as if they had just said something he really disliked. The look on his face showed genuine annoyance and frustration because he couldn’t figure out what they wanted from him.
“Sorry Joey it’s just..” Gem looked around the table for a second as everyone else was also exchanging glances. “You’re usually never with us during lunch.” Not long after she said that, she began realizing that her words might’ve possibly come out as rude and made it seem as if they didn’t want him there. “Well, it’s not that we don’t want you here! It’s just that we aren’t-”
“No no, I get it, Gem. You guys just aren’t used to seeing me during this time.” He looked away from the table for a moment and looked out the window near them with a puzzled expression on him. “Hey guys? By any chance, did Fwhip tell any of you what he’s doing today?”
“No, Why? Did something happen?” Shubble responded in a tone that was loud and clear enough to hear from across the table but not too loud for someone else that wasn’t at their table to hear.
“Well, he’s running around with something in his hands that doesn’t seem like it should even be here. Look!” Joey pointed to the window where everyone in their group looked. Just outside the cafeteria, in the school garden, was Fwhip running back and forth between two of the buildings taking things from one place to another. Nobody was sure what he was doing but after a couple moments, Scott noticed that he was holding literal bags of gunpowder in his hands.
“Is that gunpowder?” As soon as those words came out of Scott’s mouth, the rest of the group went silent and started giving each other looks of pure terror. They were all used to Fwhip using gunpowder for a lot of his personal little projects and stuff like that, but for some odd reason, seeing him at school with it made them feel like he was up to no good.
“Maybe he’s just helping someone else with something? I’m sure he doesn’t need all of that gunpowder for his own use! Right?” The tone in Gem’s voice sounded as if even she was unsure of her own answer but nonetheless, she tried her best to ignore what Fwhip was doing outside and looked back down at her food to continue eating while everyone else kept wondering what he was up to.
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After the school day had come to an end, everyone began heading back home, except for students in after school clubs and other programs.
Scott was one of the students who didn’t have anything to keep him busy after school so he immediately began heading home as soon as the final bell rang. Unlike many of the others, he liked heading home on his own while walking through certain paths that only he and a few others knew about. He really found peace in seeing all the different kinds of animals that lived all around the area on his way home even if he had seen them almost every other day.
As he finally got home and began to head to his room, he saw from the corner of his eye, his older brother sitting outside in the garden. He didn’t want to pay much attention to it but it concerned him seeing him there so often with no explanation. Scott wanted so badly to go outside and sit by his brother, maybe even talk to him, which he didn’t do often because Xornoth didn’t really like talking much, but whenever someone would try to talk to him or simply go near him, he’d get up and head back inside to his own room avoiding everyone for the rest of the day.
After some thinking, Scott decided that it would just be better to leave his brother alone instead of possibly bothering him and headed off to his room for the night.