Jake Addams  April 16th, 20XX

When I walked into the room I was faced with the heartbreaking scene of a single crying girl surrounded by others with pitying expressions.

I took a big breath before walking to the scene and tapped a baby faced member of the outer circle on the shoulder then guided him outside to speak. With a hand to my lips to signify he should be quiet I whispered to him,

“You’re Teor right?”

“ You know my name?!”

His deep voice heavily contrasted with his cute appearance and took me for a bit of a spin  but I snapped out of it pretty quickly.

The kid’s eyes widened so widely I thought he was going to cry and made me wonder how the rest of the group treated the hanger ons.

“You’re always around so why wouldn't I? Anyways why is Alice crying?”

“ Uhh. I'm not sure of the exact details but she decided that she didn't want to go the lunchroom and reserved this one but once we got here she started to cry. We were just about to get someone to go find you”

He looked at me with an eager to please expression that pressured me into replying at my usual volume,

“ ah. uhh, keep up the good work then.”

We walked back into the room to see that they had discovered my presence after all.  They looked towards me with relieved expressions and the group slowly split like a single celled amoeba and enveloped me into its center where Alice sat.  It was now that I realized why they looked so relieved at my appearance, I’d been voted as the sacrifice to calm down the queen.

Putting aside all annoyance I acknowledged that I was the most reasonable choice to cheer her up, after all we'd been dating for a little over three years whether it felt like it or not and this relationship was probably the only reason I was even allowed to hang out with them.

I only shot off a  few resentful looks towards the people I’d somewhat considered friends before  raising a hand and shoo-ing them out. They all showed reluctance in their expressions but it was quickly betrayed by how swiftly they left the room. I crouched down beside her and waited until she’d gathered herself enough to speak.

I sat there, feeling more awkward by the second as I listened to her cry until she suddenly growled at me; an admittedly cute and silly sound.

“ Aren't you supposed to be making me feel better?”

I shrugged,

“ I can't cheer up someone who isn't sad.”

She hit me on the shoulder perhaps a bit harder than was necessary but it was okay, after all the sooner she explained her tears the sooner I could leave.

Honestly I was still angry and I should have snapped right there and asked her about her words the other day but I knew where it would end up and I wasn't really ready to go there yet.

I knew it was pathetic but for this woman who I had all but devoted 10 years of my life to, even going to a arts devoted school rather than a sports one just to be with her, I was willing to be as pathetic as I had to be in order to stay with her.

“What do you mean I'm not sad? don't you see me crying here?”

I put a hand to the non-existent bruise on my arm and looked at her pointedly.

“ I’m no Psychologist but even I know that when people are sad they cry not hit innocent people”  

She gave me incredulous look before she began to laugh,

“ Even though we’ve been friends for so long you’re still the worst at cheering me up”

“ And you still suck at expressing the right emotions. Now what made you mad?”

She sniffled and drew a hand across her nose, loosened her top and shifted into a more comfortable position before she replied, A far cry from the usual awe-inspiring persona she put off in front of the others.

I wasn't sure whether I should be grateful that she considered me someone that she could be herself in front of or if I should be insulted because it meant that she didn't see me as a guy anymore.  I forcefully averted my eyes from where they wanted to go and looked at the ceiling as she spoke.

“ My uncle got called in for a meeting at his job about his past activities. I'm afraid he might lose his job and-”

She dissolved into tears again but the unspoken part was just as clear,

And if he loses his job then my connection to Volui won't exist anymore and I'll need to leave the school.

“ It's not like I  can become a scholarship student or anything...if I leave here then I'll never be able to become an actress and I'll never see him again.......or you”

I had more than an inkling of who this ‘Him’ was but I chose not to comment, there was no point in shooting myself in the foot here.

She continued to rant until she had tired herself out then cried a bit more before she fixed herself up and strutted out of the room to her entourage. I hung around a bit more and wasn't really surprised to see that no one had waited for me when I finally walked out.

Well that was an exaggeration, there were a few people who had stuck around but it was only because they had classes soon and couldn't afford to get caught up in Alice’s buzz.  

I waved them away to their classes and even walked with a few of them before wandering off on my own.

I knew I could have texted the rest of the group to ask where they went but I wasn't in the mood to keep up with their hyperspeed conversations and pointless arguments. There was also the fact that I doubted that I would have gotten a response.

In all honesty if you asked me why I hung out with the group  I probably wouldn't be able to tell you; there was the fact that they accepted me because of my history and relationship with Alice but nowadays even that was strained, there was also the fact that I’d won a couple of medals for the school but even that wasn't good enough to make it into the inner circle as I had.

Since the school was mainly focused on producing multi talented idols unlike other more focused academies that were dedicated to specific fields; athletes such as myself were decently valued but no where close to our multi talented peers.

Even the few of us that were here were mainly chosen because of our good looks and advertisement potential for our future teams.

I rubbed at my own face as I finished such a conceited thought and chuckled in embarrassment even though I hadn’t said it outloud.

Well, it's not as if I was the best looking one. Even at  their worst there were a bunch of others that could easily outshine me in terms of appearance, such as Finn.

I quickly stopped this train of thought, after all it wasn't fun to realize that there was nothing actually validating your attendance at such a prestigious school.

Instead of going to the cafeteria like I’d planned too,

 I found myself wandering around the courtyard.

Oh well, I guess this is fine too. as long as it's peaceful.

Suddenly I saw a familiar lithe figure run out of the wooded area in a blue hat that covered his face, strong worker gloves and a length of rope that had obviously just been cut attached to his side.

He was all scuffed up and his uniform had a lot of dirt on it but when he saw me looking at him he only saluted me with a nod and held a finger up to lips carved into a mischievous grin then continued sprinting away.

I watched in amazement and admiration as I watched him leap over the various obstacles in his path rather than running around them.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I let out a low whistle since he ran so well that he could probably have made the track team if he’d wanted too. I added that to my ever growing list of weird facts about Finn.

I considered running up to him and asking what he was doing in the woods but sharp, loud and familiar voices roared out behind him and drew my attention.

“ Help! someone Help!”

I was slightly resentful of Finn for interrupting my peaceful walk but I still gathered strength to my legs and sprinted towards the voices.

“ what's wrong?! I’m on my way!”

There was heavy silence before  the voice responded with even more panic,

“ Who are you?! Who’s there?”

Seeing as the voice sounded close, I stopped running and began to walk.

“ I’m Jake, Jake addams! I go to this school.”

Harsh and violent whispers erupted from the source before a different voice suddenly yelled back.

“Don't come any closer! we’re fine. sorry to have bothered y-”

I walked through a particularly prickly patch of bushes before reaching a clearing and witnessing a scene I wouldn't have believed could be enacted in reality if I wasn't seeing it right now.

Three guys who were wearing the school uniform were strung up like cartoon characters by their ankles on a tree branch and a closer look at them showed me that they were my juniors on the team, a million questions ran through my mind but I decided to let them down first.

“ Who did this to you? and how did they manage to get all three of you?”

As muscle brained as they all were they were some of the strongest runners on the track team so I had to take some care in letting them down. They thumped onto the floor in a three person heap and could only shake their heads as they massaged their sore ankles  in response to my question.

“ We don't know. He was wearing a blue cap that covered his hair and he moved so fast that we didn't really get a look at his face.”

A blue cap?

The pieces suddenly began to fit themselves together.

I took a look at the rope  and sure enough it was the same type Finn had been carrying around. It had been tied well too, loose enough to not bruise but strong enough that it wouldn't be dismantled easily.

“ What did you idiots do to deserve this?”

It was too carefully planned to be a crime of passion or maybe this was Finn’s version of passion, either ways I needed an explanation. The one closest to me shook his head violently,

“ We haven't done anything that would have warranted this! “

His voice was earnest but his eyes narrowed with evil intent as he thought of the person who did this and probably what he did to deserve getting strung up like a pinata.

I wanted to continue interrogating them but was stopped by the harsh glare of the sunlight against a plastic square, there was also the fact that they were obviously not going to tell me anything for fear of being sidelined in future competitions.

“ Take a few laps around the school to get your balance back and head straight home, don't bother about practice and come at your best tomorrow...And you guys do know that bullying warrants suspension or expulsion from the team right?”

Their faces sank as they remembered just how large the school was and they all began to bluster but they scampered away with a glare from me.  I chuckled as I watched them struggle with wobbling legs as they tried to run as quickly as possible before going to pick up the School issued plastic card which of course belonged to the culprit, Finn.

Throughout the weeks I had seen Finn take out the people who had bothered him  and somehow I always ended up cleaning up after him, from last time with the chicken feather to now. I picked up the latest and most obvious piece of evidence and let out a sigh.

If i didn't know any better i would swear that he was angling to get caught.

I looked at his ID card as I returned to school and for the first time was grateful for the overly specific Id cards the school made us carry, maybe now the mystery would unravel a bit. Despite him being a fellow student and sort of a friend of mine I actually didn't know that much about him.

Even his financial status which we had all thought was solidified became blurry when we saw the actions of the teachers towards him and the various rumors that ran rampant through the school.

He had also moved out of the school dorms with little to no explanation as to why and would only ever meet with me or any school partners at relatively upscale places that a regular scholarship student would never be able to afford.

Full name: Finley ? ? Hall

Family: Classified

Height: 181.5 cm

Age: 17

Date of birth: 16/08/20xx

Place of birth: Classified

Previous Schools: Classified

Program: Entertainment Management

Current occupation: Classified.

Current address: Classified

Affiliation: Classified

I scowled at the completely useless card that said nothing that wasn't already known and shoved it into my wallet with the intention of returning it to its owner.

Of course, what else was I expecting.

“ Should I count that as theft or should I take it in good faith that you mean to return that?”

I looked up to see the man himself lounging on a branch above me as if he spent most of his time up in trees. Finn stood and climbed down at an astonishing speed before landing in front of me with an outstretched hand and a rarely seen smile full of mischief.

“ I was wondering where I’d dropped that”

He kept his tone pleasant and showed little to no concern for that fact that he had just been caught however his sharp eyes tracked my hands as  I reached into my wallet and brought out the practically informationless ID card.

“ I don't suppose I can ask why you strung my juniors up like animals.”

He laughed, loudly and slightly mockingly.

“ Of course you can, it's the least I can do as thanks to my guardian angel”

So he had realized I’d been cleaning up after him.

I shook my head,

“ Nah, I’m sure those muscle heads deserved it.”

He looked at me with a tilted head and narrowed his eyes which sparkled right along with his cheshire cat grin.

“ Are you sure you don't have any questions? I promise I’ll answer it truthfully?”

The fact that he ended his promise like a question did nothing to assure me however there was something that had bothered me for quite a while,

“I can ask anything?”

His eyebrow slightly raised in anticipation and slight uneasiness but he maintained his smile and nodded,

“ Anything you wanna know….within reason of course.”

Honestly there were a lot of questions I had for him but for some reason the only one I could remember to ask was,

“ Why do you wear fake glasses?”

The uneasiness flew off his face and was with replaced with a comically  incredulous expression that lasted for a solid minute before he suddenly exploded in laughter.

Yes, I was a bit embarrassed but it was the only question I could think up at the time and I truly was curious.  He continued to laugh until tears began to fall out of his eyes and he was gasping for air.

“ of all the-”

He resumed his laughter for another few minutes before finally collecting himself enough to answer. He took them off and handed them over for inspection,

“ Honestly I'm surprised you noticed but you're right, they are fake. “

“ Then why..?”

He began to widen his eyes as he spoke as if to prove his point,

“  I have really good peripheral vision which leads to me having a hard time focusing. The frames create a sort of tunnel vision that help with that…..And I wear real ones sometimes since I’m a bit far sighted.”

“ Oh so that's it.”

He laughed at my dull tone and began to speak in a slightly mocking tone,

“ Are you regretting your choice?”

“Not in particular.”

I noticed he had his backpack and school supplies with him but he was clearly not on his way to class.

“Don't you have classes this afternoon?”

“ I do.”

“ Are you going to them?”

“ I'm not.”

“....do you want me to lend you my notes?”

“ That would be cool. I’ll text you my address then you can drop them off.  I’ll be out for about a week so could you drop them off after school? Just leave it with the door man”

”Sure.”

I took out my phone to give him my number when I suddenly  heard the same group of aggressive voices approaching us, I looked back to Finn only to see that he was gone.

He really is an odd guy.

I thought as I began walking back to the building, As I walked I overheard the three boys still jogging around the school,

“ Isn’t Jake dating Alice? If we told him who we were going after then he probably wouldn’t have made us do this”

“What are you talking about? Don’t you know that they even had a fight about this? Jake hates hazing and bullying the most. ”

The third chimed in,

“ Besides, I don’t even know if they’re a thing anymore. After all haven’t you heard that all of this is just an elaborate plan for Alice to get to that scholarship kid?”

The other two gasped in an unnecessarily dramatic manner.  

“ But isn’t Jake friends with the scholarship kid? I heard that they partner up for projects a lot,”

“ Yeah. That’s what makes it interesting.”

They continued their gossiping like three old housewives but I stopped listening from frustration and began to head back to the school and distract myself. As I walked away yet another sparkling item caught my eye from the ground.

It was yet another possession of his, his keys, I was able to tell because of the name tag conspicuously named, ‘Finn, Spare keys’ attached to them.

Sighing, I pocketed them and planned to return them next time I saw him. It was all fine until I remembered that he’d planned to go home and wouldn't be in class.  I wondered what to do when my phone buzzed, it was an address in the other end of town, about a two hour drive from an unknown number which I assumed was Finn.

 I saved the number in my contacts and planned to head over to his house when I dropped off the notes.

Since they were just his spares I figured he wouldn't need them urgently.

It was only as I planned so many interactions with him that I recalled with a bit of amusement why i had been so wary to speak to him before.

Ah,  I forgot im supposed to be ignoring him.