Authors: Danielle
“Do you have any explanation for this?”
Dean Tenbrook sat back in her chair, and she looked larger than ever.
“I guess I just didn’t study.” Oliver sputtered.
“And why didn’t you study?” Dean Tenbrook asked with narrowed eyes.
“I suppose I lost track of time.”
Dean Tenbrook narrowed her eyes until they were but tiny slits, before bursting into a wide grin. “I hope that you aren’t spending your time on any unnecessary extracurricular activities. Delafontaine provides more than enough stimulation for young boys, I think.” Oliver’s heart thudded to stop, and he tried to keep his face as non-reactive as possible.
“No, of course not. I just need better study habits. I didn’t really study much for things at my old school.” Oliver said and
he smiled. It wasn’t like that wasn’t true. He hadn’t exactly needed to study, as all his tests ended up being sent home with him.
Dean Tenbrook
looked at him for a few seconds before smiling back. “Now, if you need extra help, you can always ask Mr. Johnson for help, you know. He loves to assist students who are struggling. How about we set up some times for you to have a one on one session….”
Oliver left Dean Tenbrook’s office feeling more than a little jarred. As soon as he opened the door to his room, he was attacked.
“What did she say?
“Does she know?”
“What did
you
say?” Robert, Alex, Gabriel, Malachi and Owen were all piled on his bed, faces anxious. Malachi tapped his fingernails on the desk. “Well?”
Oliver almost laughed at how terrified everyone was. “She doesn’t know.” He said. Malachi’s face relaxed and Owen collapsed back onto Oliver’s
pillow.
“But she was asking a lot of questions.”
Oliver admitted.
Robert still looked scared. “How could she know? Are there cameras around here?”
The younger boys all turned to the seniors. Alex shrugged and looked over to Gabriel and Owen for confirmation.
“Probably. But you guys have been leaving through the basements right?”
Oliver nodded. “There aren’t any cameras there.”
“Someone could have tipped off
Dean Tenbrook.” Malachi pointed out. Each boy regarded the others suspiciously for a minute.
“Can we all agree that none of
us in this room tipped her off?” Each person nodded slowly, and the room grew less tense.
Alex laughed nervously. “
So, what
did
she ask you about?”
Oliver rolled his eyes. “It was history. I’m failing.”
“You should have studied.” Malachi said seriously. Oliver felt a tiny pang of embarrassment, but he shrugged. “What are they going to do, send me to jail?” The room erupted with laughter.
The planning had begun. The following week, after having studied enough history to satisfy Robert and Malachi, Oliver had begun drawing up the plans for their first “attack”.
“I like the word ‘attack’” Robert mused over his coffee. “It says that we won’t stand for just anything.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Owen asked. He looked up from his late night snack of chips and water. “You know that if they catch us, we’ll all be in trouble.”
“Who are you,
Paul
? I know it’s risky. But I thought we all decided that we wanted to do this. Is everybody still in, because if you’re not, you should go ahead and say it right now.”
The room fell dead silent as Oliver looked around at every single person. “So, everybody’s in? Nobody is going to chicken out?” Robert looked down at his feet. “Robert?” Oliver asked sharply.
“No, no. It’s fine. I’m in. I’m in.” Oliver smiled.
Good
, he thought.
~
Oliver stepped back to admire his handiwork. “What do you guys think?” The members of the Disciples stood in the forest after lunch that weekend. Alex dragged the edge of his sleeve across his forehead and squinted up at the glowing sun above.
“Come on, you guys can be honest.” Robert shifted nervously to the side.
“Well, what is it?” Malachi asked. He walked up to the image on the trunk of the pine tree. Oliver threw up his hands in disbelief. “It’s a giant circle! Our symbol.”
Gabriel laughed. “I thought you were going to show us something new.
Who’s going to see that way out here?”
Malachi turned his head sideways. “It kind of looks like a giant bird went splat right here.”
Alex nodded. “Yep, it does look like one of those big ass crows.” He pointed to the spray paint that was dripping slightly at the bottom. Oliver looked around at the less than enthusiastic faces of his friends and seethed.
Didn’t they know what it meant to send a message---
Oliver suddenly got an idea.
“
I have something to show you.” The crowd in front of the pine turned in unison. “This way.” Oliver beckoned, smiling. He wondered what they would think of the message he was about to show them.
It took at least thirty minutes before Oliver rounded on the correct tree. When his hand connected with the familiar grooves, he knew he had found it. He felt an involuntary shiver go down his spine as he did. Oliver had never seen it in daylight, only felt it on his hands, and deep within his soul. “Over here!” The rest of the boys traipsed far behind, lost in the ocean of pines.
“Where are you?” Alex’s voice came from somewhere nearby.
“Here. Here. Over here!” Oliver yelled back. The rest of the boys emerged from the forest. As they did, Oliver pointed to the tree next to him, his finger shaking slightly.
Alex stopped in his tracks, his jovial grin falling away faster than snow during a northern winter. Owen put his hand out in front of Gabriel, and together they stopped walking and stared at the carving on the tree. Malachi and Robert looked scared, but the three older boys looked as if they were seeing death for the very first time.
“Guys?” Oliver’s question hung in the air for what felt like hours.
Owen, Gabriel, nor Alex had said a word since laying their eyes on the message carved in the tree. Perhaps they just needed a minute, Oliver thought. He couldn’t pretend like it wasn’t disturbing to him, initially, but it had served as the necessary push he’d needed. The same push he was going to give everyone else.
“So, it’s true then.” Gabriel said. His face was as white as the moon had been on initiation night, despite his deeply tan complexion. Owen nodded his head slowly and walked towards the tree. He ran his fingers along the grooves and pressed his face against the tree. “Owen?” Oliver faltered.
Owen turned slowly towards Oliver. With a face blanker t
han a sheet of paper, he said, “Oliver. They are going to kill us.” He went back to tracing the lines on the tree, with the tenderness of a long lost lover.
“What?” Oliver
asked, and he stepped back slowly.
“There had always been rumors, you know.” Gabriel began. “A lot of the seniors from last year, after they graduated, they just disappeared.”
“
Riley, Damien, Andrew.” Alex added. “People drop out all the time. But those guys, they were in it for the long haul. Damien wanted to go to college. He
graduated
. I told him to hit me up sometime, but it never happened. I thought he was just trying to leave Delafontaine behind. I know I would.” Oliver was confused. “What does this have to do with those seniors?”
“Because this is
Damien’s handwriting.” Owen said.
At this, a cold wind blew through the forest, ruffling the jackets of each boy there. A curious question occurred to Oliver. Was he digging his own grave, or simply accepting the one that had already been dug for him? Suddenly, the black circle he’d spray painted on the pine felt less like a symbol of
power, and more ominous, like the sign of a dark future yet to come.
~
Oliver put his tray down at the center table. He was the first of the group to arrive at lunch. As the other boys filed in, he felt his knees begin to wobble uncontrollably. From the balcony that ran around the edge of the cafeteria, Dean Tenbrook looked down at his table and smiled. When a straw haired boy---Tom, he thought his name was---tried to join the table, Oliver shook his head. Tom looked over in confusion. “We’re full.” Oliver said curtly. Tom craned his neck to the side, and Oliver looked nervously up to Dean Tenbrook, who was still watching. “We’re full.” Oliver repeated. Tom put his hands up and walked away, confused.
“Oliver?” Robert asked
, softly.
~
In English Literature that Monday, as Oliver was steadily concentrating on the board, a large paper plane landed on his desk. Neck flushed, Oliver opened the note as soon as Ms. Latham’s back was turned. “When are we meeting?” It read in large, bold black letters. Oliver looked back and he saw a red haired boy that he had never seen before nod at him. With a fury that surprised even him, Oliver crumbled up the note and threw it. It sailed into the trashcan by Ms. Latham, who turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Donovan?” “I messed up on my notes. Shouldn’t use pen.” Oliver replied. When she turned back to the board, Oliver kept his head down and stared at his notebook for the rest of the class period.
“Are you sure I wasn’t followed?” Oliver asked as he closed the basement window behind him. Alex gave him a strange look and ushered him down the hallway
towards Owen’s room. The voices of Malachi, Robert, and Gabriel could be heard clearly through the door.
Alex swung the door open
, and the room fell silent. Robert sat in the spot directly in front of the door. As Oliver walked in, he shifted his chair awkwardly to the side. Malachi stood in his usual position at the poster board, but nothing was written on it that day. Oliver took his seat, and as he did he felt all of the eyes in the room on him, and him alone.
“So, w
hat’s on the agenda for today?” He asked. Oliver looked around, suddenly growing increasingly aware of everyone’s silence. Malachi scratched his head.
“We think we’re actually going to just hang out tonight.” Malachi supplied. “We haven’t played Risk in a while.”
“I’ve got Canada.” Robert raised his hand.
“Are you even going to play, then?” Gabriel joked.
Oliver watched as his friends scrambled for the Risk board with the crazed enthusiasm only seen at department stores the day after Thanksgiving. It then dawned on him what was occurring.
“Stop!”
He said.
Robert froze mid-squat, clutching a game piece, while Malachi paused, holding the playing board half folded out.
“We are not playing a stupid board game, when the administration is after us, or did everybody forget that?” Malachi and Owen exchanged grim looks.
“Look man” Owen began. He put his hands up in a defensive manner. “Word on the street is that you’re losing it. We thought you might want to take a break. Rethink things.” T
he room got quiet once more. Oliver looked at his friends, staring at him like he was a vicious dog with a loose chain, and without saying another word, he turned around and walked out, again.
~
Oliver woke the next day. Robert’s soft snoring was absent, and with a great sigh of relief, he realized he was alone. He looked down at his legs as they dangled off his bed. This is what it had come to, he thought sadly. He wasn’t losing it. “I’m not losing it!” He said to the empty room before him. After cleaning himself up---the showers were mysteriously empty that morning---Oliver headed down to breakfast. As he walked, he attempted to compose what he was going to say to his friends, but nothing sounded right or convincing enough in his head.
He
stepped into the cafeteria, and he immediately realized that something was different. The tables, usually placed around the cafeteria in an even fashion were either pushed to one side or the other. One lone table sat in the middle, and students huddled around it, including Owen, Robert, Gabriel, Malachi and Alex. Oliver swallowed hard and walked over to the group. He stood on his tip toes to see over the taller boy in front of him.
Robert inched up
beside him. “You should really see this.” He whispered, and he pointed Oliver on a path through the crowd. When Oliver had gotten closer to the front of the crowd, he looked down at the table before him and gasped. On the table, in black spray paint was a large black circle. Clear as day below it, the graffiti was signed, “TD”. The crowd around the table erupted in whispers, and Oliver felt more than a few eyes on him. He ducked back into the crowd and he found himself several boys over from Malachi and the rest. He looked over slowly to Malachi.
Malachi looked at him with fear in his eyes and mouthed “Did you?” Oliver shook his head violently.
Malachi narrowed his eyes, suspiciously. The crowd suddenly parted and Matron Charlie stormed through the newly made path, along with the matrons of the upperclassmen dorms.
Charlie looked down at the table and then into the crowd of boys, her face twitching just slightly.
“Who is responsible for this? What does this mean?” Her question fell on silence quieter than that found in the dead of night.