After a long and restless night, Thomas got up and readied himself for school. Worn out trousers and an old shirt on, he kissed his barely awaken mother goodbye and walked out the house and down to the bus stop. A few minutes later, the said vehicle stopped by and he greeted the driver before finding himself a seat in the nearly empty school bus.
A few middle school girls where giggling at the other end of the vehicle and two Uni students whose name he didn’t even know were sleeping, earphones on. Thomas let his temple rest on the cold window, easing the headache that had been throbbing ever since he had got up due to his lack of sleep. His eyes lingered on the grey pavement, and he felt his eyelids close by themselves. Before he realized it, he was cradled asleep by the gentle moves of the bus.
When the driver woke him up at his stop, a slight frown curving his usually relaxed eyebrows, he felt rested and his headache was gone. He jumped off the bus and hurried through the high school playground. The high building was still standing despite its age and the attacks it went through. No matter how many times Thomas saw it, he couldn’t help but be impressed by the size and the presence the Victorian building still had after centuries of mistreatment.
He entered by the main gate and slipped through the high-ceiled corridors and to his locker. He put down his copybooks faster than ever and nearly ran to his classroom, on the second floor. Hopefully he wasn’t late yet and even had to wait there for his teacher to come up. He let his loud and chatty classmates enter the classroom before walking in and sitting down at his usual place, on the second row.
Thomas never talked to anyone much, and people rarely sat beside him, meaning he was alone for most of his classes. It didn’t bother him much though, provided he was used to work by himself and his grades were still high despite his lack of friends.
“Thomas!”, a voice called from behind and he turned to face the person.
He wasn’t surprised to recognize Matt as he was the only one in the class that continuously spoke to him despite his lack of answers. The blond-haired boy was only slightly older than Thomas, yet always seemed a few years more than he was. Contrarily to Thomas’ baby face, he looked adult as soon as he was serious, and his deep green eyes and thick eyebrows only contributed to make the girls crowd around him like moth around light.
It was well known that Matt was a carefree boy and a social butterfly who could fit in any group and start a discussion with anyone without ever making it awkward. Nonetheless, Thomas didn’t understand why a person like Matt Evans – who had all he wanted including lots of interesting friends – would ever want to talk to him.
“I’m having a party at home tonight, you’re in?” The latter asked.
Thomas smiled apologetically in return and shook his head. The other boy nodded, still smiling wide, and turned backwards to ask someone else to come to his party. Thomas turned back to the board, focusing his attention on the starting lesson. The rest of the morning went by slowly, as he tried to stay awake and focused, but he even spent the last minutes of his math class watching the time snail by. As usual, no one spoke to him for the four hours his morning lasted.
At noon, Thomas tidied his desk and put his pens and notebooks in his backpack, hoping it would hang on until the midterm break, a few weeks ahead, as his mother had promised she’d take him to buy him a new one then. He took his morning path backwards and arrived home tired and somewhat lonely.
He announced himself but as no sound came back to give away any of his parent’s presence, he deduced he was alone for a moment. He took advantage of it to look more carefully at the so very small object that had made of his day a nerve-wrecking nightmare. As soon as he was in his room, he put down his backpack and locked his door behind him, in case his father came back early and decided to check on him.
He slowly opened the drawer of his study desk and retrieved the envelope from its hiding place, just beneath the drawer itself. Carefully, he opened it again and watched the paper anxiously, hoping the ink didn’t fade during the night. He sighted from relief when he saw it was still the same. He let his fingers wander on the paper, which seemed to be flat, and discovered that it had some kind of imprint on it. He let out a small sound of victory before resuming his in-depth inspection.
Thomas wondered whether he needed to colour the paper in order to see the message. He didn’t know much about that kind of enigmas, though he was a great fan of riddles, and the adventure that the letter brought him sure seemed like one. He took out a paper, and tried imitating the shape drawn by the imprint, but it only looked like a messy doodle without a meaning.
At that moment, it hit him: the imprint was highlighting a few letters! He eagerly wrote them down, carefully checking each at least three times. In the end, the message wasn’t very edible either. The boy didn’t really know what to do with the small line of capital letters with no meaning whatsoever.
He read them again carefully, trying to find words that would fit. ORUTTMHFQAUJREEAESSEST… It was so obscure to him. He sighted, wondering if the content of this letter was serious. He felt so, but he couldn’t yet figure out why its author made him pass such a test. How could solving such a riddle prove him worthy enough to know more about himself?
He started writing anagrams on his paper, he couldn’t say for how long, but long enough for the word FOURTEENTH to appear. He only kept the other letters, profoundly convinced he had found out one of the words. The word SQUARE soon drew itself out and only a few letters remained.
Thomas tried to make a word out of them, but none of the words he wrote down had any meaning. He started to think of squares he knew around his house and his school. The library! He realized suddenly. Frantically, he stood up and searched through his shelves, eventually finding what he was looking for.
On the book he had borrowed a week ago was printed the exact same address as he had just written down his paper. A slight smile enlightened his usual blasé expression. He only needed to go there and see now!
But what exactly did he have to look for? Another letter? That was most likely the case. However, Thomas wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea he may have to check every single book in the place, even though it was his haven of peace when he had free time during the day. Slowly, he completed the two words with a third: JAMES’S, and felt a peak of pride arise within himself.
A voice startled him.
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