Thomas new that he would come in a little late, but he didn’t realize how late it really was. Everyone was already seated and eating by the time he walked in. Nobody except his friends payed him any attention as he walked to get his food.

When he sat down, they stared at him a moment, then Hanley asked, “Where have you been?”

“Climbing a tree?” Replied Thomas.

“Come on, be real.” Said James. “Is everything you tell us a lie? I thought that we were at least friends by now.”

“I’m not kidding.” Thomas said. “I was literally climbing a tree.” He then proceeded to tell them the entire tale of how he ended up in a tree.

“Already playing the hero.” Said Hanley.

“You would’ve done the same thing. Although, I have a good guess of who might’ve put her up there.” Thomas said glancing in the direction of Patrick and his goons.

That night, Thomas could barely get to sleep. He was too anxious for the coming day, and too ready to learn new things. That was one thing that he could never get enough of. New things for training, new knowledge to know, it always made him happy.

…

Thomas woke up bright and early, only a little bit before the sun came up. Thomas took a bath that he told Lala to set out for him, and then he relaxed for a moment.

After washing up, Thomas put on his hose, tunic, and breeches that all pages were required to wear.

After that was done, he headed towards the mess hall. The sun was up now, and this was about the time that pages would be wandering out of bed and slinking their way down to get food.

Out of his new friend group, Thomas was the first to arrive. Next was James who looked like he just rolled out of bed, which according to him was exactly what happened. Hanley and Namuel showed up at the same time.

Last came Terrance, looking the most professional out of all of them. He didn’t have a single ruffle, and his hair was perfectly combed.

When Terrance sat down, Thomas asked, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?” He asked genuinely confused.

“Roll out of bed, and not look like you just rolled out of bed.” James replied for Thomas.

“Oh, it’s not that easy.” Said Hanley. “It takes hours to do. Why do you think he wakes up at the stroke of midnight?”

Everyone had a good laugh at that, even Namuel and Terrance broke into grins.

“So…” Said Thomas. “What do we have first?”

“History.” Said all the boys groaning.

“Every boys’ least favorite class. Easily the most boring, and the class my grades look like eggs in.” Said James.

“What’s so bad about it?” Asked Thomas.

“Nobody likes to learn history, and that is just a fact.” Said Hanley.

“Then you better get your facts straight.” Thomas said grinning. “I love learning about our history. At home, not a lot of people new about stuff that happened in the past. At one point, our commander even said that during wars, they would just drink their problems into oblivion. The only people that ever actually cared, were the soldiers.”

“That’s lucky for you.” Said Terrance. “When I was younger, that was pretty much all Dad drilled into my head.” Everyone was surprised to hear Terrance complaining.