Author's Note: Hi lovely readers. Why Chapter 26a, 26b, 26c and 26d, you may be asking. Well these four versions of chapter 26 tell the story of the same 14-day period for four different pairs of characters, while also starting to tackle the fallout from the conclusion of chapter 25. As you read them, you may notice some of the same activities and events but told from a different perspective. This was a very fun `event' to write, and I truly hope it makes for an enjoyable read.
Extra note for 26b – this is a sex-free chapter, but includes important development for the characters. I hope you still enjoy.
I'd love to hear your comments or thoughts. You can contact me at matterotica@hotmail.co.uk. Also, to support me you can visit https://www.patreon.com/matterotica
Finally, if you appreciate Nifty as much as I do, please consider donating to its upkeep at https://www.nifty.org/nifty/support.html
Tales from Kingswood
Chapter 26b – James and David
FAO All Kingswood Parents and Guardians
The Kingswood Pandemic Protocol is now ready to move into its penultimate phase, which requires steps to ensure the COVID-19 virus is not present within the school's population. As advised in our previous updates, additional accommodation has been built within the school grounds, which is now ready to begin use for the isolation period of the Protocol.
Upon their return from the half-term break, all students will be separated into two-person accommodation and will remain physically separated from all other students, staff and faculty for the virus' 14-day incubation period. Please find attached a schedule for the times returns are required for each Year group. For anyone with sons in multiple Year groups, please contact our administrative office to discuss alternative arrangements.
While we are aware of the concerns that may arise from paired accommodation, this decision was made based on the need to balance both physical and emotional wellbeing for our students. While solitary isolation eliminates the possibility of cross-contamination entirely, it was considered significantly more likely to cause emotional harm. It is a decision that was not reached lightly and was made in conjunction with expert advice from both epidemiologists and child psychologists, themselves alumni of Kingswood.
During the 14-day isolation period, students will still be able to attend classes through the use of on-site technology, move about the school grounds at set periods to ensure physical health is maintained and engage in group activities designed to minimise the psychological impact. All contact restrictions have been lifted and contact with family will be available at any time to ensure a fully connected support system.
Once the isolation period is complete, the Pandemic Protocol will move to its final stage to maintain a virus-free school. All staff will remain in accommodation on-site for the duration of the pandemic. Any staff or student leaving school grounds will be required to undertake a further isolation period of 14 days upon their return.
We thank you in advance for your co-operation at this difficult time. A further update will follow once the students have returned.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Trystan Everett Kingswood Headmaster
Day 1
"And you'll follow all the World Health Organisation recommendations, right? Not just what the government says?" David asked for the fifth time since the journey back to Kingswood started.
The two men in the front seats gave each other brief side-eye, caught somewhere between amusement and concern over David's obsession. Peter, the man driving, sighed and said, "Yes, you know we will, we've covered this buddy. You know we'll do everything we can to stay safe."
"I know YOU will, it's everyone else I'm worried about!" David said, pouting slightly.
"David, sweetie, it's okay," Xavier, the man in the passenger seat reassured their son. "It'll all be fine!"
David had always been a gifted boy, although his particular gifts brought as many problems as it did blessings. The virus had really brought the more problematic aspects to the forefront. The previous week had been more than a little challenging for them. Just tearing him away from the news channels and websites had been hard enough, but getting him to leave the house was next to impossible. It was quite a relief when he actually seemed keen to be heading back to Kingswood.
"You don't know that!" David insisted. "It might all be... unfine!"
"Unfine isn't a word!" Xavier corrected the boy, with a wry grin.
"No word's a word until it is!" David immediately replied.
Peter smirked but stayed quiet. He had learned quite quickly that between his intelligence and logic, David could find a way to win most arguments when he set his mind to it and the only way to really beat him was to not engage. Xavier seemed somewhat slower in learning that particular lesson.
"By that logic, we could just say whatever we want and insist it means what we intend!" Xavier argued.
"We can, so long as the person we're talking to understands the intent and meaning of what is said," David immediately retorted. "When I said unfine, did you understand what I meant?"
Xavier clenched his jaw as he saw another smirk from his husband. "Well yes..." he conceded.
"So unfine conveyed its intended meaning and therefore works acceptably fine as part of the English language," David replied, then looked at Peter in the rear-view mirror and grinned as he asked Xavier, "Or are you saying you're... unfine with the use of unfine in a sentence?"
"Just admit defeat!" Peter said as he could almost hear the gears grinding in Xavier's head to find a way to argue back.
"Okay, you win... this time," Xavier conceded, just glad to have David talking about something other than the virus. "But I'm totally unfine with making up words willy-nilly!"
"I think that's grammatically incorrect," Peter chimed in with a giggle.
"And I think you mean ungrammatical!" David corrected his other Dad.
"Don't push it!" Peter said, shooting David a playful glare in the mirror.
David frowned a little as he sat watching James. It had been quite a relief when he found out who he would sharing a room with for the next two weeks. He had worried it might be Josh, who he was in no hurry to speak to again, or even Mikey, who he found a little intimidating. Most of the others would have been okay, but James was definitely a very welcome choice.
Danny had unpacked quite quickly, but James seemed to be taking substantially longer, mainly because he had changed his mind about how his things should be stored four times now. Each change of mind had resulted in everything being pulled out before being put back in a different order.
"We're only in here for two weeks. Does it really matter?" David had made the mistake of asking after the second attempt.
"Yes!" James had insisted. "You know I need my stuff in order. D'you realise how much time gets wasted looking for disorganised stuff?"
"Probably not as much time as you're wasting now," David mumbled, though James either didn't hear or chose not to respond. As he felt his phone vibrate, he pulled it out to find a message from Danny asking if he was free for a video call. [Sure!] he sent back eagerly then called out to James, "Hey, Danny and Chris are about to call."
"That's nice," James said dismissively, not turning his attention away from his wardrobe.
David answered the call as soon as it came through, Chris and Danny appearing on the large central monitor on the desk. "Heyyy!" Danny said happily.
"Hey David," Chris added with a grin.
"Hi," David said back, smiling.
"Hey James, come say hello!" Danny called out.
David heard a slight sigh from across the room, probably too quiet to pick up on the microphone. James approached, leaned in and said, "Hi, bye!" then returned to what he had been doing.
"He okay?" Danny asked.
"Yeah," David said with a nod. "Just busy getting his stuff organised. You know what he's like!" Admittedly this was a little more organised than usual, but he hadn't lied.
"Hnnh, yeah. Good half-term?" Chris asked.
David considered just saying no and admitting to the other two boys that he had spent most of the week too nervous about the virus to even leave the house, but figured they probably had their own things to think about and didn't need his concerns on top, so he just nodded.
"Worrying over Covid?" Danny asked bluntly.
Omitting the truth and lying felt like very different things, so David nodded this time.
"My parents think they should have taken all this further. Chris' thinks they're over-reacting. You're our resident expert, what's your opinion?" Danny asked.
David had tried talking about the virus with James, but he insisted that worrying achieved nothing and it was best just to get on with their day so he was reluctant to say too much. "I think it's about right," he said, then paused to think about his Dads. "It's the real world I'm more worried about. We're playing it super safe in here, but out there..." he paused, shaking his head. "I think it's gonna get bad!"
Danny looked a little shaken by the answer so David figured a subject change might help. "Have you spoken to Josh? Or Rob?" he asked, noticing the mention of the names caught James' attention.
"No, not yet. You?" Chris answered as Danny shook his head.
"If you do, tell him he's a twat!" James called out from across the room.
"You're either in this call or you're not!" David said bluntly as he glared round at James, annoyed that he didn't want to take part but still wanted to offer an opinion. Looking back to the screen he said, "No, I was just gonna leave it. I figured tempers might have calmed down a bit by the time we get out of here!"
"Yeah, that's probably a smart move," Danny agreed.
They chatted a little while longer, though it was mostly just Chris talking about what he had done with his many siblings during the half-term break.
Once the call ended, David looked round to James who had seemingly found a satisfactory solution to his storage issues and now sat on his bed reading. "So Josh is a twat, is he?" David asked, moving to sit on his own bed, facing James.
"You disagree?" James asked, raising an eyebrow as he allowed his tablet to drop onto his lap.
"I don't know what I think," David said honestly, "But you definitely seem... upset!"
"I'm fine!" James said, sounding decidedly unfine.
"Well I'm here if you want to talk about it," David offered, hoping the offer would be reciprocated, but James just nodded, picked up his tablet and carried on reading.
Day 3
"I'm not saying we're all gonna die!" David snapped angrily. "I'm just saying SOME people probably will and the rest of us are all at risk!"
"Yeah, fine, whatever!" James argued back. "And I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying that talking about it for the SIX MILLIONTH TIME won't change anything."
David looked back at him, on a verge of tears.
"Or are you saying you think us talking about the same thing... AGAIN... is gonna make people magically immune to the virus? Cos if so, talk away!" James said coldly.
David sniffed back his tears and replied weakly, "I'm just really scared about it!"
"Yeah, well being scared doesn't help, does it?" James demanded. "And neither does crying about it!"
David leaned down to his side to lay on his bed, then rolled over to face the wall and turned his back to James, crying softly.
James sighed heavily and climbed off his own bed to go and sit beside David. "Crying doesn't help... but I didn't mean to make you do it. I'm sorry!"
"S'okay!" David replied between sniffs.
"It's nearly our slot to have some time outside. You coming out today?" James asked. When he went out the previous day, David had declined, stating he would rather stay inside as it was cold.
David shook his head without turning to face James. "No, not today," he said quietly.
"I thought... you might wanna be a bit more active," James said awkwardly. "Like... maybe what Josh said had bothered you!"
David suddenly rolled over, frowning. He knew James was not intimating anything about his appearance. In the six months they had been friends they had discussed things like fat-shaming and as much of a dick as James was about a great many things, judging people by their appearance was not one of them. He wiped a tear from his cheek, suddenly pulled back to rationality by another concern. "Are you sure you're not the one who's bothered about what he said?" he asked cautiously.
"Pfft, no!" James said dismissively. "I barely even remember what he said to me!" he very clearly lied. "Anyway, I'm gonna get ready to go out. You sure you're staying here?"
David looked over at the door, then to the other end of the room at the window, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay in here!" he insisted.
Day 6
As the door closed behind James, he headed to his wardrobe and put his trainers in as he said casually to David, "Mr Francis was at the front desk. I told him you didn't feel like going out today." As he turned to walk away, he frowned, looked back and adjusted the position of his trainers a little, then smiled, happier with how it looked. "He asked, by the way" James added as he headed over to the desk. "I didn't just walk up to him and say `OMG guess what' or anything like that!"
"OMG?" David enquired, raising an eyebrow. He had never heard James use the saying, or any like it before. He was always just as eloquent as David himself. It was always amusing when anyone spoke to them together as David was often called `posh' for the way he spoke, but James never did, simply because of the Welsh accent, mild as it was.
"What? It's... what people say!" James said, trying to sound casual.
"What people?" David asked.
James shrugged dismissively. "Just... regular people!"
David's eyes narrowed. "Since when are you regular?" he asked, then pointed to the bathroom and said, "Except in there, I mean!" He chuckled at his own joke.
"Eww," James said, pointing to the bathroom, "And I'm... regular... ish!"
"Is this about what Josh said?" David asked with a sympathetic head tilt. He didn't remember the exact wording their former friend had used, he had been too busy trying to keep away from the growing conflict at the time, but he knew it was basically an assault on James' personality, or as Josh had put it, a lack of personality.
"Are you just on repeat, or something?" James asked angrily. "If it's not waaaah waaah waaah the virus' with you it's is this about Josh'? Get some new material, won't ya!"
David shrunk back a little at the aggressive retort. "Sorry, it's just... it feels like it's really bothering you but you're... I dunno... scared to talk about it!"
"I'm not scared! I don't GET scared. I'm not you!" James replied sharply.
The two stared at each other for a moment but before either could say any more, there was a clunk followed by a knock at the door. "Dinner's up, lads!" a voice called through the door.
Meals were delivered through a compartment in the wall beside the door, one that could be opened from the outside to place food and refreshments in, as well as retrieving used dishes afterwards. The occupants of the rooms could open a door on their own side to get things out.
"Thank you!" both boys called back at once. Whatever their current feelings about each other, politeness and gratitude was ingrained into them both.
"We should get ready," James said, feeling a little bad for the way he had spoken back to David. "Danny'll be starting the call soon."
David nodded and got up to go retrieve his dinner. He was looking forward to the call they were about to have. While he had seen all the other 1.01 boys in their virtual classes as well as the group activities that had been carried out in the evenings, this was the first time the eight of them would be getting together as a group since returning from half-term.
"Can't believe he invited twatface," James grumbled as he took a seat at the desk, clearly referring to Josh.
"He's part of our dorm!" David insisted, then narrowed his eyes a little as he asked, "But I thought what he said didn't bother you, so why do you care?"
James blushed a little, feeling slightly caught out, but after stuttering for a few moments as he tried to think he insisted, "Just cos he didn't bother me, doesn't mean I can't think he's a twat for saying what he did!"
"Just don't start anything, okay?" David requested. "I really miss the others and I reckon Danny does too. He was so excited about arranging this! At least do it for him!"
"I'm not going to be nice to Josh!" James pouted.
"Well, if you can't say anything nice to him," David started, clicking the answer button as the call started, "Then don't say anything!" He realised he was glaring at James but as Danny and Chris appeared on the large monitor, he smiled at them.
A moment later, Nicky and Mikey joined the call.
"Hi everyone," Nicky said with a polite smile while Mikey just nodded a silent greeting.
"Hi guys," Danny said cheerfully, looking genuinely delighted to start seeing his friends together.
"How's everyone doing?" Chris asked.
David was just about to answer when a fourth camera feed popped in. The three other rooms dropped into silence for a moment but when the picture loaded, they could only see Rob.
"Hi," Danny said quickly. "Is... Josh joining us?" he asked.
Rob glanced round, then looked back and said, "No, he..." He paused, clearly on the verge of saying more but eventually just said, "He isn't!"
The others noticed right away that Rob had earbuds in, so not only was Josh not joining them, he was also unable to hear what was happening either. David actually felt relieved. Not only did he not have to face Josh, but James couldn't start anything either.
"Is he sure?" Danny asked sadly. "I was... really hoping we could ALL be here! I mean, we made it through the first school week in lockdown, we should celebrate!"
Rob glanced round again but shook his head as he looked at the camera.
"Hnnh, good!" Mikey said pointedly. "And as far as I'm concerned, we ARE all here!"
David listened on, feeling a little overwhelmed as James sniggered at his side.
Rob went to reply, but seemingly realised Josh would hear anything he said and remained quiet, staring sadly into the camera.
"Hey, he's still one of us!" Danny insisted. "And still a friend!"
"Pfft, he's no friend of mine!" James said sharply, almost making David jump. "Oh look at that. I do have a personality, and that personality is a guy who thinks Josh is a dick!"
David looked at James. That absolutely and undeniably about what Josh had said now, no question about it.
"Please, can we not!" Danny pleaded with them.
Mikey chuckled. "Aww, what's wrong, scared WE might hurt HIS feelings?" he scoffed.
"I don't think he even has any!" James added.
"Stop!" Danny pleaded.
"This was a stupid idea. I don't wanna hang out with cuntface or anyone who's on his side!" Mikey snapped, then ended the call so he and Nicky dropped out.
"Huh, yeah, he's got the right idea!" James agreed, reaching over to end the call for himself and David too.
"Hey!" David said sharply, reaching for James' hand but unable to stop him in time.
"Oh, what?" James asked moodily. "It was over. It never should have even started. It was bloody stupid idea!" He could feel David looking at him but didn't dare to look back. He knew what he had said about Josh's comments to him and that David was absolutely sharp enough to have picked up on it. The second David tried to speak, he quickly cut him off by saying, "Save it! I just wanna eat my dinner in peace!"
Day 9
It had not been a fun weekend in the room for either of the boys. Friday night after the aborted group call, they had not even spoken to each other for the rest of the night. Thankfully David had been able to chat to both his mentor, Evan, and Mr Trent, though with James nearby, he couldn't really talk about what was bothering him most, but he had at least been able to have two conversations that didn't end badly, which was a mild relief.
The weekend hadn't been much better. James wasn't ignoring David, but he was keeping himself so busy with reading, studying and basically doing anything that occupied his attention that conversation was virtually non-existent. The only break from the tension for David was when James went out for his daily outdoors time. David had continued to pass, partly to avoid spending more time with James, but also taking the alone time as an opportunity to speak to Evan and really vent about his feelings.
Thankfully, Monday came around and having classes again seemed to lighten the mood substantially. Their Monday schedule consisted of double English, double History, Maths, German and then double Music, mostly subjects they shared a mutual enjoyment of. The only ones on which their opinions differed was German, as David seemed to have a total disinterest in languages, and Music, as James felt it was an unnecessary' subject and one that, in his words, took time away from actual, intellectual subjects'.
By the end of the school day, the weekend's tension felt like somewhat of a distant memory and the two boys were back to their usual relationship level, described by the others as an `intellectual bromance'. While David was still obsessing over the virus situation outside the school walls and James was clearly still doing his best to prove Josh's taunts untrue, by the time they were in bed that evening they were both unusually relaxed.
"How d'you reckon the others are doing?" David asked as they lay in bed, facing each other in the gloomy darkness, deliberately trying to think of conversations they hadn't had yet.
"Well I bet Rob's freakin' miserable being stuck with twatface!" James spat bitterly.
"Yeah, probably," David agreed. "And the others?" he asked, moving things along.
"Mikey and Nicky are... probably okay," James said, sounding unsure. "I mean, Mikey's calmed down a LOT so Nicky's probably okay with him!"
"Well that's only thanks to Danny. He seems to be the only one who can handle him," David said insightfully. "I hope he's doing okay without him!"
"He'll be fine, and Nicky can handle himself. He's, like, twice the size of Mikey!" James said confidently.
"You ever notice how smart he is, too?" David asked, thinking about the other boy. "He keeps it really low-key, but he's definitely smart!"
James shrugged a little. "Maybe. Not as smart as us though!" he said proudly.
"Nobody is!" David agreed. "Nobody's smarter than the Brain Bros!"
James huffed. "I told you. We are NOT calling ourselves that!" he insisted.
"You'll come around eventually," David chuckled. "So what about Chris and Danny then?"
"They're probably having the time of their lives!" James chuckled.
David sniggered too. "Yeah, did you see them in English today? There's no way they weren't wanking each other off!"
"Yeah, pretty brave considering what happened to Danny last time he got caught wanking in English!" James said, sounding somewhere between impressed and disapproving.
"Yeah, that was hot!" David exclaimed without really thinking about it.
"Seriously?" James asked. "But it totally disrupted class!"
"Yeah, but... a cute guy got naked and jerked off in front of us. You don't think that's... I dunno... sexy or anything?" David asked.
"Why? Are you into Danny or something?" James asked, a little confused.
"No!" David insisted. "I mean, he's definitely a good-looking guy and all that, but it's just... ya know..." He paused. "Oh I dunno. I think I just want out of this device. I miss... playing with it!"
"Eww!" James said back instantly.
"What, you never played with yourself?" David asked.
"I guess I did, but... not being able to kinda lets me focus on schoolwork more!" James explained.
"Oh yeah, cos you're normally so unfocused!" David said sarcastically.
"Oh haha," James said dryly. "I just mean, I know in this place we're able to... to express ourselves in ways that you couldn't at other schools, but it's also meant to be a school for the brightest, but everyone seems to spend more time thinking with their penises than their brains. I don't wanna be like that!"
"You're wrong about something there!" David interjected.
"Doubtful, but go on," James said with a smirk.
"This isn't a school for the brightest, it's a school for the best!" David explained.
"And that's different how?" James demanded.
"Well, because `best' doesn't necessarily mean the smartest," David explained. It was something he had thought about a lot as he got to know his dormmates. "I mean, yeah, me and you, we're clever, that's how we got here and that's what gonna give us an incredible future, but look at Chris... his grades are... okay, ya know, he's not really good at Maths and doesn't remember history, and science basically looks like magic to him, but get him talking about literature and he's... inspirational, or have you heard him sing? It's world-class! And Mr Beecham's actually talking about him swimming in the freakin' Olympics!"
"Hmmm," James hummed thoughtfully. "I hadn't really thought of that."
"Exactly. You know I think you're great, but you're really set in your way of thinking about things like that!" David said, hoping the other boy could take it as a constructive criticism and not some kind of personal attack.
"Rob was right about you!" James said with a slight snigger.
"He... what?" David asked curiously.
"Oh, erm... a few months back, I remember talking to him about... I dunno, I forget what, but we started talking about the difference between wisdom and intelligence!" James explained.
"Ah, yeah," David said with a gentle nod, remembering the times he had chatted with Rob on that very subject. "You've got the intelligence and probably a bit less of the wisdom. Rob's more the other way!"
James chuckled. "That's exactly what he said too. And he said you've got both!"
David smiled but it quickly dropped away. "It doesn't feel like it at the moment," he said sadly. "I don't feel very... wise."
James lay silently, knowing David would go on if allowed the space.
"I'm..." David started, but paused and sighed. "I'm scared to go outside!"
"Yeah," James said quietly. "I thought that might be the case!"
"Like... I know if I go out there I'm not just gonna drop dead or anything, but... I still... feel... ugh!"
"It's okay, I understand," James said softly. "Maybe we can try and work on it? If you want my help, that is! I know I've..." he shook his head as he thought back over the last week. "I've been a bit of a bitch. You can... ask that question I told you stop asking again... if you like!"
David thought for a moment, mildly confused then realised what he meant and asked quietly, "Is this about what Josh said?"
"Yeah," James admitted. "Yeah, it is!"
"I think we're both a bit messed up, aren't we?" David asked, though it was really more of an admission of his own feelings.
"Do you... need a hug?" James asked cautiously.
"I've needed a hug for over a week!" David said with an awkward chuckle. "But I know it's not your thing!"
Silence hung between them for a few moments before David heard the sound of movement from James' bed, followed by the feeling of a body sitting down onto his own. Without a word, James slipped in at his side and wrapped his arms around him.
David smiled, but as the feelings he had been keeping in began to ooze out, he felt himself begin to cry gently. James just held him a little tighter. "Thank you... for doing this for me!" he said shakily.
"It's for me as much as for you!" James admitted, sniffing a little too, then with a quick grin added, "Us Brain Bros have gotta stick together, right?"
"You said the thing!" David chuckled, gripping tightly onto his friend's arms as they cuddled together.
Day 13
"Hey there fellas," Mr Trent said cheerfully as David and James appeared from the hallway. He was sat at the desk behind a large, clear screen which kept the staff-member-on-duty safely separated from any boys coming and going through the temporary building's main entrance. "Bit late, aren't you?" he asked, looking at the time then the schedule. Their allotted outdoor time had officially started ten minutes ago.
"Oh, yeah, just lost track of time!" James lied. In reality, it had taken five minutes to get David to come out of their room into the hallway and another five minutes to get him as far as the main doors where they now stood.
"Looking forward to the quiz tonight?" the teacher asked. The faculty had been carrying out various group activities online in the evenings to keep the boys entertained in place of their usual clubs and teams. Tonight he was holding a quiz night for the Year 7s. "I'm expecting good results from my two little geniuses!"
"Yes Sir," David said happily. That was something he could talk about, it was an indoor activity, one he could do from the absolute safety of his room. Talking about that was definitely preferable to the terrifying prospect of stepping out of the doors that were now barely a few feet away.
"But for now, we've got somewhere to be!" James said pointedly, gesturing to the door.
David let out a gentle whimper. Twelve days, three hours, nineteen minutes and a few seconds. That's how long it had been since David set foot outside the building. Four more days than it had been when he admitted his fear to James, meaning this was the fourth attempt to break that streak and he was closer now than he had been on any of the previous three days.
"Erm... why don't you go ahead without me!" David suggested nervously.
James frowned. "I really think we should go together!" he insisted, not wating to say anything to give away the issue to Mr Trent. Though he felt like speaking to a teacher about the issue was the right thing to do, David had absolutely begged him not to, insisting that if they knew about his issues, he'd end up getting put in a loony bin or pumped full of drugs or made to leave the school. He had listed about ten more terrible outcomes that his anxious mind had cooked up and it had been enough to convince James to keep quiet and just try to help himself. He had actually taken it on as a new project, spending his free time looking into psychology and trying to find techniques to support his friend.
"Actually, I... could do with having a chat with Mr Trent," David said, desperately grasping at an excuse now he had found another one. "Is that okay Sir, or are you busy?"
"Well it does cut into my very busy schedule of just kinda sitting here," the teacher said with a wry grin. He knew from before half-term that David was struggling with the pandemic and had taken a lot of time with him to try and put him at ease, so another conversation now was nothing too surprising. "But that's fine, we can chat. James, no point in you lingering around here and missing your time outside."
James sighed and looked at David disappointedly. He got a slightly embarrassed smile in response before heading out.
"And the winner is..." Mr Trent said, pausing for dramatic effect.
"It's totally us!" James whispered, leaning towards David.
"James and David!" Mr Trent announced.
"Called it!" James added, getting a snigger from David.
There was mostly polite applause from the other fifteen pairs as the winner of the quiz was announced, though a few boys playfully called out, "Cheats!" "They were so googling the answers!" "Nobody knows that much!"
"If you all spent as long studying as you do touching yourselves in the shower, you might have stood a chance!" James replied, only half joking.
David discretely grabbed James' arm and shook his head a little as Mr Trent warned, "Hey, easy! Keep it polite fellas!"
"Fine," James said with an eye roll. "Well played everyone!"
"That's better," the teacher said with a gentle nod. "Well thank you all for playing. Now just in case you'd forgotten..." he paused, giving wry grin and knowing there was no way anyone could forget this, "Lockdown ends tomorrow and I'm delighted to confirm we have absolutely no sign of any virus-related symptoms anywhere in the school, so all doors will be unlocked at 8 ready for breakfast to begin over in the Dining Hall."
There was a loud cheer from all 32 of the Year 7 boys, clearly glad to have made it through the isolation period.
"After breakfast, you can come back and start moving your personal items back to your regular dorms," Mr Trent explained. He continued giving more details of what would happen, but the chatter from the boys had grown so loud it was mostly lost. Eventually he called out across the din, "But that's all for tonight. See you all tomorrow in person!"
James looked at David, curious to see how he would react to the teacher's comments and their imminent return to proper school-life. As expected, he did not look happy. James went to end the call so they could talk but paused and stared at the screen as noise began picking back up amongst the others.
"Holy crap!" James declared as he looked at the section of the screen showing the feed from Chris and Danny.
"What?" David demanded, then looked to see both boys already naked and rolling around together on a bed. "Oh God, I bet they just turned the monitor off and thought that ended the call!" He quickly grabbed for his phone and typed out a message to Danny. Still watching on screen, he could see the phone light up, just as Chris' did, presumably getting a message from someone else, but the two boys were too engrossed in each other to notice.
"Oh my God, we need to tell them!" David declared.
Elsewhere on the screen, most of the other boys were still online and also reacting in various ways. Some were laughing, others had covered their cameras but remained online, presumably `enjoying' the show, but David's eye was drawn to Kyle who was just staring in absolute dismay, his roommate visibly trying to console him.
"We... shouldn't be watching this!" David said, reaching to end the call.
"Oh come on, this is like the TV event of the season. I doubt you wanna miss the finale!" James teased.
David looked at Kyle again then whispered to James, "Look at Kyle. D'you really wanna be involved in something that's upsetting a friend that much?"
James sighed and shook his head.
"We're signing off. You should all do the same!" David said to the others before ending the call. He immediately tried calling and messaging both Chris and Danny again, but got no answer.
"Yay," James said dryly. "More drama!"
Day 14
James stood behind David, gently rubbing his shoulders in a poor attempt to relax him. "Okay, you can do this!" he said supportively as they waited for the door to unlock. "You've got it!"
"Yeah," David said unconvincingly.
As the door clicked, James gave his friend a quick (and rare) hug from behind and said, "Let's do it!" He reached past him to open the door.
David didn't move, he just stood staring out into the hall, the door to Chris and Danny's room straight ahead. Before James could give him any more encouragement, Kyle appeared and went straight into the room opposite, a crowd of boys following behind. As Kyle stepped inside, he slammed the door behind him and the small crowd began chattering excitedly, the boys at the front calling for quiet as they pressed their ears to the door.
"No!" David said, shaking his head. "No, no, no, no!" he added as he shut the door and stepped back.
"Okay, that's not quite as calm as I was hoping it would be out there," James said, nodding his understanding, "But you've still got this!"
David nodded, taking a deep breath. "Okay, I think I need to do this on my own," he requested. "You should head over to the Dining Hall. Once the crowd clears, I'll be able to come and join you, okay?"
"Are you sure?" James asked wearily. "You seem... even more nervous than usual!"
David gave a shaky nod.
James sighed, but if David said he could do it, he believed him. "Fine, okay," he said, opening the door, the noise outside growing instantly louder. "I'll see you shortly!"
The atmosphere in the Dining Hall over breakfast had been exuberant, boys from every Year celebrating their reunions and return to relative freedom. However, a cloud of gloom hung heavily over the four boys of 1.01 who had actually attended. Danny, Nicky and Josh were all absent, but James was mostly focused on the absence of David. Despite his friend's assurance that, with a little time, he would be able to come over to the Dining Hall, he was yet to appear.
"Well this is fun," Mikey said sarcastically, mostly to himself. "Can't wait to get back to the dorm!"
`We'll be lucky to even get David into the dorm!' James thought to himself as he stared over at the door. He frowned as he saw Mr Trent rush in and head to the teacher's table, not even stopping to acknowledge any of the polite greetings from students he passed.
"Something's going on!" Mikey said urgently, voicing the same realisation James had reached.
James watched as Mr Everett and Mr Reeves moved either way down the long table whispering things to the other faculty before dashing towards the door. A couple of teachers and Dr Arkwright went with them, while a couple more stopped at the large double doors and closed them.
"Please can you all remain in your seats until we give permission to leave!" Mr Fitzsimmons announced from the door as he saw students beginning to stand.
The teachers seemed to be determined not to let the students know what was happening, but there were a few beeps and buzzes as messages arrived from outside the room. Whatever was in the messages quickly rippled through the room like an informational Mexican wave.
"What's going on?" Mikey asked Brandon White, the dorm 1.03 boy sat off to his side as the whispering reached him.
"They're saying there's someone up on the roof," Brandon said nervously. "And he's going to jump!"
The words were like a jolt of electricity to James. He knew David was struggling with a lot of things, but surely it couldn't have been bad enough to push them that far... could it?
If you enjoy my writing, please let me know at matterotica@hotmail.co.uk, I love to hear readers' thoughts.
Also, if you wish to support me via patreon where I share behind-the-scenes information, updates on works in progress and ideas and share exclusive stories, please visit https://www.patreon.com/matterotica
For my other stories, please see links below:
The Benny Saga (in reading order) --------------
Benny Takes Control - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/benny-takes-control/
The Dangers of Desire - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/the-dangers-of-desire/
Benny's House - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/bennys-house/
The Kingswood Saga ------------------
Tales from Kingswood – https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/tales-from-kingswood/
Half-Term at Kingswood - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/half-term-at-kingswood/
Other Series ------------
Possession - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/possession-series/
Jack Hamilton - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/jack-hamilton/
Phil's Naked Adventures - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/phils-naked-adventures/
One-shots ---------
The Art of Seduction - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/the-art-of-seduction
Jake's Exposure - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/jakes-exposure
Becoming an Internet Master - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/becoming-an-internet-master
Brian's Big Mistake - http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/brians-big-mistake
And Then It Got Worse - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/masturbation/and-then-it-got-worse
Missed Opportunity - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/young-friends/missed-opportunity