Empty

Chapter 39

Luke came down a few minutes later. He opened the door, stared at the mess in front of him, and for a few seconds, he didn't react. His face stayed perfectly blank.

Then, without turning back to the stairs, he called out, "MacMillan, get down here right now."

Quinn reappeared behind him, smiling sheepishly. "In my defence, it was very funny."

"Oh yeah?" He said, bending over to pick up a handful of glitter. "Well you can clean it up." He turned to Adam and Jess. "Good morning, by the way."

"Good morning," Jess said, with a brave attempt at brightness.

Adam waved at him slightly. "Hi."

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought we agreed to focus on research for now."

"Oh yeah, I think I remember you telling me that. Did you say it once," she raised her middle finger, "or twice?" she raised her index finger too.

He sighed. "Very mature... You know, this is so bad for my blood pressure."

"Will you lighten up a little?" She replied. "I was just about to make breakfast. Do you want anything?"

"I can't even trust you with a craft set, what makes you think I trust you in the kitchen with knives?" Luke replied. "Besides, I'm busy."

"I'll help," Adam said quickly. Quinn gave him a look, but he shook his head and she didn't persue it.

"I mean, you don't have to..." He replied quickly. "But if you're sure, I guess two heads are better than one."

"Unless one of them is decapitated," Jess said. Luke gave her a concerned look and she shrugged. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't apologise. You're right," Quinn said. "If they're gonna be working on something together, you might as well come help me make breakfast."

"I'm sorry, I don't know how..." Jess began.

"Well neither does Luke, but he does it anyway."

Luke threw her a dirty look which was met with an innocent smile as the two of them walked upstairs into the kitchen.

Adam pulled off his jumper and held it in front of him, revealing his torn, black shirt underneath. If Luke hadn't seen the jumper beforehand, he wouldn't have known it was grey at all beneath the glitter. Adam looked down at it with a restrained sort of horror.

"Relax, it'll wash out. Besides, I have other clothes," Luke replied. Then he felt his face heat up at the implication and quickly added, "I mean, other jumpers."

"I can't ask you to do that."

"I have hundreds." He took the jumper from him and ran his hand over it, dislodging some of the pink from it. "And I don't particularly like them anyway. They always feel too constricting."

"If you don't like them, why wear them?"

He paused. "I don't know. Habit? It's the uniform..." Brushing some glitter off of the desk, he took the sheets of paper out of his pockets and laid them out neatly. Then he paused, looking at the glitter that had already stuck firmly on his hands. "Actually, maybe we should do this somewhere else," he added, brushing it off against his shirt.

Adam nodded and followed him up the two flights of stairs until they came to the room at the top of the house. Luke gently put the sheets down on the desk and turned them all to right angles whilst Adam just stared at the room, stunned. "Where was this the whole time?"

"They allocate everyone at least one room in the house for gym equipment and physical education." He paused, gesturing at the bookshelves, more than a little embarrassed. "It's... It's a library now."