Chapter 23

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• • •

"Just give me the hope and give me the fight,

Just give me the reasons to run in the rain and I'll be alright"

• • •


I finished buttoning up my shirt as agent Hills entered the changing rooms.

"Boys, hurry up. What's taken you so long? What have you got next?"

"English Ma'am" Zak answered quickly.

"Right well get a move on. You've got two minutes to get there." She replied before walking back out of the changing rooms.

"Shoot, I forgot we had English. Is there any way we can just skip?" I said fluttering my puppy eyes towards Zack.

"As much as I would love to spend time with you, Ward would find us and then probably sentence us to death by push-ups." Zack chuckled out ruffling my hair for the second time. 

"Ughhh!" I pouted, sounding like a five-year-old.

"Why you so desperate to skip Roach? His class is chill." Zack queried, with a confused look.

"I-I'm just you know... nervous," I mumbled out, not ready to tell him my secrets.

"What for the reading?" I noded "It'll be fine. It's an easy read." Zak tried to reassure, not knowing I didn't know how to read.

As soon as we had finished putting our shoes on, we rushed out of the locker room, down the corridor towards Roach's room.

We ran through the door, just as the bell went off signaling the start of the lesson. Causing Roach to smirk, applauding us.

"Sit down boys. You've managed to avoid a late mark by the skin of your teeth." Roach chuckled out from behind his desk.

"Right, today's lesson is... Zack and Wolfies turn to read?" Roach queried, unsure as to where we had got up to, as Zack confirmed by nodding his head.

"Right Wolfie you can start." Roach proceeded, nodding his head towards me. I gulped staring at the closed book in front of me, scared to open it.

"Well go ahead." he urged slightly confused as to why I hadn't even opened the book.

I picked up the book and flipped open a random page, staring at the weird squiggles on the page.

"Out loud reading," Roach chuckled after a couple of seconds, thinking I was reading the book in my head. The class erupted in laughter, while Zack looked at me with a worried expression.

I closed the book and put it on the table and shook my head no.

"No? Come on Wolfie, everyone has got to read at some point. I'll tell you what, I won't make you read the parts with accents" Roach chuckled, his tone slightly more stern than before but completely oblivious to my reasoning.

"I said no!" I shouted grabbing my bag and storming out of the classroom. Running from my problems. Only hearing Roach's voice calling after me and the gasps and chatter of the class.

• • •

Roach's POV

"Zack, start reading. Everyone else settle down! I'll send someone in to watch over while I'm out." I said loudly over the chatter, before walking quickly out of the class. I stopped in the next classroom to see my colleague marking some books and asked him to cover my lesson for a couple of minutes.

I then started my hunt for Wolfie, jogging down multiple corridors, glancing left and right in search of Wolfie. I hadn't known him long but he seemed like a good kid.

I made it to the door leading outside to the back of the building, with no sign of Wolfie.I walked through the door only just noticing Wolfie curled up, knees to his chest breathing heavily. Possibly crying.

I didn't make a sound as I sat down, leaning against the wall, next to him.

"I'm sorry," he sniffled out after a couple of seconds of silence.

"Don't worry about it. I quite like the excuse to leave that boring class" I chuckled out causing Wolfie to laugh looking up wiping a few stray tears away.

"So you're not a fan of the book?" I questioned, uncertain as to why he had this reaction to being asked to read.

"N-no its great book to listen to its just...ummm...I-I don't know how to...umm...you know..."

"Read?" I finished for him with little shock evident in my tone.

"How come I wasn't informed when you enrolled? I could have got you extra session or something to help." I said confused as to why this was never mentioned to me.

"No one knows. I thought I could avoid it." He whispered out, looking down at his hands.

"Avoid it by going to English lessons?" I chuckled out as he lightly blushed in embarrassment.

"I'm such an idiot for trying to get you to read in front of the class," I mumbled out after a few minutes of silence, realizing how inconsiderate I had been.

"It's fine really I should have told you. I was just scared people will think I'm stupid and Zack will hate me."

"Zack, huh?" I thought out loud causing his cheeks to get darker while mumbling out: "He's nice". 

"Well enough about your brewing bromance with zack. We need to head back to the lesson. I won't make you rea but I will call your dad to discuss either him teaching you or some after school tutoring with me. How does that sound?"

"That sounds good... But you don't have to call him." Wolfie replied nervously, probably worried about what I might tell him or feeling he had let his father down.

"I know I don't... But you're dad's an avenger, who would pass up that opportunity." I chuckled out honestly causing him to laugh along with me, with relief evident on his face.


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