The Contract

Author's POV

After a momentary silence Xavier spoke up.

"So which school are you planning on going to?", he asked Alexander.

Alexander's eyes brightened, 'Xavier had actually agreed!'.

"I don't know yet, I haven't decided on a school", He replied happily.

Mrs Austin who had been quiet after Xavier spoke up, let the chair in her grip go, before speaking up, "How about Arcane?", She suggested with a hopeful tone, that was obvious even to the oblivious Alexander.

"Arcane? What kind of school is that?", Alexander asked curiously.

"It's called Arcane High. And it's a school that's mainly for the elites of society, those with social status and talent", Mrs Austin answered Alexander truthfully.

While Xavier watched her quietly, 'She seems very enthusiastic about this school'.

Xavier was never a person who kept his curiosity to himself so he asked her, "Why do you know so much about this place? And why do you want us to go there?"

Mrs Austin answered as if she had been waiting for his question, "Your sister once went there, and although I am not a major patron to the school, I and your father were once one. Plus, it's a very popular school, It's a mystery why you never heard of it"

"Arcane High… Alexander have fun at your school, don't worry I'll still pick you up", Xavier stood up halfway through his sentence and turned to leave.

"Huh?", Alexander was stunned, 'What does that mean?'

'This kid! That's right, he never said he'd go!', Mrs Austin had forgotten. The current Xavier was not the Xavier that she once knew, but she still had a a hard time accepting that fact.

"Xavier come back here!", She called him over. But Xavier didn't even twitch, and simply put on the glasses he had previously picked up from the table.

He continued walking towards the exit of the garden, leaving behind an angry mother and a confused Alexander.

'Why is she suddenly acting like a good mother', he thought in annoyance as a memory flashed through his head.

He seemed to be standing near an open door, and was ease dropping on a conversation, then the memory ended. He tried to recall more but his head felt blank and heavy, and just as he recalled something, he felt a sharp pain in his head.

His head throbbed more painfully than it usually did, and his heart felt uncomfortable.

Suddenly he couldn't breath, and the memory felt more vivid and realer than any other memory he has recalled.

"Just let me go", this was the first time he had recalled a voice, but he couldn't tell whose voice it was.

"…", and the next words that he recalled, couldn't be made sense of.

"Would you be okay?", he heard a familiar voice this time, but the familiar emotions with it were not there. The voice was cold and unbothered.

"Yes I will. Or don't you think I can do this much?", there was a little bit of hope behind the speaker's voice.

But then, "If you couldn't do that much, why w..."

"Xavier!", A loud shout brought him out of his unpleasant reverie.

He looked up at once, and turned around to look at his fuming mother and the baffled Alexander.

"Hey are you ok-", Alexander was cut off by his mom who continued talking.

"I've been calling you for sometime, do you think you can walk out on me when I'm talking to you?", She began to scold him.

A bead of sweat slid down from his forehead to his chin. His pupils which were moving rapidly from side to side slowly slowed down. He closed his eyes for a bit and felt none of the pain he had previously been feeling, his chest only ached as bit and that was all. 'Was I imagining it? I'll need to visit Doctor Rachel again…', he thought before opening his eyes.

Maybe because of the glasses, or because everything happened so quickly but nobody seemed to have noticed a thing.

Xavier had already returned to his previous state of calmness, he indifferently glanced at his mother then Alexander who was now staring at his mother.

'They didn't see…', he heaved a sigh of relief and focused his gaze on his mother.

Hearing him sigh, Mrs Austin figured she had been too hard on him, so she spoke softly.

"I'm not trying to force you to go. I just think it would be good for y-", but despite her trials, Xavier was still Xavier.

"I'm not going and that's it. I'm busy, I have a lot of things to do and It's Alexander's dream not mine! So let him live it", Xavier didn't have time for this mother of his, something about her actions made him feel annoyed.

Alexander looked at the two people who refused to give up, and began to wonder why he wouldn't be scared of them.

Clearing his throat, he defended Xavier.

'After all, he Is my friend and I was the one who caused all this in the first place', Alexander thought before he spoke up.

"A- Mrs Austin, I think you should let Xavier make his own deci-"

"If you don't go to that school, I'll make sure your Father kicks you out of the company and I'll get him to give up on the bridge project.", Mrs Austin threatened Xavier coldly.

Upon hearing that familiar voice, Xavier chuckled silently. He raised an eyebrow skeptically to his mom, he clearly did not care about those things, so she why did she think she could threaten him with them.

"…And I'll send your grandfather abroad", Mrs Austin said after careful deliberation.

And as expected his gaze turned cold, "And why would you do such a thing?"

"Don't you hate the old man, let him go abroad so if anything happens to him, it won't be on us", she said lightly.

Alexander's eyes widened, 'Xavier hates someone?! And that person is his grandfather?!! Why didn't he know?'

Xavier locked gazes with his mum and finally spoke up, "Tell me about this school?"

"Why?", Mrs Austin wasn't taking any chances and she wanted Xavier to admit defeat himself.

Xavier didn't seem to care about what she wanted from him and replied indifferently, "So I can know what kind of place I am going to".

"Good of you. It's a place where hierarchy is practiced, and the hierarchy is based on social status or intelligence."

"Social status?", Xavier asked curiously as he made his way towards the chair he had been sitting on. He didn't know when but he had developed an habit of standing only when necessary, he was having an informal conversation that did not require him to stand, so why not sit down when you can.

"The school fees are awfully high, so not everyone can go there. And that's where the intelligence part comes in. They have a yearly scholarship program, and only admit students who pass their cut off mark.", Mrs Austin happily replied him and even joined him at the table.

"Okay I'll go to this school but I have a condition.", Xavier finally spoke up after a long time.

"What is it?", Alexander curiously asked as he sat down.

"I'd like to go on scholarship.", Xavier spoke decisively.

"Scholarship? Why?", Mrs Austin was confused by Xavier's condition.

"No spe- I just want to be able to school normally, I mean if I'm going to go, I might as well go all out.", Xavier answered while tapping on his glasses.

"Alright. But you mustn't pull any tricks, and must adhere to the school rules.", Mrs Austin strictly warned him.

"Okay.", Xavier replied.

Xavier's easygoing behavior made him look suspicious, and Alexander started to doubt if he was buying time so he could do something else later on. But it wasn't only him, Mrs Austin also started to feel uneasy.

"Just in case, let's sign a contract.", She suggested with an adamant tone.

'She really is meticulous, unfortunately for her I don't plan on pulling any tricks.', Xavier nodded in agreement and stood up to leave with Alexander in tow.

"I'll send the contract through Butler Thomas", Mrs Austin reminded him.

"I'll be expecting it.", Xavier replied whilst walking away.

She brought out her phone as she watched Xavier leave. After a few taps and scrolls the phone started to ring, and soon enough the person on the other side picked up.

"Hello Mrs Austin, how have you been? "

"I've been good, Principal Darwin. I'd like to ask about the scholarship program of Arcane High, I know it is no longer active but can you reopen it? I have some candidates who would like to attend"

"What do you mean? The scholarship program has already been functioning since the beginning of the session, it's just that not many people know about it…"

"Really? I thought it got cancelled", Mrs Austin was stunned, had her information been wrong?

"Yes it did but we received an order from above to get it running again. You can also check online to confirm it"

"I see…"

"Well if there's no other thing, I'll hang up now. We have a little bit of a situation at school."

"No there isn't, Thank you."

Beep

Mrs Austin slowly dropped the phone on the table. It was weird for the scholarship program to be opened, thinking about how the Old master of the Eliott Family was so against it.

"People do change don't they?", She muttered as she recalled the retreating figure of the peculiar child she had once known.

She could not help but feel guilty, he was once so active and chatty like any other kid. Now, he's so quiet and aloof, at one point in time it became difficult to associate those two boys together.

She couldn't help but wonder where exactly they had gone wrong. Their approach wasn't good, yes, but they meant well. They even tried to fix things but they were never given the opportunity to do so.

She covered her face with her hands, and muttered, "I wish we had known better. But why did he change so much?".

She bit her lower lip till it bled, and she came back to her senses. She looked back up at the direction he had taken, and stood up whilst lost in her thoughts.

"I got him to go… enough right? I just hope… better", she mumbled as she walked out of the garden.