Meet Me In The Woods

Todd

Todd sat in the audience, squashed in between the Welton school nurse and five overly concerned poets. He was nervously nibbling at the skin on his thumb, watching Jeffrey, Mr Keating and Neil fight their case against Mr Perry. It looked good for them - Jeff was excellent, saying just what the judges wanted to hear, and practically oozing cool, professional confidence. Mr Keating was being his normal self, if a little more concerned, and was being Very Sincere about his concerns about one of his most promising students. Said student was being very charming, barely nervous and avoided his father's eye just enough to raise sympathy. Things weren't looking good for Mr Perry, but still Todd couldn't help but worry. Their best bet was making Neil's father seem unstable, Jeff had said, and that particular word had not come up once so far. 

"Todd", Pitts whispered, nudging him. 

Todd jolted out of his headspace. "What?" 

"They want you to talk." 

"What?!?" 

"Come on!" 

Pitts grabbed his arm, pulling him up, and supported him on their way to the podium. Thank heaven for small mercies, because if he hadn't been able to lean onto someone, Todd was sure his legs would have given out under him, he was so scared. 

Ghostly white and shaking, Pitts still at his elbow, Todd stood in front of several hundred people, many of which were reporters. With cameras. Flashing cameras. 

A panicked look in his eye, Todd looked back at Pitts, who only gave him an encouraging nod and pulled him a little further. Todd dug his fingernails into Pitt's skin without even noticing, but his friend managed not to wince. 

"It's all right", the only friendly-looking judge in the jury said with an encouraging smile. "You can't do anything wrong. Just tell us about what you know about Mr Perry's relationship with his father, and what happened the day you were told he was dead. You are his closest friend, are you not?" 

Ah. Todd knew why they thought that. He was the one who had almost drowned himself, after all. 

"Uh", he stuttered out, trying to vanish into Pitt's shadow. 

"Go on, boy, speak!", an older, unfriendly-looking judge barked, and Todd jumped half a foot into the air. 

"It's all right, Mr Anderson." 

"Go on, Todd", Pitts whispered, and a couple of encouraging yawps came from the audience. 

What did it though was Neil's encouraging smile. Todd took a deep breath and began to speak. 

"A-already on my first day at Welton, I met Mr Perry." Todd's voice was quiet even with the microphone, but still he continued. 

"He made Neil quit the school annual despite him being the junior editor and really wanting to participate. When he argued, Mr Perry took him out of the room, but he left the door open so we could hear him tell Neil to stop causing a scandal in public. Neil called him 'Sir'. Neil never said anything fond about his father. They didn't even write or call, which I know about because Neil's my roommate. And - and when Neil wanted to play Puck in A Midsummernight's Dream, he had to fake the permission letter because he knew his father would never let him despite acting being his biggest dream. When Mr Perry found out, he was going to make Neil quit despite the play being the next day, and he said he'd be away on a business trip so Neil didn't quit. But Mr Perry came to the play and then he made Neil leave with him. I - I was really scared about what he would do to Neil." 

"Thank you, Mr Anderson", the friendly judge said. "Could you please tell us what happened when you were told young Mr Perry had committed suicide? What made you jump into that lake? Mr Perry and you must truly be close. Oh, and you can open your eyes, we're not going to bite." He spoke with a smile in his voice.