White box

Offerings

"Hnnn, my team lost without you," Clem said to Marcus with pursed lips.

Eh-- Marcus was so confused about that line he tilted his head, till it clicked it must be about the Phys.Ed. exam. For the past few weeks, Clem was oddly set on monopolizing him during sports lessons, but Marcus had figured it was due to them being friends.

Well, ok, he wasn't abysmal at team sports like Timothy had been, but all he did was make passes. It was Clem who scored the goals, or someone else when it came to basketball or volleyball.

"Stop being a sore loser," Mats said. "Tim had his reasons, right?"

Marcus nodded. He was KOd. "I couldn't have come even if I wanted to."

"What will you do about the exam, though?" Will asked with founded concern. Their Phys.ed. exam was a monstrosity of sorts - all classes within the grade were bunched up together and they had to play a short mock game of any kind they had to learn earlier that year + pass all the running, jumping, whatever all in one go. It was almost like a sports festival, but without the festivities - just pure grind. Bill had already told Marcus that both of them would be joining 9th grade, so that's what Marcus said.

"Agh--" Clem and Mats both showed a 'yikes' on their faces.

"We'll manage somehow," Marcus said. While it was Robbie's grade, there would be some 60 kids and Robbie should have no memory of him left.

"Huh, you got taller?" Clem noticed.

Marcus nodded.

"So that's why you couldn't come," Clem nodded in understanding. "I also had one super painful growth spurt. My knees hurt so much I couldn't walk for a few days."

Not the reason, but Marcus saw no sense in correcting it.

"Are you ok now?" Mats asked about that.

"All good," Marcus said. "I could move around on Sunday just fine."

Clem added he had a feeling it would be coming with all the food he gobbled down; That too was something Marcus couldn't comment on and then their History exam started so they moved on to do that.

After that, he and Bill had to go write an extra exam each, the one they would both be 'missing' on Wednesday due to joining with 9th grade with sports. Literature for him, History for Bill.

While things had rolled along just fine, it looked like the presence concealment did nothing to hide him from his believers. Right as the two walked home, Marcus got a double distress signal from Axel and someone who might be his mother-- wait, wasn't that--?

"Thank you so much," RunRun said as she got up in the middle of the staircase leading up to Tharurun's temple. She had had a pretty bad fall. But rather than responding to her, Marcus was now stuffing his face with flapjacks. He had no idea at which point Bill had gotten them, but he gratefully accepted this offering.

"Welcome, but you know," Marcus said after gulping down a mouthful. "I'm not able to come every time. It would be safer if you bunch carried healing potions on you."

"Well," Axel made a sheepish smile. "We can actually tell if you are able to or not--"

Runrun nodded. Runrun was a pretty woman in her late 30s, Marcus hadn't noticed Axel resembling her because their hair and eyes were different colors, but on a proper look everything else matched up. Tharurun had not known Axel was his grandson. Tharurun was not too sure of how Runrun looked like either past the age of 12 or so, because she hadn't come visiting.

Marcus squinted as he continued to munch. So he was used like an ambulance-- he wasn't happy about that fact. While it was good to know they could tell if he would be coming or not.