A hundred yards away, the teachers' powerful floodlights cut through the darkness.The search party had clearly abandoned their foray into the main valley and set up an emergency staging area near the perimeter.
" Mr Harrison !" Liam yelled, automatically reverting to his loud, confidant self, but the shout lacked its usual punch.
Mr Harrison reached them first, his face a mask of worry.
" Adrien !, Montero!. Where the hell have you been? We've been out here for hours! Are you injured?" He looked them over, noting Liam's bloodied knuckles and the layer of strange moss at both their clothes.
" We got lost," Liam said, the lie rolling off his tongue easily. He looked at Oliver , who said nothing, his face expressionless in the bright light.
" The landscape kept changing. It was crazy. Oliver managed to find a path through some old growth tunnels. Ahh...Total luck," Liam sighed.
The four teachers gathered around, a palpable sense of relief mixing with annoyance.
" We're just glad that you are safe," Mr Davies said, shaking his head. " We found the map entirely useless out here. This valley is not what the brochure promised.
Mr Harrison nodded curtly."Right. The landscape is unstable. We're done with this adventure. Everyone is accounted for. The school has been notified you are safe. We pack up camp first thing tomorrow morning and leave immediately.
As they were led back towards the warmth of the main fire, Liam slowed his pace so he was walking next to Oliver. His friends dumbfounded.The camp noise and light returned the world to its familiar, normal rhythm.
The floodlights swing around wildly, catching the two big boys in their blinding glare. The teachers froze, then rushed forward, shouting their names in relief and frustration.
Oliver shut Liam a subtle, unreadable look. He let Liam take the lead, protecting his own secret and allowing Liam a shred of his pride.
The base camp was finally calm. After having dinner, Liam and Oliver were led to their shared tent by a security guard. Inside the cramped canvas space, the atmosphere was thick with unspoken tension. The noises of the valley- The whispering willows- had been replaced by the cheerful sounds of the camp: distant laughter, the murmur of the teachers, and the snap of the dying campfire. Everything felt normal, but nothing was.
Oliver unfolded his sleeping bag in the narrow corner, furthest from the entrance. He moved with a quiet, efficient nervousness, his hands still trembling slightly from the evening's ordeal. He still wasn't alright around Liam.
He avoided eye contact, focusing intently on zipping his bag liner shut.
Liam watched him from the opposite side of the tent. Liam's usual perspective of Oliver as a weak, detestable, easy target - had been shattered when he looked up from the mud and saw Oliver in that brilliant white light, entirely in command.
He wasn't a weakling, he was something entirely different, something Liam couldn't classify.
Oliver froze, his back half turned. "It was just luck," he mumbled, repeating Liam's lie from earlier.
" No it wasn't," Liam said, sitting down heavily on his own sleeping bag. "You knew what to do with that stump thing. You saved my ass. My friends would have run in circles for days"
Oliver finally turned slightly. The faint firelight cast shadows across his youthful face, and for the first time, Liam noticed how young and vulnerable Oliver looked, without his usual defensive slouch.
" They are going to write the whole valley as 'unstable' " Oliver said quietly, looking down at his hands. " They don't know the truth,"
" Yeah.. well" Liam leaned back against his pack, looking up at the canvas ceiling. "I'm not exactly going to volunteer that information." He paused, chewing his lips. "Thanks. For not telling everyone I freaked out."
Oliver offered a small, brief nod, the closest thing to an acknowledgement Liam had ever received from him.
He then turned back and finally slide into his sleeping bag, curling up with his back facing Liam , signaling the end of the conversation.
The tent was silent again. Liam stared at Oliver's thin back. The dynamic had changed, but the bridge between them was only the length of their small tent, and Oliver was still keeping his guard up. Liam lay down, his body physically exhausted but his mind racing. He still don't know how to interact with Oliver now that he respected him.
He closed his eyes , listening to the quiet breathing of the boy who held his life in his hands just hours ago. The rest of the night was spent in tense, shared silence until sleep finally took them both.
The next morning,Day 3 of the expedition was entirely business, devoid of any adventurous excitement.
Liam and Oliver dismantled their tent in near silence. There were no harsh words, no subtle shoves from Liam.
The previous night's shared secret had forged an invisible, awkward trice between them.
By 9:00 A.m sharp, the convoy of school buses tumbled to life. The students piled in, exhausted but safe. As the buses pulled out of the parking area, leaving the strange, silent, green expanse of Willow's valley behind them. The three-day adventure was officially over, but for Liam and Oliver, the quiet journey home marked the beginning of a complex new dynamic in their relationship.
Oliver finished the term's last exams with little interest.Though he couldn't be classified as a good student, he wasn't a slacker either. At the end of the term, his result was slightly better than last term's.
Mathematics: D
English: C
Biology: E
Physics: A+
....
Many subjects like history, languages, biology and many others require extensive memorization of dates, names or vocabulary, which is boring to Oliver.
Physics, however, relies on fundamental laws and patterns. Once he understands the why, he doesn't need to memorize anything. He can derive the answer from logic.
Oliver suspected himself of having mild ADHD, because he struggles with boring repetitive tasks in other classes, but enters a state 'flow' when tackling complex physics problems that hold his attention.
He had always wanted to be a Quantum Cryptographer. He wished to build "unshakable" security systems using the laws of quantum physics to protect global information....