Staring up into the fresh spring air, Artemis found himself wishing that he would never again have to return to St. Bartleby's School for Young Gentlemen. It wasn't as though he ever actually learned anything there. All of the lectures were full of pointless facts which he'd known since he was a toddler and the only useful textbooks the school made use of were mostly co-authored by the seventeen-year-old genius.
"Indeed," thought Artemis as he began to study a patch of spring flowers blooming near the road he was currently waiting on, "There's really no reason for me to stay here. I'm really wasting my precious time. Perhaps I should convince mother to finally let me take my final exams for secondary school."
As Artemis stood on the circle of garishly green weeds which he had been occupying for the past two hours he tried hard not to think about why he was out here waiting for Butler to pick him up rather than inside celebrating the last St. Bartleby's feast before the Easter holidays. He didn't want to think about the increasingly common taunts and jeers directed his way whenever he came in contact with the other boys in the hallways between classes or in the school's gourmet cafeteria. In fact, for perhaps the first time in his life he didn't want to think at all, but unfortunately for Artemis not thinking didn't appear to be a choice.
After what felt like hours, Artemis heard the soft noise of gravel crunching and glanced up to find his lifelong bodyguard staring at him through the windows of a black Bentley. Grabbing his bags Artemis quickly walked over to the car, popped the trunk, and jumped into the passenger seat. A feeling of relief washed over the teenage boy as he closed the door. He had two whole weeks before he had to come back to this godforsaken place. It may not be a lot, but the teenage genius felt sure that he could come up with something by that time to avoid any further…disturbances in his social life.
"Artemis, are you feeling okay?" the soft voice from beside him startled Artemis out of his thoughts. Artemis glanced over at his Eurasian bodyguard to find a concerned expression on the older man's face. After many intensive treatments over the past few months, including a few rather unsavory "Dewer treatments," Butler appeared to have actually aged backwards if that is at all possible.
"He hardly looks a day older than thirty-five," Artemis found himself thinking as his gaze flew over the man sitting next to him. "How can I possibly see him every single day and not noticed this until now? I mean really? How very odd that I should be so distracted by the immaturities of my peers. I mean it's not as though anything they say to me is even true. In fact the only reason that everyone is acting like this has to do with simple psychology. I seem like the weak link to them and naturally their predatory urges have… "
"Artemis? Are you alright? Should I pull the car over for a second? " Butler insisted a little louder. He was already pulling off the country road and into some gravel that was meant to pass for someone's driveway when Artemis forced himself to bring his focus back to his bodyguard noticing how tense the older man looked.
"Hm. No I'm positively fine, old friend. I was simply thinking. I have a lot on my mind lately. What with that project I've been working on that accurately predicts the underlying statistics behind…" Artemis continued to babble on about a few of his less noteworthy projects as he watched Butler slowly relax his shoulders and begin to process all of the random facts and ideas Artemis knew he was throwing at the man. After half an hour, Artemis felt as though his tirade had come to an end and grandly finished his last explanation with "and thus I believe that relatively speaking there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't work."
"How interesting Artemis," came Butler's reply. "However, I'd really like to know if something's bothering you. You seem very out-of-sorts lately and it is, after all, my job to protect you," Butler continued while moving the car's stick shift and glancing over his shoulder. His surprisingly young strong shoulder Artemis couldn't help but notice.
"I'm…er…..well," Artemis was too lost in thought to notice how inarticulate his speech was, but Butler couldn't stop from raising an eyebrow. This was obviously worse than he thought. "I'm just…er…you know?...school? friends? You know?"
Now Butler was quite sure that the Irish teenager had never used the expression "You know?" in his entire life and, frankly, that terrified him. "Artemis what-" he began but was cut off by Artemis' fervent cry of "It's just a bit of teenagers fooling around at my expense. Nothing world shattering." The Irish boy stared down at his hands as he said this intently studying his pale palms. "Why can't they just leave me alone? It's not as they I'm actually anything I say they am. Is it? I mean they're probably just jealous."
"Artemis…" the teenager looked up as he head Butler sigh. "What were they teasing you about? You know you're worth ten of them any day and if anyone tells you differently. Well, it'd be my pleasure to have a little chat with them." After finishing this statement, the Eurasian bodyguard took one last fleeting glance at his charge before revving up the car's engine and pulling back onto the road. But not before he reached out and grabbed Artemis' pale hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.