Virgil and Charlie slowly walked back to the cafeteria after thanking Vice Principal Tolkan. Neither of them said anything as they walked to their normal lunch table and started eating. Jeanette walked over and waved at them.
"Hey guys, mind if I sit here?"
Virgil jumped a little bit at Jeanette's sudden voice interrupting his thoughts, but he nodded his head. "Yeah, no problem."
She slid down next to Charlie with a smile. "What's new, cockatoo?" Without even waiting for an answer she quickly asked, "Hey, where's Zeke?"
"He's-" Charlie began, but Virgil shook his head slightly.
"He's just not here today," Virgil said slowly.
Jeanette frowned a little bit. "Is everything ok? 'Cause if he's in trouble that would be so not cool..."
"Everything's fine, Jeanette," Virgil interrupted, but under his breath he added "I hope."
The rest of the day went by slowly, and Virgil couldn't stop thinking about Zeke and wondering if he was ok. He thought about all the signs that Zeke was a foster child and how he understood them now, but never had before. Little things pointed to it, like how Zeke never mentioned his family, or how they had never actually been to Zeke's house. As he thought about it more Virgil began to feel guilty that he had never asked Zeke about it, while at the same time he wondered why Zeke never told them.
He and Charlie didn't talk about it all that day until they were heading home in Virgil's car.
"Why did you stop me from telling Jeanette?" Charlie asked.
"Because if Zeke never told us it was for a reason, and he obviously didn't want it spreading around. I want to keep it quiet until we can talk to him, ok?"
"Ok," Charlie agreed.
"I'll try to call him tonight," Virgil said. The rest of the ride was quiet until Virgil got to Charlie's house. "See you tomorrow."
Charlie looked over at him. "Do you think Zeke is gonna be ok?"
"I hope so, Charlie."
