The next day at school was brutal. When Mrs. Hopkins asked Charlie what the capital of Egypt was he woke from his daze and said,

"Candy."

"No Mr. Bucket. It's Cairo. Do try to stay awake dear."

Her response was followed by an awful lot of laughter. Charlie sunk a little in his chair and didn't say a word till he got back to the factory.

He found Willy in The Chocolate Room, trying hard to polish off Charlie's gloves.

"Hey Charlie. How was school?"

Hungry and annoyed at the whole school thing today, Charlie swept past Willy and instead went into his house. Back turned, he didn't see the hurt look on his mentor's face at the lack of cheerfulness. It didn't matter right now. All he wanted was to watch television for three hours in a hopeless attempt to calm himself. He was just tired. But that never would of happened if it wasn't for "The Cake Bath"

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Why was he even polishing these things? He found his own gloves. They were in the last place he had thought to look, which was behind a piece of unused machinery. Yet he couldn't put them back on. Willy liked wearing Charlie's gloves.

Why wasn't the boy talking to him? Charlie just brushed past him into the house when he came home from school. Did he do something wrong?

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Charlie didn't even react when Willy came into the house.

"Are you mad at me?"

The voice seemed to come from a different place. As if Willy wasn't even at the door in the first place. It was then that Charlie discovered something. He was battling with his feelings, writing a letter to Willy about having to stay away from him, when all this time he knew he couldn't. They would always forgive each other, even in a situation like this.

"I just feel all alone." Charlie said, as he watching colourful images dance across the tv screen. Charlie turned it off.

"Alone?"

"I can't stay away from you. I don't even think if you were mad and wanted me to stay away I would. But..."

Willy clenched his fists and noticed that he was still holding Charlie's gloves. He didn't want to hear this. Or maybe he did want to hear it.

"But?" Willy said, urging him on.

"I want to try. To stay away from you I mean."

What was he talking about. They were partners. Okay, maybe there was a little snag in their relationship a few days ago but did it matter?

"I'm sorry." Charlie said, and with what looked like great difficulty, walked out of the house, leaving Willy alone.

I feel like I could write more chapters but the excitement is gone when I don't have enough reviews. Oh well, I'll keep going as long as people will read.