I woke up as the sun was slowly beginning to set, for the second time that day I was startled by the presence of a boy I had only just met, Egb… Eric. His hunched over body was sitting directly opposite me as I began to sit up he stirred. 'Jesus! Finally! It's only been what, 2 hours that I've been sitting here waiting for you to come back to the land of the living' he blurted out to me. 'Wah, why didn't you just wake me up then? I don't even remember closing my eyes, your very eccentric stories were so riveting I can't believe I didn't get to finish hearing them' I said sarcastically. Eric rolled his large grey eyes at me, although the colour was harsh his eyes did still have a warm touch to them. 'I stayed because I decided to be the good guy and not leave you fast asleep in the middle of nowhere alone, okay'.
We began our long walk back to Erudite together in the dark, I knew I would be dead, my parents would dob me in if I hadn't already been reported that I was missing by Gaines. 'Eric, I can't go back, I just can't, they'll punish me for this I know it. I'm already down for 5 hours supervised study a day, if I'm caught now, they'll put me in isolation, stuck alone with nothing but books!' 'Ugh, Grace you'll be fine trust me, I leave all the time. If you are caught, you just need to say you went outside because you had a surge of curiosity and you had to document everything you came to see outside the Building and when doing so you got so entrenched in your documentation that you lost track of time. That excuse works a charm' he said. I looked at him astonished, 'Wow, you really do escape a lot don't you'. 'It's all a part of the charm sweetheart, all a part of the charm'.
As we arrived back at Erudite, Eric showed me through a back door and through the building to the stairwell. That's when we were caught. It was late so a lot of people were asleep but that doesn't mean that there are not a bunch of Brainiacs up till 4am studying, because you know apparently there is just not enough hours in the day to study. We were seen, by none other than Gaines, he was waiting for me. I knew it. 'GRACE, I knew I'd find you, you miss are in deep trouble, you're going straight to the top, no small punishments you are going to see the head, I'm taking you to Janine. I turned to Eric next to me, his face was emotionless, hard. He'd been through this before, I could see it in her eyes. He started following me as I followed Gaines down a long corridor, 'Mr. Coulter you are not needed for this meeting, please leave' Gaines instructed. Without looking at me Eric reached forward and took my hand in his and squeezed tightly once, let go and quickly walked away. Goosebumps crept up my arm, it felt somehow reassuring. The warmth of his hand on mine, it was something new. Something, nice.
