The four boys left the classroom together. Braxton was in the lead chatting with Varian about what may have caused the earlier explosion. Jim hung back a few paces so he and Matt could talk without the other two overhearing.
"So how'd you know we needed help?"
Matt gave Jim a confused look. "Whaddayamean?"
"With Gray. How'd Braxton get a message to you?" Jim gestured at Matt's tablet. "I know he didn't use his."
"Oh!" Matt scanned his hand and flicked to his messages. "Braxton's friends with some of the guys that do a bunch of coding. One of them figured out a way to connect Braxton's ear piece to the messaging system."
"That should be impossible. It's internally contained, no one's supposed to be able to have access outside of the system." Jim grabbed Matt's tablet to read over the last few messages. Though the speech to text wasn't perfect, their conversation had indeed been transmitted through the chat. "This should be impossible! Why didn't he include me in this?"
Matt shrugged. "We're still experimenting with it. It's just an on/off program right now, there's not a lot of options to switch who the messages go to. Hopefully you guys will have made up by the time we can expand it and he'll be able to add you."
Jim lifted his gaze to Braxton's back. The cyborg had his arms wide open. 628 launched himself out of a classroom and latched on with all his limbs around Braxton's chest. Braxton ruffled his ears affectionately. The smaller alien climbed around to cling to Braxton's arm, up off the floor where he was less likely to get stepped on.
Varian turned towards Matt and Jim. "Come on! The others will meet us at lunch."
Matt and Jim followed them through the crowds. Jim kept an eye out for Sy. "It's good to have the group back together," he said.
"About that," Matt hesitated at the entrance to the lunch room. "I don't think Braxton is going to want you sitting with us at lunch. I'll join you and Sy at dinner, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to sit at Varian's usual table."
Jim's mood soured. Matt held up his hands. "Don't get upset at me, Jim, I'm not part of this. I'm still friends with you, but I'm also still friends with Braxton. I'm going to split my time as fairly as I can between the both of you. I'm going to be as blunt as I can be, though, and usually I don't like to do this, I try not to hurt either of you, but I think this one's on you. Maybe Braxton should have told you that he was hurt before it boiled over, but I don't think this is going to ever be fixed unless you're the one to do it."
Jim's free hand clenched into a fist and he took a step back away from Matt. "I haven't done anything wrong," he said firmly, "but fine. Go side with him. I'm going to sit at the table we always sit at. And maybe he's not welcome there either." Turning from the other boy he stalked his way over to the lunch line.
Sy joined him at table 8-B shortly after. He slid his tray next to Jim's and settled into his seat. Sy folded his hands on the table. Jim felt his stress melt at his friend's bright smile. It was hard to be upset around Sy, his joy was infectious. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Jim helped himself to his chips.
When it became apparent that no one was coming to join them the younger boy spoke up. "Just us again?" Sy took the top off his sandwich and set it to the side. He ripped open the corner of a condiment package. Carefully, ever so carefully, he drew a star on his bread with the thick white spread.
"Yeah," Jim swapped their desserts. "I grabbed the last cherry chocolate cupcake." He knew they were Sy's favorite.
Sy's face lit up. "Thank you! You don't mind straight chocolate?"
"Not at all." Jim shoved half of it into his mouth just to prove his point.
Sy laughed. "One of these days you're going to choke." He reassembled his sandwich and folded the wrapper back around it so he could pick it up easily.
"Will not," Jim answered around the mouthful of cake. "'Sides, Matt knows the heimlich." Sy fell quiet at his comment. Jim sighed heavily. "Better hope it happens on a day he's not over with Braxton then. I can't believe he's not over it yet. Matt says that he thinks I have to be the one to put in all the effort."
Sy picked at his bread as he replied. "Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try that, then?" He selected his words carefully. "I know you miss him, and I don't like seeing how hurt you both are." He glanced up at Jim quickly before turning his attention back to destroying his sandwich. "I know it hurts Matt to see you two fighting. Matt's been pretty stressed out about keeping you both as his friends. I can't imagine that he enjoys swapping where he sits all the time either, or hearing you two argue and talk badly about each other."
Jim nodded. Sy did have a point. Even more than Matt, though, he hated to see Sy so down about it. It wasn't fair to ask Sy to put up with his new friends splitting apart so soon after he'd met them. From what Jim had gathered, Sy didn't have anyone else to sit with. And Jim hated knowing he was the cause of that look on his face.
Jim reached over to set a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'll talk to him," he promised quietly. "We'll be back to normal soon." Sy's smile was more than enough to tell him he'd made the right decision.
"Jim!"
Jim groaned at the excited voice. Hogarth set his tray down across from the two boys, a wide smile on his face. On the corner of his tray was a fresh cup of the strong, bitter coffee Hogarth loved so much.
"Hey, Hogarth," Sy, as always, greeted the first year more enthusiastically than Jim. "You're sitting here today?"
"Yup! Jim and I have a project to discuss together!" The boy turned on his tablet before giving Jim a wide smile. "So let's talk wood!"
Jim knew then that he had to fix things with Braxton, no matter what.