Sohmer's Academy for the Gifted - Book Four - Chapter Twenty Seven

Robert grinded his latest cigarette into the pavement with his shoe and glanced at his watch. He swore softly and a woman passing by with her daughter gave him a stern look, which he promptly ignored. The curse of being forever early for everything that was important, although he had to admit it was often better than the alternative.

The morning air was colder than he was used to, having been born in Texas, and since he was done his smoking anyways, for the moment, there was no more reason to be standing outside. He used the same foot as a pivot to spin himself around and walked through the automatic doors and into the airport.

When Charles had left abruptly and taken his group with him, including all the eye candy - wow Lauren had grown up into quite the hottie – it had thrown the school into a state of confusion. Robert had been slated to go to Amsterdam with Scott, George, Luke and Drew, but they’d expected they’d still have a week or two more before they had to leave.

The plan has initially been that everyone would work with their replacements for a little while, until the new Moderators were comfortable with their new classes, and then they’d all go on their separate ways. But then there was some sort of storm, and the Acting Vice Principal and the other nine with him had vanished during the night.

So now, not only did he have to walk Tracey along through the paces… he stopped and chuckled slightly, as a particularly amusing image flashed across his mind. Andrew’s younger sister was perhaps the one pretty girl he didn’t have all sorts of inappropriate thoughts about. She’d been through a particularly rough couple of years and she was seen as a kind of adoptive younger sister for most of the Moderation team. Still, she was very pretty and… nah, no reason to go there.

So anyway, not only did he have to explain to her how he’d done things and where he’d been going with his class, but he had to help Kat out with the replacements for Andrew, Cadi and Marcos as well. It was fortunate for everyone that Craig stepped into the vacant Acting Vice Principal slot with relative ease as the always wired Energy Moderator had amusingly enough had a calming effect on everyone else.

Pushing their time tables forward had led to a very busy and tiring couple of days. It was only once the five of them could be pulled away that they really started meeting in earnest to discuss what their plan was going to be once they got into Amsterdam.

Robert glanced at his watch again and sighed. He turned around and looked back outside. He slipped his right hand into the pocket of his jeans and closed his fingers around his lighter. A girl he’d dated a while ago had wanted to get him something expensive to light his smokes with, but he’d explained that he was happy with what he used. A disposable Bic lighter, always coloured green, as even with his Gifts, he always seemed to lose lighters that didn’t stand out so much.

He looked outside again. It wasn’t that cold after all, and he was still so early. Also, he’d promised to be good and not drink or hit on any pretty women, at least not before the airplane took off. Taking those options away, there wasn’t much to do at an airport alone except to brave the elements and enjoy some sweet sweet nicotine.

Robert pulled a cigarette from his pack with his left hand and stepped outside once more. He took his right hand out of his pocket and lit the smoke with his green lighter before bringing it to his lips and inhaling. He leaned against the wall and sighed happily. There was nothing quite like the first pull on a fresh cigarette.

As he enjoyed the smoke he thought back to the last few days. After the initial planning was done, they’d worked on their time frame. No one was really sure how long it was going to take Charles and the others to find the Jae and get the information they needed, but Scott said in his absolutely certain voice that it would take a while – at least a month and possibly much more.

Since no one in their right mind argued with Scott if they could avoid it, they’d taken that number to heart. While they had a lot to do once they were in Amsterdam, no one thought it would take quite that long. Unlike most teachers in most schools, the Moderators at Sohmer’s Academy for the Gifted didn’t get an extensive summer off to do whatever they wished.

Therefore, it was decided that each member of their little gang could go elsewhere for a few days, as long as they each got to Amsterdam within the next week. This course of action was also partly decided on as it be harder for Cyber to realize people were coming after him if the five of them arrived on different days and with different flights from different parts of the world, instead of them all coming from where the school was and all together.

In fact, it had been George who had first put forth the suggestion. Robert didn’t really know the Transmutation Moderator all that well, as he was something of a loner, but then he supposed after this trip he wouldn’t be able to say the same thing ever again.

George was going to fly to Paris, France. It seemed that he loved a particular type of wine, something that was made in 1957, of which he had a self congratulatory glass whenever he developed a new shape to Transmute into. He had recently run out of the stuff and wanted to restock. Robert was more a beer and hard liquor man himself, but he certainly understood the sentiment.

He dropped his now finished cigarette to the ground and stamped it out before turning around. He checked his watch again as he walked back inside. It was going to be a long day. Fortunately he had more than enough nicotine to get himself through it.

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