Morning all and Happy Monday. I hope you are ready for a fun week. A week that ends in candy and costumes. For now, we have our Monday prompt. Are you ready? Fabulous. Let’s go. Timers set to fifteen minutes.
I don’t know where this is going but I kind of want five more minutes on the clock to find out. I think how Tony protests would tell me more about his character.
Monday, October 27th: He watched it sail through the sky.
He watched it sail through the sky. He was certain it only took a few seconds to arch, but it seemed to take an eternity. He saw Calvin hurl the bowl, anger twisting his features into something bestial. The bowl sailed through the sky, sloshing around yet because the bowl was somehow spinning as it flew, the contents remained inside.
At least until it passed the pinnacle of the arc and started the descent. Then the contents seemed like they were racing the bowl, trying to reach their destination before the bowl arrived. Tony knew he was the target and despite Calvin’s throwing accuracy, he had time to move, to shift to the side and out of the path of destruction.
Unfortunately, Mr. Witherspoon stepped into just the wrong place at just the wrong time. Calvin couldn’t have timed it better if he was actually aiming for Witherspoon. The man opened his mouth, the contest slammed into his face and the bowl clunked down behind bloodying his nose.
It took a moment for things to register and Tony took a large step back before his brain actually registered what was going on. Clavin didn’t seem to realize the error, still yelling his rage across the room.
Witherspoon sputtered and whiled the chili off his face. The bowl had already fallen to the floor and blood was dripping down Mr. Witherspoon’s nose. The chili had been hot with both heat and spice. There were patches of red on his skin from the heat and Tony was pretty sure the watery eyes were more the result of Toby’s insistence on adding the hottest peppers he could find to his chili.
Calvin seemed to realize his mistake but he was so enraged the anger was slow to drain.
“That will be quite enough of that,” Witherspoon declared. His assistant moved forward with a towel he seemed to have picked up. Tony didn’t recall seeing the man but somehow he made it past everyone and Tony could see it was one of the kitchen towels being offered rather than something the assistant kept on hand for moments such as these.
In the moment of silence as Witherspoon wiped as much chili off himself as he could, Tony found himself wondering if the headmaster found himself in situations like this often.
The thought didn’t last. “You will come with me,” Witherspoon said to Calvin.
“But he,” Calvin said pointing to Tony.
“Then he will come as well,” Witherspoon snapped. “Both of you, with me,” Witherspoon turned and marched out of the room. Tony shrugged and followed him, Calvin slinking along behind. Tony tried not to let his annoyance show. He had actually done nothing wrong. At least not officially.
They finished their testing and the scores were posted. Calvin who was accustomed to getting the best grades, simply because everyone knew who his father was, had not fared so well. The testing was done blind. Each of them were assigned a number when they arrived. The number was registered so the school knew their names but those scoring the exams did not. These weren’t the normal exams and the results had nothing to do with the school so no one felt the need to skew the results.
Without his father’s name guaranteeing him an excellent score, Calvin did not do well. In fact, he didn’t even pass. Considering he spent the weeks before proclaiming the ease of the exam and his complete domination, the failure hadn’t sat well. Tony, however, aced the exams, scoring higher than anyone in the school and in fact breaking a record of some sort. Calvin decided that Tony somehow stole his spot.
Ten til Midnight 