Thursday, Oct. 8th, before bed
Our apartment
I had plenty of my own homework to do, even before I started studying for exams. Given that I’d left the draft with Ms. Calliot, I had to resist the urge to tinker with the long paper for her class, but I had the usual nightly homework, shorter papers to finish for our regular history class and for English, and the lab report for last week’s physics lab. The lab report was due soonest, so I concentrated on finishing that. Since Joel had taken over the dining table, I had a choice to either head to my room or work on the couch. I figured I'd stay in the living room - having Joel and the cat’s company might help me resist the urge to fall asleep. The cat needs a name, doesn’t it? I also realized I hadn’t the slightest clue whether it was male or female.
By the time I finished the lab report and my nightly homework – well, at least most of the math – it was closing in on 11 o’clock and I was exhausted. The cat remained on the other end of the couch, now curled up soundly asleep. Joel was still studying, but I figured it was safe to interrupt. “Hey Joel,” I said, and once he looked up, I asked, “Are you going to be up a while longer?”
“Yeah,” he said. “How about you?”
“I’m going to head upstairs and crash. Before that, how’d studying with Elise go?”
“Pretty well. I ended up helping her more with math than with science – I think we may need to get Kai or Amy to help there. The basics are all the same, but a lot of things have different names, especially the ones named after people. I could use the help with some of that, too.”
“So, you’re going to talk to Kai tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” said Joel. “I was thinking maybe we could just all get together on Saturday or something. You want to join us?”
“I won’t be much help with chem, but why not?”
Friday, Oct. 9th, just after 6th period
Advanced Honors History classroom
Kai and Amy both liked the idea of getting together to review, and we made plans to meet up after classes ended on Saturday; Joel was going to confirm that Elise was still free. I figured it couldn’t hurt to join them.
In advanced honors history, Ms. Calliot returned my draft, with notes; it sounded like I could just keep it as is as a B paper, if not all that solidly, but if I wanted a better grade, I had to tighten up my argument. It did sound like at least the length and number of sources weren’t issues – the comments suggested that, if anything, I had padded it a bit much.
Just after class, Tess approached me, and asked, “Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Sure,” I said, nodding.
“Great!” She smiled and went on. “How is your paper coming along?”
“Pretty well,” I said, and I showed her the printout. “I got a draft in to see what Ms. Calliot thought. She doesn’t love it, but I got some good feedback on what to improve. How’s your paper?”
“Not nearly so far along,” said Tess, “but I think it’s going to turn out well.” She paused for a second thinking, and then asked, “If you have a little time early next week, would you mind giving my draft a read when I’ve got it finished?”
“Sure! I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I don’t mind taking a pass over it if you think it will help.”
“Thanks, if you really don’t mind, I would appreciate it,” said Tess, and then she went on to ask, “Has Joel said anything about Violet?”
I shook my head. “Nothing since he told me she asked for his help. I meant to ask him about it.”
Tess shifted her weight, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "Oh... well, they met up yesterday, but that's all Violet told me about it." She brightened slightly. "I was hoping he might have mentioned something about how it went."
I shrugged. "I'll let you know if he says anything," I said. I felt a little bad given Joel's recent enthusiasm for tutoring Elise, but I was dubious that would go anywhere, and it led me to another thought. "I know Violet said asking him to help her study for exams would be a bit much, but a bunch of us are getting together to study tomorrow after classes. If she just happened to be in the library where we’re meeting up, it might seem more natural."
"That might work at another time," said Tess. "There's a tennis meet tomorrow afternoon. We were going to go support some of our seniors who are competing. I guess, let me know if there's another opportunity for it?"
"Of course," I said. "I'll keep you posted."
Tess nodded, offering a quick smile. "Thanks, Mark. I should get going - I've got student council duties to take care of before heading home."
I watched her hurry off down the hall; I still felt a bit guilty about not being able to mention Joel's obvious interest in Elise. But that was his private business, and not mine to share. Besides, there was no reason to think it was going anywhere. After all his claims of wanting a girlfriend this year, maybe Joel would end up clicking with Violet after all.
Either way, I had my own problems to worry about - the stack of revisions Ms. Calliot wanted on my paper, and my absolute lack of familiarity with the prior year's books from English class.
Friday, Oct. 9th, after school
Fencing club room
I'd volunteered to help with the inventory of the fencing club storage room, so after classes wrapped up, I made my way over to the club room. To my surprise, I ran into Galen just outside - like me, he usually only showed up for PE credit, so seeing him here on a non-practice day was unexpected. Inside, the competitive fencers were already gathered, the storage room door propped open. I'd never really paid much attention to the storage space before, but now I could see it was longer than it was wide, with the front section neatly organized with the basic equipment we used for practice - the jackets, masks, and foils. The back half disappeared into shadows, but from what I could make out from the doorway, it looked packed with equipment from floor to ceiling.
Kai looked up from a clipboard as we entered. "Oh good, you guys made it. This is probably everyone we're going to get - a lot of people are busy getting ready for exams." He glanced down at his papers. "Cory's already started sorting through some of the competition gear in the back."
As if on cue, there was a clatter from the darker end of the storage room, followed by Cory's voice. "Found another box of broken blades. Some of these look ancient."
"Let me guess," I said, "we're supposed to document every single one?"
"Every single one," Kai confirmed with a slight grimace. "Neil was very specific about wanting a complete inventory, down to the practice tips." He held up a second clipboard. "One of you want to handle the paperwork while the rest of us dig?"
Galen raised his hand a bit hesitantly. "I could do that. My handwriting's pretty decent."
From somewhere in the shadows, Cory spoke up again. "Better than having to crawl around back here. Some of these shelves look like they haven't been touched since the school opened." There was another shuffling sound. "Hey, can we get some more light? I can barely see what I'm working with."
"Do you want me to try to track down a work light or something?" I asked. It seemed like a way to be helpful without getting in the way of the more experienced club members.
"That would help a lot," Kai said. "Check the PE office first - if they don't have one, the custodians usually do."
I headed upstairs to the PE department office. They didn't have a light we could borrow, but they did point me in the direction of the custodians' office. The custodian turned out to be more helpful, lending me two work lights we could hang from the shelves, plus a long extension cord – a room that old probably had no outlets.
When I got back, the scene had transformed. All the racks from the front had been wheeled out into the main practice area, leaving the storage room looking emptier but somehow more intimidating. Once we got the lights set up, the pile of shelves and boxes in the back looked even more daunting than it had in the shadows - now we could see just how much stuff we'd have to sort through.
Kai ran a hand through his hair, studying the cramped space. "We should probably get everything out of here first - all these boxes - so we can actually see what we're dealing with."
"Makes sense," Cory added from where she was wedged between two shelves. "Way easier to sort through everything in the practice room where we have space."
I volunteered to start hauling boxes out. It seemed like the most straightforward way to help - the others would know what they were looking at once we got everything organized, but for now, I could at least be useful as manual labor.
Most of the boxes were what you'd expect - old equipment, broken pieces waiting for repair, paperwork from past tournaments. But about halfway through, I found something different: a wooden box that looked more like an old-fashioned briefcase, complete with metal-reinforced corners and a handle. When I tried to lift it, I was surprised by its weight. It was locked, too, which made it more interesting than the dusty cardboard boxes I'd been hauling out.
I brought it out to Kai, who set it aside for later inspection. By the time I'd gone back for another load, we'd cleared enough floor space to reach the shelves properly. Looking at the cluttered shelves now properly illuminated by the work lights, I was starting to understand why Gwen had seemed so annoyed about this whole inventory business - there was nearly a century’s worth of accumulated equipment and paperwork packed away back here.
Initially, Kai thought we could just work our way along the shelves, marking things down as we went. Some stuff was easy enough to identify - spare jackets, old masks, things like that. But there were stacks of papers that needed to be sorted through, plus dozens of smaller boxes to go with the ones we'd already hauled out. In the end, we settled on bringing most of it out to where Kai and Cory had set up their sorting station in the practice room.
Mina and I fell into a rhythm carrying things out. On one trip back, she caught my attention. "Hey Mark, I could use some help with this one." She was crouched by a box on the bottom shelf in the far corner. When we lifted it together, I was surprised by its weight - inside were what looked like pieces of actual plate armor, not the padded jackets we used for practice.
But what we found behind it was even more interesting: two sheathed swords mounted on the wall. When Mina carefully drew one partway out of its scabbard, the blade caught the work light with a gleam that suggested it was far sharper than our practice foils. We brought those out, too.
"Why do we even have these?" I asked Kai, but Cory answered instead, setting down the clipboard she'd been checking.
"The 'dueling' in Dueling Club wasn't always just for show," she said, her usual brusque tone softening slightly with interest. "Back before the newcomers brought modern fencing as a sport, young noblemen would actually fight with real swords if their honor was questioned. There are some old club albums in the library - you should see the scars on some of those first club officers. It wasn't exactly common even then, but it was serious business."
The armor looked old but well-maintained - without rust, just a patina that suggested they had been carefully stored. Cory handled the pieces very carefully, laying them out on one of the practice mats. I noticed there were two sets, one smaller than the other. The swords were different too - one was broader and heavier than the other, with both sides sharpened, while the other was slimmer and sharpened only on one side. Both were clearly meant for actual combat.
While Cory examined the weapons, Mina found a leather-bound album in a pile of papers near where the swords had been. The pages were yellowed but intact, filled with formal photographs of students in elaborate uniforms, some holding weapons similar to what we'd just found. One photo caught my attention - a group shot from what looked like the turn of the century, showing about a dozen young men in those same uniforms. Two of them were wearing the exact armor we'd just uncovered, their faces serious beneath their impressive mustaches.
We spent the next hour sorting through many decades of club history. The really old stuff - the armor, weapons, and historical records - Kai set carefully aside. Most of what we found was more mundane: tournament records from the seventies and eighties, inventories of equipment purchases, old rule books that had been revised so many times they were more correction fluid than text. By the time we got through the last shelf, we had neat piles arranged across the practice room floor, and my back was tired from hauling boxes.
That wooden case from earlier was still sitting where we'd left it, looking more intriguing now that we'd seen just how much history the club had stored away. Kai picked it up, turning it over in his hands. "You know, given what else we've found, maybe we should try to figure out what's in here."
Kai studied the case for a moment, then pulled out a small ring of keys from his pocket. "Part of being armorer," he explained, noticing my curious look. "Maybe one of these ..."
He tried a few of the larger keys first, then moved on to the smaller ones. The fifth or sixth key - a tiny brass one that looked as old as everything else we'd found - caught in the lock. It turned with a surprisingly smooth click.
Inside, nestled in faded velvet, lay a matched pair of pistols. They weren't modern - at first glance they could have been as old as the Revolutionary War, with long barrels and ornate wooden grips. Unlike the decorative replicas you'd see in a museum gift shop, though, these had the same well-maintained look as the swords we'd found. Someone had taken very good care of them before putting them into storage. Inside the top of the box was an age-yellowed card attached to the cloth, which read "James A. Midderen and sons, gunsmiths," with a number below it.
"Are we even still allowed to have these?" asked Kai.
Gwen sounded oddly confident. "The club's charter includes shooting sports, and the school never required us to close down the range. I can't see why we couldn't."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure it's illegal to own one of these when you're under 18."
"Technically, it's the trustees of the school that own them," said Cory. "Although they probably should be stored more safely than just at the back of our storage room."
Looking at the pistols, a thought struck me. "When you said dueling club wasn't just for show... these weren't just for target practice, were they?"
"Probably not," said Cory. "Duels with a sword were normally to first blood; some disputes were too serious for that to bring satisfaction. Real dueling was banned after the newcomers arrived, but the date on the card would be around twenty years before that. These must have come over from the school's original campus."
"Great," said Kai, rubbing his temples. "So, what do we do with them now?"
"We need to talk to someone in the administration, rather than the student council," said Gwen. "Those are a priceless bit of the school's history. I don't want Neil or Anson to go off half-cocked... and make us get rid of them." The pause after 'half-cocked' made it clear she'd attempted a joke; when nobody responded, she continued, "I'll go talk to the dean tomorrow."
Sometime later when we wrapped up for the night, we carefully packed everything away - the pistols back in their case, the armor wrapped in cloth, the old records boxed up separately. Between the historical treasures and the regular inventory we still needed to finish, we had our work cut out for us. As I biked home in the evening darkness, I couldn't help wondering about the stories behind everything we'd found. For a school that mostly felt like one from my own world, it was a strange glimpse into a very different, more adventurous past.
