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Quite a boarding school! 8. Eavesdropping "Yes, Ben, I know it feels strange but I sometimes need to extend the game to daytime. I thought we had an agreement on that." But it was Fred who answered. "Yes, this is just very unpleasant, Lewis! What fun is it to be tortured with rubber bands? It just hurts, it’s not any fun!" "A protest? Well, OK, maybe this isn't cool. You are in your lucky day; I’m going to let you remove the rubber straps. Too bad, I thought it would be fun." He was surprisingly willing to have ears for their complaints. Ben was in full agreement with the decision Lewis had just taken, and was glad to feel his fingers untying the rubber. But his next replied sounded strange. "But I hope tonight you'll treat us right, Lewis, and tie us up tight because we're being particularly nasty!" "Don’t worry; I have something in store that'll make you regret to have acted as such sissies!" Being over with their little business, they left the restrooms. Travis was still standing with his legs apart. He could not believe what he had just heard. He mulled over the conversation he had been the unknown witness to; was it really what he thought? Or was it his wild imagination? What was to take place tonight among the three boys? He had to find out, and he knew how. He walked back to Saint Sebastian. He fetched a wireless microphone in the studio’s storage room. He climbed up to the third floor. After having made sure no one could see him, he opened the boys’ room with his pass. He crawled down under the bunk beds and laid the emitter on the floor. He exited the room and locked it. He walked down to his own room, which was an office with a bed and a desk, where he spent his evenings watching over the dorm. Travis' job was not too difficult. He made sure everybody was in their room in time, and most often he stayed the rest of the night in his own office. There were boarders coming in at different times, because they were involved in various activities taking place in all of the school grounds. The idea was that they came to their room when they were done with school stuff, merely to shower and go to bed: the teachers demanded a lot of work and involvement from students at Saint Thomas More. The curfew was set at ten, and Travis just had a quick glance to see if there were no lights still showing underneath the doors. Travis was just there to check the nights would be peaceful. Some kids came to talk with him about their school day, and he tried to be a reassuring presence in this school which size could be overwhelming. Twice since the beginning of the year — and they were in March — he had had to intervene, because once some kids had forgotten about time because they were so engrossed in some innocent but intense reading of some detective dime novels. The second time, it was a student who was preparing extra hard for some test. Travis had it easy, he was conscious of this fact. He got the small receiver out of his cupboard and plugged the earpiece into it. He was ready. He had checked as soon as Lewis and Ben had entered their room that his transmitting device worked properly. He heard Lewis first: "Go and have your shower, quick." "Yes!" an excited voice had answered. It worked. He put the earpiece down. He studied until it was about time for curfew, having decided not to invade the kids’ privacy until they were supposed to be nicely tucked under their blankets, having dreams of serious, well-meaning teens. The first words he heard were again Lewis’s. "Ben, the towel…" Travis looked in the hall, and saw the light being turned off. Or rather, made to look like it was being turned off. Clever lads! Until this day he had been fooled. But tonight it was going to change… © Copyright Bondwriter 2006
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