We Fight Dragons (Volume 2, Chapter 9) "The Second Schism"
Tobes was so upset that he barely slept that night.
In the morning, he confronted Jam at the school gate.
‘You really piss me off!’ Tobes exclaimed, not caring who else heard.
Jam was startled. ‘What! Why? What’s bugging you now?’ He was starting to get annoyed by Tobes recent negativity.
‘You said that I was a Knight.’
Jam hushed him and urged him to keep his voice down. ‘I thought you were glad? It’s awesome, you’ll see.’
‘No, I won’t! Maybe my dad is a Knight, if such things are even real, but my mum can’t be a… what are they called?’
‘Maidens.’
‘Well, she’s not one.’
‘I can’t believe it! You must be mistaken! How do you know?’
‘Two years back, my dad got pneumonia. He kept it real quiet. Pretended he was in the city on police duty, but really he went to hospital. When I found out about it, mum and dad told me to stick to their story. They said they didn’t want anyone making a fuss. I never knew why. Until now.’
‘Hang on, that doesn’t make sense! If your dad got sick, your mum would be able to heal him. But you say she didn’t? Or couldn’t? So, what, she isn’t a Maiden? Oh shit! That means… you’re not… I messed up!’
‘Bloody right you did! Do you have any idea in that stupid head of yours just how much I was looking forward to it? And now what? I’ve just gotta pretend I never heard about it? Or that my dad even is one? This is… a nightmare!’
‘But it makes no sense. Of all of us, you were the first one I thought of when I found out that I was a Knight. You have always been… everything that a Knight should be.’
‘Well, now I’m the runt of the litter. Thanks for that! I’ll never do that magic. I’ll never have your powers.’
‘Tobes, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.’
‘Damn right, it is! You’re an idiot who never knows what he's talking about!’
Tobes shoved Jam in the chest, sending him backwards.
Jam felt the blood roaring in his ears, but he forced it down. This was like that time when he tried to settle the score with Niles in the city. He had stuffed up then, but he owed it to Tobes not to react.
From out of nowhere, Emma interrupted them. ‘Oooh, are you two having a quarrel?’ Emma teased. She had heard the end of the conversation, even thought she had missed the start of it.
‘Get lost, Emma,’ said Jam, fully annoyed. Now of all times he didn’t want her butting into things.
‘Hey!’ shouted Tobes. ‘This is your fault, not hers!’
‘What’s his fault,’ enquired Emma, like a mouse sniffing the air for cheese.
Tobes looked at her, and for a moment Jam was fearful that he was going to blab everything.
‘Just stay away from him. He’s bad news,’ Tobes proclaimed before turning his back on Jam and storming off towards the school office.
Later that day, while starting at Tobes’ empty seat in class, Jam learned that Tobes he’d gone home sick.
Tobes’ walk home was full of doubts and anger.
If he had been a Knight, he might have sensed something wrong in the air, or his mother might have sensed that a Dragon was whispering to him.
‘It isn’t fair. How can someone as thoughtless and as cruel as him be a Knight, while they exclude you? How long will you put up with him? How far will you let him go before you… stop him?
The rest of term only had a couple of weeks left, and Tobes avoided Jam and the rest of his friends at school until the holidays arrived. He still considered the others to be his as friends, but knowing what they were, and what he would never be, was so painful that it was easier just to avoid them.
When Zach started going to Tracey’s house after school, that left Jam and Oli hanging out together in the afternoons. Jam wondered if Oli also distrusted him now. Although Oli never said as much, he avoided any conversation that might lead to talking about Tobes, and he quickly shut Jam down whenever he started speculating on who else might be a Knight.
At school, Emma noticed that Jam was being distant from some of his friends, and she increased her teasing by calling him ‘Biter’ whenever there wasn’t a teacher around. She teased him to try and get an apology that she didn’t deserve, and she although she never told anyone she decided that she would go out with him again if she got it.
Jam didn’t understand what she was trying to do, but because everything that he had done wrong was because of him, he wondered if he even deserved to have a real girlfriend.
.