Told You They'd Freak

3- High Temperatures (Pt. 1)

All it took was one phone call from the nurse at Dalton to the Smythe household. It was reconnected to the West household too.

Barry had been lounging around, messing with a Rubik's Cube when the telephone shook from its resting place near the mantlepiece. He waited around for a few seconds, thinking that Joe would pick up.

But when no one came, he realised that both Joe and Iris were taking naps in their respective rooms. He rushed over to the ringing instrument. "Alright, I'm coming...!" he groaned. Clicking it, he pressed the receiver to his ear.

"Yes...?" he responded to the voice. "Oh yeah, Uncle Harold! Yeah, I'm doing fine..."

A few minutes of speaking from the other end. Then...

"WHAT?" Barry yelled. That brought Iris running down the stairs. "Something wrong?" she softly enquired. Barry bit his lip, unsure of how to answer.

'Barry, thank goodness you picked up,' Uncle Harold had said. 'Sebastian has caught a fever and he's not being himself. I was hoping you could come and look after him, because he isn't responding normally even to us. Please, try not to tell Joe. He might get a case of parental panic.'

Barry finally decided against telling either Iris or Joe. "Bassy has been asking for me, surprisingly," he beamed brightly at her. "I think I'll go to him tomorrow."

Iris rubbed her sleepy eyes. "Alrighty then," she held up her fingers in the universal peace sign. "I'm off to bed."

Barry nodded. Grabbing a small backpack, he started tossing all essentials into it, and was soon booking a plane ticket. When that was done, he looked up. The clock showed that it was nearly four in the evening, and his flight was for six. He threw the bag over his shoulders and scribbled a quick note for Joe, in case Iris forgot to inform him. Stepping out of the house, alone for the first time ever, he softly shut the door.

-------

"The plane touched down in Ohio and Barry all but ran and shoved his way through the gates where Sebastian's adoptive parents were waiting to pick him up. The driver drove him straight to Dalton. All the while in the car, Barry couldn't sit still for one second.

He leapt out of the car and waved his uncle goodbye, then rushed to the reception desk. "Hi, I'm looking for Sebastian Smythe..." he began, but was interrupted by a huge, thick arm slapping him in the back. "Yo, Seb, glad see you back!" the boy said.

Barry turned around to see a rather plump boy grinning at him. "I'm sorry," he said rather meekly. He didn't know why, but he always turned meek in front of strangers. "I don't know you."

The boy looked confused. "What do you mean? You know me, Trent! Unless you suddenly developed amnesia," he said, eyebrow raised.

"I'm looking for Ba- Sebastian," Barry said. "Could you please lead me to his dorm room?"

"Sure," Trent said as he walked Barry to Sebastian's room, still stunned to speak.

Trent wanted to make sure that this wasn't Sebastian pulling one of his tricks again. That would make Trent look like a complete fool and his Warbler Captain would not let him hear the end of this. So when he knocked on Sebastian's dorm room door and heard a weak voice respond, he was surprised.

"Bassy!" Barry ran in and literally flung away his belongings. He placed a hand on Sebastian's forehead. "Good God, they were right; you're running a bad fever!"

"What...?" Sebastian slowly blinked and forced his eyelids open. "Barr...?"

"Yeah," Barry drew up to his full height. "Me. And who allowed you to run about attending classes when you are clearly in no condition to?"

"I'm fine," Sebastian drawled, pushing himself up on his elbows. Barry pushed him back down and turned to the shell-shocked boy with his mouth hanging open. "Trent, right? Can you have some soup brought up, please? Bassy tends not to eat in such situations, he's quite dumb that way."

But whipping around to see Sebastian roll his eyes and back at Trent, he sighed. "On second thought, why don't you stay here? I brought medicines for him, make sure he has the aspirin first. I'll check on the soup myself."

And he stalked away, leaving Sebastian in a very awkward situation with his fellow Warbler.

Of course, Barry had thought this out and left them alone so that Sebastian could explain things to Trent at his own pace. He didn't know that Sebastian was pretending to be this self-righteous bully, so he thought it natural for others to see his vulnerable with a fever.

Trent sat down in the chair. "So... twin brother?"

Sebastian couldn't avoid this. He sighed weakly and nodded. Trent chuckled. "He doesn't seem to be anything like you."

Sebastian smiled. "He's the most wonderful thing to have ever happened to me, Trent," he said. "I just want to protect him so badly."

"What's his name?"

"Barry."

"Why haven't you mentioned him?"

"You didn't exactly ask."

"Any reason? Behind this secrecy?" Trent spoke again after some terse silence. He had always noted that Sebastian was like a high-grade security system when it came to his life before Dalton. Something now told him this newfound twin had something to do with it.

"Sometime later, buddy. Sometime later," was Sebastian's reply.

For now, both the students knew that come wind or rain, Barry wasn't going to leave his brother's bedside until he had fully recovered.

Thanks for reading!

Krakenmaster XP