Luke didn’t, and didn’t have the nerve to say so.

Rolly smirked.

The thin man went back into his classroom. Luke knew he’d have to risk asking Rolly a question.

— Wha—” he began. But just then Rolly opened a tall, wooden door to one side of the hall and slipped through. Luke’s reflexes weren’t fast enough. The door shut behind Rolly and then Luke had to fumble with the knob. It was ornate and gold, and had to be turned further to the right than all the doorknobs at home. Home…

For the second time in less than an hour, Luke was overcome with an almost unbearable wave of homesickness.

Stupid, Luke chided himself How can you be homesick for doorknobs?

Blinking quickly, he shoved on the door and it gave way Blindly, he stepped in.

He was at the back of a huge classroom. Boys sat in row upon row upon row, dozens of them, it seemed to Luke, all the way to the front of the room. There, the tall, thin man who’d just given Luke demerits was writing on the wall.

Or was it the same man? Luke squinted, confused. Oh. There was a door at the front of the room, too. That was the door the man had used. But had Luke and Rolly really walked so far between the doors? Suddenly, Luke wasn’t sure of anything.

Luke scanned the row of boys in front of him, looking for Rolly He was supposed to stay close to Rolly, so that’s what he’d do. But now he couldn’t even remember if Rolly had brown hair or black, short or long, curly or straight. He’d really never looked that closely at Rolly, just followed him and gotten beat up by him. Any of the heads in front of him might belong to Rolly.

The man at the front of the class turned around.

‘And the Greeks were — sit down—” he interrupted himself impatiently.

He was looking at Luke.

“M-Me?” Luke squeaked. “W-Where should I sit?”