Soon enough, Caleb started school. Every morning during term he and Xan would awake before the sun rose, hurry to do their chores, gulp down breakfast, and start the walk to the schoolhouse.
The headmaster's name was John Bell, the same professor Xan had had when he had started school. Headmaster Bell was strict, and quick to assign extra work or hand out punishments. And his punishments hurt.
Xan didn't mind this - he never got in trouble, anyhow. He and his friend Chris Randolph sat in the front row, where they were always raising their hands and starting discussions about the lesson. Xan, to the dismay of most of his classmates, sometimes even asked for extra work - work he didn't have to do!
Cal, on the other hand, couldn't care less about school. He liked to read, sure, but in his own time, not when the teacher said so. His grades were only average, no matter how much Xan tried to get him to work harder. Cal's favorite part of the school day - if it could be called that - was recess, when he got to play with his friends Philip and Peter Ross, whose father owned a farm near the Tates'.