Everything between then and now was unremarkable. Sky was bright in class and continued to get high marks. An ideal student, truly. It seemed odd to James to see Sky looking distant during his lecture. Well, everyone has their bad days. Maybe he stayed up too late studying for another course. Or maybe he simply wasn’t feeling well.

James brushed his worries aside until he realized Sky was still in the room after all the other students shuffled toward the doors. Did Sky have a question on the lesson? He was about to ask when the young man began gathering his things to leave. They tumbled out of his hands as he crumpled to the ground. James was too far away to make it in time to stop that from happening, but he was at Sky’s side just as soon as he could be.

Some students were still in the back of the lecture hall, waiting their turn to shuffle out the door. “Hey,” he called out to get someone’s attention. “I need one of you to get someone from the medical clinic here.” Two of them nodded and pushed their way out to hurry off for a nurse. James didn’t see any blood, but that didn’t mean Sky hadn’t hit his head in the fall.

In a much quieter, concerned tone, he spoke to Sky. “Hey, can you hear me?”