Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

School Reunion

At Deffry Vale Senior School, students rushed through the corridors on their way to lessons. In a science classroom, the students were all ready at their desks when the teacher arrived, a man dressed in a brown suit and cream converse. It was the Doctor. He plonked his bag down on the teacher's desk and faced the class. "Good morning, class." he announced cheerfully, "Are we sitting comfortably?" He grinned and turned round to face the whiteboard. "So, physics." he said as he wrote the word in question on the board and underlined it, "Physics, eh? Physics, phyyyyyyyysics. Physics! Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics." The class just looked at him blankly. "I hope one of you is getting this down." the Doctor muttered, then more loudly said; "Okay, let's see what ya know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity an' hung from a string so they can hang freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?"

A boy put his hand up.

"Yes, uh, what's ya name?"

"Milo." the boy answered.

"Milo! Off ya go!"

"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge." Milo answered.

"Correctamundo!" the Doctor cheered, then paused, "A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again. Question two: I coil up a thin piece of micro wire an' place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity an' measure to see if the water temperature's affected. My question is this: how do I measure the electrical power going to the coil?"

Milo's hand shot up again.

"Someone else?" the Doctor offered.

There was absolutely no response from the rest of the class.

"Nope...? Okay, Milo, go for it."

"Measure the current and PDs using an ammeter and a voltmeter." Milo said, the rest of the class looking impressed.

"Two to Milo." the Doctor nodded, "Right then, Milo, tell me this; true or false: the greater the dampening on a cistern, the quicker it looses energy to it's surroundings?"

"False."

"What is non-coding DNA?"

"DNA that doesn't code for a protein."

"65,983x5?"

"329,915."

"How d'ya travel faster than light?" the Doctor tested

"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of 36.7 recurring." Milo answered rapidly.

The Doctor's mouth dropped open slightly. There was no way a 21st century human would know that, yet alone a year 9 school student.

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It was soon lunchtime and the dinner ladies were busy spooning food onto pupil's and teacher's trays. The Doctor moved along the line until he reached Rose, who was disguised as a dinner lady. She slapped a dollop of mashed potatoes on the Doctor's tray, giving him a filthy look in the process. The Doctor just gave her a smirk and cruised off to a table where the Artist was sitting, smartly dressed in a white blouse, navy blue trousers and navy blue shoes. She'd gone undercover as an art and design teacher.

The Time Lords were just tucking into their dinners when Rose came over to wipe the table. "Two days." she grumbled.

"Sorry, could ya just..." the Doctor gestured to a spot on the table with his fork, "There's a bit of gravy." Rose wiped the spot he'd pointed to. "No, no, just there." the Doctor teased.