Renegade

Chapter eight

The PA system crackled to life, drawing students out of their lunch-induced drowsiness. Some turned their heads towards it, others straightened minutely, but otherwise, their interest in the announcement was a lot more subdued than the first few times it had happened. 

Only two students sat ramrod straight in the classroom as they waited for the message. For the last five days, the PA system had been turned on at one pm sharp, the monotonous voice of the university's secretary calling one student a day to the infirmary.

Theo was ashamed to admit that it had taken him three days to figure out who they were so consistently calling in; unlike Marcy who had frowned the very first day, waving her suspicions away when he'd asked her about it and grumbling something that sounded like "coincidence". 

By the time the third day rolled around and Andrea Stone's presence had been requested, Theo had suddenly realized that all who had been summoned were ability-wielders. 

He had turned to his friend to share the discovery and her face had scrunched up in a "not quite" type of expression as she'd pointed at the gray band around his wrist. Not just any kind of AWs: unmanifested ones. Theo had gone unnaturally still at that news, understanding full well what that meant, yet unable to do anything about it.

"Theodore Moore, please report to the infirmary," droned the secretary.

He had been expecting his name to be called sometime soon, so he wasn't the least bit surprised when they did. His books, notes, and pens that had been carefully set out on the table were meticulously stored inside his backpack and he stood, walking out with as much confidence as a marked man under the stares of almost a hundred students could manage. 

Unsurprisingly, Marcy was right on his heels. Their professor, a balding, pudgy old man with a posh accent opened his mouth to reprimand her, before thinking better of it and returning to his lesson. 

Marcy did what Marcy wanted, when she wanted and no one could stop her unless they decided to bodily restrain her; which would be a mistake, given her years of judo training and her willingness to use it.

They walked in tense silence, avoiding small clusters of students who stopped chatting when they passed in order to throw them curious glances. Everyone had heard of star player Theodore Moore and how he'd been kicked off the basketball team because of his latent abilities. 

Four years later, they still stopped whatever they were doing to stare and whisper about it among themselves. He clenched his jaw hard enough for his teeth to hurt. 

Beside him, Marcy bumped her shoulder against his arm in a silent show of support. He gave her a sideways glance, grateful she had decided to accompany him. They exited the building through one of the many glass doors and cut through the courtyard.

The infirmary was a squat building on the other side of campus, its diminutive stature the only way to differentiate it from the other buildings from afar. 

As they got closer, the word INFIRMARY became more visible. For some elusive reason, it had been decided that writing the name of the gray building in gray letters would be a good idea, thus forcing injured or sick students to walk in circles and allowing their condition to worsen by the time they actually found it. 

The only reason Theo knew of its location was that he had been here before, escorted by his coach whose presence was required for the testing of all of his players.

Like last time, he shouldered his way inside and walked up to the seemingly empty counter, that hid a seated older lady with a strict bun. She was in the middle of doing crosswords, large glasses slowly slipping off her thin nose, pencil impatiently tapping against the paper. She didn't bother raising her eyes when she asked for the purpose of their visit.