HERO

12 / Detention and Decisions

Schools used to be places of respect and learning. Children went there to be prepared for the big wide world. In those hallowed walls, everyone was equal and had the same chance to achieve.

Or, that was the hope. That was the big sell.

Thomas, like his father, liked school. It had never quite lived up to its ideal, even before the Outbreak, but Thomas didn't mind that. There, apart from the treatment he received, he could lose himself in facts and numbers. He felt just like everyone else. In the classrooms, with the wooden panels put up at the smashed windows and the lopsided desks, they were all just pupils.

No one sat next to him. The teachers had tried to make the others double up with him. Be a friend. Help each other out. They all refused and the threat of detention failed to sway them. The teachers wouldn't push the threat and most of their students knew the threats wouldn't be carried out. The risks were too high.

Teachers were not too bothered if Thomas was alone. It meant less disruption, for a start. If someone like Billy sat in close proximity, Thomas could be seriously injured. That would be far too much paperwork.

As much as Thomas's life at school was fraught with pain, either physical or emotional, he still enjoyed it. He was part of something, rather than being constantly excluded. This was his last day and he wanted to say goodbye to the building, if not its occupants.

Maths was first. A pop quiz carried out by the teacher asking questions and then choosing someone who had their hand up to answer, not always correctly. Thomas knew most of the answers. Not all, but most. After being overlooked, or downright ignored, the first five times he tried to answer, he stopped and began to answer in his mind. Mr. Bancroft, made no pretence of the fact he was deliberately avoiding selecting Thomas. The man had not once looked in his direction. With the circle of empty chairs surrounding him, it was easily to look anywhere else than the boy who could, at any minute, fall into the abyss.

Thomas tried to keep his mind on the lesson. If he didn't think about the Spotters coming for him, they might not. By thought alone, he could possibly alter the path of time. He knew he couldn't, and it was only hope that fed his imagination, but he didn't mind. He'd wished for and wondered about so many different powers, he'd have been happy for anything. The only thing that was coming was the end.

"Thomas? Thomas!"

Thomas blinked. His mind had wandered and he'd been happy to hold its hand and be led off on an adventure where he could stand with his head held high and his powers on display. Mr Bancroft never spoke to him. So...?

"Yes sir?"

The other students laughed. One, Amelia, threw a screwed up ball of paper at the back of his head, only at some point along its flight, it solidified into a ball of ice. It was inches away from impact when Mr. Bancroft waved his hand and the ball flew to the side, hitting, instead, the door to one of the equipment cupboards.

"Twinings! You've just earned yourself a detention tonight, young lady."

Amelia, a girl working her way up to the level of bullying that Billy aspired to, shook her head.

"You've got no chance, Bangers."

"I beg your pardon?"

"No need to beg, Bangers. I ain't doing it. You can fuck off."

Thomas sighed internally. He knew what was coming.

"We'll see about that," 'Bangers' Bancroft said sharply.

He raised his hand and gestures towards the girl. She was lifted from her chair and left hovering in the middle of the room. She cried out, but he ignored her.