Chapter Text
I stand bored and fidgeting with my scratchy sweater that I'm wearing for a non-school uniform day. We're doing a practical in science, but neither me nor Jimmy, the guy I'm partnered with, have been listening. We're playing with turning it to a roaring flame back to that boring flame I don't know the name of because the first is much cooler.
“Science is so boring,” Jimmy groans, and I must agree. We're in the bottom set because we failed our Spring Term Assessments, but we aren't in the main classes, no, no, no, we're in those classes with like six kids. So we're technically rock-bottom. Jimmy moved from leaning against the table, but while doing so knocked the Bunsen burner over with a loud thud. We both yell in surprise and I grab my water bottle to diminish the flame. Jimmy sets the Bunsen burner upright and everyone else stares at us like deers in headlights.
“Mr Xelqua!”
Ms Miller’s voice slices through the air and I flinch at the noise. Great, I was in trouble again. Ms Miller targets me, I swear, I never meant for the chair to get thrown at Riley Thompson, it just happened! Ever since that incident, I'd been in her bad books. She points to the outside room, face red with fury, “Please see me outside!” She then struts outside with her tomato face and an ensemble of ‘ooooohs’ trailing after her.
Great. Just great. I think as I sluggishly follow, when I reach outside, I sigh, “Ms, I didn't-”
Ms Miller, seemingly having a mood swing as her face is now gentle, shakes her head, “I know you have a lot going on at home, Grian, I really do,” Her voice is now softer and more patronising. “But I can't just let you start fires in class, I'm going to call On-Call and they'll take you to the reflection room for the rest of the day, okay? Wait here for a bit.”
I nod stiffly, great, more adults telling me how much they get it. They get how my poor, ill mother must struggle with the anguish of having me, they get how my dad didn't want me, they get that I'm not a good kid. They get that I have to do everything by myself and give my mum all of the credit. Stupid school system thinking they're better than me. I realise tears are pricking at my eyes and I wipe them away with my sleeve, turning my face to the side like a petulant kid throwing a tantrum.
Soon enough, Mrs Rashid, the deputy headteacher, approaches me, wearing that ridiculous hi-vis jacket and speaking into her radio, “Thank you Ms Bains, I'm just getting him now,” She reports to the Head of Behaviour. “Right, Grian, sad to see you again so soon, off with me, you know the way.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” I grumble, following her out of the science block. I hate this. I know how this goes, detention and an iso and a speech about how they're sorry from my situation but I still have to go to detention. I take my glasses off and try putting them in my blazer pocket, before remembering I'm in non-school uniform and dropping them onto the concrete. I turn around to pick up my glasses, I settle for just keeping them on and as I focus, Mrs Rashid is mid transformation.
You know Glitter Force? Yeah, it’s like that but more scary. Her skin looks strained against her bone, her skeleton fighting to escape flesh turning a pale shade of blue and emitting a faint glow. I stagger backwards, “Mrs Rashid!?” I catch sight of Mr Brunner's dark brown locks that were tinged with gray. “Mr Brunner! Help!”
“Take this, Grian,” He passes me a feather and walks away as if I'm not about to die.
My face must look really stupid right now, twisted in shock and fury, “What am I supposed to do with a-” I gasp, the barbs of the feather flattening downwards to the rachis, revealing a sharp bayonet, “Sword, sick!” I realise I don't know what to do with this and try holding it in the way I see in those Marvel movies, struggling to swing it at Mrs Rashid, who is now advancing on me. I get a hit to her legs, making her stumble and let out an ear-splitting scream. I look at her properly, she seems familiar to one of those monsters from that mytho-whatever Jimmy plays.
Mormo.
I try thinking of everything Jimmy used to tell me when he went on his rants as I desperately try striking her back. His voice rings in my ears.
This card’s annoying since you can't defeat her by fighting, you either pray to Hekate, insult or confront her, or you give the vampire stuff like iron, garlic, all that, a shot.
It's worth a shot, I think. I lower my sword, standing up straight and trying to sound calm as I speak, “I'm not afraid of you,” Mrs Rashid recoils with a hiss. “You're a stupid tale mothers say to scare their children. You don't scare me.” After a bit more of me doing this, she let out a shrill scream and vanished.
I'm puzzled on what to do now. My sword turns back to a feather and I fiddle with it, standing awkwardly before the head of SLT, Ms Bains, storms over to me, “You, Mr Emery’s office, now.”
For Gods sake.