1 - Happenstance

The classroom is noisy of teens that just care about what was for lunch after the bell rings. No one had the focus or care for the mandatory science about how to calculate power efficiency in a math equation. The sheer melting minds of having to do math in a science class had further put disruption.

"Not even our hardest working student is paying attention!" Complained in a moan from the back. Several snickered with throwing paper balls into clothing or bags of the othet students, a not so secret game that landed everyone extra homework. Everyone just wanted to leave. Which made the current teacher beyond ticked.

"Miss Fallown! What is the..." The teacher began asking and was indeed raised brow that she had totally ignored this. Still leaned writing down in the excise book.

"Sorry... the answer is 80 percent efficiency." She peels herself away to look at the board, "2000 j divided by 16000 then times 100 for percentage. It's 80 percent." She posed her pen at pointing at the elements of the diagram on the board of where she got numbers from, "Maybe factoring in air dynamics or having a better fin design can theoretically increase it to another 10 percent. Maybe having a new cogs to the machine mechanism that convers the motion into electricity would further improve the wind turbines output." She puts the pen down, "But it all doesn't really matter. This was just example of how to calculate efficiency." The bell rings in the deafening silence she has made the classroom. The clowns looking at her third eye and others having a sheer headache from understanding of a nerd answer.

"Next week we will be looking into how we generate electricity. Miss Fallowns insight will come useful to remember. Once you have packed away and tuck your chairs under - you may walk out for lunch. No pushing. No running." Clatters and plenty of people that think she is weird. Plenty avoided her because she enjoys school and her love of learning. They just don't understand why she was more keen then any person here and assumed she was just a smart ass that shows off from time to time. In normal lessons, she been the last to hand in homework or finish writing down things from the board. She was always the last leaving and picked on for her foreign weirdness. She makes no effort of making freinds but she avoided being a trouble. She only really would get in trouble for taking defending herself to far.

"What do you want to be when you leave school, miss Fallown?" Teacher making small talk to her.

"I don't have plans, I never thought about it. I know that my background, experience and abilities will only take me so far. I am not going to survive a school setting forever." She speaks as she puts away her things, "I can only take what I can and get by. It's just me and my mom. Someday I will have to pay for everything for us."

She puts on the heavy worn backpack, extra weight of a dictionary and some reading tools. Things she fashion herself because the school doesn't want to recognize her difficulties. Her mother and her have attempted many times to seek aid but given they weren't citizens of this country, they didn't qualify for it. Further to this annoyance was that the asylum seekers at access to more benefits then someone that just wanted to move to a different country for better chances. She realized this the moment that her primary school wouldn't give her the things that others were given. Now it was secondary school, nothing changed.

If you didn't know, she seemed just another child with a messy family and home problems. That was nothing special in a mandatory free school like this place. But peel back the layers and you can see the fault of systems, a victim of fallen between grey laws and the lack of support for someone that was assumed rich enough to move to this country. She would have faired worse in America. Here was more chances, even if it sucks in the short term gain of things.

"You and your mom had to have came here because of someone, right?"

"Yeah, but my step father is in hospital. He has Lung cancer. He was fine and then he coughed blood up. Turned a little blue as they wheeled him into the ambulance." She wasn't even joking, dead pan and matter of fact. She rolled her shoulders in being ready to leave, "Now mom works three jobs to cover everything. I do all the chores, cooking and whatnot. We get by. We have nothing to go back to Florida." She sees how pale the teacher seems, "The last hurricane torn it to ground zero. We lost everything. So... at least being here meant having house." She shook, "Everyone looks at America and thinks it's paradise. You don't have to be scared of the bear breaking into your house or the alligator swimming between your feet in the flood water." She makes it to the back of the room, pick up a pile papers and came back to the front. She hands it over and nods, "See you whenever Mr Lintan. Maybe having a practical will calm down your next class. Everyone is about to be all gloomy with the Panto canceling."

"Sorry?"

"The theater trip is going to be canceled. The local news was talking about how the building was being inspected after the mini earthquake. The business owner was scared of the place catching on fire." She shurgs gently and left. She follows the one way system out from the corridor, avoided the toilets since it was the clown hang out.

The corridor out the building was equally full of older kids that find it funny to push smaller students or throw things. She was pushed like many others and they all pout at how she wasn't hurt. Annoyed that she didn't hit the door frame or fall on the floor. They of course were eventually told to scatter away and that pushing people was unacceptable behavior.

"Did you watch the news about the theater?" Her long time friend pats her back, failed to surprise her. Alex was always hardly in school even in school. He has a genetic disorder that consistently makes his immune system attack itself. He has good days and he had bad days. He wasn't even in uniform right now, he was stopping by with his parents about something. Seen her in passing, it was the teacher directing them that told the kids off about pushing students into the door.

"I actually was just telling Mr Lintan about it and he of course gave me that 'you have a third eye' expression. Are you here because they finally diagnosed something bad?" He laughed nervous at how spot on she can be, "I have known a while, we are long time friends. With how often you go to the loo. I just knew you had something new wrong." He sighed that at least it wasn't some supernatural ability she used to work that out. She does however still do that and caught people off gaurd.

"I am leaving the school for good." He tells it straight, she preferred a straight laced answer.

"If the dialysis wasn't a issue enough with loosing out. Then really I don't blame you leaving for good. Make the most of what we are given." She always has this weird vibe and always knows how to strike strange emotions. She never makes freinds due to this fact, "Just keep your Facebook updated. Call if you need me." She pats his shoulder and twirls him to his other groups of friends, "I am never going to ignore you unless I had issues of my own to sort out." He nervously laughed and just accepted that she wasn't going to force herself among a group not comfortable with her. He frowns in how little time she spent with him but forces himself to tell his friends the same news. She can tell he will not in the end say anything about his condition to them, that he was just leaving the school. Joke of being absent too long. They were about to ask about if her be around for exams but he was already be whisked off by his folks further into the school building.

She hovered for just a little while for what they talked about behind his back, she shook at how rude or clueless they are. She goes to her preferred location for eating alone, usually the art class waiting area. There is an embankment to park a seat at while watching spirit people and living people, how the living blindly rely on the spirit world. The sort of creatures, demons and watchers over the shoulders.

She got comfortable and opens her bag, taking out the plastic tub that is her lunchbox. She had to remove the chipped grey clay mask out of the way to close her bag up. She watches the football kicked about and the sporty popular students talking among themselves. She isn't here to attention, just to be left alone and it just happens to be a nice view to see them from here.

Of course Alex soon joined them, spreading news about the theater trip canceled and that he was leaving. He is a social butterfly, made up ranks quickly in secondary. He avoided her more, the more freinds he gained away from her. She accepted that.

They live different worlds. His family were big company owners and so was the group of popular kids - popular because they had elitist backgrounds and forceful rich parents. High expectations and big shoes to fill.

She just barely gets by, she makes her own lunch and dinners. She sees weird things and has to pretend they aren't there. She has learning problems and is a total nobody in term of location of where she lives. Her parents aren't even caring what grades she gets and worry more for what jobs she will be able to obtain when she is legally able to. They have faith that she can work her way to better pay but she is not so sure.

"It won't matter." A creature talking to a demon nearby, somewhere behind her and looking out to the field. Down at Alex horsing around with the elitist kids, "I will get them all." She eats in silence in sort of listening to the demon muttering, "The darn angels ruined the theater trip. So it will have to be plan B."

"School bus time." The little thing snickered.

"You play with the engine and I deal with the driver." She carefully watched them leave and then checks if she had the bus fair for this one off trip. She curlled at nor being sure who to tell what she hear to. As the demon sounded like bad news. She picked up the clay mask in worry, her only lucky charm that works for her, even if it was creepy and broken on the forehead. She holds it in hoping for some idea but the warning lunch bell rings - the 10 minutes to class start. She had to pack her things and put the thought aside. Yet the clinging worry had caused her a bit more distraction in class then normal for her. Thankfully this is covered up by the school system announcement for the year class theater trip canceled. Everyone had dragged feet and she blends in.