The headmaster walked down the stairs, carefully watching the quiet school corridors he passed as he walked towards his office. As he reached the door of it he noticed the lone student, a young girl, that was sitting on one of the chairs besides it.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"The nurse sent me sir, I was in English and I got a headache" The girl replied.
"Then don't bother me, go home" The headmaster told her.
"I can't" The girl said a little quietly.
"Why? Is your mother at work?" The headmaster inquired.
"I live in Ambrose Hall, the children's home" The girl replied with a little shrug. The headmaster's face softened.
"No parents, no one to miss you, I see why the nurse sent you," He told her gently "You poor child, poor, thin child, come inside" He added as he opened his office door and allowed the girl to step in ahead of him.
"It's nearly time for lunch" He said as, with a final glance to the empty corridor, he followed her in and shut the door. A great screech rang out as an odd shadow could be seen through the frosted glass of the door's window. The terrified scream of the girl was heard for moment before the school bell drowned it out.
As the typical mad dash of students made their way through the corridors between lessons, one student, who was running in his lateness had to sprinted up the main stairs against the flow of the main crowd. Reaching his science classroom just in time, he'd just beaten the teacher, who walked in a second later. Wearing a brown pinstripe suit that he was oddly wearing cream sneakers with, he set his bag on the table and peered out at the class through his glasses.
"Good morning class, are we sitting comfortably?" The Doctor asked with a wide grin.
The squeaking of the pen on the whiteboard rang out as the Doctor wrote in big letters the word 'Physics'. "So, physics, physics, hey, physics, physics physics physics, hope your all getting this down" He said as he chucked the pen onto the desk as he turned to face them. The class as expected looked bored at the whole idea. "Ok lets see what you know, two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity from a string so they can swing freely, what would happen if they were brought near each other?" The Doctor asked in the hope of engaging the class. One eager looking boy put his hand up. "Yes, what's your name?" The Doctor inquired.
"Milo" The boy replied confidently.
"Milo, of you go" The Doctor encouraged as Milo put his hand down.
"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge" He answered.
"Correctamundo, a word I have never used before and will hopefully never use again, question two, I coil a piece of nylon wire and place it in a glass of water, then I turn on the electricity and see if the water temperature is affected, my question is this, how do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?" The Doctor asked. Only Milo's hand rose.
"Someone else?" The Doctor asked in the hope of gaining more interest. No one else volunteered.
"No, ok Milo go for it" He told the student.
"You measure the current by MPD using an amp meter and volt meter" The boy answered.
"Two to Milo," The Doctor said as some of the class looked at the small boy with surprise. "Tell me then Milo," The Doctor carried on. "True or false, the greater dampening on the system the quicker it loses energy to it's surroundings?" He asked.
"False" Milo answered quickly.
"What is microcoding DNA?" The Doctor asked as he leant against his desk with his arm crossed.
"DNA that doesn't counter for protein" Milo answered just as quickly.
"Sixty five thousand and eighty five times five?" The Doctor asked, looking very interest in the boys capability.
"Three thundered and twenty nine thousand nine hundred and fifteen" Milo answered, not missing a beat as his classmates watched in amazement.
"How do you travel faster than light?" The Doctor asked, getting more and more immersed.
"By a Fontaine factor of thirty six point seven recurring" Milo replied quickly. Sending the Doctor into deep though and surprise.
As each student passed along the queue with their trays they were all given identical meals by the dinner ladies, consisting mainly of oily chips. Among the students the Doctor was also getting his lunch. The desert landed a little harshly onto his tray as he looked up to see a very bored and annoyed Rose, dressed in a dinner ladies uniform as she served out the food. With a grin he left her to it as he went to take a seat in the busy canteen, giving a final grin over his shoulder at her as he did so.
As the Doctor started eating his lunch Rose came over and began wiping the table.
"Two days" She said in an annoyed tone.
"Sorry, there's a bit of gravy, no just there" The Doctor pointed out, trying not to sound gleeful.
"Two days we've been here" Rose said again as she wiped it up.
"Blame your boyfriend, he's the one who put us onto this" Another annoyed tone spoke up from just behind her, causing her to jump a little as the Doctor grinned ever more as he saw Peter, dressed in work overalls, come to a halt right behind Rose.
"Don't do that!" Rose snapped a little, as she turned to face the grinning Sayain, who'd developed a habit of using his wolf stealth to sneak up on people.
"Well Mickey was right, boy in my class this morning, got knowledge way beyond planet Earth" The Doctor told them as Peter sat down and started eating his lunch, not from the school, but packet instead.
"You eating those chips?" Rose asked the Doctor, not listening to him properly, as she took one, seemingly enjoying the taste.
"Yeah they're a bit different" The Doctor replied. Peter looked a little more disgusted.
"They stink, it's put me right off them," He said as Rose took another and sat down too.
"I think their gorgeous, wish I had school dinner like this, and don't start about food again, Mickey's been onto me about your thoughts on his cooking" She scalded Peter. For the past two days they had been staying at Mickey's flat where, being so completely opposite to each other, Peter, with his bold and adventurous nature, and Mickey, who was much more reserved, had clashed on just about everything. The fact was that both of them were far to proud and thought they were in the right far to often to be near each other peacefully.
"Well if he didn't burn something every meal I wouldn't complain, why are we staying with him anyway? What's wrong with the Tardis?" Peter asked with a shrug and an eye roll.
"It's very well behaved this place" The Doctor said, changing the subject. " I thought they'd be happy slappy hoodies? Happy slappy hoodies with ASBO'S? Happy slappy hoodies with ASBO'S and ringtones?" He added, looked around at the quiet students. "Oh yeah, don't tell me I don't fit in" He said with a grin as Rose and Peter could only smile in amusement. It was then a rather stern looking dinner lady came over.
"You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting" She told Rose, who stood up none to happily.
"I was just talking to these staff" She said in a bit tone as the dinner lady turned her attention to Peter.
"And aren't you are supposed to be fixing the fuses?" She asked sternly. Peter sighed as he too got up.
"Yeah for the third time in two days, I've gotta have a break sometime" He said none too happily as he gathered the remains of his lunch.
"Not eating the chips?" She asked, almost curiously.
"No thanks they're disgusting" Peter replied, happy to see a bit more annoyance in the dinner lady's face.
"The menu has been specificity designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance, now get back to work both of you" She snapped as she walked off.
"Still disgusting" Peter muttered as he gave a quick wave to the Doctor and Rose as he left the canteen. Rose too was beginning to walk off before she turned back to the Doctor.
"See this is me, dinner lady" She said, still sounding annoyed at her role.
"I'll have the crumble" The Doctor called after her with a grin.
"So going to kill you" Rose muttered jokingly as she walked off. Sitting back with his arms crossed the Doctor watched her walk off as he also spotted another teacher, a quite tall black man, walk up to some of the students sitting at a nearby table, who included the boy who'd nearly been late for his physics lesson.
"Melissa, you'll be joining my class for the next period, Milo's failed me so it's time we moved you up to the top class" The teacher told one of the girls before turning to the boy from the Doctor's class. "Kenny, not eating the chips?" He asked.
"I'm not allowed" Kenny answered, who seemed to be on a diet going on his packed lunch of healthy food. The teacher lingered for a moment before turning to another boy as the Doctor watched carefully.
"Luke, extra class now" The teacher ordered as a boy stood up and packed up his things before following him out of the canteen. The Doctor also noticed the headmaster stood on the canteen's balcony level, overlooking the students in a very unnerving way.
In the canteen Rose was busy cleaning the serving trays when she noticed some of the other dinner ladies carefully moving a large barrel through the kitchen. What ever was inside seemed dangerous as the women moving it were all wearing protective clothing, including gloves, goggles and masks.
"Careful, keep it steady, don't spill a drop" One of them said as they wheeled it in. "I said keep it steady, careful" She added. Rose watched carefully as they slowly moved it in, but was distracted as her mobile started ringing.
"What you got?" She asked as she answered.
"Confirmation, I just got into army records" Mickey told her as he sat in front of a computer in an internet café. "Three months ago, massive UFO activity, they logged over forty sightings, lights in the sky all of that, can't get any photos thought it's all blocked, classified, keeps locking me out" He added as a flashing sign saying 'Torchwood access denied' popped up on the screen.
"Tell you what though, three months ago turns out that all the kitchen staff were replaced, and this lot are weird" Rose replied as she watched the dinner ladies wheel in another barrel.
"See there was something going on, I was right to call you home" Mickey said.
"I thought maybe you called me home, just to, call me home" Rose inquired with a grin.
"What you'd think I'd just invent an emergency? "Well you could have done?" Rose asked.
"That's the last thing I'd do" Mickey replied, also grinning. "Cause every time I see you an emergency seems to get in the way" He added, sounding a little less cheerful. Rose was about to answer when the barrel being moved suddenly tipped and spilled a yellow substance onto one of the women.
"I've gotta go" Rose said as she watched the woman start to scream in pain, as if the liquid was burning her. Hanging up on Mickey abruptly, Rose began dialling 999 as the woman was carried of into the store room by the others.
"What do you think your doing?" The dinner lady, who'd told Rose and Peter to get back to work, asked suspiciously as she peered round from the door at her.
"Calling an ambulance" Rose said obviously.
"No need she's quite aright" The dinner lady informed her. Just as Rose hung up the phone another scream from the woman sounded and cloud of steam came out of the doorway. "It's fine, she does that" The dinner lady added as she walked into the storeroom and shut the door, leaving Rose to only look at the yellow oil still dripping out of the barrel, wondering what on Earth it was.