A/N: Whoa… That's all I can say for this chapter… Just… WHOA! I apologize for my tardiness, cuz this chapter gave me the most trouble. Taking a 1 page scene from the script and turning it into a whole chapter is just… Oh mi glob hard. Most of the chapters in here, I'll warn you have added things in there. So what was normally in my script, has been extended and or removed. But I keep the basic outline and what not… Ok, on with the story!:
Roger twirls a pencil around between his fingers, gradually building up speed until it looks like a mini baton. A rather large, and round man paces back and forth across the front of the classroom, pointing here and there at the chalk board. "…In a Single Displacement reaction, one element replaces a second element in a compound. Whether one metal will displace another from a compound can be determined by the relative reactivities of the two metals…" the teacher rambles on.
Roger starts to doodle on his notebook, while other students around him diligently take notes.
Paying attention to chemistry was one thing Roger never seemed to like, unlike Frances and Ralph, who sit next to him, they were the goodie-goodies of the class. Teacher's pets some would call them. Roger couldn't stand their passion for education, quite frankly he couldn't stand Ralph at all, and Frances was one he could stand to be around, but only for a time.
Something about the new guy, and Frances really makes his chest tighten. Jack is just like him, mean and oppressive to anyone weaker than him, what's not to like? Frances isn't mean, but he's not easily intimidated, and isn't afraid to get in his face when confronted or challenged, something Roger respects very much since others would be to scared to even look at him.
The students around him begin to stop their notes and stare forward at the board, while Roger is still leaned over and drawing: "Roger." The teacher's husky voice cuts into his concentration. Roger freezes and looks around at all the students' blank faces, then over to the dead serious face of the teacher. "What?" he asks rather annoyed, "Can a nonmetal replace another nonmetal in a displacement reaction?" the teacher stares him down, and so do the students. Fuck this shit, if I could make all of you swallow ground glass I would. But Frances… God… Why do I not hate you?
"Well?" the teacher asks again, his bug eyes widening to almost perfect circles. The silence is almost too much to bear, Roger takes another glance at the faces around him. "Yes?" Roger's eyes narrow as he immediately regrets his answer, The teacher does a once over of him, and his notebook, then looks dead serious back at him "Correct." He says with a little annoyed bitch tone.
"But it's not possible for all of the elements. Which kind of element can this ONLY happen to?" the teacher looks back at him, Roger gives him a cold stare, and looks at the large periodic table at the front of the classroom, then down to his. Frances' hand quickly pulls back from his view, leaving behind a sliver of paper with a hastily scrawled 'halogens' on it. Roger looks back up to the teacher, "The Halogens?"
The teacher's flabby face jiggles as he lets out a flubbery breath, "Correct." He turns back to the black board and writes out a few example equations, Roger looks at Frances who offers a smile and a quick mischievous wink. Roger smiles and looks back at his papers, while Ralph seethes at him and Frances. The fuck's he lookin' at? Roger snaps his gaze over to Ralph, who unsuccessfully adverts his gaze, evoking a quiet snicker from Roger.
The classroom door opens, the teacher looks over from the board as General Tullius enters the class, he and the teacher have a tense stare down. "Can I talk to you out in the hallway for a moment please?" Tullius turns and walks out, their teacher following behind him. All of the students' heads follow them, until the door shuts behind them.
There is a moment of pure silence. Roger puts a hand on Frances' shoulder, making the smaller boy jump, "Jesus Chr… You scared me…" Frances puts a hand on Roger's and slowly lifts it off, "Sorry." Roger states bluntly.
Tullius leads the teacher down the hall, "I hope you have a good reason for disrupting my class." The teacher stares daggers in the back of his head. "That's what all the teachers said, but I told them what I'm gonna tell you. This is a very important Life or Death situation." The teacher cringes with disbelief, they turn the corner and into the teachers lounge. Where other staff members await them, the teacher makes his way for a chair near the coffee machine.
General Tullius makes his way for the front of the lounge, all of the staff's eyes on him, he stops at the end of the center table and turns to face the others, who eye him questioningly. "I believe we may have a problem of some magnitude here…" he trails off and looks down at the table below him, the others all wait for him to continue, "Tullius for goodness sake what is it?" says one of the staff members, sending him a cold glare.
"Right… A half an hour ago… I was informed that the enemy has broken through the defense line about 60 miles from here. They're jets and guns are expected to have the town in range within the next hour." The staff fall completely silent, except for a few stray gasps. "So we need to load the students into the trucks very shortly. Don't say anything to them, we don't want them to panic, I want one teacher per truck of students. The rest of you will have your own truck. Now go…" the staff members all turn and flood out into the hallway.
Roger looks over at Frances, then back down at his paper, he moves his pencil with expert skill as he sketches out Frances staring up to the sky. He shades the final part of Frances' hair, then blows on the paper, a few loose lead shavings fly off. Roger smiles at his work, and taps Frances on the shoulder, "Look what I drew." Frances looks over, and stops. His face is serious for a moment, before pulling into a smile "Oh mi god! This is soo cool!" Frances gently takes the drawing and stares it down, his eyes moving over every detail.
"Do you like it?" Roger asks almost seductively, Frances is too ecstatic to even notice his tone of voice, "Yes! It's amazing!" Frances looks at him with his winning smile, "You're really good." Roger smiles and keeps his eye contact, "Thank you." They share moment of silence.
Until their classroom door swings open, and their teacher rushes in. He stops at the front of the class, his face stricken with fright, all of the students go silent and eye him. "We need to go. So students, I need you to calmly grab your stuff and make your way out to the parking lot." Without another word, the teacher walks to his desk and grabs the role call list.
"What's this about?" Roger asks , Frances looks at him, then shrugs. The students' rise from their seats, the room is filled with the sound of chairs scraping against the linoleum tiles. They grab their bags and make their way out to the hallway, Jack… a thought passes through Roger's head as he walks beside Frances. "Hey, where's Jack?" Frances visibly freezes and looks at him, "He's in the nurses office. Asleep. Why?" he looks quizzically at Roger, who eyes him back.
"Don't you think we should go get him?" Roger pushes Frances out from the river of boys and into a corner so they can talk. "Yeah…" Frances looks at him for a moment, then tries to push past him, but Roger doesn't budge. Frances looks up at him, and blinks his eyes rapidly for a second, "Can you move please?" Roger stares down at him, his eyes narrowing as he bites his lower lip. You're so close to him… Do it now… Finally he steps aside, and follows Frances down the hall.
Jack looks adorable when he sleeps, his eyes flutter softly, and he seems to curl up into a ball. Some would say he's too old to sleep like that, but who can complain? He makes a soft little grunt, and he shifts his head into another position. Jack? You need to wake up… Something's going on… Jack shifts again and rolls onto his other side, facing the wall. Jack, wake up… We gotta go… Jack swats at something tickling his side, "JACK! OH MI GOD! WAKE UP!" Frances raises his hand and smacks the side of Jack's cheek. He bolts up, and looks around frantically, he shouts and swings at Roger. His fist collides sharply with Roger's nose, "FUCK! OW! YOU FUCKING-!" he stops himself from saying anymore, and paces around the room taking a large breath in. "Hot damn… Jack, you just fist raped him…" Frances lets out a light hearted giggle, before turning back to Jack, "Ok, but we can't wait around, we gotta go now." Frances grabs Jack's wrist, "Where are we going?" Jack asks wearily.
He doesn't get an answer before Roger and Frances pull him up from the cot, and lead him towards the door. Jack's legs go limp, and he drops, pulling them almost to the ground, "Jack… You gotta use your legs." Roger places a hand across Jack's chest and helps Frances pull him back to his feet.
The students are still making their way outside, there's still more than half of them inside. Some of the boys get rowdy and start pushing some others in front of them, "Hurry up!" the other boys retaliate and back into them. "Stop messing around and get outside!" Tullius yanks the two of them apart and shoves them towards the door. Frances and Roger haul Jack around the corner and into the crowded lobby, "We're almost there-" The entire school shakes violently, sending everyone stumbling and clinging to the nearest thing.
"GET OUTSIDE QUICKLY!" Tullius shouts, before another tremor shakes the foundation, the sound of an endless fleet of jets pass overhead, the students outside scream as explosions send debris flying down over their heads. Inside, the glass displays shatter, and the picture frames fall. Some of the tile from the ceiling fall and collide with some students below. "JAKE!" Frances turns to see a little boy screaming for his older brother.
The end of the hallway explodes, as a wall of fire rushes down the hallway, the little boy runs, and clings to his brother, just as the fireball engulfs them. "GET OUTSIDE NOW!" Roger grabs Frances and yanks him and Jack with him towards the exit, which is plugged with students panicking to get outside. Boys push and shove at each other to get out, a little boy is grabbed and yanked away from the door, as others plow through.
"NO STOP!" a boy is pushed down by a wave of runners, and is trampled violently, a teacher making a B-line for the door steps right on the boy's head, smashing his face down into the tile with a sickening CRACK. Blood squirts from the impact and sprays Frances across the face, "OH GOD!" he lets out a shuddering gasp.
Another fiery explosion crumbles the ceiling, heavy slabs of thick wood land on a few boys running for the door. Roger shoves a few clustering groups away from the door and pulls Frances and Jack through, and out into the parking lot. Boys are flooding into the backs of tarp covered trucks near the gates, some throwing others out to get in first, Roger pulls the others with him across the large stretch of pavement.
Ralph punches a boy who tries to yank him from his seat, the twins cling to him screaming as a distant explosion shakes the ground. A pair of hands grab for Ralph's neck, causing him to break his grip of the twins "Let go!" he reaches up to push the boy off, when Roger's strong arms grab the boy and wrench him away, and throw him back down to the pavement.
Frances helps Jack to a seat, and sits him down. Roger sits next to them. A loud gunshot erupts from outside, and all of the boys duck. Ralph peers out of the tarp and spots Tullius holding a smoking gun, "NO FIGHTING! GET YOUR ASSES IN THE TRUCKS NOW!" he screams until his face turns red. The boys quickly fall back into order, and start to go back to the trucks.
Most of them sport bruises from the riot, others bury their bleeding noses into their uniform sleeve. Ralph watches in amazement at how much more orderly they've become, "Finally…" he mutters under his breath, as boys file past him in a straight line and fill their seats without so much as a mutter.
The trucks engines start, and the boys begin to move quicker, since most are still taking their time. "YOU'RE GOOD!" screams Tullius as he checks one of the trucks, closing the tarp and stepping back as the truck pulls out of the gates. He looks in Ralph's truck, everyone is seated, including the chaperone, he closes the tarp. "YOU'RE GOOD!" his scream muffled from the tarp.
Ralph looks back at the twins, who seem to have calmed, but cling to each other like Velcro. "It's gonna be fine." He says with a smile that would warm anyone's heart, he looks back at Frances, who tends to Jack's aching head. Roger sits near them, with a strong protective posture, his arms bulging and his fists clenched, he catches Ralph's stare and makes instant eye contact.
Ralph jerks his eyes away and looks back down at the twins, who look over at Roger with terrified eyes.
A/N Wow… this gave me a lot more trouble than I thought. As stated before, it was hard to write this. It may not be as good as I planned, but at least I gots it done This was originally a whole lot longer, including the plane, but I decided to split it up into two parts. If you were wondering this goes all the way until the end of their island experience. ^-^