He sat on the bus clutching Minion's bubble solidly to his chest in his usual nervous way yet Marci could see the excited shy smile on his face. She tutted to herself as she turned away, watching the road wiz past as the prison bus made the ludicrously short journey from the prison gates to the door of the Metro City Li'l Gifted School for Li'l Gifted Kids. It was a shame that 'Health and Safety' would not let them simply walk to the next block over where the school was located, the fresh air and exercise would have done the boy's nerves a world of good.

Minion had been chattering to him nervously since early that morning yet he didn't seem to be able to get through to the trembling boy at all. She felt so sorry for the kid, there he was, dressed in his prison regulation bright orange uniform looking for all the world like a kicked puppy and he didn't have a clue what he was letting himself in for. She truly could not believe that the Warden had gone along with this plan. She knew how… evil children could be to each other. She herself had been the victim of pre-teen bullying herself and she knew that the worst wars were fought on the playground with sticks and stones. She simply hoped that the boy was made from tough stuff.

Blue, however, was beside himself with excitement. He had been talking about it non-top since Logan had told him that the Warden had secures himself a place in the local school. Logan was still concerned and Minion was nervous as usual but Blue was determined to make a good impression on his first day. He had even gone without a clean uniform for the best part of a week so he had something fresh to wear on his first day.

The bus pulled up directly outside of the door to the tiny red building and Blue cautiously stepped off the but with a smile on his face, trying his bets to ignore the fact that his hands were still chained together. One of the officers escorted him to the tiny porch at the entrance to the building and unlocked the cuffs from his wrists. Blue was oblivious to everything the officer was doing as he was too busy taking in the sight in front of him. The school only had one room and it was already full of children laughing and playing together. They all seemed so happy.

A grin spread on the boy's face as he let the atmosphere sink in. He was already working through a vast number of different possibilities when the smile dropped off of his face. Up above the level of the playing children was another boy. A flying boy. HE was holding the teacher's desk in mid air and spinning it around effortlessly with the teacher clinging to the top of it, laughing. The noise in the room died as the children started to notice the strange boy standing in the doorway yet Blue never took his eyes off the flying boy.

His mind was racing, trying to calculate the probability that it could be him! The same boy he had seen while he was on his journey to Earth. The boy from his neighbouring planet. The one that had knocked him off course.

Minion levelled his most intimidating glare at the flying boy that was now staring at them with a cocky sneer on his face. He had placed the desk and the teacher back on the ground and was striking some ridiculous pose with his arms crossed over his expensively clothed chest whilst still hovering a couple of feet off of the ground.

"Miss Vodalair? This is your new student, we call 'im Blue. For, err… obvious reasons." The office by his side chuckled at his own joke, "Now, this one is a bit of a trouble maker, thinks he's something of a smart one. You'll have to watch 'im and be sure to call us if he does anything." With that the officer nodded to the teacher and closed the doors to the school house as he left. The bus could clearly be heard as it drove away, giving the boy something of a 'boxed in' feeling.

"Well then 'Blue'," Miss Vodalair said as she straightened the things on her desk and fixed a few stray hairs, "I hope you know how to behave yourself. The Warden has assured me that you are of no harm to anyone here but it is against my better judgement and advice that you are here at all. The order to allow you to attend came from higher up than myself but that does not mean that we shall put up with any trouble, so you understand me?" Before Blue could nod in agreement the teacher continued, "Of course you don't what was I thinking. That a child of your age could understand the complicated processes involved in allowing a … creature like you to mix with the general populace."

Blue simply stood quietly. He was told in no uncertain terms by the Warden that he was only to speak when asked a direct question. Minion, however, was so angry that his water was almost boiling. H glared at the woman and bared his teeth in a snarl yet kept quiet. It would do Blue no good what so ever if the fish upset the teacher so early on.

"Well don't just stand there staring! Go and get a chair out of the corner, honestly!" The teacher rolled her eyes before putting a sweet smile on her face and addressing the other children, "Now then children, get your chairs and make a semi-circle! Yes, good, Wayne would you give them a hand please?"

Blue had been struggling to get a single chair down from the high pile of stacked chairs in the corner of the room, finally having managed to do it on his own he stood in astonishment as the flying boy lifted up all of the chairs at once and placed them in a neat curved line in front of the teachers desk. All of the children were sat, ready to pay attention to their lesson, while Blue was still staring. Miss Vodalair tutted loudly before pointing at a spot on the floor at one end of the line, watching as blue dragged the chair over to the pot while awkwardly holding Minion's bubble in one arm.

"Ok class, as you have all undoubtedly noticed, we have a new classmate with us today. You can all call him 'Blue'. He is from a special prisoner education program being run by the Metro City Prison. I'm sure that, in time, he will... " She looked over at the boy with one eyebrow raised sceptically, "fit in."

Blue's interest was peaked again when the lessons started, basic English and maths were the lessons on that day and he answered any and every question put to the class. At least he did until the teacher informed him that no one liked a show off. After that he had kept his head down and only answered questions when the teacher directed them at him specifically, which wasn't often.

During their 'free expression' time Blue sat in a corner of the playground with Minion, whispering quietly to each other whilst Blue watched the other children playing. Not one of them came anywhere near the two and even resorted to playing a different game when the ball they were playing with bounced over to Blue's side.

"Why don't they like me Minion? Lita likes me, why don't they?" Blue asked in a small voice, scanning the faces of the children playing happily in front of him.

"I don't know Sir." Minion sighed as he too looked out over the crowd.

"That boy seems to be the head of their group, maybe if I could talk to him, the others would talk to me too." Blue said as he watched the flying boy retrieve a Frisbee out of a tree. Minion looked from Blue and back to Wayne, as the teacher had called him. The boy was stunningly optimistic, always utterly convinced that all he had to do was to work out some way of getting on someone's good side, then everything would be ok. This Wayne boy looked different though. He looked like he had never had to truly try or want for anything in his life. His clothes were obviously designer with some silly yellow jumper tied loosely around his neck like a cape. His expression was one of constant superiority and he seemed to revel in the attention he was getting from the other children. Even the teacher seemed to hand on the boy's every action.

"It could be worth a try Sir," Minion said hesitantly, "but I'm not so sure about him."

"Don't worry Minion, it's like Miss Marci said, people just need to give me a chance, to get to know me, then they will see how good I am!"

With that Blue stood up and, with what he hoped was a disarming smile, approached the children playing at the other end of the playground. Instantly Wayne was standing in front of him with a scowl on his face.

"What do you think you are doing?" Wayne said in a hushed tone.

"I was wondering if... if I could play with you all?" Blue asked, trying to keep hold of the confidence that was suddenly draining out of his body.

"Why would we play with you?"

"Well, I just thought-"

"You came from there didn't you?" Wayne said, nodding in the direction of the prison looming over the school only a short walk away.

"Well, yes, but -"

"So you are a criminal then?"

"No, I just ended up-"

"Only criminals live in a prison. YOU live in a prison, that means you must be a criminal." Wayne stated with such confidence that Blue felt a pang of shame for even suggesting otherwise.

"But-"

"Criminals are bad people. We don't want to play with anyone like that." With that Wayne flew off to the other kids who all buzzed around him excitedly, congratulating him on fending off the savage criminal that threatened their game. Blue stood there dumfounded and confused by the boy's stream of logic while minion was absolutely fuming. The boy trembled as he turned numbly and walked back to his place against the wall.

"Minion?" The boy asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"Don't you listen to him Sir! What he said isn't true!"

"But it is. Prison is a place for criminals and bad people." Blue's lip trembled as he followed that true statement right down the only logical thought process he could see, "That means, I must be..."

"Sir, No!" Minion bounced his bubble against the boy's chest to get his attention, "You can't believe that! No one else does! That boy is just a bully! This is only the first day Sir, we knew it would not be easy, we know that people are sometimes a bit... surprised to see us."

"I know, but-"

"No buts, Sir!" Minion looked as if he was going to continue but the laughter of the children on the playground had turned into sniggering. Both Blue and Minion looked up and saw that the gang of kids were not actually looking at them but at something off to their side. Blue turned his head and gasped at what he saw. A girl was stood with one leg in a full plaster cast came hobbling out into the playground on two crutches. She scanned the playground carefully, giving Blue enough of a look at her face to see that she also had some form of visual impairment as well. He frowned as he looked back at the other children wondering why they were laughing at her. His curiosity got the better of his and he called out to the girl.

"Why are they laughing at you? You are one of them aren't you?" He asked simply when she turned to look down at him. He could see her hesitate when she looked at him and he was about to turn away, not expecting a response.

"I'm kinda clumsy." She shrugged with a slight smile, "They think I'm weird."

"Because you damaged your leg?" Blue couldn't understand the logic behind that one.

"No, not because of the leg. I can't see very well, they say I can't see in a straight line." The girl looked back towards the other kids who had by then gone back to their games. She leaned heavily against the wall, stretching her arms while she ha the opportunity. "I was playing a game they thought of, it was like an assault course, like on TV. I fell off of the climbing frame and broke my leg."

"I'm sorry." Blue said out of reflex, he had read about assault courses, they had been used to train people for the Army, why were children doing things like that? "wait, they laugh at you because of your eyes?"

"Yeah," She shrugged again, "I'm used to it. Been like this all my life. My name is Grace, stupid I know!"

"I don't think it's stupid!" Blue said as he stood up quickly, nearly dropping Minion in the process, "My name is Blue, Can't get sillier than that."

"No, I like it." She smiled at him, finally being able to get a proper look at him as he stood in front of her., "You don't seem like the others."

"You're not like them either. They don't seem very nice." Blue stated simply, the smile dropping off his face.

"They're not so bad," She said as she looked back towards the other kids some of whom were whispering and pointing over in the direction of the pair, "Just don't let them see you are scared of them. This one girl that came in last year, she cried because they poured a drink over her painting. She never stopped crying whenever they looked at her, she had to leave."

Blue was about to say something else when the teacher rang a bell loudly that signalled the start of another lesson. He smiled at Grace as he watched her pick up her crutches again and struggle into the classroom. Later on hat day he noticed how closely Wayne was sticking to Grace, finding every opportunity to talk to her. Blue sighed to himself and decided it would be best to keep his head down and just hoped that people got used to him soon.