10. Signs and Old Enemies

Inspector Walters entered the temporary office in Winchester and looked around.
The 'office' consisted of one room with a window, a desk, and a picture on the wall.
The man who had been with him when they visited Mary was behind the desk sharpening pencils from a desk tidy in front of him.
'Evening,' he grunted
Walters overturned the wastepaper bin and sat on it as comfortably as he could manage.
'anything interesting happen today?'
'Of all the teenage boys on this continent we have to follow round the one who seems to lead the most boring life of them all.'
'We need to make another move then.'
'Yeah?'
'Yeah. I reckon he should pick him up and interrogate him until he starts talking.'
'Kidnap him?'
The man behind the desk shrugged 'Why not?' he said
'Don't be a prat we're not 'kin terrorists. No, we need to break him. He maybe boring, but he's smart, what we need to do is stack up his problems and break him…'
'And thus Inspector Walters evil plan is laid.' said the other sardonically 'how are you going to do this then?'
'He's returning to school.'
'How you know that?'
'He got a new pencil case and a pen this morning.'
'Wow… good for him.'
A muffled ring filled the room, the man pulled a mobile out his jacket pocket and answered it. 'Taylor? Yes? Yeah he's here,' Taylor looked at Walters, 'all right, we'll be over as soon as we can. Bye-.'
Mr. Taylor put the phone away and said:
'The guv wants us.'
Walters pouted,
'Shit,' he exclaimed, 'what does he want now?'
'A progress report I expect.'
'Damnit, we'll have to make something up then.'
With that they both picked up their blazers and trooped out the room.

Several days passed. Will and Kirjava went to the town centre and bought some new stationary. Mary got a call from Dr. Payne inviting her to a meeting. Elaine was becoming more and more clear in her mind.
Finally the morning of school arrived and Will donned his old school uniform and packed his school bag.
'Good luck!' said his mother as she handed him a lunchbox, Will placed it in his bag and set off down the road.
The school was made up off four main buildings, the main building had two floors, on the ground floor from left to right was the English department, the office, the dinning hall and the art department. The top floor housed the maths department, the staff room and the somewhat small 6th Form area. At the far right was the main hall.
Behind the main block was a courtyard that served as a playground and then the MST block as it was called. Will wasn't sure why it was called that, but it housed the science and tech classrooms. To the left of the MST block was a small building containing several language rooms, a few music studios, and a drama hall.
The last building was the PE department, it didn't actually belong to the school, it was part of the local sports centre, but had an office for the PE teachers to hide in between lessons.

Will made his way to his tutor room and looked at the bit of paper on the door.
It told him the tutor room had been moved to the English department. He went to the specified room and looked in.
In the back left was several members of the In Crowd, they were chatting away in their usual style and didn't notice Will's entrance. In the back right sat Michael, he was the closest Will had to a friend, friendly, but not a solid loyalty.
Being loyal to Will ment defying the will of the In Crowd.
Michael looked up and blinked at Will, who sat down next to him.
'Hi.' he said,
'Hello.' said Will,
'I suppose it would be to predictable for me to ask where you've been for the past three weeks?'
'Yeah.' said Will solidly
'Take that as a "no"?'
Will yawned and stretched.
'You don't want to know.'
Just then their form tutor bustled into the room with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bundle of papers in the other.
'Master William,' he said, 'got a note?'
He ment a note explaining his absence.
'I'll bring it in tomorrow.' said Will automatically.
'Make sure you do.'
'You should record that on a tape and play it back everyday.' commented Michael,
Will said nothing, but looked across to the other side of the room. The In Crowd didn't seem to have noticed him at all. Hopefully it will stay that way… he thought.
Obviously, Kirjava couldn't come into school with him, but she insisted on hanging around outside the grounds. Will could see her from the window, slouched on a branch in the oak trees in front of the school.
Pupils began to trickle into the room in pairs and groups, one or two alone. A few glanced at Will, but didn't say anything.
'New timetables!' announced Mr. Rhodes, he picked up the sheaf of papers and began calling out names to the class. Each student obediently walked up and collected the timetable allocated to them.
'Will!'
Will got up and took his paper. His day started with science, then English, then double tech. After lunch he had PE.
Well that wasn't so bad. Tech was fun… Maybe he'd survive school anyway.
The last few late pupils trudged into the classroom and apologised with the usual excuses, and Mr. Rhodes called the register. After these formalities, the room was filled with general chat until the bell went to signal first lesson.
Will passed the first two lessons in his old semi-stupor, by the end of the day he would have no memory he was there, but he still did the work.
He remained inconspicuous all the time, as much as he felt like cattle in his school uniform, it made hiding all the easier. He wasn't noticed by anyone until break time.
Break was twenty minutes long and consisted of two halves, in the first people sat around on the benches and tables in the courtyard or the dinning hall eating snacks and some, lunch. The second half people talked and chatted about their equally boring lives. This was the boring part, the part where the more popular began to look for things to do.
Will hung about with Michael so as not to be noticed. If he was on his own, he'd look like a loose end.
'I don't believe it, they've actually put up signs saying no running.'
Will smiled and said, 'They'll ban smiling soon you see if they don't.'
A new voice broke into the conversation, an arrogant voice filled with too much self-confidence.
'I don't believe it,' it said, 'it's Will! Why you been skiving the past tree weeks?'
'Hello Mark. I've been in Australia.'
'Yeah fuckin right.' drawled the boy, 'He's probably been in bed with his mum.'
Wills fists involuntarily clenched, but he remained seated.
Another boy, spotting a chance for fun joined Mark Leason, he was part of the same crowd, but his left arm hung loose by his side.
'Back are we?' he said coldly, 'Piss off back to that hole you've been sitting in'
'How's the arm?' said Will brightly, this was the previous leader of the In Crowd, the one he'd fought and injured. He now loathed Will.
'If I could, I would.'
Will didn't want to be taken advantage of, but this conversation was drawing the attention of others, it was a chain reaction that couldn't be stopped. The two boys knew this also and intended to exploit it.
'Hey Spaz, remember that time his mum turned up with a nightie on?'
'Oh yeah that was funny, she'd probably come to call Will back to bed…'
Silence form Will
'Hey Will!' jeered Mark Leason 'Go back home, you're mum's waiting with her bra off!'
Will stood up and confronted the offender. Mark jumped and shielded himself in mockery, but the other boy Anthony Sparrow, so called Spaz, touched Mark's arm and cocked his head in warning.
'Better take your friend's advice.' said Will in a steel voice.
'What you gonner do? Hit me?!'
'Yeah.'
'Go on then. I dare you.'
'Give me an excuse and I will.'
More people standing around.
Mark looked for the teacher on 'duty' and saw the elderly physics teacher talking to a 7th year.
'Fuck off back home- you're not wanted here.' he said,
Will moved. Like the last time he stepped into his punch, only this one had 4 years of hate powering it. Mark dropped like a log and Will followed up his attack with a kick to the right arm.
Someone hollered and the crowed pressed in yelling 'Fight! Fight! Fight!'
Will stood back and waited for his opponent to rise, he did rise and shook himself, then he rushed at Will in a rugby tackle. Will fell with Mark on top of him, but he held his breath as he fell, so wasn't winded. He rolled over and pushed himself up of his adversary, then he kicked him again in the side. Mr. Jennings walked over swiftly and pushed his way to the front,
'Stop it! Break it up! Are you little kids?!'
At that exact moment, the bell signalling the start of 3rd period rang. Will raised with eyebrows at his recovering opponent, picked up his bag and walked off to the tech department. The crowd parted to let him thorugh.