Chapter 2 – Enter the Dark
The rhythmic thudding of a tennis ball bouncing off the floor then wall sounded though the sports storage room. Amanda caught the ball deftly and threw it again, bouncing it off the same spots again to catch it.
"You know," said a white haired girl hanging upside down off the spare bleachers whilst reading a book, "That's really annoying."
Amanda turned, her purple hair falling over her right eye, glaring at the girl she threw the ball again and caught it without looking. "It's not my fault that rich brat Cassy and her followers turfed us from our usual spot," she snapped, "Besides, what about all those magic books you keep reading?"
"What should I do?" asked the white haired girl, "Relock their lockers when they open them? Oh, I know, what about that grace charm you asked me to make for Pete in that attempt to make him less clumsy?"
"I don't know Faye!" yelled Amanda turning to the girl clenching the ball tightly in her fist, "You're the one who keeps going on about the usefulness of magic."
"Girls calm down," said a young boy sitting on the floor by the door, he stood up and walked over so he was standing between the two girls, "It's not any of our faults that Cassy is so mean."
"You can shut up Pete," snapped Amanda, "You're completely useless in a fight."
With that the flicked her wrist sending the ball at Pete's forehead, it hit and he stumbled back slightly from the unexpected blow. He put out his hand behind him to steady himself and pushed over the hurdle right behind him as he fell on his butt. Pete winced as Amanda and Faye watched in fascinated horror, as like a Rube Golberg machine the sports equipment fell in just such a way as to knock over another piece of equipment. As Pete turned to see what the noise was about, a single hockey stick fell into the circuit breaker at the back of the room, falling in such a way as to turn off all the breakers plunging the room into darkness.
The three sat in the silent darkness for a moment until it was broken by Pete.
"Oops," said the young man quietly.
Faye clicked her fingers creating a small orb of light, as soon as she could see Amanda moved grabbing Pete's arm and heading for the door. They arrived too late however as she heard the door opening. She pulled Pete into the corner by the door and covered his mouth as Faye extinguished the light.
The door cast a thin beam of natural light from outside and the tall, gaunt figure of Slim, the schools handyman came in. He stopped and glanced around into the darkness before going back to his trolley and returning with a torch. He swept it around before heading over to the breaker. Amanda watched as he managed to get to the breaker without so much as knocking his foot against the fallen equipment.
Amanda turned to see if Faye was still there, she was standing still against the bleachers, the lights flickered back on and blinded Amanda momentarily, she looked up blinking to see Slim looking in her direction, his cap pulled to hide his eyes as always.
"You three know you're not supposed to be in here," he said in a slow drawl looking around the room slowly, "You could have been hurt by the equipment in here when it fell."
"I'm sorry Mr. Walker," said Faye, "We came in to see if we could fix the breaker when the lights went out in the hall." Amanda looked at the door to the hall, covered over in sports equipment and no way through before looking back at Slim.
Slim nodded at this before speaking again, "Well it's fixed now, so move along before I have to report you to your tutors."
The three nodded before practically running out the room.
"We should have snuck out," hissed Amanda when she was sure they were out of earshot.
Faye shook her head, "It wouldn't have made a difference, he knew we were there anyway."
"How?" gasped Pete as he sat down against the wall.
"I'm pretty sure he's blind," said Faye as the other two gaped at her, "Haven't you noticed that when he turns to talk to you he just turns, and then he looks down as though he's remembering he's talking to kids and should be looking down."
Amanda nodded to herself, she had noticed, it was a little unsettling. It wasn't as though Slim was a nasty person, he let kids off minor infractions all the time, like being in places they shouldn't, so long as they weren't purposely making a mess of it anyway. She then remembered how he'd walked across a dark storage room with equipment all over the floor, and hadn't even stubbed his toe. She shuddered before being pulled out her thoughts by the school bell.
"Come on you pair," she said pulling Pete to his feet, we need to get to class."