Winter's Burn

• II •

Will awoke to the sound of his alarm and the feeling of electricity on his face. Wait, what? He shot up, and for a split second, he saw lime green sparks emerging from the keyboard. The fuck? He wiped his eyes with his hands, the sparks long gone. He excuses it to tiredness and stands up from his desk. He smacked the alarm off and checked the time. 6:00 am? He always set it for 7... better early then late. He shrugs and lugs himself downstairs, still half asleep. The kitchen is empty, his mother must not be awake yet. Oh well, more cereal for him. He poured a bowl of cheerios and got his backpack ready.

He didn't want to wake his mom up, she usually worked nights and he wanted her to get *some* sleep. So Will walked to school. It wasn't too far, and he needed the excersize, and maybe the distraction.

School was boring. First through fourth period dragged on as usual, the droning of the lectures becoming background noise as William waited on lunchtime. He never liked the first half of his day, the classes were boring and the teachers sucked. The second half was better, that's when he had all of his electives. Italian, music, and code. He loved his coding class, no surprise. The material was mostly things he already knew, but he didn't mind. It gave him a chance to unwind at the end of the day and he liked making fun of the freshman, and subsequenly helping them of course. He finished his assignment, typing in some simple code to make an animated man walk across the screen, and sat there talking to some of his friends.

"Will? Can you come over here for a second?" Mr. Short called across the classroom.

He walked up to the front desk and stood before him. Mr. Short was not an intimidating man in physicality, but the tone at which he spoke could make a buff biker dude piss his pants in the right circumstances.

"You called for me?" William said in as level of a tone as he could muster. As much as he would never admit it, talking to Mr. Short always made him anxious. Apparently he did not succeed in his efforts, as the next words came out of Mr. Short's mouth.

"Don't look so worried, Will. You're not in trouble."

He would be lying if he said he wasn't relieved to hear those words. "So why did you call me over?"

He sighed, looking irritated. "I'm not an idiot, Will. I know this class is way below the level you are up to in code. You finish your assignments in 10 minutes at most, and then you just sit there like it was the easiest thing you've ever done."

"I still don't understand. Did you call me over just to tell me that?" Will was getting annoyed at the condescending tone that had crept into the teachers words.

"Listen, all I'm saying is  you could at least act like you enjoy this."

"I do, it's just-"

"I don't wanna hear it. If you're so sure this class isn't worth your time, you can leave. I dont-"

"Stop it!" William had finally had enough. This son of a bitch. He won't even let him talk. Code was his passion, why did this thick skulled moron not understand that?

In his rage William had neglected to notice the lights flickering, his yell causing them to short circuit and blow out. The power had gone out. He had seen that now, but the more pressing matter seemed to be the light green electricity sparking around his hands, and around him in general. He looked down, horrified. Had he done this? How? That shouldn't be possible! Questions raced through his mind so fast that there was no time to answer any of them.

Everyone was staring at him now. The lime green sparks evident in the now dark room. They looked horrified. He was a monster, a freak, this can't be happening- it can't its not possible. Without thinking, he ran out of the classroom, racing down the halls, the green glow illuminating the dark hallways. Jesus, had he taken out the power from the entire school? He found the closest door and slammed it open, bolting into the nearby forest.