Sidekicks

Chapter 3: Cold Welcome

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Fuse felt his heart beating in his chest as he stood outside the doors of Starside Academy, glancing between his student ID and the thick metal doors.

He let out a breath. He'd never been this close. The one time he'd ran a little too close with his kinesis active during a fight with Kilowatt, he'd tripped the alarm, sent the school into a lockdown, and got shot by an automated tranquilizer gun. His mother hadn't let him forget that she had to pull him out with her kinesis and escape with him.

Now he was right at the doors. Right there. He could touch it.

He reached out a hand and pulled open the heavy metal doors. He wandered inside with an awed look on his face, entering a new world for the first time. Lockers lined the walls and trophy cases stood mostly empty. Students milled about, chatting and laughing.

It wasn't as beautiful as the movies made it look but Fuse wasn't discouraged. He set off at a march with a smile on his face, searching for his first class. He'd memorized his schedule long ago, but he struggled with navigating the halls. On the plus side, he was taller than most of the students which made it easy for him to read the room numbers above the doorframes.

For once, the ceilings were tall enough to accommodate him, which on its own made Fuse senselessly happy.

The bell rang and he still hadn't found his class. He began walking faster, praying the teacher wasn't like the ones he'd seen in movies with their mean attitudes and angry looking faces.

When he finally located his first class, he hesitated at the door before steeling up his courage and knocking.

A woman with narrow eyes opened the door, making Fuse shift uncomfortably. "Yes?"

He blinked. "Uh... Is this my class?"

The teacher's expression shifted into a smile and Fuse relaxed. "Ah, yes, the principal told me you were coming today. Come on in, there's an empty seat at the back."

Fuse walked in cautiously, scanning the faces in the crowd of students as he searched for the empty desk. "Hi!" Someone shouted.

Fuse felt his legs shaking. "Hi..." None of the movies he'd watched had shown an interaction like this. He wasn't sure what to do.

"Go sit at the back," The teacher directed, pointing out the empty seat. "I'll get you the sheets we've done and you can work on filling them out throughout the week, okay?"

"This is math, right?" Fuse checked before starting towards the back of the class. The teacher affirmed and Fuse nodded, moving to his seat. He'd have the sheets done long before the end of the week.

He sat down at the back, his long legs stretching out from under the desk as the teacher began talking. Fuse pulled out his notebook and pencil, jotting down almost every word the woman said. He was happily scribbling until he noticed the odd stare the student next to him was giving him.

Fuse bit his lip, slowing down his notetaking. Was he not supposed to take notes? His mother had told him to take notes. Was he taking too many notes?

He quickly scratched out a few words, hoping to appease whoever was sitting next to him. The person rolled their eyes and looked away and Fuse relaxed, resuming his heavy notetaking.

It was a short while before the teacher began pointing to a graph, drawing marks on it in different colours. She asked the class for the answers to multiplication questions that pertained to the graph and Fuse felt right at home as he stated the obvious answers along with the rest of the class. The student next to him remained silent, however, which made him think he wasn't supposed to be saying the answers.