Doomsday

chapter four

The weekend came to an end quickly, and before Reece knew it, his father was home and it was also Monday morning, which meant that he was back at school. It also meant that he would get to see Mia today, and Mrs Thompson had said on Friday that they were going to be doing Science today. Reece had never done Science before, and he'd been half asleep when Mrs Thompson was explaining what they were going to be doing, but he knew that from the gist of it, it would be awesome.

Autumn was dropped off at the Nursery early in the morning when their father also went in, which was a rare occasion as he never seemed to actually be at the place he owned. This did however mean that Reece was alone with his mother this morning, and the walk to school was amicable as he chatted away about how he and Mia were going to play on the pirate ship at break time today. "I'm gonna be the captain," he told her proudly.

"You'll make a great captain, buddy," his mother replied, leading him through the school gate and towards the classroom. "I'll be here at the end of the day to pick you up, yeah?"

"At three o'clock?" He grinned.

"At three o'clock," she reassured, kissing his forehead gently. "Have a good day." Reece waved at her as he happily ran into the classroom, greeting Mrs Thompson politely as he went to go and hang his coat and peg up.

He crossed through the corridor and found his peg, and his eyes lingered over on Mia's. Her coat and school bag were already hung up, which indicated that she was in school, but he was taken aback by what was written on her name. She's crossed out 'Amelia,' and instead written in her scrawly handwriting, 'MIA,' in big bold letters. He giggled to himself, hanging up his coat and bag and running back into the classroom, sitting in his seat beside Mia.

"You changed your name," he immediately stated, and Mia looked up from her paper and nodded with an eager smile.

"Uh-huh. And I told Mrs Thompson to call me Mia. Mummy and Daddy have started calling me it as well."

Reece smiled softly, and his attention was finally pulled away from Mia when Mrs Thompson did the register and called out their names, and then addressed them as a class. "We're going to start with writing this morning. Science will be all afternoon."

Reece pulled out his pencil and pushed his writing book closer towards him. His mother had worked hard with him on spelling, writing, and reading, so he was fairly advanced for his age. Mia looked uncomfortable as she shifted in her seat, and it wasn't long before the assistant teacher came and sat on her other side. Reece shot her a questioning look, but she just brushed it off and ignored him as she allowed the teacher to help her with the simple writing task they'd been asked to try and complete. They had to trace the alphabet.

It didn't take him long to finish what he'd been asked to do, and he put his pencil down, his eyes lingering over Mia, who was arguing with the teacher. "I can't do it!"

"You can," said the teaching assistant, Mrs Maple. "Come on sweetheart. Hold the pencil like this..."

She assisted Mia in holding the pencil and began to guide her hand so that she could trace the letters. She reached the letter 'b,' and then after 'c,' she stopped and paused at 'd.' "I don't like those letters," she told Mrs Maple with a frown.

"What do you mean, Amelia?"

"Mia," she corrected with narrowed eyes. "I don't like them. They're confusing."

She tilted her head. "How are they confusing?"

"They just are!" She exclaimed, slamming the pencil down on the table with an irritated expression. "And the letters are moving."

Mrs Maple's face fell, and she gave Mia a kind look as she pat her shoulder softly. "I see. Would you like to come with me?"

Reece watched with a frown as Mia was led out of the classroom, tilting his head in confusion as the door shut behind Mia and the teaching assistant. He pouted, and leaned across the table to talk to the little boy with glasses, Louis. "Where's she going?"

Louis shrugged. "I don't know."

Reece stared at the door, heavily concerned and worried as he wanted to know where Mia had gone. He shuffled in his seat, looking anxiously around to see if she was coming back inside, but by the end of the lesson and when the bell rang for break, she still hadn't returned. They were all let out to get their coats as it was a cold day and they were told they needed to wear one if they wanted to play outside.

He wandered around a bit by himself, a little upset at not having Mia to play with as they'd planned to play on the pirate ship. Reece sat down on a bench, kicking his legs back and forth as he sat in a bit of a miserable huff, not too sure what to do without Mia to play pirates with.

Mia was his best friend. He wasn't sure what to do without her to play with. Reece huffed once again and stood up, wandering around the playground, when suddenly he heard a loud voice shouting his name. He spun around, and there was Mia, running out of the classroom door with a wide smile. "Reecey!"

He grinned, running up to meet her. "Where did you go? I missed you," he mumbled, leaning forward to give her a hug. Mia scratched her nose, shaking her head slowly.

"They took me for some test. It was weird. I didn't like it," she responded, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. Reece could tell by the tone of her voice that there was something more behind it. "Something about dyslexia."

"What's that?" Reece frowned, never having heard of this word before in his entire life. Mia shrugged once again, and grabbed his hand, dragging him towards the pirate ship.

"I don't know," she replied, settling herself on the wooden pirate ship. She began to explain something about letters and words and Reece didn't really understand, but he nodded along, making a mental note to ask his mother about it later. "Anyway," said Mia, "let's play. I wanna be the Pirate Princess!"

Reece nodded and they both indulged in their game of name belief, running around the pirate ship with imaginary swords and pretending to fight off enemies that were invading. They won, Reece was proud to admit, and ten minutes later they were being called inside. He didn't want to go back to class. "When I'm older," he mumbled to Mia as they went to go and line up outside the classroom door. "We can play as long as we want."

"I'm gonna have red hair," Mia told him. "Daddy said I shouldn't dye my hair. I keep asking him for red hair and he says no."

"Because your little," Reece replied. "Only big kids can have red hair."

"And pirates," Mia argued. "Pirates can have red hair. I'll have red hair one day. Just you wait."