The Impulses

Chapter two

"So, with regrets, we have been left with no choice but to prohibit any student from leaving campus until further notice. Thank you all for listening."

Principal Wayne bowed his head to the students ever so slightly and then stepped back promptly from the podium to make way for another teacher. Mister Allen stepped up in replacement and tapped the microphone uselessly a few times, causing a few loud thumps to echo throughout the lecture hall.

Jaime visibly winced at the large sound, not expecting the interruption, and caught off guard. He was about to make a grumpy, though not unkind, remark about it when the student next to him beat him to it.

"'Until further notice,' tsk," the boy beside him let out a scoff, and Jaime turned towards him in surprise. "More like forever." He had smooth black hair and a pair of sunglasses shielding his eyes, which Jaime found both intriguing and a bit creepy, since the lecture hall was dark and gloomy enough as it was; the sunglasses just seemed to be an impractical choice of fashion. Though Jaime wouldn't lie, it does make the boy's ghostly pale complexion look as if he were trying to put up an intimidating act.

Jaime hadn't seen this boy around before, so he assumed that he must be a year or two beneath him, though he was leaning more towards the grade ten side of the spectrum, just based on his height and his general build.

The boy turned towards him and raised an eyebrow once he caught Jaime staring at him a bit too intently. Jaime blinked, realised he was being a bit strange, and then quickly looked to the front stage once more, where he suddenly found Mister Allen's speech about new policies that would occur for the sports teams very fascinating.

He found his eyes starting to droop involuntarily, and he had to physically restrain himself from falling asleep or slapping himself (literally) until he was fully awake. It was too early for such a long speech, and he had spent almost the entirety of the night previous trying to understand the complicated science worksheet and then reading nearly a fourth of the textbook in a trance of confusion and frustration.

"The track and field team will be required to meet more often in the central field, with the exception of the high and long jumpers."

Jaime looked down at his wrist, as if searching for an imaginary watch that wasn't there, and mentally let out a sigh when he realised that he probably wasn't going to get out of this hall of ennui for quite some time, especially due to the three other teachers lined up on stage right, who had even more updates for the school to announce.

Mister Allen was still rambling on, and Jaime was unpleasantly surprised at how straight-up boring his teacher was, when he was almost always one of the more fun teachers in the school.

Well, about as fun as a boarding school teacher can get.

He's overheard tenth graders talking about how badly they wanted him for their next year, and Jaime couldn't blame them. Mr. Allen was nice, understanding, and gave extensions for projects easily, unlike some others. He taught science for grade eleven and cooking class for any grade. He was the type to bend rules as much as he could without actually breaking any of them, and Jaime would be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy his class even just a little bit. He often allowed his students to choose who they worked with for group projects and where they wanted to sit, rarely ever getting angry due to some petty reason such as disrespect.

However, that may have something to do with the fact that Mister Allen never was disrespected, because his personality just sort of earned everyone's respect.

Not to mention, Jaime had always been on his good side, and he was Bart's father. So, when it came time that they would have to ask for blessings, he knew that Mister Allen would never refuse.