Watch the World

Miss Anderson stared blankly at her class, willing someone to do something... Anything.

"Does anybody know the answer?" She asked desperately and scanned the rows of teenagers going out if their way to avoid eye contact... All except for one.

"Angela!" She squealed then quickly composed herself, "Angela, do you know how surds work?" She waited patiently, happy to just have someone participating in her lesson, willingly or not.

Angela Mayson blinked up from the book she had been happily reading seconds before. Her eyes were glazed, as though she was not all quite there. Every eye in the room turned to her in the absence of an answer.

"Pardon?" She said with a croaky voice then coughed in an attempt to clear it, wincing at the harsh sound it made.

Mrs Anderson shuffled her hands nervously, even her last hope was fading now.

"Surds, Miss Mayson. Do you know what they are and how they work?"

Angela looked at her steadily for a few seconds before a crease appeared between her eyebrows and she replied,

"Yes."

A ripple of chuckles went through the classroom as the rest of the class shuffled in their seats. They knew what was coming next. Angela had a certain charm about her, she was incredibly intelligent but didn't seem to be cocky or arrogant. She could insult you openly and still you would question whether she was doing so maliciously.

"Could you please tell the rest of the class then Angela?" Miss Anderson beamed.

"Isn't that your job?"

The class erupted with guffawing and jeering, but the look on Angela's face was sincere. Miss Anderson could not blame Angela or accuse her of being insolent. She simply sighed and turned back to the board. The people on the front rows could distinctly hear her muttering obscenities to herself as she wrote up the method with her screeching pen.

Angela went back to reading her book and, just as she had started to block out the outside wood again, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up she recognised the brown eyes and crooked smile of James Bridge.

"Look, I hate maths as much as the next person but you're giving Anderson over there all the stimuli needed for a nervous breakdown." They both looked up at their teacher as she stuttered at the front of the room, trying to gain the attention of her students again.

"I don't think it's my fault" Angela replied, rolling her eyes at him. "If you ask me, I think she suffers from a tendency towards over anxiety. I'm probably not helping, but at least I'm responding to her as I would to anyone else."

Angela watched her for another few seconds, head cocked to the side, before happily returning to her book.

"You're ridiculous." James muttered quietly, Angela strongly suspected that she was not intended to hear the statement.

"Ah but my hearing is exemplary." She grinned, winking at her friend "Now let me read."

James stared at her incredulously for a second before saying very slowly "You do realise this is maths and not... Reading time, or whatever? How are you going to pass if you don't pay attention?"

There wasn't even a moment of silence before Angela rolled her eyes and said "I've told you already, I already know all of this stuff. It's pointless learning it again."

"But how-"

"Just leave it." She said, not bluntly or sharply. It was simply a statement, but it seemed to hold more power than any other word spoken.

Angela had arrived at Clearglass comprehensive school a year back and had quickly made friends with the majority of the year. People liked her sarcastic comments and witty remarks but she only really got on well with the people who understood her meaning rather than just laughing along.

There was a lot of mystery when it came to Angela. She seemed to have done every course in the school already an didn't talk much about her life before. She said it was simply because it made her feel home sick, even now.

She had made lots of friends over time but the one person she really got on with was James. He understood her thirst for knowledge and her love of books, he would often bring new ones in for her to read (it was never long before they were returned) and, most of the time, he respected her need for privacy. There were of course times, such as this one, where his curiosity got the best of him. He was, of course, a lot like Angela after all.

It was as he was sat there, watching Angela's forehead crease in concentration as she read her book that Angela's world began to change.

James felt a chill go through him, his eyes still locked on Angela as his eye lids began to droop. His body felt heavy, as though a huge amount of force was needed to lift each individual muscle and this began to show. His shoulders hunched and his head hit the table with a loud smack.

Angela looked up sharply from her book, head snapping to her left. Her eyes locked with James' as he gazed up at her before they finally drooped shut.

Angela felt her heart rate pick up rapidly as she racked her brain frantically for what to do, she gazed around the classroom, searching for help but what she saw stopped her stuttering heart completely.

Everyone in the room was in the same state as James, hunched over in their seats with their eyes closed.

Angela scrunched her eyes closed tightly, breathing slowly and trying to concentrate. Her eyes flickered open for a second before squeezing shut once more as she counted silently in her mind.

1... 2... 3... 4... This is just a dream... Just a dream...

She opened her eyes again.

Not a dream... Not a dream... 6... 7... 8...

"I would ask what you're doing but I'm pretty sure even you don't know."

Angela's eyes flew open and landed on a boy. His hair was scruffy, almost... Windswept and his green eyes sparkled in amusement.

"Help... My class, they're-"

"Asleep." He cut in "As they should be, a lot of them are about as interesting as this when they're awake." He kicked one of their chairs before putting his hands in his pockets and shuffling between the rows of desks. "Of course, you can't blame them. A lot of people don't really get the chances they need to build their personalities, you don't seem to have struggled though." He had stopped in front of her now and he leant forwards, examining her face "fortunately," he smiled.

This was too much for Angela, concern for her classmates' well being and the general terror of being stuck in this situation had caught up with her and it was too much to deal with this boy's cocky attitude too.

"Who are you?" Angela shouted, rising from her seat so that she was face to face with the boy "And why are they asleep?"

"My name is Gabe." The boy said, smirking, he still appeared to be inspecting every aspect of Angela's face. "And the reason that they are asleep is simple. They are not like you Angela. They are not like us. They are not... Special."