Radioactive

The Movement Begins

Chapter 3

The clock was ticking. There were exactly 27 desks in the room. There was a blackboard with an easy math problem on it. There were 23 kids in the room, and therefore 46 eyes staring at him.

Oh, and the teacher was yelling at him.

"Liam Radisson! This is the 5th prank you've pulled since the second semester started, and that was two weeks ago!" Mrs. DeMille screamed.

Liam smiled. "Yes, I've noticed. I was there."

Snickers from the classroom. Mrs. DeMille glared at them through her horn-rimmed glasses, and they shut up immidiately. Obviously not a good enough joke.

Mrs. DeMille turned her attention towards Liam again. "Do you think that this is funny, Mr. Radisson? Because I don't think your parents will have the same attitude!"

"I'm sorry, DeMille. I'll try harder, I swear. I'm sure if I put a little more effort into it, I can get at least 3 more in by next Wednesday."

A few chuckles broke out from the crowd, but the few who laughed stopped as soon as they could, for everyone feared the wrath of Mrs. DeMille. Time to fix that.

"That's Mrs. DeMille to you!" the short math teacher replied.

"That brings me to my first question: how did you get a husband in the first place?"

DeMille was about to answer, but Liam interjected.

"Oh, that's right! There must be thousands of blind people in Quebec, right? There's a whole slew of potential suitors! That is, until they hear your voice."

The laughter was tremendous, but Mrs. DeMille didn't seem very amused. The little vein in her forehead was popping out. Liam loved it when that vein popped out. It was a sign of victory.

"LIAM RADISSON, TO THE PRINCIPALS OFFICE! NOW!"

Liam walked to the door, but even though she sent him to the office, he couldn't be punished. No one can stop The Rad Radisson. He had won, for now.

He walked down the hallway and contemplated his potential punishment. Tacks on the teacher's chair were so cliché, he couldn't get more than 2 weeks washing desks. As for the calls to his parents that they always used, they weren't as bad as the school board thought.

He high-fived himself as a reward. "You go, Radisson," he muttered to himself. "Now, to the principal's office."

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Mr. Chang yelled at him for at least 20 minutes, but Liam eventually reached the stage of punishment where he really didn't give a crap. The only parts he heard were, "...need to behave yourself...called your parents...1 month washing desks...get out and stop wasting my time." Liam figured that was all he needed to hear.

The moment Liam stepped out of the office, the bell rang, meaning the end of the school day. Liam smirked his annoying little smirk. He had missed the last 20 minutes of math. Added bonus.

As the kids started pouring out of their classes, Liam headed up to his locker. His friend Aidan was waiting for him.

"Dude, that was hilarious!" Aidan said happily, as Liam pulled his things out of his locker. "Easily one of your best."

"No, it wasn't," Liam said. "It was lame and unoriginal."

Liam closed his locker and walked away with his backpack. Aidan caught up.

"What're you talking about? It was great!" Aidan replied.

"Are you kidding me?" Liam said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "That was so cliché it hurt! I'm running out of material."

They stepped out of the front door and into the chiil outdoors. "You'll come up with new stuff!" Aidan assured.

"I don't know about that, Aidan," Liam mumbled. "Could you come over to mine? I need some help with my science homework."

"Sure thing, man," Aidan replied. "Maybe we can think up new ideas while we're there."

Liam smiled. Aidan always had his back. "Thanks man."

They headed back to Liam's house on their bikes. When they got there and noticed that the lights were out, Liam knew what that meant.

Liam turned to Aidan. "My mum's drunk again. Can we just study out here in the yard?"

"Okay," Aidan said, as if he was used to it by then.

They did their work for a couple hours and eventually turned to pranks. They kept naming more and more, but each one was either done my Liam or someone else. By the time it had gotten dark, they had exactly zero ideas, and they were exhausted.

"It's pointless," Liam moaned. "We have pranker's block!"

They both lied down and looked up at the sky.

"Hey, what's that?" Aidan remarked, pointing at a spot in the stars.

Liam focused on it and noticed a streak of blue, green, pink, purple and yellow moving slowly across the sky.

"It's a comet, I think," Liam guessed. They both dismissed it.

"So what kind of reaction do you want from your prank?" Aidan asked.

"I dunno," Liam replied. "I just want it to be something that people are gonna remember. Something that is gonna change how everyone views Mrs. DeMille. I wanna do something that's really moving."

Moving.

Moving.

Moving.

"Well, I think I'm gonna head inside now." Liam sighed. "Hopefully, my mom's passed out by now. He stood up, grabbed his backpack, and was about to walk inside until he noticed the weird way Aidan was looking at him.

"What? What is it?" Liam asked. Then he remembered: his backpack had been 10 feet away from him.

Liam looked at the bag and dropped it. "What just happened?" he asked Aidan.

"You just opened your hand up and it moved towards you!" Aidan shrieked. "How'd you do that!"

"I don't know!" Liam stated, alarmed.

"Well, try something else!" Aidan suggested.

Liam looked at the bag and imagined it hovering a foot above the ground. Nothing happened.

Liam kicked the backpack. "It's not working," he said frustrated.

Aidan thought before talking. "Try to imagine you picking it up." he offered.

Liam looked at the backpack, and this time imagined himself bending over and picking it up. Immidiately, the backpack started floating off the ground and went into Liam's hand.

Liam and Aidan looked at each other, and Liam smiled his mischievous little smile.

"What're you thinking, Liam?" Aidan asked.

"I'm thinking," Liam grinned. "That I just got a new prank idea."