The Problem with Power

Chapter 2 - Unique

Chapter 2: Fitting In

Dylan soon realised that his fear of the testing booths was completely unfounded. The experience was completely fine, the assistant had been a short plump woman who introduced herself as Sue and took an motherly approach the whole affair and it made him feel completely at ease about the fact she was about to stick a needle into his arm. The thing that made him rather nervous though was the woman's reaction to the result, as the number flashed up on the screen she made a little squeak and hurried out of the booth. A few moments later a start looking gentleman entered the booth. He wore a crisp tweed suit jacket with pin-striped trousers and a rather garish looking neck tie festooned with pictures of what appeared to be ships from Star-Wars. His hair was slicked back like an old American rock-star he had read about in primary school. His eyes were shielded behind dark sunglasses, he looked no older than 20.

"I take it your Mr Coleman?" he inquired. He spoke with a thick Scottish accent that didn't seem to fit his slender frame.
"Y-yes?" Dylan stammered, quite taken aback at this sudden appearance of a stranger in the booth. "I-i'm not in trouble am I?" the quivered in worry, the recent reassurances made the lovely lady who did the test seemed to have evaporated.
The Scottish man considered him for a moment and then chuckled slightly, adjusting his glasses so he could peer at Dylan with his gun-metal grey eyes.
"No need to be so afraid lad, you're not in any trouble" he said, with mirth in his voice "I just want to have a private word with you in my office, if you could follow me please" with that he stepped out of the booth and held the side door of the booth open, waiting for Dylan to follow. Dylan willed his frozen legs into motion to follow the stranger, ignoring the whispers from the students who had yet to be tested and the puzzled look from the thug-like Terry.

They left the hall and back into the main corridor that Dylan had been in a few minute before, pushing through those loitering around, either waiting to be tested, or were chatting about what rating they got to their friends from primary school None stopped talking to stare the tall man in a tweed suit and the little boy who scurried frightfully behind him. Turning right into a side corridor and down a small staircase to a small intersection at which 3 doors stood. One was a staff toilet, the other was unmarked, Dylan assumed it was a cupboard of some kind, but the door which was the most interesting was directly ahead of them, the little brown plaque on the door read:

Mr Frederick "The Eyes" Henderson
Head of The High Level Admissions Department

The interior of the office was sparse, the walls white and plain with very few personal touches. The furniture was similarly sparse, two small armchairs, which were thankfully cushioned, faced an IKEA bought desk that Dylan recognised, his sister had dragged him around the large, Swedish store many a time. Mounted on the desk were a laptop, a black Star-Wars mug filled with what looked like tea and a small, again IKEA bought desk lamp. A small filing cabinet occupied the well behind the desk, as well as a slightly larger armchair in which Mr Henderson sat in.

"C'mon lad, sit" he said, indicating one of the two small armchairs " I must apologise for this place" he continued, waving a hand around the office "I only got the job a couple of days ago, plus I don't own much in the way of personal items"

Dylan, already having taken in his surroundings, plucked up the courage and asked
"So, why did you bring me in here?"
Mr Henderson grinned slightly, removing his glasses with a flourish to reveal those piercing grey eyes. "Getting to the heart of the matter already? I like you lad" he took a sip of the tea from his mug before continuing.
"As you probably saw from the door, I am Mr Henderson and I'm in charge of looking after the very special cases here at this school, for example those kids with very unique powers"
Dylan was taken aback slightly, he'd never been considered special before.
"That being said, Mr Coleman, you're very special indeed, in fact I think you're the only one of your kind in recent history"
Dylan perked up at this.
"So does that mean I'm powerful?" he asked. Mr Henderson, chuckled again.
"Lad, your case in very curious in the fact that you're not very powerful, in-fact, you seem to lack it, see, as your power rating just now has been read to be exactly zero."