No One's Invincible

another day

In class:

Wally walked into his class and got all his stuff out. He realised he hadn't done any of his homework. Shiiittt. He was so screwed.

He sat down and started to speed write all his homework. Eh, he wouldn't call it cheating, just a convenient skill.

He heard someone plop into the seat next to him and as he finished his final sentence he looked over. His friend (practically his only one at school) Sam was looking at him smirking. His brown hair was short and crazy messy, like he'd be running.

"Tut tut Westie. Doing homework in class, shame on you."

"Oh shut up Sam. Not like you can say much. You don't even do your homework half the time."

he laughed
"Yeah, yeah. At least I get good grades. I can work all the bad favour off with good behaviour."

"Not with Mrs Lesti you can't. She hates you"

"I didn't hand in my homework ONE time, and she gave me an hour detention and called me pathetic in front of the whole class. No me gusta nada señora lesti."

Wally snorted into his hand.
"She'd be proud of you for using Spanish from her lesson to insult her."

"Pfft whatever."

The teacher walked into class and gave a disapproving look at all the noise.

"Alright class. Shut up and sit at your desks you chatterbugs. Thank you."

There was a sudden clang from the vents on the ceiling. Everyone in class looked up. There was a muffled "shhiitt!" And everyone laughed in confusion.

The teacher was bewildered.
"Hello, hello? Who's up there? I can call the principal."

There was only silence from the vents.

"Class I'm going to get the janitor. Wait here."

She shuffled out of class to presumably find the janitor and maybe call the principal too.

Wally turned to Sam.
"Weeiirrddd."

"Yeah. I wonder who would be crazy enough to go into the vents."
He said ripping a piece of paper our of her book and throwing it at Dan's head.

It missed and fell in the bin instead.

He chocked and laughed.
"I..erm...meant to do that."

Wally looked at him.
"Suurree you did. Oh. By the way, where were you yesterday? I waited all lesson for you to burst in late and save me but you never did."

"Oh, I...erm, had a talk with my mom about...me...erm...being a boy and I started crying and she started crying and... It was great Wally. She accepted me. She said she'll call me Sam from now on."

"That's so great! So are you going to tell the class to call you by your correct pronouns?"

"I...I don't know. I hadn't thought about that but...okay yeah I am. You know what, I'll do it now."

Sam stood up and walked to the front of the class. The room went quiet. Sam spoke:

"I am a boy. Not a girl. Not Wally's girlfriend. Not anybody's girlfriend. I am a boy. From now on please refer to me as he and him, and don't you even fucking dare call me Samantha. I am Sam."

A boy in the front whistled and clapped and soon everyone in the room joined in. Sam beamed.

He then walked over to his seat and gave Wally the widest grin in the world.

The teacher walked in with the most confused look on her face.

"No one was in the vents" she muttered.

"Well okay class, time for register. Stir down. Sit down. SHUT UP!... thank you.
Allysa"

"Yes miss"

"Brandon"

"Yessss misss"

"No snake noises please Brandon.
Catherine"

"Yes miss"

"Dan"

"Yeh miss"

"Elena. Elena? Not in.
Samantha"

Some girl from the front put her hand up.
"He wants to be called Sam miss."

"Oh..erm...I see. I'm very sorry. Sam?"

"Yes miss"
If it was even possible, Sam smiled even more.

"Wally"

"Yes miss"

"Right. Okay, today's lesson is about j..."

There was another bang from the vents.

"Just...ignore it. Anyway. As I was saying..."

In the vents:

"You idiot! Stop doing that! You're gonna get us found out."

"Well Artemis, it's your feet that you're sticking in my face. It's not my fault that every time I try to get them out of the way they bang the vent!"

"Well who's idea was this anyway! If anything you should be mad at yourself for asking me."

"Anyway, that's not the point. Lunch starts in 5 minutes and Wally's not done anything suspicious except for his weird lack of any flirting and we're still stuck in a cramped vent. Should we just go?"

"Yeah, I think I've seen enough of 'the wall man' in his natural territory."

In class:

The bell rung and everyone started packing up. Wally was about to leave when he heard bangs in the vents like they were traveling away.

"So weird. Maybe there's a bird stuck in there or something." He muttered and left.

Outside wally looked around for Sam and saw him heading towards him.

"Hey wall man, I've got to go. I'm going to the doctors about... Erm ...hormone stuff. I still can't believe this is happening. Thanks Wally for always being there for me."

He held his hand up for a high five.

"See ya man!" Wally shouted as Sam walked off.

Wally's phone suddenly went off. He looked and saw his mom had texted him.

MOM...now 11:24...
Wally. Don't come home. Please stay at your friend Robins tonight. Please.

Wally's heart stopped. What the hell happened.

Not caring whether there were rules against leaving school, Wally ran home as fast as he could without using his speed.

When he got there, everything seemed normal.

He rushed to the door and threw it open without a pause. The hallway was abandoned. So were the stairs. It was quiet.

It was so quiet.

Wally closed the door behind him softly. He crept softly to the living room and opened the door.

"Mom!"