Unstoppable

The Twenty-Fifth

"Adam, wake up."
My eyes started to open, revealing the piercing light of the mid-morning. Only for a second did I feel such light, as my eyes instantly crashed back down again, unable to support themselves.
How did I end up here..?
"Adam, are you okay?" A teacher was asking for me, but I simply couldn't answer them. All I could see was Poppy... or the distorted version of her.
What the fuck...? Why? And how am I here and not dead?
"Y-Yeah... I'm good. Sorry, sir." I mumbled, lifting my head slightly so find a middle-aged lady, wearing hardly any makeup and rocking loose jeans and a loosely fitting white shirt.
"It's Miss, or Ma'am, depending on how you speak." I saw her size me up: 16, half-asleep, clearly out of it.
I guess she felt like giving me an easy time. Damn, there ain't many of those teachers left, are there?
"Please do pay attention..." She seemed to look back at something, and then at me.
"Adam, isn't it?" She asked me, and a few people who were talking went silent, indicating I had some form of notoriety currently.
It won't last. You know everyone here is just waiting for something equally incredible to happen.
"Yeah, yeah I will Miss, my apologies..." I pulled my head up, yawning, and tired to glue my eyes to the board. Due to the fractions on the board, my brain automatically assumed that this was a maths lesson. Looking around and seeing things like a grid, multiplication tables, and shapes of various shapes and sizes, I also assumed my previous assumption was to be assumed to be true.
"So, since your awake now, Adam..." she proceeded to over-stress the name as if it was the funniest thing in the world before she turned back to the board.
"What's this?" She gestured to the board, allowing me to at least see what they were doing. The fractions 7/4 and 9/3 presented themselves.
"Are we changing them to mixed numbers or adding them up?" I asked, trying to buy time.
"Mixed numbers." The reply was instant.
God, she was good at this.
"Well, the first one would be one and three quarters, whilst the second one would be 3." I said, sitting back and letting her analyse what I just said.
"Correct." Her reply seemed surprised, and as I looked around the room, I knew I'd surprised a few people.
Smart and strong? It just didn't happen. the equation wasn't even that hard in the first place...
No one would meet my eyes, at all, except one person. One person who had their eyes locked on my very skull, with a lot of questions I just couldn't answer:
Charlotte.

Class had finished, and I'd already thrown all my stuff into my bag, and made a mad dash for the door, not stopping to look back.
"Christ... SLOW DOWN!!" I heard the teacher shout back, tone serious. However, the doubt that she was shouting at just me started to sit in my mind, as I felt, what can only be described as, a small but quick human speeding right beside me before pushing me sideways, causing me to land on the floor in a crumpled heap. I immediately felt a pain in my shoulder, and knew I'd landed wrong.
It's nothing I can't bear, but that's quite a stinger. Jeez...
I felt a pair of hands grip my chest, dragging it upwards towards the ceiling. I saw a face, Charlotte's, identify my features before dropping me back down to the ground.
"It's really you ain't it?" Charlotte asked me, shock and worry clearly heard through her wavering voice.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so." I answered, not afraid or worried.
I don't have the energy to. Not in the slightest.
"Holy fuck..." she stumbled back, in full view of everyone, and crumbled against a wall. Her head ended up in her trousers, and her arms crossed the front of her head as if to protect itself from me. I could her struggling breaths escaping her body, and the sound of her crying.
"H-how aren't you d-d-d-dead??" I heard her mumble as she started to rock backwards add forwards.
I started to step forward, but one of the bigger guys, a sixth former I think, stepped in front of me, a look of disgust in his face.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He shouted, getting closer to me than a normal human would.
Not today.... if I do this, they won't give up looking for me. And The Boss won't be soft.
"I didn't mean to make her cry... she asked me a question, and I answered it." I said, defending myself from criticism. He seemed to puff his chest out a slight bit more.
"And what was that? What question could've been so bad that you caused her to cry?" The sixth former wasn't backing down, so I had to carry on.
"She asked if 'it was really me', and I said yeah. That's when she started crying." I explained calmly, trying to diffuse the situation put in front of me.
"A likely story. We all saw you hit her!" He shot back with menace lacing his tone, and I didn't like it at all. My mind started to click round as I stepped back, giving myself more space.
"Listen to me. Ask her. I didn't hit her. I promise you, why would I hit a girl, or anyone?" I asked, whilst clearly incriminating his flawed logic in this entire situation.
"You calling me stupid!?" He shouted, clearly trying to sound scarier than he was. He was of a normal height, with a normal face that would easily get overlooked in a crowd. He had pale skin, and a mop of blonde hair sprinkled sloppily over his skull, and his moustache had only started to creep out of his nose.
"No... I'm not in the slightest." My reply was still as calm as ever.
No need to stir up trouble when there isn't any to stir up. Level head, Adam.
"H-h-He didn't hi-hit me..." Charlotte's voice creeped up from the back of the sudden problem I'd been thrusted into. The older guy turned like someone had stuck a poker in him, and rushed over. The crowd seemed to realise that, again, I wouldn't shed blood, and started to disperse. A few who desperately wanted to see something stuck around, but most of them simply drifted to the next thing that took their attention. It was only after a few minutes of short and quieted conversation that mop boy turned back towards me with an apologetic smile.
"I'm so sorry, honestly. I clearly had the wrong end of the stick here, and that's entirely on me. If there's any way I could make it up to you, I will." His apology seemed rushed, as if I was going to beat him to death.
That's clearly the notoriety I've earned here then...
"It's no problem. It happens to the best of us. Don't worry, I would've done the same thing, to be honest." I reassured him, patting him on the back before asking:
"Is it cool if I go speak with her? You can stick around if you want."
"No, it's fine. Sorry again." He smiled again before turning around and walking the other way, head down.
Charlotte was still in a ball as I approached quietly.
"Charlotte..?" I tried to keep my distance whilst I asked her, but she seemed to shakily stand up and pull me over.
"How are you not dead?" Her voice flatlined, and it didn't sound like a question, more like another sentence.
"I-I don't know. I really don't." I told her.
The second bell rang. Classes were in session. Charlotte had me round the neck, out faces were close, her's were red and mine was extremely uncomfortable. It wasn't a good picture.

It was even worse when Poppy strolled round the corner.