The good thing about the Doctor and McKenzie's time at Coal Hill School, masquerading as the caretaker and the electrician, was that most people didn't blink an eye at them showing up, which made it a lot easier to spend time with Clara and whisk her off in between classes. The bad thing about it all was that they were a terrible, terrible influence on any and all children they got close enough to, which in this unfortunate case meant Courtney Woods.
"She has gone crazy," Clara was stressing to them as they walked down a school corridor. "She's uncontrollable. She took your psychic paper. She's been using it as a fake ID."
"To get into museums?" the Doctor assumed.
"What?" Clara shook her head. "No, no, no, to buy White Lightning or alcopops or whatever."
"Oh, that brings back memories," McKenzie sighed, grinning fondly.
"I have no idea what either of you are talking about," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "What is, what is Courtney Woods?"
"A girl, you moron," Wanda told him, rolling her eyes.
Clara sighed. "She's one of my year tens. She was in the TARDIS."
"Doing what?" McKenzie frowned.
"Throwing up, mostly," Wanda replied.
McKenzie's eyes widened in realisation. "Oh, yeah, her... Yeah, I remember her now." She hesitated. "What about her?"
"She says that the Doctor told her that she wasn't special," Clara explained. "She says that was what made her go off the rails."
"Oh, you didn't, did you?"
He just scoffed. "Rubbish." He caught them all looking at him with raised eyebrows and blinked. "What makes you think I'd say that?"
"The accent," Clara suggested.
"The eyebrows," McKenzie added.
Wanda shrugged. "The fact that I was there when you said it."
The Doctor made a face. "Pfff." He pushed through the doors into the latest supply cupboard they'd found that could accommodate the TARDIS.
"If you say something like that to somebody, it hurts," McKenzie explained. "Especially if you're somebody of her age, especially if you happen to be a dazzlingly awesome spaceman with an attitude problem. It can affect her whole life."
"Bah," said the Doctor, very maturely. He went into the TARDIS, his eyes widening when he saw Courtney at the console. "Oi! Give over!"
"I got stuff to clean up with," Courtney told him, holding up a stack of paper towels and a bottle of multipurpose cleaner.
"What?"
"And I got these from the chemist." She showed him a pair of magnetic bracelets on her wrists.
The Doctor made a face, uncomprehending. "Vortex manipulators?"
"Travel sickness," Wanda corrected, rolling her eyes again.
"Good," the Doctor nodded. "Because I don't like people being sick in my TARDIS. No being sick. And no hanky-panky."
YOU ARE READING
One Last Chance |6| The Ascension
Science Fiction✅ approx. 215,000 words After the horrors of the war against Thanos, the Doctor and McKenzie are finally together again, albeit missing a limb. But that isn't the only thing they are bereft of. The death of their son cut them to the core and they wi...
