Drake was distracted from his graffiti by a tapping noise. He glanced around to see the top of someone’s head at the bottom of the window, with light blue eyes staring back at him.

He looked forward again. The teacher had his back turned.

Still facing ahead Drake leaned to the side and slowly flicked the latch, pulling the window up by a tiny fraction. Drake silently took the small device Reuben handed him and leant back in his chair, trying his best to look inconspicuous. The teacher was still distracted. Standing on his tiptoes to write on the very top of the white board, book in one hand; pen in the other. Most of the rest of the class were paying attention to the teacher, Drake felt grateful that the whispering girls were distracted too. He quickly wrote a note upon his desk, and then turned his attention to the thing Reuben had handed him.

Drake fingered the device in his hand. It was a curious thing, one of Lucas’s own personal creations, for he had many. Many hours Lucas had sat in his room tinkering with toys of scrap metal and his mysterious powers and brilliant mind. And this was the result. A sphere in shape, it had many shallow ridges and grooves running upon it. Drake turned it over. It had what looked like tiny screw heads protruding out from the surface. He tweaked one of these; then sent it rolling across the classroom.

‘…and so the hydrogen bonds in water act unusually.’

The ball rolled under the teacher’s desk. There was a second’s delay, and then it exploded.

The entire class jumped in shock, coughing as the thick purple smoke enveloped the entire front of the classroom. Like a typical smoke bomb, very effective and just as fun as the last one.

By the time the smoke cleared enough for the teacher to realise one of his students were missing, Drake was already long gone.

*

The lecturer approached the empty chair, and saw the writing on the desk, next to the picture of a man with wings newly added.

Go to work, Go to school, Come home

Obey the law, Pay tax, Eat chips

CCTV

I am free