06.03: New Responsibilities - Alchemy

‘That sucks,’ Tom declared to no one in particular, there was nobody about anyway. He looked at the dead console in his hand, he had not even had a chance to save his game. What use was two hours gaming time a day anyway.
He pulled out his phone and dialled Jack Cooper. He complained bitterly about his game time being curtailed, his faculty mentor, or handler, as Tom preferred to think of him at times like this, reminded him he still had three homework assignments to hand in. He added that Tom’s Saturday morning lessons were likely to be reinstated unless his grades improved. He wasn't happy.
'My new timetable is mental,' Tom said. 'Six hours of lessons every day. Two hours of homework a night. I don’t need two hours of lessons on Saturday mornings. That's forty-four hours a week of schoolwork.'
“So?” Jack said. “What did you do at your old school?”
'Twenty-five hours at school and a few hours of homework, which I never did. There's no way I'm doing all that homework.'
“You had better get used to scrubbing floors then,” Jack said brightly.
'For not doing homework?'
“Yep. Or cleaning out the kitchens, the student kitchens are… what was that word Bernice used? Minging.”
‘What does that mean?’
“Don’t do your homework and you’ll find out. There’s mowing lawns, wiping windows, mopping hall ways. Repeat offenders get toilets and changing rooms. The reason you do all those lessons is most of you have missed loads and you have to catch up.”
‘My attendance was one hundred percent Jack.’
“A few hours of homework, which I never did,” Jack quoted back at him. “Remember all your parents gave us full access to your records. You need to catch up.”
‘They're not all lessons anyway, some of them are sport and teaching and stuff. And that's the other thing,' Tom said. ‘I've got to teach French to little kids.'
“All coloured shirts have to teach. It gives you a sense of responsibility. Noah teaches maths. Jamie does swimming. Yana, Russian. Harry teaches martial arts.”
Tom slumped on the couch. 'I wish I'd never come here.'
“Stop being a drama queen,' Jack said. “This place gives you a great education and a cool place to live. When you leave here you'll have full control of your powers, speak two or three languages, have qualifications coming out of your ears, and be set for life. Think where you'd be now if hadn't come here.”
Life was dangerous for mutants out in the great wide world. Even back in Canada.
'OK,' Tom said. 'My life was down the toilet. But I hate school. It's so boring I want to smash my head up against the wall half the time.'
“Your problem is you're lazy, Tom. You want to sit in your room with your stupid Playstation going blip, blip, all day. You said yourself you were gonna end up in prison after that power incident. If you get bored in a classroom, how would you like eighteen hours a day in a cell?”
‘Playstation is not a waste of time,' he said.
The other end was quiet, Jack might be young but he was the master of the strategic silence.
'Stop being right,' Tom said. 'Everyone in this place is clever, level-headed, and I'm always wrong. I hate all of you all.'
Jack started laughing.
'It's not funny,' Tom said, starting to smile.
“You'll get used to it here, Tom. Beneath that dumb exterior you're a good person.”
Tom hung his head back over the rec room sofa and stood up furious at himself. He didn’t do self pity well and that abated pretty quickly.
He soon found himself on the front steps of the mansion, he took a deep breath. ‘Ah fresh air.’ He coughed, he loathed the outdoors.