‘Today,’ he paused, squaring up his paperwork by tapping it lightly on his desk, ‘we’ll be learning of the planets from the Sun to Pluto.’
Hayden, excited at hearing this, raised his hand to ask a question.
‘A question, Mr. Blake? And so early in the lesson.’
‘It’s more a statement sir. You said that we’d be learning of the planets in our solar system?’
‘Correct.’
Hayden cleared his throat. ‘Sir, you mentioned that we’d be learning of the planets from the Sun to Pluto?’ His teacher nodded. ‘Well, ’ Hayden continued, ‘the sun technically isn’t a planet, it’s a star and remember that Pluto isn’t a planet either. Right or wrong, it was demoted to an Icy Dwarf.’
Some students sniggered softly in the back.
‘Well, that is indeed correct.’ Rankin adjusted his blue bow tie realising. ‘Sorry about that class. I forgot about that but I’m glad you brought that to my attention young Mr. Blake.’ Mr. Rankin smiled sincerely and Hayden smiled back.
‘Okay then class. As Master Blake has quite rightly said, we’ll be learning of the planets in our solar system from Mercury to Neptune incorporating our vital star and a distant Icy dwarf.’
At the blackboard, realising that there was no chalk, Rankin had started fossicking through his worn leather briefcase for his own pieces when Hayden shot his hand back into the air even higher than before. Seeing this in his periphery Rankin raised his right eyebrow. Maddy looked across at Monty at the next desk who was adjusting his broken glasses yet again and when she’d gotten his attention with a small ‘ahem,’ they both looked across at Hayden sitting in front of them.
‘Sir?’ Hayden asked, trying to raise his hand higher still. ‘Mr. Rankin?’
‘Yes. Hayden?’
‘Just wondering, sir, if you’re going to teach us about the sun and the eight planets? Are you going to mention the almost one hundred and fifty or so discovered satellites divided amongst those eight and the dwarf Pluto and... ’
‘Well, we...’ and the teacher was cut off by his young student.
‘You know, for example, Jupiter’s Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe?’
‘Well, Hayden, I’m very impressed.’
‘Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae and Sinope.’ Hayden took a really deep breath as everyone in the classroom looked quietly bewildered at him and each other. Rankin however, smiled a strange little smile that only some saw.
‘I must say that I certainly wasn’t going to enter into anything more detailed than the Sun and as you rightly corrected me, the eight planets.’ Rankin was sure but asked anyway. ‘May I ask you how you came to learn all of this?’
The entire class spun their heads at once toward the star student but Hayden, surprisingly, continued unabated as if no question had been asked.
‘Of course there are a number of other satellites of Jupiter and other planets but I will just call Jupiter’s moons Jupiter seventeen to thirty eight or Callirrhoe to Pasithee.’
‘Pasiphae’ Rankin corrected. ‘You mentioned it already.’
‘Pasithee,’ Hayden reiterated. ‘I won’t bore you or the class with all of their proper names based on Inuit and Norse opposed to the others being based on Greek mythology. Not to mention the other Dwarf planet - The Goblin - AKA 2015TG387.’
At this, the room fell so silent you could almost hear the Phys Ed class exercising on the top oval through the rain almost half a kilometre away. Hayden could feel the other students’ eyes burning into him as from the gaping mouths and gawking looks they were clearly a little overcome by the knowledge he had on the subject.
‘I must confess, Hayden, I am extremely impressed, to say the very least. Where did you learn all of this?’ Rankin asked.
Hayden, a pensive look on his face, fumbled to explain.
‘Well sir, I’d have to say, my uncle Jonah, books and - documentaries...I suppose?’
‘Well,’ Mr. Rankin smiled. ‘In light of your fantastic oration, I’m embarrassed to admit I feel my understanding of the subject is a little inadequate in comparison. Perhaps you or your uncle would like to teach this class?’
The other students didn’t so much as snigger at the suggestion.
‘No, sir. That is your job and you do it very well,’ Hayden replied respectfully and with no urge whatsoever to do so .
‘Well, I thank you,’ Rankin humbly accepted the compliment and shook his head. ‘Now class, let’s continue with this fascinating subject,’ he paused and looked over his glasses at Hayden. ‘I apologise that I don’t have the depth of knowledge as our Master Blake does on the topic but I will make certain to educate you on the matter to the very best of my abilities.’
Hayden’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as he realised how pompous he must’ve sounded to everyone.
Mr. Rankin then handed out the work sheets to all the students but when he arrived at Hayden’s desk he paused, knowing that this student would simply breeze through the work. With that in mind he placed the sheet onto his pupil’s desk, tapping it pensively with his index finger before moving to the next. Rankin knew he was a very bright young lad but now he really could see that Hayden was destined for much greater things.
After class in the hallway by their lockers, Maddy and Monty raced over to Hayden. ‘Hayden! That was amazing! I had no idea you were so smart with that stuff!’ Maddy said.
Hayden looked somewhat unsure and Maddy didn’t miss that he looked a bit pale and so asked him if there was anything wrong.
‘Well, to be perfectly honest - I didn’t know I knew all that stuff either?’
All were confused. ‘I mean, I know uncle Jonah’s taught me things about the solar-system and the galaxy and stuff and I’ve seen things on documentaries and I’ve read a bit but -’
‘But what Hayd?’ Monty asked.
He fumbled with the combination to his locker, seven-two-one. Swinging the thin grey sticker-less metal door outward he put his books away then took out those he needed for his next class.
‘I don’t know where it all came from, that’s what. It just came out so easily and I have no idea from where.’
‘Well, that’s not the case Hayd,’ Monty tried cheerfully to point out.
‘What isn’t?’
‘That you didn’t know because you did know. You knew more than the teacher! All that came from you.’
Hayden felt embarrassed by his pretentious waffling off of all of the solar system’s Astral bodies. ‘But where did I get it from?’
Across the hall Scott Worcester and his minions came bounding toward them. ‘Hey Blake!’ Scott yelled over the congregating Years Seven, Eight and Nine students who, upon seeing the approaching oaf, parted like the water in the story of Moses and the Red Sea.
‘I heard about what you did,’ he snorted.
Maddy looked at Hayden, bewildered as to how he could have known so quickly. When the gang was almost upon them Monty realised. ‘It's got to be Terry. He must've messaged Scott despite the no phones in class rule.'
‘Never stopped him before,’ Maddy cursed, preparing for the brute that was Scott Worcester. ‘The shifty little rat.’
Terry Worcester was Scotty’s younger brother. He was in their year and most of their classes and had been spying on Hayden and his friends for his brother ever since the start of the year.
Unlike Scotty, meek Terry Worcester didn’t seem a bad kid, he probably just wanted the approval of his big brother and that, unfortunately for Hayden and his friends, was the way he got it.
Maddy scanned the room and saw him briefly watching them nervously before he slipped behind his locker door just as his older brother patted him on the shoulder then moved quickly to loom over them.
‘Ha! What a geek!’ Scotty laughed. ‘I hear you’re teaching the teachers now, Blake?’ He turned to greet the laughs he expected from his cronies, which after a pause, came only when they realised it was t
he time to do so. ‘If you ever try to teach my class, Blake, you’re going to regret it!’ He stared into Hayden’s eyes and prodded him hard on the shoulder with his strong pointy white knuckles.
‘Leave him alone, Worcester!’ Maddy protested.
The beast of a student bent his head toward her and bellowed ‘NO!’ Then abruptly and remorselessly pushed her hard into the lockers!
Monty rushed to help her up and the remaining students began to filter out through the courtyard door to avoid any trouble.
‘Leave her alone Worcester,’ Hayden ordered forcefully. Scotty turned to him with more than a little surprise.
‘What did you say to me?’
‘I said leave her alone,’ he restated protectively.
‘Or you’ll do what?’ Scott strutted, parodying Hayden’s sudden bravery. ‘You’re nothing, Blake. No one cares.’
Dropping his books to the floor with a thud, Hayden looked at the two people he knew did care and curled his right hand into a fist, gathered his rage and without warning let it fly, but before it could make contact with the bully’s face, Scott had stopped it and started to crush it with his own much larger and considerably stronger hand. Hayden grimaced as he knelt to the floor in pain. ‘You will kneel before me, Blake!’ Scott laughed.
‘What’s going on here?’ Rankin questioned concernedly, appearing out of the thinning crowd.
Worcester immediately let go and acted nonchalant.
‘Nothing to worry about sir. We’re just playing, eh, Blake?’ Hayden whipped his aching hand out of view of his teacher and nodded unwillingly. Scott’s thin lips smiled wryly.
‘You would be best stay in your own common area, Mr. Worcester. You and your friends or you will all be looking at a visit to the headmaster. Understood?’
Scott shrugged his shoulders and the other two copied then all three loped off down through the doors and out into the garden.
‘How’s your hand, Hayden?’
‘It’s okay sir.’
‘Don’t worry about those louts,’ Mr. Rankin encouraged, his disdain for those particular students quite obvious. ‘I shouldn’t say this but I am absolutely certain that you three have far more going for you than they could ever have.’
‘I don’t mind if you say it,’ Monty said, still supporting Maddy.
Picking up his books, Hayden stood and dusted off his trousers and thanked his teacher again who walked off to his next class.
He then turned his attention to Maddy who was nursing her sore shoulder.
‘Are you alright?’ he asked, feeling so very sorry she had been hurt on his account.
‘Now that they’ve gone,’ she replied meekly. ‘I’d just love to know why we three are so interesting to them?’
‘Because they’re idiots, Madds, and usually there’s no making sense of the idiotic.’ Hayden was right. This had to stop, he thought, closing his locker door and twisting the combination lock.
Looking out into the common room and at all the students filing back into their classes there was just one thing on his mind.
Two more classes before recess, four more until the end of the day then finally the weekend.
Recess had arrived and the pupils and their ruckus once more spilled back out into the common area.
Hayden looked around nervously knowing that Scott and his gang would be leaving their classes too. He knew that they would find the mass of younger students milling about in one area to good an opportunity to pass up as despite Mr. Rankin’s warning, they could bully and perhaps pick up some bonus lunch money or some other treasure that would satisfy such goons.
Mr. Rankin made his way from the geography class he was taking for another absent teacher. Winding his wiry figure round the hordes of kids and out of the common area, he strode down the wide concrete pavement toward the teachers’ lounge beneath the library. Swinging open the frosted glass door, he walked inside and finding his usual seat, sat next to the headmaster.
Mr. Dusting was a middle aged man, olive skinned with a largish head and a receding hairline. The hair that he did have was black and straight and was matched to a wide brush of a moustache. Dusting and Rankin had been very good friends for many years. Mr. Rankin turned slowly to his colleague and quietly mentioned Hayden’s remarkable knowledge displayed earlier.
‘Harrumph,’ the Headmaster snorted.
Mr. Rankin briefly pondered his friend’s ineloquent response then stood and walked over to a steaming urn where other teachers were scuttling off after having already brewed their beverages.
He prepared his routine mug of black tea then returned to his seat, all the while, a grin was spreading slowly under his beard.
CHAPTER FOUR
It was science class and they were doing chemistry. Sitting at a very old lab bench in the science wing of the building. When that class in that lab would get boring, and they more than sometimes could. Hayden and his friends would use the time to look at all the scratchings on the tables from previous generations of students.
It was the last class of the day and they had been experimenting with the combustion of alcohol by burning numerous types in a spirit burner. They had then calculated the transferred energy into water via heat then took times and temperatures, weighing the spirit burners to get the mass of alcohol burned away.
Finished now, they had just burned off the remaining methanol from their experiment.
The old, round white-faced clock above the blackboard in the lab was ticking closer to 3:30pm and home-time, with every second seeming an eternity to the impatient students.
Hayden and Maddy had finished their work and sat patiently waiting as Monty hurriedly scrawled down the last of the notes for next Monday’s class.
Hayden hoped his weekend would last forever.
As the teacher wound down the lesson, Hayden, only half listening, studied all the etchings in the bench, the oldest of them now very smooth and almost as dark as the surrounding wood. Reaching for his pencil case, he took out his geometry compass and with the spiked end began etching his own mark.
Maddy, a little surprised at this, watched him as he did. When he’d finished, she sighed at what he’d drawn then poked him sharply in the side.
‘Next class, ’ Mr. Rankin announced in a raised voice as he tried to keep his students waning attention from walking out the door before their bodies had, ‘Warm and cold ocean currents and their influence to all life on this Earth.’
Then the school bell sounded startling Monty, his pen sliding involuntarily over his notes leaving a long blue line.
Hayden shook his head while he gathered his books then followed Maddy out into the courtyard, navigating carefully amid the rush of students making for the same exit with a disheveled Monty as close behind as he could be.
‘You guys doing anything after school?’ Maddy asked when they were outside under the rain spattered Perspex roofed courtyard.
‘Heading down to ElectroFun,’ Hayden answered, referring to the arcade they often hung out at in town .
‘Can I come?’ Maddy asked with a smile. ‘I hoped you might be going there on a day like this.’
‘Don’t you have your piano lesson tonight?’ Monty asked her as quick as a whip. He thought computer games were more his and Hayden’s thing.
‘Oh, yeah,’ she remembered. ‘I can still stop by though. My lesson isn’t ‘til six.’ Monty rolled his eyes a bit.
‘It’s Friday night so it’s open until nine remember. If you want to, come back afterward?’ Hayden suggested.
‘I won’t be able to stay that late tonight Hayd,’ Monty interjected. ‘I’ve got heaps of studying to do. Dad said that it would be best to make the most of this bad weather after my results in last month’s English and science tests.’
‘I won’t be able to come back after either, Hayd. My parents want me to study hard this weekend too.’
‘Why, Madds, your grades aren’t bad?’ Monty asked puzzled.
‘No, but they want me to bett
er my last effort. “Be prepared” as they say.’
‘Then who’s going to try and beat me in Laser light?’ Hayden teased. A pretty old game with a really corny name but he loved it. His uncle would occasionally have a go when he came into town. He’d asked his nephew if he wanted a turn when he was nine or ten and Hayden had ruled the scoreboard ever since.
Mr. Dusting suddenly appeared from around the corner.
‘I heard about your unfortunate incident today, young Master Blake,’ he said in his usual deep, curt manner. ‘Is there anything you’d like to talk about?’
‘No sir.’
‘How are your mother and your uncle?’ he added as abruptly.
‘They’re fine sir.’
‘Pass on my best to them, Hayden, as I haven’t seen either of them here at school in a while.’
Their headmaster looked up through the rainy roof at a refracted view of dark clouds massing. ‘So what do you three have planned for this cold, wet Friday evening?’
They looked at each other a little perplexed as to why Dusting was taking an interest. ‘Heading down to the arcade for a bit,’ Monty answered as if he needed his headmaster’s permission.
Dusting glanced down as Hayden rubbed his right hand subconsciously then retracted it slowly under his school jumper realising what he’d done.
‘Do you think that it’s a good idea to be playing Laser light, Hayden?’
Hayden didn’t know how to respond. Dusting then wished them all a good weekend before disappearing back around the corner.
‘What was that all about?’ Monty wondered.
Hayden curled his mouth downward and shrugged his shoulders.
‘How did he know I was going to be playing Laser light?’
‘I had a feeling you’d be playing tonight,’ Maddy chuckled. ‘Considering I watched you scratch one of those spaceships on the science lab bench.’
‘And you have written Laser light in big black letters in permanent marker over your folder,’ Monty pointed out. ‘He’s probably seen you playing it as well. We’ve all seen him down at the arcade talking to the gamekeeper.’
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 2
