2:19...

2:20...

2:21...

Slumped on his desk, Tom Gardner watched the clock with the one eye that peeked out from under his arms. The minutes ticked by like hours... math class had a way of stretching them out. Luckily though, this was his last class, and even more luckily, it was Friday. Tom couldn't wait to be home... he and his friends had just found this great new game, one where you played as a team of astronauts exploring weird planets and excavating for rare minerals - it was a lot more fun than it sounded. 

2:22... 2:23... 2:24...

Tom moved his arm to his mouth, stifling a yawn. God. He was so tired. It had been storming all day today, and heavy rain was lashing against the windows and the roof of the school. The rhythmic, reverberating sound rain made when you were indoors had to be Tom's second favorite noise ever... it never failed to make him feel nice and cozy and sleepy.

"Alright... well, since Tom seems to be taking a nap, I think he'd like to answer the last question before we go?"

At the sound of his name, Tom shifted his head up. The whole class was looking at him now... standing in front of them all was Miss Yeun.

Ugh.

"Uhhh... what?" he asked.

There was a bit of scattered laughter at that. Miss Yeun silenced the class with an angry glance, then stared back at Tom.

"Can you name the square root of negative one?"

Tom blinked. Square root of negative one? He tapped his fingers on his desk as he scraped his brain for the answer. Eventually, it grew obvious that he didn't have a clue, and that the teacher was getting impatient.

"Name it, like... get the answer?" Tom asked, trying to stall. Miss Yeun saw right through him.

"Alright, does anyone else know this one?" the woman said, irritation in her voice.

A few hands raised. The teacher selected one from the crowd, a girl in the front.

"It's 'i.'"

"Yes, that's right." the teacher grabbed a marker, drew the symbol in question on the board, and circled it. Right then, the bell rang - Tom's first favorite sound. "And it's going to be the topic of next class. Have a good weekend, everyone."

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That is so stupid. Tom thought as he rose up from his seat, slinging his bag over his shoulder. That's not even a number, it's a letter. Why did math have to start including letters?

There were quite a few people trying to push their way through the door, so Tom had to wait a bit for his turn. Right before he could step out, however, Miss Yeun called him over to her desk. With a sigh, he trudged up to the woman. The teacher let the last few kids trickle out, asking the last to close the door - when he did, she gestured for Tom to take a seat next to her.

"I didn't realize that my class was naptime, Mister Gardner."

Mister... teachers only used that when they were pissed.

"I'm sorry." Tom said, rubbing his eyes. The teacher ignored his apology as she turned to her computer, tapping away at the keyboard. She was pulling up his grades.

"You're not doing too well. Did you know that?" she rotated the bulky old monitor to face him. The last two semesters he had gotten Cs, but now, he had a 58% average. "That's an F."

Well... this was news to Tom.

"Uhhh..." he scratched his chin. "I'll try and bring that up with the test?"

The teacher stared back at him, unamused. "You're too smart for an F, Tom... the next time you use your desk as a pillow, I'm going to call your parents. Got that?"

"Yeah." Tom said. "Got it."

----------------------------------------

By the time Tom made it out to in front of the cafeteria - where the buses waited for the students - he found that his bus had already left.

"Shit... thanks, Miss Yeun..." he murmured, under his breath. Mom wasn't going to get home for another three hours, and none of his friends could drive, so... well, it looked like he was walking home today. That sucked... he loved rain, but only when he was inside and it wasn't drenching him down to his underwear.

Shivering, he pulled the strings of his thick black hoodie to tighten it up, then started the long walk to his house. It was a walk he had taken tons of times before, but never in these conditions... a bright flash of lightning crackled across the dark clouds, followed shortly by a great boom of thunder.

It was then that Tom remembered something he always used to do as a kid.

Whenever a thunderstorm would roll in, he'd sit by the window, watching the sky. Whenever there was a bolt of lightning, he'd count the seconds until the thunder happened. Tom had read about it in a book... for every five seconds between the bolt and the boom, the lightning had struck one mile away. Now, he had no clue if that book was really accurate, but it sure was cool to little five year old Tom.

To pass the time, he decided to play that game. At first, the thunderclap took ten seconds... that would be two miles. But then, to Tom's confusion, it started getting closer, really fast. Five seconds... one mile. Three seconds... a sixth of a mile. Two seconds... what would that be, a fourth?

He had stopped walking at that point, instead, staring up at the sky. It was otherworldly.

Red.... the flashes of lightning werent white-yellow any more, like usual... they were red. Blood red.

The rain was really coming down hard now, in heavy, icy sheets that soaked Tom to the bone. Loud winds shrieked by his ears. The sky was churning, the clouds pitch black and moving faster than Tom had ever seen before. They were making a circle... a tornado... a black vortex, localized around him.

The next time lightning flashed, Tom wasn't there to count the seconds to the thunder.