Chapter One

Cold grey eyes looked at Will. He could almost feel the icy gaze penetrating the back of his head. The cold November air made the whole classroom chilled, and Will fidgeted slightly. He did not like people staring at him. He turned round in his chair and gave Seth Cavallo a glare to show he was uncomfortable. Cavallo detached his eyes from Will’s glaring ones and resumed his silent routine of staring out the window. Satisfied, Will turned back again. The teacher droned on, oblivious of the fact that the whole of his Year Ten maths class were ‘off in dreamland.’ Will’s eyes strayed to the teacher’s desk, where a blue plastic box and a remote-thing with a button on were sitting. Will knew what it contained, and what the button was for.

“Help! Panic! Alarm! Emergency! Disaster! Pandemonium! Crisis!” A voice interrupted Will’s chain of thoughts. “Don’t you remember last time that box was opened, William?” It taunted.

“Shut up!” Will thought. “Shut up! Shut up!” The voice chuckled. He did remember…

He had had a headache, a very painful one infact, and he had been trying to solve his maths problems. It had been the same day last week and the boy infront of him, Lucas, had been texting some one from under his desk. Beep! Went the phone, every time he pressed a button. The noise was not loud enough for the teacher to hear, but it was extremely annoying for Will, who had not had a good day and now had a splitting headache; he for once was trying to concentrate. Crassus had stirred, deep in the depths of Will’s mind, woken by his growing anger.

“Want to take care of that Will? He had said. “I know you have amigraine.” Will had narrowed his eyes at Lucas’ back. Crassus didn’t say anything else until Will was practically on the verge of breaking point. The teacher had gone out of the classroom to photocopy some algebra sheets. Crassus had taken his chance. “You know you want to strangle him, break every bone in his body and stamp on that stupid phone of his. Go on, the teachers gone. You could do it now.” Another loud bleep reached Will’s ears. He had stood up, breathing heavily, his heart pounding. “Good boy.” Will had taken Lucas’ head in his hands and slamed it hard into the desk over and over again. Lucas cried out in pain, dropping the phone, and Will had stamped on it hard with his New Rock boots, making sure it was smashed to smithereens. He continued with Lucas’ head until his nose was completely broken. Lucas had been taken completely by surprise. The teacher, Mr Leithes, had walked in and, seeing what was happening, calmly pressed the button on his desk and reached for the blue box, taking out of it a syringe. Will had taken no notice of this, and no one had tried to stop him, because they knew his strength and temper. He had systematically broken all Lucas’ fingers by bending them back until they snapped. He listened to the noise, enjoying it with the knowledge that he would not be able to text (let alone do anything else) for a long time. Then he had pushed him out of his chair, onto the floor, and wrapped his hands around his throat and began to strangle slowly. Four emergency medics had rushed into the room, and Mr Leithes had stuck the syringe into his shoulder. Lucas had seen, through his red misted vision, Will’s dilated pupils widen, and then his hands relaxed and he slumped forward.

They had been brought to the Nurse, and Will had been taken into The Room. He woke up thoroughly doped with sedative. He could hear the Nurse’s voice floating to him from somewhere.

“Aaahh. William. You’re awake.” He had tried to move, but found he couldn’t. “What happened then? What did Lucas do to annoy you? Did you get told to attack him?” Will had closed his eyes and refused to answer. The Nurse had sighed. “Will.” She had said softly. I’m trying to help you here. I also need answers for school records.”

“He was texting. It was annoying me. I had a migraine.” The Nurse wrote this down and picked up a cup. She tilted Will’s head so he could drink, helping him. He sat up slowly, the drink chasing away the effects of the sedative. The Room was white, no windows, padded walls and a soft mattress on the floor. When someone cracked, they bought in a chair and a straight jacket. Will had experienced this many times when he had completely lost it. ‘Welcome to The Academy! School for the Mentally Ill!’ He thought bitterly.

He noticed how one hand was handcuffed to the small iron ring in the wall. He tugged at it, then glanced at the Nurse.

“Ummm…Will…We noticed that you don’t have many friends…and I’m going to ask you if you would like to share a room with someone?”

“Who?” he said sharply, his eyes narrowing.

“Seth Cavallo.” She said calmly, inspecting him for his reaction. Will snorted.

“You expect me to share a room andtry to be friendly with that block of ice?” He said scornfully. She nodded. “Is this for his sake or mine?” he asked suspiciously.

“His. He asked if he could share a room with someone. I said he could and then he asked if it could be you.” Will was silent. Personally, he was totally freaked out. Everyone, mentally retarded or not, knew Seth Cavallo as The Ice Prince. He had no friends, not because no one wanted to be friends with him, but because he rejected them all. Now people just left him alone. He was totally icy and cold, extremely clever, and held himself like a prince. He was the kind of person you knew nothing about, but seemed to know everything about you. He was also extremely manipulative.

“You agree to this?” The Nurse asked him. He nodded. This would be interesting.

Will came back to his thoughts with a jolt as he noticed he had been staring at Louise, a girl who he knew was terrified of him. He could see she was on the verge of breaking point. He supposed it was because when he had first come to The Academy, he had not found it as easy to control his ‘voices’ as he could do now. He had hurt her badly on several occasions.

Will shut his eyes, put his head on his hands and returned to his thoughts. It was Friday today, and this was the last lesson before dinner, and then bed at ten o’clock.

The Nurse had warned him to say nothing about the room issue (As if he would! He didn’t have any friends either, mostly because people were scared of him, and he didn’t like being close to anyone) and that they would begin to share a room in a week. Seth had acted like he always did, like he didn’t know Will, and all in all it had been a fairly dull week. They met after dinner outside the dance studio (Seth did ballet and dance) and not saying anything, Seth led the way to their new room.