“Albert Einstein,” Mrs Whitiker was saying. “A very famous, brilliant man. But how many of you realise that he was a mutant too?”
“Albert Einstein was a mutant?” repeated one of the boys, Ryan.
“Yes. Not much is known on his actual mutation, but we do know he had Intelligence.”
A little snickering erupted. Mrs Whitiker gave them a sardonic look.
“He also had Electricity and Light. It is theorised that his mutation was a major factor in him developing his many theories,” she noticed a hand go up. “Yes Katie?”
“Did he every theorise why we become mutants?”
“A good question. If he ever did, he never wrote them down, or passed them along. Probably the same reason why we don’t know the details of his mutation.”
Another hand went up.
“Then how do we know what his powers were?”
“The evidence. There are papers written by people who knew him that tell us what powers he had. Can anyone -” Mrs Whitiker was cut off by a sickening cry of pain and anguish from one of the students.
Everyone turned to look at the source - a boy named Brendan. Many looked away again, either a little embarrassed, sickened, felt they shouldn’t be looking, or a mixture of two, or all three. For at this very moment, four spiders legs that had been growing out of his sides when into a sudden growth spurt and they all could see these large, spindly legs grow almost a whole foot in just under a minute. A fourth eye appeared on his head and his two fangs grew a little bigger.
At last it stopped and poor Brendan sat there whimpering and shaking on his stood, sweat dripping all over him. Ken was always weirded out when he saw stuff like this happen. He was glad that his powers never mutated like that!
Mrs Whitiker pressed a button on the wall and walked over to Brendan.
“We’ll get you taken to the nurse to they can take a look at you, okay? Has it finished?”
Brendan could only nod.
“Good. They won’t be long.”
There was silence, other than Brendan’s heavy breathing and whimpering. It just didn’t feel right to say anything, not after that. Ken watched him for a moment, remembering when some of the Ducks had gone through similar things. Averman, Julie, Adam and Guy were luckier than some, they could change from human to their respective animals when they wanted to, well, except maybe Guy who constantly had to fight with the Duck mind inside his head for control over his body. But Peter and Terry and Jes- and all the rest have become half human, half animal or some other mutation that changed them so much physically there was no chance of them playing ice hockey again. Sure, he hadn’t played with any that had left before he joined, but he had met all of them.
Ken’s eyes floated over to Charlie, who was simply staring into space. His girlfriend, Linda, certainly had a strange mutation, but not entirely uncommon. She was constantly changing from human to a dog, depending on the light. The darker it was the more she looked like a dog. The lighter it was the more she looked like a human. She never seemed to look the same way twice, except at either extreme. There were a lot of mutants like that, who changed form depending on their very surroundings.
He wished Einstein did come up with some theory, and left it behind for people to find. Maybe then they’d find a way to stop all these insane mutations. It wouldn’t be so bad to have these powers if only they didn’t mutate!
The door opened and a couple of men entered pushing a bed with wheels. They helped Brendan on it, and he was wheeled out of the classroom.
There was more silence for a good thirty seconds and Mrs Whitiker cleared her throat.
“I would like you all to read chapter two in your texts,” she said as the bell rang, “and do the questions at the end by next class. Dismissed.”