This is a possible opening to a short story/possible play that I'm working on. The story focuses on the parents of the kid in this, but I thought it would be a nice bit of background for the story even though these two characters do not reappear. Any thoughts on if that makes sense or if you think it will be confusing.... I don' know. I've only written a few pages of the actual story, but I couldn't get their kid out of my head. At least it's not in my head anymore.
Spectrum
The boy waiting in her office had always puzzled her. There were few students who were sent to her by teachers rather than parents, but the teacher nominated students were almost always a sure bet to excel with her. He was well behaved, from a well to do family, like most of the students at the school, he was friendly, quiet, but friendly. There was just something about him that puzzled her. She'd watched him for nearly five minutes and he hadn't begun to fidget, the younger ones always fidgeted, but he simply sat.
"Sorry about that," the woman said, closing the door behind her. "Albert? Albert?"
"Yes ma'am," the boy replied blankly.
"I was just apologizing for the delay," she said, scooting her chair up to her desk.
"That's okay."
"You look like you were thinking pretty hard on something. Are you okay?"
"Your clock is off by five seconds," the boy said.
"Just five seconds?"
"Five seconds or two days."
"What?"
"A minute is sixty seconds, but your clock makes a full circle in fifty-five seconds. So, a minute is only fifty-five seconds in here. That means an hour is only fifty-five minutes. That's a twenty-two hour day. Thirty twenty-two hour days is six hundred sixty hours in a month instead of seven hundred and twenty hours. That's sixty hours difference, and if you divide that by twenty-four you get two days and a few hours every month. Could be a month a year..." the boy trailed off.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "About the math?"
"I don't know," the boy said wiping his eyes. "I didn't have paper or anything. You asked what I was thinking about. It doesn't have to be right if I'm only thinking about it."
"That's right," she smiled. "Albert, do you know what Spectrum is?"
"The group for the really smart kids."
"The advanced students," she corrected him. "I think you'd benefit from joining our group, and i think you'd enjoy getting to push yourself. Do you get bored in class?"
"Sometimes," he said.
She watched the boy's eyes flit to the clock, and she wanted to ask if he was bored now but resisted.
"It really bothers you doesn't it?" she asked, pointing her pen to the clock.
"I don't know. No."
She rose from the desk and took the large dictionary from bookshelf. She felt the boy's eyes on her as she, on tiptoe, lifted the dictionary above her head and knocked the round clock from its nail, letting it bounce on the floor before returning to her desk to laugh with the boy.
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You're new and it looks like you could use a few friends.