Authors Notes: Several of you have remarked on the quality of the prison. This is not technically a prison, it's a juvenile detention facility. Most of these are run on a boarding school type organization. Unless the juvenile is a real danger, i.e. has committed a violent crime of some sort, or are a second time offender, they are usually sent to open campus type detention facilities. Heero, since his records were fudged to a fair thee well, wound up at one of these. The idea in these facilities is rehabilitation/retraining not punishment. The ‘students' are expected to learn to behave in an acceptable manner and encouraged to continue in studies and learn a trade or occupation. (Sort of boot camp with benefits.)

Thank you to my patient beta Calic0cat.

*thoughts*
**Duo nagging**

Duo sighed. Chemistry class. This was just weird. He knew more about chemistry than anybody his age needed to. He could make a very effective bomb from farm chemicals.

"Mr. Maxwell! Mr. Maxwell, do I need to repeat the question?"

"Uh . . . yes sir. I'm sorry, my mind wandered." Duo jerked his attention back to the teacher's lecture.

"Yes, well wandering minds lead to low grades. Pay attention. The question was what will happen when I drop this quantity of this chemical into this beaker."

Duo eyed the beaker and felt sick. He knew that the teacher wasn't going to believe him when he told him what was going to happen, but he tried.

"It's gonna make a hell of an explosion, probably take out most of the room. If you really are gonna do that, I'm outta here. Bye."

"Mr. Maxwell, are you implying that I don't know my business?"

"No sir. I'm implying that you're no math teacher. That quantity indicates that you've misplaced a decimal. Move the decimal one place to the left and it'll be ok."

Duo went out into the hall. He didn't know what to do. That teacher was going to get several of the kids in the room seriously hurt. He might even kill himself and one or two closer students.

*Damn. What do I do? I can't just walk off, but he's not gonna believe me. I'm just a kid . . . this sucks!*

"Mr. Maxwell, what are you doing in the hall? Not in trouble your first week, are you?"

Duo looked at the Headmaster for a minute, and then made a decision, hoping he was right.

"I just left on my own. The teacher won't listen to me because I'm just a kid. But he's made a mistake in his math and he's gonna get himself and a bunch of others hurt. That's way too much magnesium. It's gonna explode all over everything."

Just then, several other students left the room also. They didn't like the look of the experiment either, and had decided to take the chance that the Headmaster would only give them detention if Duo was wrong.

The sudden explosion was stronger than Duo had expected. It blew out the window in the classroom door, scattering glass across the hall. It also blew out the outside windows in a shower of glass and wood.

The screams reminded Duo way too much of a battle field. He headed into the room and started triage

"Here, young man. Get out of here. We have to wait for the EMT's."

"Damnit! We can't wait! You're gonna have at least three casualties if we don't do something right now. Get me the first aid kit and get outta my way."

Just then two teachers arrived. Both of them had EMT training and took over from Duo without making a big fuss. Duo watched for a moment and, seeing that they really did know what they were doing satisfied himself with playing fetch and carry.

"Here, you need a bigger pack than that. I'll run down to the nurse's office and get more dressings. We got to get that bleeding stopped, quick."

The Head master watched Duo. He wondered exactly how this young friend of Quatre Winner had learned so much about first aid. He was going to put a note in Duo's file so they would know he had first aid training. It could be important sometime.

Duo meanwhile was shuttling first aid supplies from the nurse's office as needed. And trying not to have major flashbacks. The sight and smell of blood was getting to him, big time.

Quatre ran up from clear across the campus. He'd heard the explosion. Trowa and Wufei weren't far behind him.

"Duo, what the hell happened here?"

" Aw . . . Trowa, that Chemistry teacher can't do math, he used way too much mag and blew the chem. lab up. We got casualties all over. I think he may have killed himself. Shit!"

Duo covered his face with a bloody hand; he'd thought he'd never have to do triage again. So much for after the wars.

Wufei turned to the nearest adult. Waiting until he had the man's attention, he asked if they could take Duo away.

"He is having trouble with all the blood. He's got it on his hands and it's upsetting him. I'd like to take him away and get him washed up. If that's ok with you, Sir."

"Yes, yes, that's a good idea. He doesn't need to be here. It's not something children should see. Take him away and get him cleaned up. He'll need to see the school counselor tomorrow."

"No Sir, he has a counselor and I'll make sure he speaks to her about this. Thank you for letting us take him away."

Wufei gathered Duo up and took him into the restroom at the far end of the hall and washed his hands and face. Duo didn't object, even thought most boys his age would have had a fit. He was just glad he had someone to help him. The comfort of having Wufei help him get clean and away from the mess was worth a little embarrassment.

"Fei? Thanks. Really."

"Don't call me Fei. My name is Wufei. Welcome. Come on, Quatre sent Trowa for the car. We're leaving for the day."

Wufei guided Duo away to the car and they all went home to hot chocolate and biscotti. Duo had a session with his therapist and felt much better. They all talked to the therapist.

~ * ~

"Is there a problem Mr. Winner-Yuy?"

"Yes sir. I believe there is a small one. Did you check your math? I'm not trying to be impertinent, but I believe that you are using too much Magnesium."

The teacher was tired. He'd taught the same class since 7 a.m. and had decided to demonstrate a different experiment this time; it was all chemistry after all. Now here was this kid, telling him he'd made a mistake.

"Ok, if you're so sure . . . why don't you prove your point? If I'm wrong, ok; if you're wrong, it's a detention for interrupting the class. "

"Very well. May I go to the front? I'll work on the green board so you may check my work."

"Sure, knock yourself out. Whatever."

Heero went to the front of the room and, taking the marker, started recalculating the proportions in the equation. The chemical formula was easy, he'd known it as long as he could remember. In fact, Odin Low had made him figure proportions until he could do it in his sleep, literally.

"So . . . here is where you made your mistake. The decimal place is one place too far to the right. If you used that much magnesium, you'd blow the room to bits. It's not that hard to do, but the results can be disastrous. I'm sorry if I made you look bad."

Pale and shaken by the near-disaster, the teacher reassured Heero, "That's ok. I'd rather look bad than have that kind of mistake get by. You did good. I'm very glad to have someone with nerve like yours in my classes. Thank you for saving me from making a very bad mistake."

Heero eyed the teacher for a moment. Then gave him a slight nod and a ‘hn' of approval. He was going to have to be more careful, he knew. Most boys his age wouldn't have known that the experiment was dangerous, but he really didn't want to be blown up. It would upset Duo to no end.

"Well guys, you can thank Mr. Winner-Yuy for saving your asses. Did anyone else see that mistake? If you did, you'd better not fess up now, ‘cause I'll just think you're show boating. But if you did and just figured you'd let it slide, remember this: I may be on the front line, but you're all in here too. An explosion of that size . . . well . . . I don't quite know . . . yes Mr. Winner-Yuy?"

"An explosion of the size generated by the amount of chemical you were working with would have killed everyone within a four-foot radius and decommissioned anyone within six feet. The chances of anyone escaping unscathed . . . 10%. "

Heero watched the other boys; all fourteen realized that they had narrowly escaped being seriously hurt. He knew that even the ones that knew it was going to be a larger blast than planned hadn't known how much bigger. *Well shit. Fish and mouth.*

~ * ~

"That Winner-Yuy boy knows things that I don't think a kid his age should."

"Headmaster, those street kids know all kinds of stuff. They talk to the people that hire them for mule jobs, and some of those kids were Ozzie ‘properties' so they are really screwed up. The things that happened to them would make a maggot puke. That boy was most likely picked up in a sweep of old Oz barracks and pushed though trial quickly. You know how they do juveniles, especially in these times."

"Still no jacket on him? Well, we'll just keep one from arrival on. We have his sentence chit and that's really all we need."

"No, we don't. We haven't gotten that either. All I know is he's been charged with crimes against society. So we're actually holding him illegally."

The Headmaster frowned; he had a bad feeling about this whole thing. Something was going on. He'd sent in a request for paper work on Winner-Yuy, Heero and gotten nothing back. In fact, the response, while couched in bureaucratic blithering, had amounted to ‘who?'.

~ * ~

this chapter and the next are really short, I'm still getting a feel for the story. But the fourth chapter is shaping up to be a ‘Sunhawk' chapter.