The door opened and Liam walked in breathing harder than he wanted to be.
Every head in the room turned.
Twenty something faces, all of them finding him at once, standing in the doorway with his bag on one shoulder and his chest still moving and whatever was left of Silent Stride fading out of his legs.
Miss Kelly looked at him from the front.
She had the particular stillness of someone who had been expecting this and had decided in advance how it was going to go.
Liam walked to the front and stood there and caught his breath for one second.
"Sorry Miss Kelly," he said. "My alarm didn't go off again. I promise this is the last time."
She looked at him the way she looked at things she had heard before. Not angry exactly. Something more controlled than angry. The whole class was in the silence with them.
"Come and see me in my office after class," she said. "Sorry won't do today."
"Yes Miss Kelly."
"Sit down."
He sat.
