Billy Rice is one of the younger kids at school. He's a weepy child, the kind that bursts into tears over the smallest upsets. He's that annoying little brother who won't even try to get his hat back when the older kids take it, but stands there wailing or runs home bawling for mommy instead. Now, you'd think a kid like that would get picked on, especially with that heavy, portective suit he wears. No one's really sure what the suit is made of, but it's a waxy, gray material, and very thick. And the it's just too big for little Billy. They built it so he could "grow into it," but for the moment it's all lumps and folds and he often has to readjust the black glass faceplate so he can see out of it.
But Billy? The kids mostly leave him alone. Aside from the fact that a kid who wails like a fire engine is only a tempting target for bullies when there are no teachers around, the other kids have seen what happens when Billy gets upset. They've seen how the seams of the waxy, gray suit start to glow a brilliant white that leaves spots in your vision even after you look away. They've felt the heat that radiates off of Billy, even through the protective suit. They've seen the heat-warped floors and the blistered walls Billy's tantrum's leave behind. A few of them, the kids who sit close to him in class, have even spent a little time in the nurse's office thanks to Billy.
But it's not so much what the kids have seen and felt that gives them pause. It's what they've heard. Ask any of the students who've been here a while and they'll tell you about the last time some bullies decided to pick on Billy. There was this one big, scaly kid named Eddie Marsh, a real nasty piece of work. He found Billy quietly playing by himself out by the rocks where some of the big kids go to smoke, so decided to have some fun. Seems he pulled Billy's mask off and knocked him down. And Billy, well, he did what he always does when someone's mean to him: started screaming and bawling and crying. And of course, burning.
The teachers all say that's not what happened. There was a fire back there, that's all. Probably caused by a lightning strike. Billy was never out where the big kids smoke. And Eddie? His parents pulled him out of school. But it's funny how Eddie's parents didn't pull his brother out of school. And how Peter Marsh doesn't talk about his brother and won't come within a hundred feet of Billy. As for that being a fire caused by a lightning strike? No one's supposed to go back there anymore, but of course that just guarantees that some of the kids do. They say there's a circle back there now that's just empty, nothing but blasted, blackened dirt. The trees along the edge of the circle are all singed, but inside the circle there's just nothing. Lightning didn't do that. And lightning sure as hell didn't turn those rocks into flowing, black glass.
So Billy mostly gets left alone. He trundles happily around the school in his oversized suit, calling out muffled greetings to the few kids who are actually nice to him. But he has his own room where he eats alone three times a day, and he doesn't really have any friends. And the longer he stays that way, living in an isolated bubble, the less likely it seems that he'll ever be well-adjusted enough to fully control his powers.
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