Jamie sat slouched over his work as Mr. Crass droned on about capital cities… or maybe it was oxbow lakes. To be honest he wasn’t concentrating.
Instead he closed his eyes and imagined himself in the Congo, or fighting Simali pirates, or debating the Iraq War Trials.

Jamie didn’t want to be Jamie: he wanted to be a somebody, not a nobody like him. Nobody wants to be a nobody. But he knew that in this small, backward town there was no way he could ever accomplish anything worth the world’s noting.

He could still dream though, especially in geography lessons. Even though in twenty years he would be fixing cars like his father, he could still pretend that somewhere, something incredible was waiting for him.