Going to a new school was nothing new to Maurice. He'd never gone to one quite this small, though. It was so small it was almost overwhelming; everyone would be friends already, and no matter how much he pushed his way into their already-made groups, he would be alone.

Perhaps he could convince his parents to let him go to the larger school twenty miles away, in the bigger town. But no, they lived in this little town. He would have to walk to this school every day and then walk home and probably never have any friends –

No. No, he was positive. That was one of his character traits. Positive. Maurice equals positive.

"We'll both be at work when you get back from school, so just have a snack and do whatever," his mother said as he zipped up his backpack. Maurice nodded, grinned, and bounced out of the house. He glanced at his watch. Good. He still had thirty minutes before he had to be at school, and only two blocks to walk. He could dawdle. And possibly climb that tree over there, it looked like a very good climbing tree.

One falling out of a tree later, Maurice brushed grass off of his pants and ran to school. He had five minutes.

He probably should not have stopped to climb the tree.

"Hi," he said breathlessly to the teacher as he entered the room. Thank God for parents wanting to make sure that you knew what room you were going to. Even if you're in fourth grade now and can probably figure it out yourself.

"You're the new student, correct? Maurice?" the teacher, a middle-aged woman with badly dyed hair, asked. Maurice nodded and grinned. "Everyone's just getting in from recess, why don't you… oh, Bill, you're here. Show Maurice to his locker. He can put his backpack there."

A very cool-looking kid with blond hair looked up from his Captain Underpants book – oh, he was a very cool kid – and nodded. He put a piece of paper in the book to mark his place and walked out of the room. Maurice hurried to follow, and Bill stopped in front of a row of bright purple lockers. Maurice briefly wondered why the lockers were purple, then realized that Bill had been speaking.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Maurice said, grinning a little. Bill rolled his eyes.

"I said, put your bag in here," Bill said. "And grab your stuff. Be prepared. If you're prepared every day you get a little bag of M&Ms at the end of the quarter. Same if you get perfect attendance. And on the honor roll."

Maurice had a suspicion that Bill got three little bags of M&Ms at the end of each quarter.

After shoving his backpack in his new purple locker and grabbing his stuff, Maurice was the last person in the hallway. Everyone else must have gotten in from recess already. Maurice shrugged and bounced back over to his classroom, pausing just outside of it.

"And today we have a new student!" he heard the teacher say. Maurice decided that this was the perfect time to enter.

"Hi," he said, grinning. "I'm Maurice."

"Why don't you sit… oh, Roger's got an empty seat beside him," the teacher said. Maurice grinned at the student she was pointing at; a very angry-looking boy with creepy glaring eyes and dead flies all around his desk. Really, it was kind of amazing that he'd managed to get so many dead flies in such a small amount of time, unless this school was too poor to have a janitor.

Or maybe he saved dead flies he killed at home and brought them to school and sprinkled them around his desk to avoid friendly people.

That was likely.

"Excuse me?" the teacher asked. "Are you going to sit down? Roger won't bite you."

"Actually he probably will!" someone called from the back. Everyone turned to look at this person, who was actually Bill, who had very quickly returned to his Captain Underpants book. He looked up. "What? It's true."

"No, he'll throw rocks at him," another kid suggested.

"He'll stab at him with sticks," a small, innocent-looking boy in the front row said. He glanced around nervously. "Not that I know from experience."

Maurice grinned and went to go sit by this interesting, insane-sounding person. As soon as he sat down and got all of his things in his desk, he leaned over. "Hi! I'm Maurice."

Roger muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'don't care leave me alone freak.' Or maybe it was just 'don't care.'

"You look very unfriendly," Maurice said. Roger glared at him for a few seconds, then went back to glaring at his desk. "But I think you just need a hug."

"Wha- don't touch me," Roger said. Maurice reached over and hugged him, and Roger stiffened. Roger then proceeded to hit Maurice repeatedly, all while repeating what seemed to be his favorite three words – "Don't touch me don't touch me don't touch me…"

"Um, Maurice?" the teacher asked. "Could you let go of Roger now?"

Maurice liked his new school.

And Roger.

The classes were fun because they were small, and during the winter there was always lots of people sick or snowed in, so half the time they didn't do anything! There was music class, which was fun, except this kid in their class named Jack liked to brag about his beautiful singing voice. Gym class was fun, especially when they got to play flag football and Roger would almost always get in trouble for tacking someone when he was supposed to just rip off the flags.

And recess was fun, too, of course. Maurice basically followed Roger around and annoyed him. He had rocks thrown at him more than a few times. Once Roger nearly poked his eye out with a stick but instead scratched his cornea and then Maurice had to go to the doctor.

Also once they were playing tag on the jungle gym and Maurice got too close to Roger and Roger pushed him and that's how Maurice broke his arm.

But Maurice still liked Roger, mostly because once he actually caught Roger sneaking into the room and sprinkling dead flies around his desk. Naturally, Maurice asked him why, and Roger replied, "So that people don't talk to me."

Roger was such a funny person.

And then it was Valentine's Day. By the laws of their classroom, they were required to bring a valentine for everyone in their class. Instead of being cool and buying all of his valentines, Maurice decided to make them all.

It took a long time but it was more personal.

He drew a penguin with sunglasses on Bill's card. On the inside it said, "You're cool." Upon receiving this, Bill looked at Maurice and said, "I know."

Jack's card had a bird on it and on the inside it said, "Apparently you like to sing and that's good I guess?" Jack looked slightly insulted, but let it slide once Maurice gave him a mini Snickers bar.

But the important card was the one he gave Roger.

It was shaped like a heart and said, "Will you be my Valentine?" because Maurice had a weird crush on Roger.

Upon getting this valentine, Roger turned bright red and shoved it in his backpack. He then walked over to Maurice, stepping carefully over the border of dead flies, and shoved a piece of paper in his hand, then ran out of the room.

Maurice opened the valentine and was faced with something obviously stolen from the internet, but still cute.

"Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

AVADA KEDAVRA.

I love you."

"Awwww," Maurice said, grinning and turning a little red. "I didn't know Roger liked Harry Potter and can we be best friends and then fall in love now?"

"Dude," Bill, who was passing by him, said. "You're like nine."

I don't even know what this is but it's cute I think?