John felt his sister hold him even more tightly as a sound of a body dropping to the ground sounded unnaturally loud. He sneaked a peek from his sister's embrace trying to ignore the tears that was wetting his sandy hair.
His mother trembled in pain on the ground as his father's face contorted in an inhuman way.
What once was his safe haven had now become a war-zone.
John Watson woke with a start. He blinked hard as he looked at his surroundings, his brain still trying to wake up from the traumatizing memories…
Tears welled up prickling the back of his eyes. John wanted to slap himself to snap out of it. He was being such a crybaby over something that affected him the least. He felt a blush of embarrassment and anger heat up.
But the tears snuck out of his eyes and onto his cheeks. Eventually he gave up the fight against his own emotions allowing the silence and the solitary atmosphere caress and protect him.
His gaze followed the white moonlight which shone onto his alarm clock stating that it was 5:30 a.m. He rubbed his face hoping that maybe even a faint feeling of drowsiness would come back again, but of course, no such luck for John Watson. He was wide awake with his brain churning at a thousand miles per hour.
He was six and his sister was twelve at the time. His father came home drunk and discharged from work.
That was his first taste of the long gruelling period torture of dread and panic which awaited his mother, sister and himself.
His thoughts came back to him as he forced himself to stop, to tear down the projector playing these painful memories. What he needed the most right now was courage. Courage to face his past, present and future.
Because tomorrow would be another battle. He was to attend Sherrinford secondary in a matter of few hours and he needs all the courage he can muster up to be able to succeed in having a pleasant rest of the year in school.
Suddenly drowsiness started finding its way to him and he decided that it was best that he catch a few last winks before going off to battle.
When his brain officially decided that it would start up, John was already at the bus station.
He took a deep breath before immediately regretting the decision as the bus rolled along to his stop. The ancient looking school bus reeked of diesel and jerked to a stop in front of John and Harry.
"Well, good luck to us both I suppose." Harry sighed as she let John into the bus first before following suit.
John surveyed the armoured car. The bus driver seemed nice enough, smiling while exchanging pleasantry with Harry and John. John couldn't help but notice the night and day contrast between the screeching laughter that sounded from the back and the deafening silence in the front that could almost be felt by a wipe of the hand.
"Hurry up John, you're not going to marry the person you sit next to on the bus." Harry hissed behind him as she pushed him into a random seat in the middle of the bus before trudging to the back of the bus.
John's eyes followed his sister who was already introducing herself to the kids in the back of the bus. One of the few things he admired about her was her unbeatable self-confidence and charisma. She could easily waltz into a room full of strangers and walk out ten minutes later with a group of people buzzing around her.
"I'm sure your sister will fit right in, especially with her new tattoo."
John's head whipped around in surprise as his eyes first set on the boy who was sitting beside him.
"How… I mean I don't even…"
"Oh I I'm sorry, I reckoned that she'd gotten permission…"
John sighed, his sister has quite a rebellious (to say the least) personality.
"My mom's going to flip, anyways, how did you know? I mean sure she's been wearing loose clothing lately but that's all I've noticed." John laughed a bit as the kid smiled back at him.
"Oh, I just saw her coming out of the tattoo parlour the other day while me and my mates were hanging out. By the way, my name's Greg, Greg Lestrade." Greg explained before introducing himself.
"I'm John, John Watson. So, do you have any siblings?" John asked starting a conversation as the bus continued to rattle on towards the battlefield.
The bus doors opened letting the kids off and assimilate with the rest of the school. John waved goodbye to his new friend and started to head up towards his first class, Pre-Cal.
Ah, nothing beats a 'gentle' dose of Pre-Cal to kick off your mornings. John thought sarcastically towards himself as he climbed up the vinyl floored stairs past the large windows and continued to the second flight of stairs. And the best thing is that it's on the third freaking floor. John couldn't help but grumble to himself as he reached the third floor.
It wasn't much of an exercise, just tiresome, especially on a Monday morning and to get to Maths no less. John set his bag on the floor and picked a spot by the window where the gentle winter rain tapped relentlessly on the window as if asking for permission to come inside. The consequences of not sleeping properly were finally getting to him now because he could feel himself dosing off to the gentle pitter patter of the rain hitting the window. This was the first time he felt truly relaxed inside the school walls, without the noise and presence of any human being except for himself.
"eh hem."
John swore he jumped a meter into the air at the sound of someone clearing their throat.
"I'm sorry to have frighten you but this is my spot as the seating plan on the board states."
An apology ensued but John could find no sign of regret on the boy's face. As reluctant to move as John was, he took his bag and stood up from the spot and blushed slightly in embarrassment.
"Oh, um I'm sorry to have taken your spot, I'm new so-"
"Yes, of course, your name's John Watson, you're new and you have an older sibling, not very economically well off because your father had just left your family but I can see your mother still trying to pull things together. Honestly, let's just skip the tedious small talks and get to "know" each other. My name's Sherlock Homes, hello, and I'm sure we'll never talk to each other again after today."
It took ten seconds for John Watson to realize what the hell was going on, twenty seconds to think of how his mouth functioned and thirty seconds to make an attempt at pulling words together to form a sentence.
"First, do I need to call the police to catch a potential stalker?"
"No, I'm not a stalker."
"Alright, second, that would've been astonishing if you haven't said it like that."
"You might've noticed that I don't tend to sugar coat things."
"Thirdly, why in the world would I want to talk to you?"
"Because you seem like the talkative type and apparently, we're going to be sitting right beside each other for the duration of the year."
"Right, now the most important question."
"Yes?"
"Who the hell are you and how do you know all this?"
"I told you, I'm Sherlock Holmes and as to how I know this, I'm not one to reveal my methods. You can know me as the class freak."
And with that, Sherlock refused to say anymore.
John was left shocked yet curious. His new desk partner was turning out to be quite interesting if not a bit odd…
The day dragged on until history which was one of John's favourite subjects. People can think what ever they want about him but history, culture and politics fascinated him.
Even though Sherrinford proved to have a deliciously interesting history class, his thoughts kept flying back to the lanky, pale boy who sat beside him in maths. He knew that curiosity kills the cat but Sherlock was quite unlike anyone he's ever met before. He was still trying to figure out how Sherlock seemingly knew his entire life story within the minute without stalking him.
So, he knows that Sherlock hadn't stalked him, Sherlock couldn't have known him because he lived in a completely different part of town, so then what? He stated himself that he was a "freak" which meant he probably wasn't gossiping with people about the new kid.
The sharp ring of the bell sliced through John's train of thoughts.
"Alright class, remember, the reflection is due tomorrow!"
Ms. Smith raised her voice, trying in vain to catch the class's attention but seeing that almost half of the class shot out of the classroom as soon as the bell rung, Ms. Smith probably won't be collecting much reflections from the class tomorrow.
John started packing, trying to wake his brain up to get ready for science class. But the thought of more work seemed to have the opposite affect he wanted because he felt even more tired as he followed the stream of student going upstairs to the second floor.
Suddenly something caught the corner of his eye, a lanky, pale teen with raven black curls was shoved into the washroom by a group of people who swarmed in after like a pack of ravenous wolves.
John stepped out of the river of people and soon found himself in front of the man's washroom. Even though he never took a real liking to his desk partner he found himself unable to step away from this injustice. He was scared of course, looking at himself he was probably only half the size of even the smallest of the pack.
Then an idea came to mind.
"Oh, hello Mr. Roylott, yeah sorry, I just wanted to talk about some English homework."
John said into the washroom door making sure that the people inside could hear. He cringed inside at the "this person is insane" look that everyone that walked by shot him but to his absolute delight, the pack filed out looking around with very pale faces.
As soon as the last of the pack was out of sight, John rushed into the washroom seeing Sherlock huddled in the corner where the light couldn't reach seemingly lost in thought.
"Hey, are you alight?" John walked up extending a hand wanting to help the other up.
Sherlock took his hand while holding his side with the other hand.
"Thank you."
With a small muttering of thanks, he rushed out of the washroom leaving John there alone before hurrying out remembering how late he was for science class.
The next time he seemed to resurface from his ocean of thought was when the bus jerked to a stop in front of his stop symbolizing that it was time he got of the yellow tin box of diesel.
"So, how was your day at school?" Harry asked starting a conversation as they started back towards their home.
"Interesting to say the least, I met this kid named Sherlock Holmes and he seemed to be able to tell me my entire life story just by looking at me. How insane is that?! Anyways, how was yours?" John summed it up before returning the question.
"Fine, I guess, I got some new friends so that's good. We all need a little group to hang around to survive secondary." Harry shrugged starting to walk on the now barren ground beside the sidewalk.
"Of course you meet new friends on the first day of school. Classic Harriet Watson." John muttered feeling a tinge of jealousy rise in his chest, but just a little bit.
"Jealous, are we?" Harry laughed ruffling John's hair. "To be honest, you're a good person. They don't know what they're missing."
"Now that's just creepy, a compliment from Harriet and to me no less." John slapped her hand away as they approached their house.
"Hey, it's our first day at Sherrinford and I just thought that a little compliment would go a long way. You know, just trying to be a supportive big sister." Harry held her hands up as if surrendering.
"Well, we all have to begin somewhere don't we?" John stole a glance at Harry who rolled her eyes in disapproval.
Harry took out the keys and unlocked the door letting herself and John in before locking the door behind them which symbolized the end of a tiresome school day.