"Class!" the teacher shouted as she attempted to calm the boisterous group. She clapped her hands and directed their gazes to the front. "Today we have a new student," she said cheerily. The boy by her side stood slightly hunched with his head hanging slightly. His black hair reflected almost silver under the florescent lighting and his lime green Converse were holding the majority of his attention. "Introduce yourself, sweetie," the teacher whispered.

His head shot up and he locked eye randomly with his new classmates before finally saying, "Um…I-I'm Tadashi Hamada…" and hanging his head again.

Sensing the anxious air around the boy, his teacher had him sit. Tadashi's seat was beside a very bubbly girl, Hannah, he'd learned, and stationed in the second row. The teacher, whose name he finally learned was Ms. Alleghany, began writing on the white board about ecosystems. Tadashi internally groaned and pulled out his notebook; he had just learned this two weeks earlier at his old school. So instead of taking a refresher course, he let his mind start to wander. It wandered to his little brother who was with their aunt. He thought about how Hiro wouldn't remember much about their parents in a few years. Or how Hiro would grow up with an aunt as his mommy. He worried for his Aunt Cass, who now had to take care of them. He'd already seen her break down when she thought the boys were asleep and she always looked so tired, after all she had a business to run-

A bell sounded and all the students scrambled out the door. Tadashi snapped back from his mind and shoved the excessively–doodled on notebook in his bag. He looked at the clock and saw he'd wasted two hours; it was lunchtime apparently.

In the cafeteria, Tadashi scanned for a free seat. The eight-year-old held his lunch box close, mindlessly tracing the doodles his mother would add as well as the Japanese words he barely understood.

"Tadashi!" someone shouted over the other kids. He looked around before his eyes landed on a waving Hannah. He smiled slightly and made his way over, taking the seat she patted. Out of his fog, Tadashi could see Hannah was kind of cute. She had long blonde hair thrown into two separate ponytails and pink overalls that transitioned to a denim skirt at the waist. Her sneakers were sparkly and when she tapped her foot against the plastic seat they lit up.

Two others came over to sit; a tallish boy with really dark skin and a very tiny Asian girl. They took the seats in front of Tadashi and Hannah.

"Hi, guys! This is Tadashi!"

"We know, Honey," the Asian girl said, "he sits in front of me. 'Sabi's on the left." Hannah - Honey? – blushed and nodded.

"Hush, Leiko!" she giggled, "I forgot you and Wasabi were in my class! Sor-ry!" Tadashi smiled at her attempt at being sassy.

Leiko instead rolled her dark eyes. "Whatever," she jammed a bite of macaroni in her mouth, which signaled the other two to dig in. So, following her lead, Tadashi got out his lunch as well.

Aunt Cass had packed him a pb&j sandwich, a fruit cup (thankfully with fork), and her attempt at a rice ball. He'd save that for last.

He stuck the straw in his juice and sucked it down along with the sandwich. His mind started to wander again, but he was pulled out by a question.

"So, where are you from?" Wasabi asked.

Tadashi looked up at the other boy and swallowed the slice of pineapple in his mouth. "From north of here…you prob'ly don't know it…" he answered simply.

Wasabi nodded then came the question Tadashi had most dreaded, "Why'd you move here?"

A silent moment past before he even tried to answer, "My parents…th-they-!" he couldn't get it out, "Accident!" he wailed, burying his face in his arms. Every tear he'd held in was falling. Every choked down sob from when Hiro would wake up crying for the mother. Every cry from the funeral, the drops that didn't dare follow a stray for fear of bursting open, it all came out on that wooden table. His shoulders shook violently and his breath spluttered unevenly with each suck-in of oxygen.

And, boy, did it feel great.

Hannah-Honey's eyes filled with tears and threatened to spill in sympathy. Leiko and Wasabi were frozen stiff, having never dealt with someone just start crying.

Tadashi calmed down and breathed deeply. He looked at the three faces staring at him and blushed. "S-sorry, guys…" he mumbled.

"You OK?" Leiko asked. Tadashi nodded.

Lunch was mostly quiet for the rest of the time. On their way back to class, Leiko took a pen from Wasabi's backpack and ran ahead writing on the back of her hand.

"Gogo, gimme my pen! You're gonna get ink poisoning!" Wasabi yelled, running to catch her.

"What's with the weird names, Hannah?" Tadashi asked. "Honey? Gogo? Wasabi?"

Honey Lemon giggled, "They're nicknames. Wait 'til recess."

The class ran out the door to the playground that afternoon. Tadashi hung back to wait for Wasabi with Honey and Gogo. The other boy ran out of the bathroom in a different pair of shorts and old sneakers. He was sort of gathering that Wasabi was a bit of a perfectionist in how things looked- including on his self. The four of them came out to the trees that shaded the metal play equipment. Gogo tapped Tadashi's shoulder to get his attention. They were crawling under a bush. Lovely.

"What are we doing?" he asked. All three others shushed him and Gogo pushed him down to crawl under the bush. When he came out the other side, he was extremely surprised. A basketball court was stationed only a few feet away and soccer goals were beside the court. Off in the distance was a large mansion with three fountains in the backyard.

A boy with a shirt that Tadashi was sure his brother would envy came running down the hill toward the group. "Hey, guuuuuuuuys!" said running boy puffed out while trying to stop himself. He sucked in a huge gulp of air and straightened up, noticing Tadashi. "Who're you?"

"Tadashi-"

"Awesome name! That's cool!"

"Um…"

"You must be new!"

"Yeah, I'm-"

"Awesome!"

OK, this kid wouldn't let him get hardly a word in! "Fred, calm down. What're you so excited about?" Honey asked calmly, putting a hand to Fred's shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" he apologized, "But I found something a few minutes ago…" he looked over his shoulders and peeked through the tree branches. "C'mon…but be extra super quiet,"

The other four looked to each other with concern and confusion, but followed anyway. Fred led them over past one of the fountains and to an old looking shed. He shushed them and motioned for them all to come closer. They all gasped: kittens! On a bed of old leaves was a litter of four kittens who climbed over each other to get to their mother. Two of the kittens had their eyes open and one had only one eye open while the last, the runt, still couldn't see.

However, what he lacked in sight, he made up for in noise. The little cat mewed loudly and sharply while trying to get over his siblings to get to its mother. Tadashi smiled at the kitten. He liked cats more than dogs, unlike all of his old friends. He figured from his new friends' excited faces that now he wasn't alone in his opinion.

"I found them during my break. But don't say anything! Heathcliff don't know about them!" Fred explained, keeping his voice hushed.

"Are you homeschooled?" Tadashi asked, glancing back at the house. Fred nodded and shrugged. If he could have it his way he'd be in the school just so he could be with his friends.

The bell sounded back at the school and all three kids gasped. They apologized to Fred for having not played that day and ran back to the bush and crawled through, jogging to catch up with their class's line. They all giggled in the line, panting and catching their breaths.

"Fred is the one who gave us our nicknames…" Honey explained while they walked to their classroom. "But we aren't supposed to go over there, so don't tell Ms. Alleghany!" Tadashi nodded and promised not to tell.

"Oh, Tadashi! You're home!" Aunt Cass greeted her nephew as he appeared from the top of the steps. He smiled his greeting and dropped his bag beside the window. "How was your first day?" she asked, hugging him tightly.

Tadashi hugged her back. "It was OK, I guess," he shrugged. "I made some friends I think…"

"Oh, honey, that's great!" Aunt Cass ruffled his hair. "How's your teacher?"

"She's cool I think. Nice," he nodded, not knowing quite what to say.

"Dashi, Dashi, Dashi!" a voice squealed from behind. Tadashi looked over just in time to see his little brother crash into his leg. He smiled and stooped down to hug the child. "Don't ever go to school again! I missed you!" Hiro fussed, stamping his foot on the hardwood floor.

Tadashi chuckled and pecked Hiro's head, "I'll see what I can do. I missed you, too."

Ayyye, childhood fic! Just what I'm best at! If you guys have suggestions for any future chapters, you can tell me what they are! They may just make into this little...what ever this is going to become!

Review and tell me what you think so far!