Here's chapter 2-I don't know about you guys, but I just love picturing li'l Kendy and Logie based on pictures their moms have shared. They were such cuties!
The next day at school, Kendall couldn't wait for recess. On his way out to the playground, James found him first and said they could race today.
"No thanks, I'm gonna play with Logan."
"Who is Logan?" James asked.
"He's my new friend and he's in kindergarten, but in Mrs. Perry's class so you don't know him."
"I know kids in Mrs. Perry's class," James said indignantly.
"Who?" Kendall wanted to know.
"Carlos, that kid with the helmet that just moved here," James said.
"Oh yeah." Kendall had heard about him. His parents were given the choice of letting Carlos be in first grade, because he was already six, or doing kindergarten again, and his parents chose kindergarten because the town they came from had only had half day kindergarten, plus, Carlos had some issues paying attention. Mrs. Perry not only got the smartest kids, she also was given the most hyper ones. She knew how to channel the energies of both types. "Well, good. You can play with Carlos, me and Logan are going to count segments on wooly caterpillars."
Logan finally came outside. Mrs. Perry had awarded him with erasing the dry erase board from the morning's lesson; it was kind of a big deal.
"Hi, Logan!" Kendall shouted. "This is James, he's going to play with Carlos. Let's go find some wooly caterpillars!" Kendall had grabbed Logan's hand and was tugging him along.
"Wait up, Kendall! I never said I was going to play with Carlos…" James was following them. Carlos, who had heard his name, came running over from where he was watching some kids play jacks.
"You wanna play with me, James? What are we gonna play?" Carlos asked, a big friendly smile on his face.
"Um, something called Wooly Caterpillars, I guess," James said.
Kendall stopped and whirled around. "You don't 'play' wooly caterpillars, James. You observe them, and count their segments." That's what he and Logan had done yesterday, and Kendall knew it was more important than mere playing.
"Well, me and Carlos are gonna do all that too," James insisted.
Kendall sighed. "Fine, I guess. Hi, Carlos, I'm Kendall. This is Logan."
Carlos beamed smiles all around and said Hi.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to Logan?" James insisted.
"Logan, this is James. We've been friends since Gymboree, and now he's going to be your friend too."
Logan looked up at Kendall with his big brown eyes. Up until yesterday he had never had a friend, but now that he did, Kendall was the only friend he wanted. And he wasn't too happy that James had an earlier, longer claim on Kendall.
"Hey, I'll be your friend too," Carlos added. All three boys looked at Logan. Logan didn't know what to say.
Suddenly Kendall threw his arm around Logan. "Okay, you guys can be friends with Logan, but he's my best friend, and if you're not okay with that, you'll have to find caterpillars on your own." Kendall looked to Logan to see if that was okay with him.
"Will you be my best friend, too?" Logan wanted to be sure.
"Of course! That's how best friends work-I'm yours and you're mine." Kendall had it all figured out.
"That's fine," James said. "Carlos should be my best friend since we're both in kindergarten." Logan looked worried again. Was his best friend supposed to be in kindergarten too? Kendall just ignored the slight. He was used to James lording it over him that his birthday came in time for him to go to school from last year. Once Kendall got to start going to school too, that stopped bothering him.
That afternoon, Kendall and Jennifer were at the school before Pam to meet up with their new friends. Kendall was so antsy about it Jennifer decided it would be better to let Kendall run off some steam at the school playground. When the walkers were finally released, Kendall insisted on carrying Logan's backpack for him. Kendall's had been left at home, they didn't get homework on the weekends.
When they got to the Mitchells' house, Pam took the lead on giving both Jennifer and Kendall a tour of the house. They left the boys in Logan's room to play and they returned to the kitchen downstairs to talk and have coffee. "Come down for a snack before you get into playing anything, Logan," Pam reminded him. "You don't want to have the snack too close to dinner time."
Kendall couldn't wait to see the guinea pig, though. He was bouncing on his feet as Logan took him out of his habitat. "Would you like to hold him?" Logan asked. Kendall's eyes were as big as saucers as he nodded yes. "Okay, sit on the bed, and I'll hand him to you." Kendall did as instructed and Logan transferred the soft warm bundle to him. "Um, Kendall? I know your mom wouldn't want to see him up close, but, uh, do you think your dad would like to?" Logan asked shyly.
"He sure will!" Kendall enthused. Having a pet must be the greatest thing in the world, he thought. Logan let them get acquainted, then he said they should put Bruce Wayne back in his habitat and go down for snacks. He was sure they could bring up a cucumber slice or a baby carrot after.
The boys spent a fun afternoon playing in Logan's room-he had Legos too, plus it was colder and windier than yesterday so they didn't want to be outside anyway-and just as dusk was settling outside his window, they heard a car pull into the driveway. Logan looked out, and figured it must be Mr. Knight, that wasn't his daddy's car.
The kids went running down the stairs, but Logan hung back shyly when his mom opened the door to greet Mr. Knight. Kendall allowed hellos to be exchanged between the adults, and then he said, "Dad! You have to come upstairs and see Bruce Wayne! He's a guinea pig and he's awesome!"
Jennifer was used to her son's enthusiasm. "Kendall, let your dad come in and see Mrs. Mitchell first. He can see the guinea pig later."
Donald Knight noticed Logan's gaze dropped to his shoes, his hopeful little face suddenly hidden from view. "If it's all right with you, Pam, I'd love to meet the guinea pig."
"Sure! Logan will bring you to find us for a drink when you're done," Pam said agreeably.
Upstairs, Logan gently put Bruce Wayne into Mr. Knight's arms. He petted the guinea pig, and said hello to it in a high crooning voice.
"Wow, Logan, he's really soft, and gentle and calm. You must take very good care of him," Mr. Knight said. Logan beamed under the praise. "How long have you had him?"
"I got him for my birthday, so it'll be a year on September 14th."
Mr. Knight asked questions about the pet's feeding and care, and Logan got happier and brighter with each answer. Dr. Mitchell arrived and went upstairs to change into more comfortable clothes for grilling, and then stopped by Logan's room to corral the guys and get them downstairs.
The dads were out at the grill, the moms were making a salad, and Kendall and Logan busied themselves setting the table and then playing hide and seek in the downstairs rooms, but that got boring fast. They wanted to be with each other, not searching for each other. Kendall found the day's newspaper in a magazine rack and asked Logan if he wanted to look at the hockey standings with him.
"Um, I don't know what that is," Logan said.
"It's what I look at with my dad every day," Kendall said.
"Okay!" Logan knew anything Mr. Knight did had to be important. Kendall found the sports page and spread it out on the couch cushions, the grown-ups found them kneeling in front of it when they came to tell them to get washed up for dinner. Kendall knew where to find the standings, and Logan could read the teams and the numbers to him. Their little heads were close together as they seriously pored over the paper.
After supper, the boys went up to Logan's room to play, and the adults sat in the living room talking about this and that.
"Logan and Kendall sure have hit it off," Dr. Mitchell said. "He's never had a friend before, now they already seem inseparable."
"Kendall told me this afternoon Logan also made friends with James and Carlos today," Jennifer said.
Jeff and Pam looked at each other, half smiling, half disbelieving what was happening so quickly.
"Logan's always been so shy. Smart, but shy," Pam told the Knights.
"Everyone from his pediatrician to the people at the school have been saying we should put him ahead a few grades, or send him to an advanced private school for gifted and talented students, but we felt it was more important to let him have a childhood," Jeff added. The Knights nodded. "In my practice, I see lots of adolescents and pre-adolescents that are pushed to overachieve. They tend to get burnt out, or worse, if they're pushed too hard too soon. We figured we'd let Logan develop at his own pace, and that if he ever thought he wasn't being challenged enough or wanted something more, we'd discuss it with him then. But for now, and for all of his childhood, if he wants to be around kids his own age, that's fine too. There's plenty of time for him to be a successful adult, but he's only got about a dozen more years or so to be a kid."
The Knights agreed with all of this.
"The only thing was," Pam added, "Logan never seemed interested in playing with-or even talking to-other kids. He's always said characters in books are more interesting. But now he's found Kendall, and in two days, he's already made three friends."
"Five friends," Don said, smiling and taking Jennifer's hand. She nodded. "He's a great kid, and he can count us in, we'll do anything we can for him."
The Mitchells smiled. They thought Kendall was pretty special too, and would already say they'd do anything for him too.
The Knights stayed later than the Mitchells had the night before, they were all enjoying themselves and no one had to get up for work in the morning. The guys had already made plans to go golfing on Sunday, and Pam and Jennifer were planning alternating after school play dates for the boys at each other's houses, plus planning some excursions to take together with and without the kids and husbands. Jennifer finally noticed the time, though. It was after nine-thirty.
"We better get Kendall and get home," she announced. The boys had been so quiet for so long upstairs, everyone started to wonder what they might have been up to.
They needn't have worried. When they all crowded in at Logan's door, they had to muffle their "ahhs!" the boys looked so cute. They had fallen asleep on Logan's bed, their heads on the pillow, the Magic Tree House book open face down on Logan's little chest. Logan still had his glasses on, and Pam gently removed them without waking him (very soon, the Knights would be experts at doing that very same thing).
"Kendall, Kendall honey, wake up, we need to get on home," Jennifer quietly whispered, talking into Kendall's ear that wasn't next to Logan, to let Logan continue to sleep.
"Don't wanna. Wanna stay with Logan," Kendall murmured obstinately.
"He's more than welcome to sleep over," Pam began.
"He's never stayed overnight anywhere besides his grandparents," Jennifer wasn't too sure this was a good idea.
"If he wakes up and wants to come home, I'll come get him," Donald said. "We're not even two minutes away by car."
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Jennifer asked Pam.
"We'd love to have him. It'll be easier to let them be than to try to wake Logan up to say goodbye, and if Kendall left without Logan getting to say goodbye, we'd be in for long explanations and recriminations in the morning," Pam laughed.
The two moms worked together to get the boys' shoes off and their little bodies under Logan's blankets without disturbing them too much. Once they were all snug, Jeff promised Jennifer they'd leave a light on so if Kendall woke up, he'd know where he was. Each set of parents kissed their son goodnight, and they left the room quietly.
Downstairs, they all got each other's numbers into everyone's phones, and the Mitchells reassured Jennifer they'd call if Kendall woke up and wanted to get home. Pam added she'd call in the morning once the boys were up as well. Donald finally got Jennifer to say goodnight and brought her home where he managed to distract her from thinking about Kendall sleeping in a different house, and they wound up sleeping quite soundly after that as well.
