Here is the next chapter, bit longer this time. Hope you all enjoy!

A few weeks had passed and I had fallen into sort of a routine, every afternoon after classes had ended I would wander outside and find Sherlock under the tree I had dubbed as ours and join him. The second day after we had initially met he seemed surprised I had shown up again, but he said nothing or at the very least he didn't tell me to go away, so I continued to come back.

It was nice, he didn't bother me while I was sketching and I didn't disturb whatever it was he was reading, and he was always reading something, usually a very large book. Of late it had been medical journals and textbooks.

And it was hard to come by quiet when I was drawing and recently I'd been drawing a lot. While I had only been able to spend a few days at my aunt's house it had given me time to reconnect with Isaac, my older cousin who I adored. He was a year and a half older than me and I'd never really had much of a chance to spend time with him so I was elated that we would get to spend the summers together.

At first though, I had been worried he wouldn't want to. He seemed rather disinterested when I first arrived and hadn't paid me much mind, but I shouldn't have worried. He and I got on famously after we'd had the chance to reconnect.

I'd only just gotten there and realized there was no use in unpacking if I was just going to leave for boarding school, so I was sitting in my room trying not to cry. Picking up my drawing pad to calm myself, I started sketching what I remembered of the garden in the front of the house.

As it was beginning to take shape, I frowned as a shadow fell over my paper. Looking up I started, standing over me was Isaac who was staring at my rough sketch, an interested look on his face.

"That's not bad, quite realistic actually."

Elated he was talking to me, I turned to a different page eager to show him something better.

"Oh well this is better, that one was just from memory it's not that good."

Without asking he plucked the notebook from my hands and started flipping through it, a smile growing on his face as he did.

"Would you draw me something?"

Smiling at him I nodded, fiddling with my pencil.

"Of course! What would you wan-"

Cutting me off, he pointed at the lamp on the bedside table, a gleam in his eye as if he were testing me.

"Draw that lamp."

I frowned, it was an oddly shaped thing, round and fat.

"Right now?

He raised a brow and sighed.

"If that's too hard then never mind I suppose. I need to be going anywa-"

Stopping him I hastily began scratching away on the paper, interrupting him.

"No! Ah, I mean of course I can do it, just hold on a bit."

I could feel him watching me as I made the lamp and its shadows appear on the page and in only few minutes I had finished. Looking up at him, awaiting his reaction, I watched as he slowly began to grin.

"This will do nicely I think."

Unsure of what he meant I was about to ask when in one swift movement he had ripped the drawing of the lamp out of my notepad and was looking at it intently.

Without glancing up at me he said, "Anna, dearest would you like to do something for me?

He looked down at me and smiled, setting me at ease.

"It would be like something of a game."

Interested, I looked at him curiously.

"A game; how so?"

Grinning now, he folded the drawing and stuck it in his inner jacket pocket.

"A test almost, I would give you something to draw and then you would do it."

I liked the idea, it would most certainly help me get better at drawing.

"But I'm about to leave for school, how would that work then?"

His eyes lit up and he smiled even wider.

"Even better, we can be pen pals and I can be kept in the know about how you're adjusting to everything too. What do you think lovey?"

I didn't really have to think about it, it sounded perfect to me. How kind of him to think of me like that! Isaac was so considerate, I'm so glad that I had him.

"That sounds awesome!"

Jumping up I hugged him and after a moment he stiffly hugged me back. Mother had always said the English were a bit stuffier about things like that, Dad said to pay it no mind and do what I pleased. Letting go I looked up at Isaac, there was a satisfied look on his face.

"I think this will be lots of fun don't you Anna?"

"Absolutely!"

Pulling away I beamed up at him and nodded, already thinking of all the things I wanted to draw for him.

"I love you Izzy!"

There was an odd look in his eyes that I couldn't place but it disappeared before I could think on it much further replaced with a wide grin.

"Of course you do, I think this will be fun."

He then left me to go off to do something, work on some summer homework is what he said, mumbling something about graphs and numbers. I was suddenly feeling much better about school. If I had this game with my cousin to look forward to, this would be fun indeed.

And so every week I would have a new letter with a new challenge from Isaac, I'm not sure what he did with all the drawings I sent him but he assured me that he found them fantastic, so I was keen to keep playing our game. In fact, just the other day I'd gotten another one, but this time there was a small package attached. He'd sent me a present!

Excitement coursed through me as I unwrapped the brown paper. I grinned as I saw what lay inside, tied neatly was a bundle of charcoal sticks along with a little note.

Mind the dust

~ Izzy

He was so thoughtful, I'd mentioned in my last letter to him that I was thinking of trying my hand at charcoals instead of sticking to pencils like I always did. He must have remembered and gotten them for me, he was always thinking of me like that.

But I wanted to be sure I had at least a little practice with them before attempting the drawing prompt he'd sent me, so a few days were spent playing with them, just random sketches and such.

Only now did I feel confident enough to tackle the next drawing I was to send to him.

Humming I looked at the newest thing Isaac wanted me to draw, it was always something different, this time it looked like a sundial. Ooh this would be fun, lots of shading and shadows, I would definitely get my hands dirty with those new charcoal sticks today.

After working on the drawing for the better part of an hour I decided to go find Sherlock, we always met under the tree in the afternoons.

Over time, I had gathered he wasn't the warmest of persons, but I liked him well enough and he was the only person who spent any amount of time with me without making me want to kill them because of their absolute stupidity. In fact, I don't think the word stupid applied to Sherlock at all.

He was quite possibly the oddest smart person I had ever met and he was very aware of that. It had almost become a game as we would sit under the tree, other students would walk by and he would do the thing where he would know everything about them by just looking.

It was wonderful and rather funny too.

I wasn't sure if he tolerated me more or if he genuinely liked my being there, I hoped it was the latter but it was hard to tell.

Giggling, I looked down at myself.

"Mind the dust indeed Izzy! I'm a mess, gotten this stuff all over me."

The thick black dust covered my hands and was all along my arms as well, a glance in my mirror showed that wiping one's face while using charcoal was a poor idea as I had black streaks on my nose and forehead. Goodness knows I'd probably inhaled a good bit of the dust, hazard of being an artist I suppose.

Dusting off, I decided to forgo changing clothes as the dust didn't bother me all that much anyways and I didn't want to keep Sherlock waiting. So with one last brushing off I dashed off to go find him, the charcoals wrapped back up and in my hand.

I wanted to show Sherlock and practice some more with them.

But once I got outside in the sunlight, I suddenly felt dizzy. Probably just from being cooped up inside for so long, or standing up too fast, nothing to worry about I'm sure. Ignoring it I kept going, heading towards the open area where our tree was.

But by the time I had reached the courtyard next to the lake I was becoming short of breath.

Now that was odd, I hadn't been running or climbing so I didn't understand why it was now getting hard to take a breath. Furrowing my brow I stopped and wondered if I should go to see the nurse, but decided to push past it and squinted as I saw a group approaching.

Oh lovely, it was the same horrid kids that liked to pick on Sherlock, well anyone they didn't like but mostly just Sherlock. And me by association I suppose, but I wouldn't want to be friends with them anyways, they were nasty and mean.

"Oi you! Where do you think you're going?"

I shook my head as a wave of dizziness washed over me and there now appeared to be twice as many of them blurring in front of me. The leader, at least I think it was the leader, I was having trouble focusing, sneered at me. I believe his name was Drew but I really didn't care so I didn't remember.

"I was talking, get back here!"

I started to tell them to go away and leave me alone but found that my tongue felt like cotton in my mouth and I was having trouble speaking. Struggling, I managed to choke out a comment about jumping in the lake and stumbled away from them. But I pitched forward as now my legs didn't seem to want to cooperate.

What was happening to me?

I just managed to right myself but I was now getting closer to the bank of the lake and further away from the trees where I wanted to be going.

I paused as one of the meaner girls that hung around him spoke up.

"Just look at her, filthy little toad isn't she?"

Normally I would have turned around and snapped at her but everything felt wrong, like I had slowed down and was moving through molasses. Drew laughed haughtily catching my attention.

"Hmm then why don't you clean off? Let's see if it can swim shall we?"

Right as I turned around he shoved me hard and I lost what little balance I had left and toppled backwards. As I fell, I could hear laughter before I hit the water with a splash.

Figures blurred by the ripples stood over me and my eyes stung from the dirty lake water.

I was a fine swimmer but I found that I couldn't move, or at least I couldn't move in any way that helped. The water wasn't even very deep but that didn't matter if I couldn't stand up and get out of the lake.

Beginning to panic, I did my best to hold onto the air I still had, but I couldn't help it and took a gasping breath in and started to thrash around as water started filling my lungs.

Looking up desperately I saw that all of the kids that had been there were gone.

As things started to fade with the blackness creeping in at the edges of my vision, I thought for a moment I saw someone but closed my eyes and let darkness overtake me.

She was late.

Not that it mattered, I didn't care if she showed up or not. I'd merely gotten used to her being there, that was all. But there was something about her that was intriguing and that I couldn't quite place, something different from all the dull boring people here. She wasn't as quick as me, obviously, but she was sharp and noticed things unlike all the other stupid sods at this school.

And then how she seemed to think my deductions were incredible and not off-putting.

Anna didn't think I was a freak like everyone else did.

So I frowned and snapped my book on local flora and fauna shut when fifteen minutes had passed and she still hadn't shown up. I should have expected her to stop coming, but I had thought that maybe she wouldn't listen to what everyone said and continue to come back.

Besides, I didn't have friends, they were just a nuisance. I could focus better without her here.

Growling to myself I decided I would find somewhere else to read, I suddenly didn't want to be outside under the tree anymore. She wasn't coming so there was no reason to stay, not that there had really been one in the first place. Hopping up with my book tucked under my arm, I started off to find a new place to read when I heard laughter. Turning to look I saw Drew and his idiotic group of sheep-like followers standing around someone very close to the edge of the lake.

I only just caught the end of what moronic drivel was coming out of his mouth as I neared to satisfy my curiosity as to what was going on.

"Let's see if it can swim shall we?"

I rolled my eyes. It was just another instance of bullying, but I froze as a flash of reddish auburn hair gleamed in the sunlight before splashing in the water.

He had just pushed Anna into the lake. I knew it for certain as there wasn't anyone else with her same hair colour at our school.

Could that be why she was late? That it was just a matter of her being held up and she did in fact still want to be my friend?

Is that what she was? My friend?

My friend...maybe it wouldn't be that awful to have at least one. She was at least interesting and was properly impressed by me, and I'd yet to figure her out completely so I suppose her sticking around for a while was alright.

Right then, friend, she was my friend.

Friends don't stand by when one is pushed into a lake, do they? I'll have to ask Anna, I'm sure she would know, she had a better grasp on things like that. One of the very few things she might actually know more about than I do.

Striding over to them I frowned as they all started to leave, that's a shame, I would have enjoyed telling Drake how his parents were getting a divorce as it was evident by the new monogrammed leather book bag he was carrying. Something that nice was obviously a gift to soften the blow of unexpected news, most likely not good news either.

There were a few options, death in the family, death of a pet, but a divorce seemed most likely as he looked nothing like his father, something I'd noticed on the last parent's night which suggests that his mother had an affair and he was illegitimate which could be reason for the divorce if this was found out.

Calling after them I smirked, "Nice bag, enjoy the divorce Dirk!"

He must not have heard me as he kept going, but I could always tell him in more detail later. Looking down I stopped short, Anna hadn't gotten out of the water and it was clear to see that something was very wrong. She was thrashing about in the shallow water in a panicked way and inhaling it.

Spurred into movement as she started to still, I jumped into the water and grabbed her now limp arm, pulling her out and up onto the shore. It was harder than I expected as she was now dead weight and behaving entirely unhelpfully by being unconscious, I had to almost carry her so as not to wrench her arm out of socket.

But she still wasn't moving and an odd feeling filled me as I realized she wasn't breathing. I couldn't place it but I would analyze that later, right now I had to get all the water out of her lungs.

Kneeling beside her I placed my hands on her sternum like I had read about last week and pushed down hard a few times and that was all it took for her to start coughing up water. To keep her from hurting herself I had pulled her to where her upper body was resting against my legs and I was holding her slightly upright as she continued to cough up water and gasp for air.

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, and I frowned at the cloudy unfocused look of them. Something was most certainly wrong. Maybe an allergic reaction to something she'd eaten? Before I could ask her anything, with one last cough she went limp in my arms again, but now at least she was breathing, even though it was shakily.

At this point several teachers had taken notice of what was happening and were now rushing towards us.

Good to know my parents money was going to the very best, they certainly found it very important to make sure we were all safe. Alert the papers, an award for most observant and vigilant educators would surely be given.

Idiots, complete and total idiots.

I watched as one of them picked her up, most surely headed for the infirmary, and told me to go change out of my wet clothes. I scowled at the retreating backs of the now suddenly concerned teachers, including the one that was holding Anna.

"Is it the almost drowned girl you're worried about or the fact that this might affect the raise you're hoping to get?"

Of course no one heard me but I knew I was right, I most always was. I began to head back to my room to change as I didn't enjoy wet trousers, and was beginning to get cold. But that feeling from earlier was still there and it bothered me, I didn't like it. It was a cold unnerving feeling and I had no desire to have it ever again.

Pushing it away for now, I decided that I would go make sure the incompetent people in the infirmary didn't kill Anna after I had finished changing clothes, goodness knows that it was possible. I had to wonder if everyone here was blindingly stupid.

Leaving the lament of the general populace's ignorance for another time I hurried on my way back to my room intending on finding Anna as soon as I could to make sure she hadn't gotten worse.

Anna...my friend, she was my friend.

A small smile turned at the corners of my mouth, and Mycroft said I'dneverhave friends! Ha, well this was just one more area in which he was wrong.

Ugh...everything felt off, my head hurt and my vision was blurry as I blearily opened my eyes and tried to figure out what had happened.

"You look awful."

Blinking until things came somewhat into focus, I looked over to the corner of the room and saw Sherlock sitting there in a chair reading a book, just barely glancing at me.

Trying to sit up I groaned and fell back onto the pillows. He sighed and got up and came to the side of the bed and frowned at me.

"Don't do that, you'll tire yourself out."

He looked almost worried, what happened to make him look at me like that? I closed my eyes for a moment and then everything that happened the last time I remembered being awake came back to me. How odd I had felt, being pushed into the lake, and then nothing but black.

Eyes now wide, I looked up at him.

"I...the lake, I was…"

I had almost drowned!

He narrowed his eyes and nodded, "Yes, I pulled you out."

Sherlock pulled me out of the lake?

Ignoring his look of irritation I tried to sit up again, this time a bit more successfully, but the wave of dizziness made me wonder if I should have listened to him and stayed lying down. Weakly grasping the side of the bed, I hauled myself up and took a few halting shallow breaths still finding it hard to take deep ones.

The odd look on his face grew more prominent and he set his book on the end of the bed before leaning closer to my face, seemingly looking for something. I didn't move as he tilted his head, those searching blue eyes gazing into mine.

Breaking the silence I frowned, a thought coming to me.

"Why would you do that?"

He scrunched up his nose and furrowed his brows.

"Do what?"

I sighed and struggled to stay sitting up as I was beginning to feel tired.

"Pull me out, I don't understand Sherlock."

He looked down at his book, no longer meeting my eyes.

"You were drowning and... and you are my friend. Friends don't let each other drown do they?"

Well of course I considered Sherlock my friend, but I hadn't been sure he thought the same of me until right now. Despite the fatigue that was washing over me I grinned and leaned forward wrapping my arms around him in a hug.

"No they don't, thank you Sherlock."

He froze but didn't pull away, his voice questioning as he asked, "Are you hugging me because you are grateful or because we are friends?"

I laughed and let go of him.

"Both."

A strange smile appeared on his face, something I'd not really seen aside from the times he was deducing the other students or teachers. He seemed pleased, whether it was because I'd stopped hugging him or that I agreed with him about being friends I wasn't quite sure; but I was, despite almost drowning, incredibly happy at the moment.

He smirked at me as I finally fell back on the bed, finding it hard to keep my eyes open at this point.

"See I told you! You should rest some more, but when you're better I want to tell you about something interesting I read in the paper."

I smiled sleepily at him.

"Can't wait to hear all about it."

Closing my eyes, the last thing I saw was Sherlock settling back in the chair in the corner.

It was nice to have a friend.

So we were going to wait a whole week to update the next chapter, but both of us are on a high from being done with school. Plus the chapter was already finished and it was just too exciting to control ourselves. But… don't get too used to having a new bit to read every day or so - we've already decided not to be that nice! XD

Hope you all are enjoying our take on child Sherlock so far, it's a lot of fun to write!

The next chapter will introduce another much loved but oftentimes hated Holmes character, so be on the lookout for that! ;)

As always we'd love to know what you think, thanks for reading!