A/N: Here's Chapter 2 - and I will say that for the next few weeks, this will probably be as regular as the updates are going to get, and I am still working on those two oneshots! :)
Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed this story - the response has been wonderful!
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
They'd been outside of London for around ten minutes when Sebastian began talking again, breaking the calming silence within the carriage and greatly annoying Nick and Thad, who were shot unwelcome glares from the other occupants of the train when they didn't tell their friend to be quiet.
"It's just so green," Sebastian complained, fixing the field on the other side of the glass with narrowed eyes and trying to will it away. Unfortunately, the more they entered the countryside, the greener it became.
Nick rolled his eyes.
"It's called grass, Seb," he muttered in annoyance, "It's what grows in the fields and everywhere else on the ground. We have it in London in the parks that we go to quite often."
"Yes, but there's never this much of it," Sebastian insisted, tearing his gaze away from the window and looking at Nick instead, "Here, it just goes on and on."
"It's quite nice and calming, I suppose," Thad added to the conversation, in an attempt to pacify his friends so that Sebastian wouldn't irritate Nick so much that they'd have an argument.
"Calming?" Sebastian scoffed, "Give me grey pavements and brick buildings, then I'll be happy!"
"Don't you ever get tired of London being monotonous?" Thad inquired.
"Monotonous?" Sebastian looked horrified, "London's not monotonous; there's so much to do, and people to see. In the country, it'll just be the same old mud and grass everyday. I shouldn't doubt that they're just shipping us off to a farm to work there like cheap labour until they find something else for us to do."
"Seb!" Nick exclaimed, just as a woman in the seats next to them gave them an angry look as a child nearby began crying for home.
"Maybe you'll keep it in mind to keep your opinions to yourself," the woman snapped, "I've got forty children under the age of ten to look after here, and they don't need you scaring them with ridiculous ideas!"
Sebastian looked only mildly abashed as he muttered a small apology, before defiantly turning to look out of the window again.
They continued in silence until they pulled into a station that they'd never heard of before, and the woman and her charges got off the train together. Once she was gone, it left only Nick, Sebastian and Thad in the carriage; the rest of the occupants having got off at various other stations.
"Well, what a stupid…!"
"Seb!" Thad squeaked, preventing his friend from saying something very derogatory of the woman.
"What?" Sebastian demanded, "She wasn't being half rude, was she?"
Nick sighed.
"Let it go, Seb," he said, "Maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself sometimes, instead of broadcasting them publicly; there is a war on, you know."
Sebastian scoffed.
"A war on, he says!" he laughed, "Have you even seen anything of this war, Nicky? No, you haven't; no one has, and they're still making us leave our homes to go somewhere completely insignificant where we'll be unhappy."
"You never know," Thad said, "You might not be unhappy."
Sebastian gave him a withering look.
"You make it sound as though everything is going to be wonderful, and we're all going to meet the loves of our lives and skip off happily into the sunset," he said, "And we all know that only happens in one of Nick's books."
Nick opened his mouth to defend his favourite possessions, but he quickly closed it again when he remembered the amount of times he'd argued with Sebastian about them; it wasn't worth the effort.
"What if you do fall in love in the country?" Thad persisted, becoming so bored with the train journey that he'd actually taken to provoking Sebastian into challenging his own statements.
"Don't be stupid," Seb said, "If I fall in love, I'll…well, I'll eat my hat!"
Nick laughed.
"You don't have a hat," he pointed out, "And no one could love you anyway."
Sebastian looked hurt.
"That was cold, Nicky-boy," he said, "I will have you know that I'm a very lovable person."
Now it was Nick's turn to scoff.
"No one but Thad and I can stand being in a room with you for longer than ten minutes," he said, "And neither of us loves you in that way."
"There's always Tilly from the pictures that time," Thad grinned mischievously, as he recalled the girl in question; she'd been rather infatuated with Sebastian for a while, and had deliberately hung around the cinema every Thursday afternoon at the time that Nick, Thad and Seb always arrived. She'd become so annoying that they'd had to change their regular day to a Tuesday instead to avoid her, and that was frustrating because the tickets were a halfpenny more expensive on a Tuesday.
"Don't remind me," Sebastian grimaced, "I had to hide in Covent Garden the other day in an attempt to avoid her; she terrifies me that much!"
Nick and Thad laughed.
"She terrifies you?" Nick asked, in between laughter, "That's hilarious!"
Sebastian shot the boy opposite him a glare.
"You know what I mean," he snapped, "Don't you remember Molly three years ago?"
Nick paled.
"She turned up at my house, Seb," he said, "And my mother invited her in for tea; that's terrifying! I'm so glad that she moved away to Norfolk."
"At least you two had admirers," Thad mused, "Even if you don't even like girls all that much."
"All that much?" Sebastian repeated, "Try, 'not at all'!"
Thad sighed as both of his friends completely missed the point in his sentence; he knew that they hadn't done it purposely, for Sebastian never noticed anything past his own predicaments, and Nick was just seemed to be preoccupied by something all the time.
There was a sharp whistle from the train conductor somewhere further up the train, and the three boys finally noticed that they'd pulled into the station that they wanted. They got up in a hurry and managed to jump off the train, just as it began moving again.
"We almost missed the stop," Nick grumbled to no one in particular, "Then where would we have gone?"
"Probably somewhere more interesting than here," Sebastian muttered, looking at the station sign, proclaiming that they'd arrived in a place that didn't look particularly significant in his eyes.
Picking up their cases, they followed the line of other evacuees through the station and out into the high street on the other side. They then proceeded further into the village and into the local Women's Institute hall, which was between the butchers and a terrace of houses.
Inside they'd organised drinks for them and also a selection of biscuits. The younger children surged forwards happily at the sight of the refreshments, while Thad, Nick and Sebastian hung back by themselves.
"I've got some liquorice," Sebastian announced loudly, "We can share it, since it's probably better than whatever cheap rubbish they're handing out over there."
Both Nick and Thad flushed in embarrassment and dragged the taller boy over to sit on some chairs that had been set out.
"Right, children," the school mistress who had travelled down with the other evacuees was saying, "I want you all to look you best, because the host families will be here soon to pick you up, and I want them to have a good first impression of you."
All of the children nodded dutifully, and even the three older boys straightened their clothes and fixed their hair in an attempt to look less travel-worn.
At exactly one in the afternoon, the door to the hall was opened, and the first few people began to enter; the majority were elderly women, who took some of the younger children home with them.
"So this is what happens," Sebastian whispered, "They just choose the child they like the look of; I thought they'd have already assigned us families to go to."
"What if there are not enough foster families to go around?" Thad whispered, "Do they just send us back to London?"
Sebastian's eyes lit up at the thought.
"Maybe," he said, "We could always try."
"You know that as soon as we get back to London, they'll ship us off to another place," Nick pointed out, "We might as well stick it out here; I mean, how bad can it get?"
Sebastian narrowed his eyes.
"I trod in mud almost as soon as we stepped off the train," he said, "I could have ruined my shoes, and then my mother would have been very angry because you can't even count as high as the price of them."
Nick glared at the taller boy.
"I'm better at you at arithmetic," he said crossly, "Actually, I'm better than you at everything, Seb."
"You're not!" Sebastian cried petulantly. He opened his mouth to continue with a comeback, when Thad patted his arm urgently.
"Seb, Nick," he said, "All of the other children are gone."
"What?" Nick asked, both him and Sebastian turning at the same time to find that Thad was right: all of the other evacuees, and even the schoolmistress had left the hall, and it was just them and some of the women from the village left.
"It's alright, dears," a woman approached them, holding a tray with some steaming cups on them, "I made you some tea while you wait."
The three boys thanked the woman politely, and Thad asked what was going to happen to them, since no one had come to claim them.
"Don't fret, dears," the woman said, "We're still waiting on two more people to come down and take evacuees; you'll be going soon enough."
She gave them a reassuring smile, and disappeared back into the kitchen.
"Does this mean that we'll be split up?" Thad asked in a small voice, "Since they've got two more people on their way."
"I guess so," Sebastian said gloomily, as Nick said nothing. He was too busy staring off into the distance as he wondered what his parents were doing in London at that moment.
Just as they were finishing their tea, the door to the hall opened, and a middle-aged woman entered. She wore a printed dress underneath a thin coat and a pair of neatly polished shoes; her greying hair was tightly pulled back from her face in a bun, and her mouth was set into a firm line.
"So, Mary, what have you got for me?" she asked, addressing the woman at the front of the hall.
"There are three boys over here, Sally," Mary said, leading the new lady towards Thad, Sebastian and Nick.
Sally gave all of them a look up and down, taking in their appearance quickly.
"Well," she said eventually, "I did want two younger children, preferably girls, but I see now that's not possible."
"You have to take some of them," Mary insisted, "There's nowhere else."
Sally sniffed a little in annoyance, before making her choice.
"Alright," she said, "These two will have to do, I suppose." She motioned to Thad and Sebastian, who both tried their best not to show their disappointment at having to go with the unpleasant women.
"Very good," Mary said, giving the boys a sympathetic look. "Boys, this is Mrs Clarington, she'll be looking after you. Do have a safe journey home."
She gave Thad and Sebastian a small wave, as they shot Nick a pleading look on their way out the door.
"What about me?" Nick asked, as his friends disappeared from sight.
"There should be someone along soon," Mary said, "Now, would you like another cup of tea or something else to eat?"
Nick shook his head and politely declined the offer; he felt mildly ill after meeting Mrs Clarington, and he was dreading who he'd be forced to stay with. What if they hated him? What if everything was going to be as bad as Sebastian had said that it would be?
Half an hour later, Nick was still sitting by himself in the hall. He'd begun to wonder what would happen if no one turned up for him. They could send him back to London, like he'd wanted, but he was reluctant to go back without his friends.
He was still pondering this idea, when the hall door was flung open and a woman in her late thirties came bowling through the entrance; her hat was askew, and she was still wearing an apron over her dress.
"Mrs Sterling, there you are!" Mary said, "I was starting to think that you weren't coming."
"I am so sorry," Mrs Sterling apologised, "I was baking and Harry reminded me that I was supposed to be picking up our evacuee from the hall. I left immediately, but you know how long it takes in the cart, and I even forgot to take my apron off before leaving."
"I can see, Josie," Mary smiled, "Well, we've only one boy left, so I hope that he'll be alright for you."
She led Josie Sterling over to Nick, and introduced the two of them to each other.
"I'm sure you'll be splendid," Mrs Sterling announced, and she thanked Mary for her help, before leading Nick out to the horse and cart that was standing in the middle of the high street.
Nick couldn't help but feel apprehensive as they left the hall, but he was also immensely grateful that this woman appeared friendly, if not a little forgetful.
"I've got a son who is your age," Mrs Sterling said, as she led the horse down a small dusty lane, "His name is Jeffrey, and I'm sure that the two of you will get on wonderfully."
Nick nodded, as he took in this new piece of information; one part of an entire spiel that Mrs Sterling had been giving him on their journey. He'd also learnt that they lived on a farm, owned by her husband, Harry Sterling; that the horse's name was Doris, and they used the cart because petrol was too expensive; and that Mrs Sterling's mother was allergic to cats.
"Have you come down with any friends?"
"Two," Nick replied, "Sebastian and Thad, they've gone to a Mrs Clarington's."
Mrs Sterling nodded.
"I see," she said, and the tone of her voice gave away her views on the other woman, "She's got an older son, very polite and lovely boy, but he's away with the air force, and it's just her and her husband there now. They don't live too far from us, just a short walk away, so you can visit them when you want to."
Nick smiled gratefully, and there was a lull in the conversation.
"Oh, look now, you can see the farm from here," Josie Sterling cried suddenly, pointing to a small cottage that could be seen between the trees.
It looked like the postcards that Nick had once received in a special edition of his favourite magazine.
And before long, they were pulling up in front of it. Mrs Sterling helped Nick down from the cart, and then she passed his suitcase down to him as well.
"I'd better introduce you to Jeffrey," she said, "But I told him to meet us here, and there's no sign of him."
Nick glanced around himself at the farm, but there didn't appear to be anyone nearby.
"Jeffrey!" Mrs Sterling called, "Where are you?"
There was no answer.
"Oh dear, what's that boy gone and done now?" Josie Sterling wondered.
Just then, there was a loud crack from somewhere overhead and an annoyed shout.
Both Nick and Mrs Sterling looked up just in time to see a blonde boy fall out of the tree in front of them.
A/N: So, Jeff has arrived...sort of... :) And guess whose house Sebastian and Thad are staying at - it's really obvious :)
Historical Points:
1. A halfpenny is what it says, half of an old penny in old British currency - the equivalent of maybe 20p now (I'm not sure about this).
2. And yes, there is a horse and cart in this, because they were still used in the British countryside in 1939 - think of the beginning of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe :)
Thank you for reading, and please leave a review to tell me what you thought or to ask me a question about the history behind it :)