Chapter 2

It was the second day of kindergarten. Kendall and James sat outside on the hot wooden bench, waiting for Carlos to arrive. They had become friends in just yesterday's time, and loved each other's company.

Finally, Carlos arrived, and the trio walked into Valley River Elementary School. They had learned of their school's name just yesterday. The boys plopped themselves onto the blue chairs of their table, and folded their hands together, waiting for class to start.

Mrs. Simpson gave everyone all a box of crayons, and a coloring paper. On the paper was a picture of the ocean and trees. Kendall colored in the lines almost perfectly, James just a little out of the lines. But, Carlos colored everywhere but the insides of the lines.

"Carlos! You're supposed to color outside of the lines!" Kendall laughed. Carlos looked confused.

"Oh. I thought we were supposed weave (leave) the insides bwank, and cowor the outsides." He shrugged innocently, and we laughed until the boy sitting at the table next to us shushed us.

"Mrs. Simpson is on the phone. We think she's talking to the principle." He whispered. James looked at his name tag, and saw that it said 'P-H-I-L-L-I-P.' "Is your name p-hillip?" He asked.

"No, it's Fillip. It's just spelled with a 'ph' instead of an 'f'." James nodded in understanding. He was learning so many new things!

The kindergarteners had met the principle yesterday. He was very tall, and fat. Kendall liked to call him Mr. Turd, but his real name was Mr. Terf. "Mrs. Simpson is talking to Mr. Turd!" Kendall cried softly. The class laughed, but immediately calmed down when the teacher glared at them.

"I wonder why Turdy is calling our classroom! I thought principle were always busy." James whispered to Carlos. Carlos nodded in agreement. "I think it's something reawwy important." He whispered back, his ears twitching.

In a few minutes, the whole class was whispering about all different kinds of things. Cars, ice cream, turtles, even Carlos's dad, Mr. Garcia the police officer. Kendall, James, and Carlos were talking, too.

"My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla!" James shouted. Kendall opened his mouth to reply, but Mrs. Simpson interrupted.

"Class! A new child is joining our class today. His name is Logan Mitchell, and he is four years old. I want everyone to welcome him to our class." The kids nodded excitedly. They loved new kids. The more, the merrier!

"What does he wook wike?" Carlos said. Some kids still snickered at his 'L' sounds, but Carlos had learned to ignore them.

"Well, all I know is that he is from Texas, and has brunette hair. He is pretty short, and very smart." Kendall laughed. How smart could a four year old be? The class was thinking the same, because they all were laughing. Just then, the door opened slowly. It made a creaking noise, because of the door's old age.

In walked a short little boy, just about one inch taller than Carlos, clinging on to his mom's skirt. He had blackish brownish hair, and big brown eyes. Carlos was reminded of chocolate when he stared into those eyes. Logan looked nervous, and he kept on shifting his position.

"Welcome, Logan! Everyone, say hello to Logan!" Everyone shouted their hellos, and Logan looked embarrassed at the attention. His mom soon left him, and he was standing near Mrs. Simpson. "Logan, you will be sitting next to Kendall in the blue table. Kendall, can you wave your hand so Logan can see where you are?"

Kendall raised his hesitantly. A new boy was going to sit at their table? Now it wasn't fun anymore, cause there would be a new kid they'd have to talk to. But he raised his hand anyways, because kindergarteners couldn't disobey their teachers, right?

Logan hesitantly walked over to the blue table, and sat slowly down next to Kendall. Class resumed, and they were doing math. It was the first subject of the day, and all the kids thought it was boring. They were going to count by threes today. Kendall was okay with it, but it was hard for him, James, and Carlos. And the rest of the class, too, probably. They sat in a line and took turns counting. James started. "3," he said. Kendall said 6, Carlos 9, and on and on. Logan sat at the end of the line, so he had the highest number. There were about 12 kids in the class. So the number would be 36.

When someone didn't know the number or didn't answer in time, they were out. 5 kids were already out, and then James and Carlos were out. Two girls got out, and then Kendall was out, too. The two kids who were left were Logan and a shy girl named Sarah. They were currently at 90.

"93, 96, 99..." Sarah trailed off. She didn't know what came next. So, Logan said it. "102." That was it! Logan won the game! The class stared astonishingly at Logan's intelligence. And he was only four! Kendall was amazed, in a good way of course.

But, some kids in class, like Phillip and his best friend Nathan, weren't happy. They had thought they were really smart. They didn't care that Sarah was smart, she was a girl and she was rich. Well, her family was. But they were angry that Logan was such a show off, even though he was so modest about it. And he was shy, even shyer than Sarah.

Phillip and Nathan and the rest of the class all knew it. Logan was going to be their next 'Matthew.' Kendall, Carlos, and James remembered it, too. They hadn't been friends at that time, even though they were in the same preschool and daycare classes.

Matthew was a young boy who was always teased because of what he wore and his strange and unusual accent. He stuttered a lot and was teased because of that, and the fact that he was just the one the kids chose to push around.

Matthew was sitting at the corner crying. He had fallen off the monkey bars at recess, and his arm was fractured, though he didn't know it yet. Blood was pouring out from his sleeves and he whimpered in pain. The kids were all laughing at him. Except for James, Kendall, and Carlos. They tried to comfort him. Then, Nathan came up to them and whispered something into their ears.

"Why aren't you guys laughing with us? Come on, step into the cool group!" Carlos and James both agreed, but Kendall hesitated. Should he leave Matthew all alone?

Just then, the teacher came in, and Kendall felt tears in his small baby eyes. He wanted to leave Matthew to suffer, and he didn't know why. Was it too much in his part? Was he that selfish?

The next day, Matthew was said to have died. From severe blood loss, and mental and emotional pain. Pain that no one had wanted him. No kids enjoyed him, and they all laughed at him. The kids in preschool hadn't understood death, but they knew it was something bad. Kendall, James, and Carlos felt so guilty for leaving Matthew like that.

From that day on, the three all vowed to never let that happen to an innocent young child ever again. Not if they could stop it.

Carlos's eyes filled with tears at that memory. James sighed and closed his eyes in pain. Kendall's breath stopped short, and his eyes grew wide. The three knew that Logan would end up just like Matthew. But, it would be worse for Logan. Matthew had stood up for himself. He was sometimes very mean, and intimidated some of the kids.

But, Logan, he just was... well, you could say, a wimp. He seemed to be scared of a lot of things. And he was a nerd. Matthew was just a regular kid who loved soccer and video games. Kendall, James, and Carlos could tell that Logan loved to read, based on all the books they saw in his backpack.

James looked at Kendall, who looked at Carlos. Their eyes all met, and they were thinking the same thing. They would protect Logan, and keep him as far as possible from the harm that was sure to come to him.

At recess, the trio met. Kendall took control, like he did yesterday when looking for their classroom. "Alright, so we all agree, right? That we will protect Logan, right?" The other two nodded their heads.

Carlos looked straight into Kendall's eyes. "Right. We should make a name for... us three boys. We should give ourselves a nickname. Wike, wike..."

"Great idea! We should be called "The Lions of..." James started.

"... of Valley River!" Kendall finished excitedly.

"The THREE Lions of Valley River!" Carlos put in. They nodded in agreement. It sounded perfect, at least to a bunch of naive, innocent kindergarteners.