Gabby gasped and shrunk back a little as the green and yellow hurricane burst into the room, spinning around the entire gym before screeching to a halt in front of the doors.

"Well hello, class. Are we all ready for our very serious Toon Skills lesson?" The green-faced teacher smiled broadly (a little too broadly for Gabby's liking), puffing his chest out proudly as the rambunctious group chorused a

"Yes, Mr M!"

Their voices reverberated around the spacious gym, making Gabby jump. Toon Skills was taught in the gym simply because it was the biggest empty space available, and there were plenty of gymnastics mats there to prevent possible injury. Gabby looked around in awe as the rest of the kids whooped and applauded the whirling, green-faced insanity that had just swept into the class.

"That's the teacher?" She whispered to Abbi, looking over his sharp yellow suit, green head, and unnervingly large white teeth. Last night, she'd heard her Dad use the word "Eccentric", and asked him what it meant, and while he had tried his best, his explanation had confused her. Now, however, she felt she was looking at a living embodiment of the definition.

"Yup." Abbi grinned, flopping heavily on Gabby's shoulders, "That's Mr. M. Don't worry, he's harmless. He's a genius at Toon Skills."

"Really?" Gabby cut him another suspicious glance, watching as he started joking with the other kids, filling the room with infectious energy. "He just looks crazy to me."

Todd, ears perking at the conversation, shook his head and traced a square shape in mid-air with his finger, before grinning and laughing silently.

"Yeah, he was on TV for a while, ages ago." Abbi translated. Gabby was amazed how easily Abbi translated Todd's makeshift sign-language, but then she supposed it made sense. After all, Abbi had only known Gabby for a week or two, and was already able to predict Gabby's thoughts. She may not claim to be smart, but she was very good at understanding emotions and personalities.

"Mr M. was drawn 'specially for the series. No idea what it was about, though." Abbi shrugged, before all three of them jumped as Mr "M" cleared his throat, commanding attention.

"Today, kids, we're going to be focusing on that most elegant and impressive of Toon Skills... the Spin! Not the easiest to master, but if done right, it really can be a thing of beauty." So saying, he performed a spin change, and was suddenly wearing a purple bard's costume, strumming at a lute.

"If you don't mind, I have prepared an ode..."

Abbi and Todd joined in with the giggles of the class, most of whom were laughing so loud Gabby couldn't even hear his song. Gabby wrinkled her nose. He was quite clearly nuts, but he looked friendly enough.

"... and now, my children, it's your chance, get into groups of two or three; Grab a mat, and call an ambulance. I foresee catastrophe!"

The class erupted into applause, before running off into groups.

Gabby bit her lip as she and her new friends dragged one of the gymnastics mats over to a space near the back of the gym. She still wasn't sure about this Mr. M, but if he'd been drawn, rather than born, it would explain a lot. Everyone knew that cartoons were either drawn by animators and then brought to life, or born to already living cartoons. The ones who were drawn never got older, and were usually really weird. Her Dad had said something about it, once, but hadn't gone into much detail. Then, in one of her more stubborn moments, she'd then gone to the library and found out anyway. When a toon was drawn and brought to life... some freak happening or complicated scientific stuff, she hadn't understood that bit... they were usually a lot crazier and had much higher abilities and thresholds. Something to do with DNA and genetics, she hadn't understood that bit too well either. But the basic gist was a "first generation" cartoon would be able to withstand more pain, do more crazy stunts, and were usually more unstable; examples being this "Mr M", many of the Tex Avery toons and, of course, the Looney Toons.

However, as the generations continued, Toons slowly became more and more sensitised to the world around them; and although they could still do all the elementary toon things (like, say, surviving a fall off a tall building or making things appear from nowhere), they behaved more normally. The "Toon-ness" became watered down, as it were. One of the few things her dad had told her on the subject was that he was a second generation, which made her a third. She had asked him if that meant that they would both grow older than her grandparents and he said yes, but that he had outgrown his parents long ago. She had said that she didn't know what that meant, and he had told her to be glad he'd never met them. Sometimes, Gabby wondered if her Dad was trying to confuse her on purpose.

Abbi cut in on her thoughts, flicking her on the arm.

"Gab! You ever done Spins before?"

Gabby shook her head. Spins were tricky, but seemed like lots of fun. Characters like Taz had made them really famous, especially for long periods of time. Mr M, now back in the yellow suit, was raving on about how he was "somewhat of a spin expert", and that once they'd mastered spins they could go on to spin changes. The boys groaned. Mr M wagged his finger, rolling his eyes.

"Now now, boys. Spin changes are very useful. If not for comic effect, then certain manoeuvres can prove infinitely useful on dates." Seeing the befuddled, eight year old faces gazing back at him, Mr M's expression dropped. "Trust me; it'll be useful when you're older. Besides, even the great Mr Bunny has relied on Spins a few times."

This was true. And it was enough to sell most of the boys on the idea. Todd even slapped his hand down on his hat and attempted a clumsy pirouette, overbalancing and falling over. The class laughed, and since he leapt up grinning, Gabby had the feeling it was staged. For a four year old, he was a convincing actor.

It took the three of them over fifteen minutes just to work out how to do it without bumping into each other, but soon enough, Abbi, Gabby and Todd had started spinning pretty fast, an managed to keep it up for quite a while, before the inevitable-

"WARGH!" Abbi wailed, as she tripped over her own tail and fell face down onto the mat. Gabby rushed over and crouched down by her friend's head.

"You ok?"

Abbi prized her face off the blue foam, and jutted her bottom lip out, puffing air up so her ears moved out of her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Where's To- Ow!" She let out another indignant yelp as Todd, staggering dizzily across the mat after a particularly enthusiastic spin, tripped over her feet. Gabby held back a giggle, blushing.

Abbi scowled at her, but she couldn't help giggling herself. Gabby held out her hands to her friends, in an effort to help them up, but the two had other ideas, and pulled on her arms so that she overbalanced and fell on top of them.

The three lay there giggling hysterically for a while, unnoticed by most of the chaotic rabble of the class. Only one, solitary figure sat across the hall, arms crossed and knees drawn up as he glared at the three of them. Junior made no effort to join in the lesson, and, in return, little effort was made to involve him. He'd tried once or twice, at the beginning of the lesson, but after he'd fallen down every time, and heard some barely concealed snickers from nearby groups, he'd given up in a huff. His "partner" (or rather, the kid Mr M had instructed to work with him on account of everyone else being in groups) had run off to go work with his friends, so now he was left here on his own. He growled a little, and glared at Abbi, Gabby and Todd.

Abbi was his friend first; who did this new kid think she was, just barging in here and stealing her away?

That wasn't fair.

He didn't like her, and he didn't like the fact that she was such a goody-goody. Junior had listened with contempt as Gabby had won over their teachers with her quiet, simpering voice and her shy blushes. He'd wriggled with disgust as she'd been introduced to him by Abbi, and smiled sweetly. He'd practically gagged in bilious fury as she had simpered that she hoped she'd get to be friends with him.

He hated her.

They'd been talking about family in one of their lessons, and Gabby had stolen all the attention away by whimpering that her parents were divorced. Everyone had cooed and consoled her, asking her how she felt about it, and then she had the sheer cheek to go on about how wonderful her parents are, and how much they both wanted to spend time on her because she was their only kid. Junior glowered at her, frolicking across the room. He wasn't really sure what the word "hate" meant. But he was pretty certain he hated her.

At recess, Abbi and Gabby sat on the edge of the field, right next to the concrete square people played ball games on. They were waiting for Todd to finish talking with the school nurse.

"Why does he have to talk to her every day?" Gabby asked, holding one hand up to shield her eyes from the sun as she strained her neck up, watching Abbi pretend to tightrope walk on the line between concrete and grass. She had her arms stretched out to either side, and was wearing the same dusty pink skirt and blue hoody she had on yesterday. She kept stopping to push the sleeves of the jumper back up her arms, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated hard, balancing on her tip-toes.

"Because the school have to check how he's fitting in to his lessons, since he's in older classes." Abbi shrugged, tearing her eyes away from the imaginary tightrope for a moment. "Plus they get worried about how he never speaks, so they have to check he's not got anything wrong with his brain or something."

"Oh." Gabby nodded, scratching her tomato nose thoughtfully. "Why are adults always butting in?"

"It's all a big plot. Like putting on really cool adverts for stuff that only comes on TV after bed time. It's to make us be brainless drones so we'll become boring grown-ups much quicker."

Gabby laughed to herself, laying back on the grass. Todd pulled horrible faces whenever he was dragged off five minutes before recess to go talk to the nurse, so Gabby had come to the conclusion he didn't like the sessions. The nurse was the horsey woman she'd seen him talking to yesterday, and she seemed friendly enough. Boring, though. Her voice went up and down on every other word, so it sounded like she was jogging all the time... "CAN I PLEASE speak TO Todd, MR Bunny?" Gabby didn't like it, she sounded too jumpy, like if you said "boo" she'd jump a foot in the air and scream. Gabby stopped thinking about it when Abbi nudged her with her foot.

"You alright?"

"Yup." Gabby nodded, as Abbi rolled up her sleeves again. "How come you wear that jumper when it's so hot?"

"Always wear it." Abbi sniffed, grinning at her friend, somewhat proud. "It was my dad's but now it's mine. And I wear it all the time 'cos it's cool." She smiled again, sticking her tongue out and flipping the red hood up.

"Oh..." Gabby said again. "Okay then. Oh! There's Todd!"

She stood up and waved as she saw Todd slipping through the double doors at the side of the school. He waved back, and started running towards them. Gabby turned back to say something to Abbi, but just as she opened her mouth she got thrown forward as something collided hard with the back of her head. She put her hands out to stop herself from landing flat on the grass, but still got mucky grass stains on her gloves.

She sat up, rubbing the back of her head, looking around. There was a red rubber dodge ball rolling quietly across the concrete away from her, and she had a feeling that was what had caused the stinging of the impact. But who'd thrown it.

"You ok?" Abbi asked, looking around too, before wriggling round behind her and checking the back of her head. "No bruise, don't think... you're not bleeding, anyway-"

"Eew, Abbi!" Gabby whimpered, hating thinking about blood. She saw Junior pick up the dodge ball and walk toward them, cutting in front of Todd.

"Aww, did cry-baby get hurt?" He sneered, as he threw the ball at her again. This time, she caught it, and held it between her knees.

"What's up, Junior?" Gabby didn't like the way he was glaring at her, and yelped as he kicked at her ankles. Abbi leapt up to her feet, holding Gabby's hand.

"What's your problem, meathead?" She gave a slight tug on Gabby's hand, helping her up.

"None of your business, fuzz-face." Junior growled. A few of the kids around them were taking interest in what was going on. Not that Gabby noticed; she was transfixed by the fire burning in Junior's eyes.

He was glaring at her, not a trace of friendliness or even indifference. Kids had ignored her before, frozen her out or made it clear that she wasn't welcome, but no one had ever singled her out on purpose. It was scary, the thought that Junior had sought her out to cause her pain. She gripped Abbi's hand tight, and was a little happy to feel Abbi squeeze back.

Junior crossed his arms, stepping closer so that he could look down on her. He was tall, for his age, and stocky. Gabby was fairly petite anyway, but she was dwarfed in comparison. Junior bared his teeth, showing off gleaming fangs.

"But you would stick up for her, wouldn't you? Three little freaks; you've got to stick together." When he said the word "freaks", he spat it, making it sound like a really dirty word. The groups of kids watching were getting bigger, all captivated by the tension.

"Who are you calling a freak, blubber boy?" Abbi scowled back, squeezing Gabby's hand again. "Thought you said we were best friends?"

"That was before you started hanging out with the divorce girl." Junior said, pushing Gabby in the chest. "Why waste your time? No one wants her, not even her parents."

The playground was deathly silent now. Somehow, everyone knew that was a line that shouldn't be crossed. Gabby took a sharp breath, feeling like she'd not so much heard the words as been punched in the stomach with them. Her eyes started feeling uncomfortably warm and prickly, and her lips felt really dry.

"Not true!" She said, but it came out as a choked yelp, which Junior just laughed at.

"It is. It always is. I bet they were fine before they found out you were such a freak."

Abbi let go of Gabby's hand, and shoved Junior in the chest, hard.

"Don't say that!" She growled, standing so close they were almost nose to nose. She had to stand up on tip-toe a little bit, but she was just as scary. "You don't say that about my friends or anyone, not ever!"

"Why not? It's true." Junior shoved Abbi back, so that she stumbled back a step. He stopped, and looked round as he felt tiny thuds on his back. Todd was hammering on his back with tiny gloved fists, making little effect. Junior just laughed, grabbed Todd's wrist, and swung him round so he was standing with the other two. "Three freaks together. You've got to keep it that way, since no one else'd go near you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Abbi growled, stepping forward again. Gabby sniffed and watched. She wished she could be brave like her, but she had a feeling if she said anything it would come out a sob. Todd looked up at her, as nervous and unsure as she was. Trying to look brave, Todd clutched Gabby's hand, reassuring her.

"Look around you!" Junior laughed, a cruel sneer on his face. "Look at those tails, and those stupid little ears and big furry faces. Who wants cheek to cheek carpeting?" He jeered, and a few kids laughed.

Gabby swallowed, feeling Todd grip her hand. He didn't know what to do either. She was pretty sure she even saw Abbi blush a little. She opened her mouth to retaliate, but Junior wasn't done yet.

"And as for mime and teeth-face over there..."

Gabby carefully raised her hand to her mouth. She knew she had a little bit of an over-bite, but it wasn't that bad, was it?

"Babies! You were almost cool, Abbi, and now you've found out there's more weird freaks and you're gonna be just like them! Babies and brains!" He jeered again, laughing. The kids who laughed before were louder this time, a few even walking over to stand behind Junior. Gabby looked around, seeing the crowd of eyes on her.

"It's not true. We're just normal kids..."

"Baby." Junior grinned, triumphant as Gabby started to find it hard to fight off the tears. "Little divorce baby who nobody loves."

Todd, looking from Abbi to Gabby, suddenly seemed to make up his mind. He ran over to Junior and kicked him in the back of his knees. Junior grunted in pain, grabbed Todd by the shoulders and swung him round so he skidded on the concrete behind him. Abbi, who had been quietly seething till then, stormed forward and pushed Junior again, this time, really hard. Junior stumbled back, and tripped over the crouching Todd, falling back and knocking his head on the concrete. Abbi wasted no time jumping on his chest and hitting him. The kids gathered round chanting for a fight, While Gabby sniffed back tears once more, picking Todd up and checking he was ok. They turned, trying to pull Abbi back, but they were too late.

"ABIGAIL WARNER!" The voice came from across the playground, stopping everyone in their tracks. The school's deputy head, was a fat, crotchety, grey-haired old woman with pointy yellow teeth and a horrible sharp nose. She was a complete battle-axe and, quaking, Abbi realised she was storming toward her. She was known as Ms Finster, everyone hated and feared her, and she wasn't particularly fond of Abbi. Abbi tried to run off, but wasn't quick enough. Finster grabbed her by the shoulder, and picked Junior up by his.

"Fighting is against school rules. The pair of you are in big trouble!"

"But he-" Abbi began, to be cut off by Finster's rattling voice.

"No buts, missy. You two are going to the principal's office."

Gabby and Todd watched helplessly as Abbi was half walked, half dragged to the principal's office, Junior still shouting and protesting. Gabby sat down on the grass, staring at the stains on her gloves, Junior's taunts echoing round in her mind...

Neither Gabby nor Todd saw Abbi again until lunchtime, and even then she was sat across the cafeteria, being watched by Finster. Gabby had sat next to Todd, and they'd planned to sneak into her detention to see her. She looked horribly sad, sat there fiddling with her fork, occasionally taking a spiteful bite of her food. Junior was sat next to her, looking just as dejected, but not at all sorry. Eventually he finished, and was taken off to the gym, presumably for his detention. Gabby and Todd watched helplessly as Abbi was taken to the science room for her own punishment. Todd looked at Gabby, grinning. He threw back what was left of his milk, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve and pulled a weird, cross-eyed face at her, before motioning to go. They needed to see Abbi.

Walking down the empty corridors, Gabby and Todd were cautious on their trip to the science classroom, making sure Finster was nowhere about. Carefully, as they reached the classroom, Gabby stood on tiptoe and peeked over the bottom of the window. There, sat at one of the front desks, resting her head on crossed arms on the table, and glaring at her pencil, was a very dejected looking Abbi.

Gabby glanced around. There was no one else in the room. Gabby turned back to Todd, giving him the thumbs up, and lifting a finger to her lips.

Todd raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. Gabby sighed.

"Alright, take your point." She muttered, opening the door, checking to make sure no one was would see them. "Just emphasizing the importance of quiet."

This was bad. She could get in serious trouble for this... but she had to see her friend, if nothing else than to thank her for sticking up for her.

Abbi looked up as they entered, but didn't move.

"Hi." She sniffed, resting her chin on her hands. Gabby and Todd crept over to her, still wary of being spotted. Todd ran over, and poked her arm. Abbi shrugged him off.

"What happened?" Gabby asked, sitting next to her.

"They sent Junior off to the nurse, 'cos he had a bump on his head." Abbi grumbled, still not looking up. "Then they made me talk to Mr Bunny 'cos they thought I was being bad. I tried to tell him about what Junior said but I got all nervous and it came out jumbled, so I don't think he understood. Then Finster phoned my parents, but they weren't in. So she said she's going to call them again later... and I have to stay in here all lunch and do science homework."

"Oh... well, that's not so bad..." Gabby sniffed a little, looking over at the notebook in front of Abbi. "There was a boy at my last school who beat up another kid and had to have classes by himself for a week."

"Yeah, but I can't do science." She sniffed in reply, slamming her pencil down on the desk in frustration. "If I do it at home then mum can help, but I can't..." She whimpered, her tail twitching as she got worked up. Gabby patted her friend's shoulder, looking at the sheet in front of her. It was a basic looking printout of a skeleton, with arrows pointing to different bits with blank spaces they were supposed to fill in. Gabby looked at Abbi, still sniffing, her ears wilting like lilies.

She knew how it felt, to get frustrated through not knowing something. Sometimes adults forgot that they didn't know stuff yet.

She hated to see Abbi upset. But then she had an idea...

"I know a song about it... if it'll help..." A bright pink blush spread across her cheeks as soon as she had said it, and she hoped fervently that Abbi wouldn't want her to sing it. She didn't like singing in front of people. She didn't like speaking in front of people, to start with.

"Really?" Abbi sniffed, blinking at her. "How's it go?"

Gabby twitched her tail and wrinkled her nose, looking around for a distraction.

"Oh come on, Gabby... sing it, please, otherwise I'll never get done." Abbi pleaded, whimpering at her with large, soft eyes. Gabby sighed, relenting. She had to remember to use that one on dad...

"Well... it starts off..." She shifted, wishing she at least had some music to sing to. She closed her eyes. She could sing in front of Dad, so she could sing in front of her friends.

Come on, Gabby. She stood up for you, now you have to help her

"Everybody knows about the anklebone connected to the other bones you have inside your leg..." Gabby spoke more than she sung, her words barely above a whisper. Abbi and Todd watched her quietly, so she closed her eyes tighter and carried on a little louder.

"And everybody knows it's true, without the bones inside of you, your body would become a scrambled egg!" Abbi and Todd laughed at this (or rather, Abbi laughed, and Todd clapped, so she assumed it was good) so Gabby got a little louder, and started singing a little more.

"So the toe bone's connected to the foot bone,

"And the foot bone's connected to the ankle bone,

"And the slide is connected to the trombone-" Here Todd made an impressive trombone impression, and everyone giggled for a bit, before Gabby carried on.

She sang the rest of the song, and everyone cheered up considerably, Abbi filling in the sheet as she went. Before long they were finished, and Gabby and Todd had to leave before Finster came back. They slipped out of the science room door, and quietly back to their homeroom, where Gabby would need to be for registration. Todd waved goodbye as he walked off to the kindergarten, and just as Gabby turned to continue walking down the corridor, she tripped and fell flat on her face. Rolling over and wiping tears from her eyes as her nose stung with pain, she saw Junior looming over her.

"Your freak buddy won't be around to help you all the time." He growled, as Gabby lay there, helpless. "And I'm going to make sure you hurt."

"What... what did I ever do?" Gabby managed to sniff, shuffling back from him.

"I don't like you. But no one does. No one likes the divorce kid." He growled again, before walking off.

Shaken, Gabby pulled herself to her feet; the good mood from a few moments ago instantly vanished. She looked around the empty halls. No one had seen. No one had heard. She was alone.

She walked quietly to homeroom, wishing harder than ever just to be invisible. She didn't want anyone to ask how she was. She didn't want anyone to talk to her. She just wanted everyone to leave her alone. She just wanted to go home.