Little Girl Lost: New Beginnings

Chapter 4


Since they dropped Clara off at school Hawke stalked the phones like lion stalking it's prey. Tapping his right foot, chewing at his nails. His eyes darting back and forth to the clock, with an angry expression, why can't it tick any faster? The moment is no longer sixty seconds, but much more. Hawke gets up and starts pacing back and forth, pulling at the long sleeves of his shirt. He started running his hands through his hair, while stealing a peek at the clock at the top right hand corner of the white wall. Only two minutes have passed. He decided to go sit down again.

As he sat there waiting, it felt like hours were passing by. How long has it been since they returned from school? He look toward the clock and it had only been fifteen minutes. He took a deep breath in, trying to comfort himself with happy thoughts. These happy thoughts were not enough. Somehow he knew something had gone terribly wrong.

"String, will you calm down," Dominic said. "She's fine,"

"How can you be sure?" Hawke asked. "She could be crying right now,"

"String..." Dominic started to speak but was cut off by the sound of the ringing phone and Hawke shooting off to the office

Never was Hawke ever so eager to answer the phone. Dominic figures he should at least enjoy it while it lasts, but he was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound and sight of the white stretch limo pulling up to the hanger.

"Uh oh," Dominic muttered to himself.

"Michael, now is not really a good time," Dominic said. "Whatever it is, it'll have to wait,"

"Unfortunately, it can't," Marella said.

"He's a mess Marella," Dominic said. "They only thing he's been capable of is answering the phone on the first ring and wearing out my floor,"

"What's wrong?" Michael asked.

"You don't know what today is?" Dominic asked.

"No, what?"

"It's Clara's first day of school," Dominic said. "He's convinced himself that she's miserable and crying. He's gone banana's and in no right mind to fly Airwolf,"

"Actually, it's Clara who need," Marella said. "We'll have to find another way,"

"How could you not know it was her first day of school?" Dominic asked. "You have security on her round the clock,"

"Well, a little issue of a missing nuclear warhead has gotten me a little distracted," Michael said. "We need the machine's help to disarm it permanently,"

"You need her to make a phone call," Dominic said.

"Michael, what are you doing here?" Hawke asked as he emerged from the office. "I can't help you,"

"I know, Dominic just told me about Clara's first day of school," Michael said. "And so it begins,"

"Hawke, we need the machine..." Marella began to say.

"Get my note?" Hawke asked.

"Yeah, and I'm glad you finally did it," Michael said. "See, civilization isn't too bad,"

"Give me the information and when I pick her up, I'll have her make the call," Hawke said.


School...

"Ok, guys today we are going to combine art and engineering," Mr. Fischer said. "You are going to create an artbot using these,"

He picked up some foam, batteries, circuits and motors. "You will each create your own, this is not a contest to see who made the best,"

"Drawing and science together this is gonna be fun," Abby said. "Experiment's are fun,"

"I like drawing and experimenting too," Clara said. "Have you done any?"

"Yeah, I one time super glued my brother's head to a wood beam to see how long it would support his weight," Abby said.

"Did it?" Clara asked.

"No, but he was bald like an old man for a few weeks, boy my parent's were mad," Abby said. "What about you?"

"I made a paste using paint, oil and pancake syrup," Clara said. "My dad and Grandpa were mad too,"

"Do you have any brother's or sisters?" Abby asked.

"No, just my Daddy and Grandpa," Clara said. "I have an Aunt and Uncle too, and my Grandma but she lives in England,"

"What about your Mommy?"

Clara became quiet and sullen. "I don't have a Mommy,"

Abby saw the hurt in her eye's and knew not to move on to the why of the question.

"I'm sorry Clara, it'll be okay," Abby said as she hugged Clara. "I'm adopted, I don't know my real parents,"

"Really?" Clara asked. "When you were a baby?"

"Yeah, but I love my family, " Abby said. "I don't want anyone else,"

"Me too," Clara said. "I also have turtle named Clyde and rabbit named Bonnie,"

"You have a turtle?" Abby said. "I have a tortoise named Herman,"

"Really? how big is he?" Clara asked.

"He's so big my brother and I ride him everywhere, except to my Grandma's, because he eats her petunia's," Abby said. "You can come over and ride him with me,"

"Yes, that'll be fun," Clara said. "I can't wait,"

As the two newly bonded friends worked together Clara noticed a boy sitting alone. She saw that he was trying to interact with the other classmates but they kept ignoring him. One boy said something that made the boy tear. Clara got up and went over to the boy inviting him to join her and her new friend Abby.

"Hi, I'm Clara what's your name?"

"Sheldon," He said sheepishly.

"Do you want to come and play with me and my friend Abby?" She asked.

"Really?" Sheldon asked surprised. "Yes, Thank you,"

"Abby, this is Sheldon," Clara said.

"Hi Sheldon," Abby said. "Come join us the more the merrier,"

"That's a false equivalency. More does not equal merry. If there was two thousand people in this room right now, would we be celebrating? No, we'd be suffocating." Sheldon said.

"You're funny," Clara said. "Where are you from?"

"Texas, my mom moved us here so I could come to school," Sheldon said. "I'm too smart for the education system where I used to live. It's all about football. Football is ubiquitous in Texas. Pro football, college football, high school football, pee wee football... in fact, every form of football except the original, European football, which most Texans believe to be a commie plot,"

"Hi, are you going to use that brown marker?" a little girl asked Clara.

"No, you can have it," Clara said. "What's your name?"

"Patterson," She said. "I don't like my first name, so I go by my last name,"

"I like it, it's different," Abby said. "I like anything different, I'm Abby,"

"My name is Clara, and this is Sheldon,"

The four children chatted away getting to know each other. Sheldon felt relaxed as the girls did not make fun of him and didn't criticize his fear of germs. Instead of laughing at him they were laughing with him.

"I like your design," The boy said to Clara. "The propellers work really well,"

"Thank you, what did you do?" Clara asked.

"The same, this kind of stuff is child's play, but I added an extra battery underneath just for fun," The boy said. "Shh, don't tell,"

"Your sneaky," Clara giggled. "You like to build?"

"Yes, I built a computer keyboard last year," He said. "I was bored,"

"My name is Anthony," He said. "But call me Tony,"

"Hi, Tony," They all greeted in unison.

A little while later a young boy was sitting alone finished with his artbot. He was a very serious and stern looking boy who seemed rather bored of the exercise. Abby waved him over to come join them, looking at her with a perplexed and curious expression. The young boy decided to investigate.

"Hi I'm Abby, come play with us," She said. "We don't bite,"

"I'm Patterson, what's your name?"

"Sherlock," The boy said.

"That's a weird name," Tony said. "I'm Tony,"

"Not as weird as my first name," Patterson said.

"My brother's name is Mycroft," He said. "That's worse than mine. My parents have a thing for names to get you picked on,"

"I'm Clara and this is Sheldon," She said. "And don't worry, we are not going to pick on you about your name,"

"Yeah, we like different," Abby said.

Meanwhile outside the door of the classroom.

"What do you think of the group that just formed around Clara?" Mr. Fischer asked.

"This is a group of seismic intelligence," Mrs. Lang said. "Clara and Anthony together alone is awe inspiring at the amount of intelligence between them but the other four added is monumental,"

"The Magnificent Six," Mr. Fischer chuckled. "They're gonna change the world,"

As the rest of the day moved on Clara, Abby, Patterson, Sheldon, Anthony and Sherlock became inseparable to each other as they each began to realize they had found challenges in each other that so craved from others. They found their own kind.


School pickup...

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hawke," Mrs Lang said.

"How is she?" He asked straight away. "Was she nervous, trouble?"

"Come see for yourself," She said as she lead him to the classroom door.

Looking through the window he saw Clara laughing and playing with her new friends and not a care in the world. It touched his heart to finally see her so happy and not surprised she made friends quickly. A dream that has become reality. He noted that there were three boys in the group around her giving him a slight agitation.

"We nicknamed them the Magnificent Six," Mrs. Lang said. "They are undoubtedly the most intelligent children this school has ever had. Clara and the boy Anthony lead the group in IQ levels but the others are just as powerful. This group will change the world,"

"Why does she have to make friends with boys?" Hawke muttered to himself.

Mrs. Lang chuckled. "That boy there is named Anthony and that little boy built a computer keyboard at four years old,"

"The other boy is Sheldon Cooper, he wrote a paper entitled "A Proof That Algebraic Topology Can Never Have a Non-self-contradictory Set of Abelian Groups" and his grade school science project paper, with the original title "A Rederivation of Maxwell's Equations Regarding Electromagnetism", contains an approach that might change the way ferromagnetic hysteresis is calculated. Loves physics,"

"That's a mouthful," Hawke said. "These are her friends,"

"Yes,"

"What about the other's?" Hawke asked trying to wrap his head around what he just heard.

"The other boy is Sherlock," Mrs. Lang said.

"Sherlock is uncanny in psychology and human behavior," Mrs. Lang said. "You have to see it to understand,"

"The girls are Abby and Patterson. Abby was adopted as a baby so we were naturally not surprised when they got together. She is a brilliant little scientist as well as Patterson both are great mystery and puzzle solvers. I can see them leading in the field of forensics,"

"They seem happy together," Hawke said.

"They are, Mr. Hawke," Mrs. Lang said. "She's happy, you can stop worrying now,"

"Thanks,"

Letting out a big sigh of relief Hawke returned to the SUV waiting for Clara to be released for the day. All of a sudden he hears her call out to him.

"DADDY!" Clara shouted as she ran down the path straight into his arms.

"Oh, I've missed you!" Hawke said giving her a big kiss. "So glad to have you back,"

"I missed you too," Clara said.

"How was school?" Hawke asked. "Did you have fun?"

"Yes, and I made some friends," Clara said.

"Of course you did, there was no doubt you were," Hawke said feigning ignorance. "Time to go, you can tell me all about your friends on the way home. But first Uncle Michael needs your help by making a phone call,"

"How much is he paying me?" Clara asked. "I'm about to save the world right?"

"We'll work it out later. He and Aunt Marella are coming over for dinner later," Hawke said.

Clara made the phone call and briefly saved the world.


Home...

As they all sat around the dinner table Clara entertained everyone about her first day of school and her new friends. They were all so happy to finally see her fully accept and settle into her new life. One they all hope and will try to protect from any negative force to try and destroy it. Unfortunately and unknown to Clara one such force still lurks outside a constant threat in their minds of his return.

"Oh and guess what," Clara said. "All of my friends and me are going to be in a Lego League!"

"What's a Lego League?" Dominic asked.

"We build robots out of Lego's to work out solutions to various problems and we build, test, and program an autonomous robot using Lego's to solve a set of missions in a robot game. It's world wide," Clara said.

"Wow," was all Dominic could mutter out.

"That should be a real challenge for you and your friends," Marella said. "It'll be fun for you,"

"Clara, you said your friend Sherlock's last name is Holmes?" Archangel asked. "Is he English?"

"Yes, how did you know?" Clara asked.

"I know of his father," Archangel said.

"He doesn't see his parents that much," Clara said. "Only his brother and nanny,"

"Not surprising," Archangel muttered.

"Uncle Michael, are you going to pay me for saving the world today?" Clara asked.

Dominic nearly choked with laughter as Hawke smiled at his daughter's brazenness.

"Yes, I'am don't you remember I said I was putting you on the payroll?"

"How much?" Clara asked.

"What's your price?" Marella asked.

"One hundred dollars,"

"What?!" Archangel exclaimed. "Each time you make a call?"

"Yes, each call and I'm going to keep a record,"

"Alright, you got yourself a deal," Archangel said.

"She's better at business than you, Dominic," Archangel said. "Maybe she should run Santini Air,"

"Ha ha very funny," Dominic said. "I run it just fine,"

After dinner Clara went off to her playroom as Hawke and the other's sat down for conversation.

"Hawke, you really did a fantastic job on the house," Michael said. "Especially that playroom,"

"Yeah, even I'm tempted to go and play," Marella said.

"She loves it, though she's lately been getting a little messy by not putting things back," Hawke said. "It's been a minefield of Lego's all over the floor lately and a fight to get her to clean them up,"

"Ah String, she's experimenting," Dominic said. "Remember Doctor Wells said she was gonna do this, probably because she never was able to before. She's trying it out, no harm,"

"Yeah, just another change," Hawke sighed.

"And they're going to keep coming," Michael said. "She's grown so much since the beginning,"

"You're doing a great job Hawke," Marella said. "You're a natural healer,"

"Thanks, Marella," He said.

"Michael, why were you asking about Clara's friend Sherlock?" Dominic asked.

"His father, Moreland Holmes He works as a business consultant, making arrangements for various companies and government officials to achieve their goals regardless of what they might be best describing him as a 'neutral' party in that he has no concern about the consequences of his clients' goals so long as they are achieved even to the point of murder we suspect," Michael said. "He has high government contacts,"

"Great! If he finds out about Clara and the machine.." Hawke said getting nervous.

"Calm down, Moreland hasn't seen his kids in two years," Michael said. "Apparently, he want's nothing to do with him,"

"Poor kid, that's gotta really twist his guts," Dominic said. "How could a parent not love their child and treat them like trash,"

"Obviously he can with no remorse," Marella said.

"Howard Stark's son," Michael said. "The committee is gonna be all over you now,"

"Why?" Hawke said.

"He's the most brilliant engineer and inventor on the planet," Marella said. "The Firm has been trying to get him for years,"

"I've never heard of him," Hawke said.

"He's the founder of Stark Industries and worked on a little project called the Manhattan project," Michael said. "A technological genius,"

"Boy String, Clara sure knows how to pick friends," Dominic chuckled. "You got your work cut out for you,"

"Don't tell me about the other's right now," Hawke said. "I've had enough surprise and anxiety for one day,"

"Goodnight, until next time," Michael said.

Later on after he tucked Clara in for the night, he lied down in bed. Dominic was right he did have his work cut out for him.