Sorry about the massive wait. So we prepared a side story for you. We have reasons though. day 1) Parents evening. day 2) Friend had Black Veiled Brides concert. day 3) I went round a friends house overnight. during the time slot that we usually write in.


The rain was pounding heavily; Jack has crouched on a branch, the leaves doing nothing to prevent the rain from falling onto his head. He didn't care though. He had stopped caring weeks ago. He let the rain fall on him, it was comforting in a way, it made him feel like he was affecting something else, even something as insignificant as a droplet of water.

It's useless he thought. He had been carted off to care homes all over the county, but none of them had been able to handle his violent mood swings. Or figure out why he was seemingly so dependent on that old, black tail coat that was way too big for him. The funeral was ages ago yet Jack still felt like garbage, so he curled up into a tight ball and started to cry.

He had no idea how long he had been crying on top of that tree. He didn't even have any idea what was tears or what was rain anymore.

Once the rain stopped he poked his head through the leaves and surveyed the graveyard around him. His granddad's grave was directly below the tree. A final tear ran off his cheek and fell onto the white marble grave, merging with the still water remaining on the stone.

Jack stretched his legs and prepared to drop from the tree he was sitting on. But Jack saw a short boy around his age wander down town the path in his peripheral vision. Not wanting anyone to see him cry, Jack curled back into his ball and watched the brown - haired boy intently.

"Hey, Dad"

The boy crouched down by a gravestone directly next to Jack's granddads, it was a lot older than his granddads brand new one, this one, the boy's father presumably, had cracks and ivy growing up the side and on the top.

He leant forward on his perch, his right arm tightly gripping the branch above him in an attempt to see the other boys face. He couldn't tell why but he was intrigued by this tiny fellow. But in a sudden gust of wind, the tree swayed dangerously and Jack fell, crashing through the branches.

A scream escaped him as he fell. The boy below only had the time to look up and see a falling object, wrapped up in a massive black cloth. In a tumble of bodies they collided, both falling to the muddy ground in a mess of limbs and fabric. Jack heard a snap and a crack as his arm made contact with the old gravestone, then felt a sharp burst of pain in the area. He let out a gasp at the unexpected injury and bit his lip, not wanting the other boy to think he was weak.


As Mike disentangled himself from this soft, black mass that suddenly fell on top of him, he asked it. "Were you spying on me?" he pouted and watched as the other boy unwravelled himself from his massive coat. He shook his head quietly while biting his lip.

They both stumbled to their feet, the boy almost slipped over in the mud that now coated both of them from head to foot, but he caught himself on Mike. Mike was all set to be mad at this kid, he had just fallen on him and nearly crushed him, but then he saw his face. He looked so sad.

So Mike grabbed the boy's arms in an effort to look him in the eye but was soon cut off by a scream coming from the other boy's mouth.

Mike quickly let go "what's wrong?" he asked, confused and a little scared at the reaction. "m-my arm" the boy stammered "it's changed shape" The boy pulled back the massive black cloak? It looked sort of like cloak, like those ones with the two trails of material posh men wear to weddings, like tails. That's what it was! a tailcoat! Under the cloak the boy revealed his arm; it was going in a different direction. "Cool, how did that happen?" Mike asked, amazed. I wonder if I can get my arm to do that, everyone at school would think i'm so cool! "I don't know, but it hurts. I think I broke it."


The lights in the hospital were bright and they hurt jacks eyes. He looked around and all he saw was white, he supposed it ought to look clean but it didn't really. This wasn't a very nice place, and it smelt funny. But the doctors were nice, they had fixed his arm because it wasn't supposed to do that and put a big white solid plaster all over it. They had told him he could decorate it with anything he wanted if his parents let him. His parents.

He looked down. Parents. He huffed and jumped down from the hospital bed and padded down the halls in search of the short boy and his tailcoat, swinging the heavy lump of white backwards and forwards. Jack stopped at the end of the pristine hall to peer round the corner. There was a woman filling in a form at the counter in the entrance hall. He went to walk forward but caught himself on the wall. "Oof!" he landed with a puff. Bringing the attention of everyone. Including the woman.

Jack saw the short boy's head pop out from behind the leg of the woman, he looked concerned and was about to help when another boy Jack's age appeared at his side. The boy had brown hair and eyes and as he smiled while bending down to help jack up dimples appeared in both his cheeks. Jack thanked him and introduced himself, as did the boy, who was called Dan. The man and woman, whose attention had been focused on him just a moment ago, had seemingly decided that Jack was not hurt and turned round, ushering the short boy away.

Jack saw the short boy sulk towards him and Dan, with his eyes down and hands behind his back. When he reached them he looked away, then back at him and looked down again. "M-my" he swallowed nervously "My name's Mike." Jack and Dan looked at the squirming boy and Dan giggled, making both of the boys look at him in shock. "Doesn't he remind you of a hamster?" Jack looked at Mike and spluttered out a laugh, making Mike pout. "I'm not a hamster!" he yelled. Dan placed his hand on the younger boy's head and ruffled the hair. Jack stuck out his non-broken arm for a shake, and Mike brought his hand forward and clasped it.

"Jack"

"Mike"

They stood like that for a while until the woman who Mike was hiding behind came up next to them and put a hand on each of their heads. "I'm glad you seem to be getting along" she swung her hair over her shoulder. "Because you two are going to be brothers."

Jack looked up at the woman, confusion written all over his face. "Wha..?"

"The hospital knows about your parents, we overheard and decided we would take you in, if you'd like. My name's Eleanor and this is my brother, Jamie. Our son, Mike offered to share a room with you" Jack was overwhelmed. These people were offering him a home. He hadn't had one of those in so long. "You'd let me live with you, even though you don't know me?" Eleanor smiled and nodded. "The doctors say you have to stay overnight though, but we'll be here in the morning waiting for you." Jack smiled; he didn't know what to say. So he didn't say anything.

"Oh!" She scuttled back to the desk in a hurry and started rapidly talking with the woman at the counter, with the three boys looking on in confusion and Jamie just shaking his head sadly. She rushed back in record time and handed Jack a thick black coat. "Here, you were wearing it when you came in so, you must like it a lot. I know I wouldn't like to lose an awesome tail coat like this!" she presented it proudly in her hands to the shell-shocked boy.

Jack took the tailcoat, flustered but grateful. The hospital hadn't washed it yet and he was glad, it still smelled like his granddad. It was large enough for him to fit it on himself even with the caste and as soon as he had it on he smiled, feeling infinitely more comfortable. It even made the pain in his arm go away a little. His granddad was always good at making the pain go away.


Squirrel looked up at the ancient tree, it had stood in the graveyard for as long as he could remember and long before that. He extended his hands and jumped, settling expertly on a branch several feet above the ground. Hamster looked up, slightly envious; he could climb trees but nowhere near as good as Squirrel could.

Squirrel peered down at hamster's jealous face and laughed at it. He stuck out a hand for him and went to pull him up. "So, when's Dan coming?" he asked his friend as he pulled him up. "He said that he'd come in ten minutes, he just had to sort something out." Squirrel nodded in affirmation. He reached up and grabbed the next hanging branch. "Did he say what that something was?" he asked while heaving himself up. "No." Hamster frowned.

"You really are a squirrel aren't you? Firstly, you climb trees like one and secondly, you hide nuts in your room." Squirrel barked out a laugh "says the one who stuffs his cheeks full of food whenever you eat. And those nuts keep away spiders!"

"That's conker's you idiot!"

"You're the idiot, idiot" Hamster laughed. "What sort of comeback is that?" Squirrel clutched his sides. Hamster always managed to make squirrel smile, as did Dan. He always felt happiest when the three were together. Which they always were, sometimes it felt to Squirrel that the only good memories he had were of the three of them, right from that day they met in the hospital, up to now, and forever after now, he hoped.

"Hey, what're you two laughing at?" the looked down to see Dan's smiling face below them and before Squirrel could answer Hamster yelled down. "We're yelling at Squirrel's obsession with nuts - Ow." He looked up to see Squirrel throwing a nut up and down in his hand higher up. "Do you want Dan to know what you do to conquer your little height problem?" Hamster started crawling up the tree. "Noooo, don't do it Squirrel or i'll never let you borrow my DVD's again." he whined. Dan just chuckled at the performance above him and started making a move to follow.

Dan settled in the tree, which took him a while since he was lo-riding and his jeans were preventing him from climbing easily. It seemed Dan was destined to lo-ride forever: he refused to pull his jeans up for anything. Once he had gained a perch squirrel continued to poke fun at Hamster "it's not my fault i'm so short!" he whined. "I know, and wearing tall hats doesn't make it any less obvious that you are." He mock whined back at him.

"Hey!" Hamster started battering squirrel but squirrel danced away to another branch, he did it so effortlessly, and hamster just scowled. Dan couldn't help but laugh

"Oh, yeah!" Hamster turned around in the middle of tugging on the tails of Squirrel's coat, doesn't mean he stopped. "You said that you wanted to tell us something. So, shoot." Hamster flopped down on the branch opposite, Squirrel next to him. The leaves were whistling around them and there was a sombre silence. There hadn't been one this long since they were nine.

Hamster turned and looked intently at Dan. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked, concerned. Dan didn't look right, his eyes were red and he just looked... sad. "uh, yeah, it's just, um" Dan fumbled for words, unsure how to say what it was he needed to say, he didn't want to say it, but he had to.

"You know you guys are going to Highlock next term, well I… um I got accepted into Rowhurst." Hamster looked at him and then at Squirrel. "That's great!" he beamed.

"You don't get it do you?" The duo just stared at him blankly. "Me getting accepted into Rowhurst means that i'll be moving further north, and we'll probably never see each other again." He started shaking, obviously holding back tears. "Now whose the idiot?" Squirrel flicked him in the head.

Huh? It was Hamster's turn to speak then. "It's not like that'll ever happen. Okay. Next summer, promise you'll come meet us by this tree. Nowhere else. Got it?"

Dan smiled, grateful that his friends were so determined to remain friends, and also grateful that they didn't care that he was going to a 'posh boy' school. "Thanks guys, you have no idea how much i dreaded telling you this." Dan looked down, not wanting to look them in the eye encase he started crying again. "We'll wait here every day for you for half an hour." Squirrel promised, Hamster nodding enthusiastically beside him. Dan grinned, and bought them into a very awkward tree hug.

"Yeah, seeya"

But that summer, Dan never came. Not the summer after, nor the one after that. Eventually Squirrel and Hamster felt that Dan had just forgotten about their promise under the old Oak tree and went to start a new life.


And start a new life he had, Squirrel and Hamster watched as he ran through the doors to ER, panic written all over his face. "Was that...?" Squirrel left the question pending "I think it was" "should we follow" Hamster shook his head. "No, let's let him adjust for a bit, it must be pretty shocking to find your friend this way." "I think they're more than friends Ham" Hamster looked at him quizzically. "Never one for noticing the subtle things are you Ham?"

Hamster looked back at him and sighed, his fingers running through Jessie's hair. "I have to give you that one mate; you were the one that told me to go out with Jess." The secretary pointed over in the trio's direction, Seth and Joe had gone home, and Dan with his friend's came towards them slowly. "Do you think he'll recognise us?" Hamster asked. "Probably not, we've changed a lot more than he has. You know with puberty and all that?" Hamster just looked at him. "Nice, dude." then he looked ahead at the three figures making their way towards them. "Let's call each other by our given names. It'll be easier on Dan and us if he just forgot that promise we made." Squirrel just looked at him for a moment before nodding the affirmative.

"I agree... Mike"

"Yeah... Jack"