Hey y'all! So, if I end up getting this uploaded tonight (1/14/22) then technically, does this count as a triple update? Because I updated Sick Logan and Other One-Shots twice today (Big Time Grump, Big Time Vacuum) and I've been sitting on this story idea for a while now, ever since I read other stories of how the guys met. And I was like, that's all well and good but then, I watched Big Time Merchandise and I was like, how the heck did the boys bully Logan, and why does Logan not, like, address them. He just says, those guys, like he doesn't register that it's Carlos, Kendall and James did all that. Anyway, story idea was born. It's not a one shot book, it's consecutive plot, but I still haven't figured out how I'm structuring this. I'm thinking two chapters for each year, maybe actually four, for each season of the year, up until the day before the audition. Sounds good? Good.
Probably heavy Jagan friendship, like I mentioned in the description. Kogan maybe too, but like, I'm in an eternal Jagan mood after I uploaded Big Time Signs. There's probably a bit of Cargan. And it's mostly Logan centric, but I'll probably address major events from all the boys' lives that are canonically addressed, like James's parents divorce, Kendall's dad (oh wait, nobody says a word about Kendall's dad over the whole course of the show! I'm pretty sure the words Kendall and dad were never uttered in the same sentence. Does Jennifer even remember the man with whom she had two children? The most canon information I have is that this guy was out of the picture by the time Katie was 3. By death, or what? They simply don't speak of him. It bugs me.)
Shoot darn, sorry for that rant. Scott Fellows, man, please, did Mr. Knight just spontaneously combust? I'm sure that must have been traumatic for Kendall, Katie and Jennifer Knight, but we'll never know because they never tell us a thing about him!
Also, where the heck is Logan's dad. We met his mama, but I already infringed on my don't break canon code with Joanna Mitchell. So, where's his father? Nowhere.
Also, isn't it weird that Logan only gets his name changed to Logan when they still look, like, fourteen or something. I might break canon code with this too and move it up, because Logan is such a better name than Hortense, I do agree with Mrs. Diamond on that.
Sorry about that too! Anyway. Onto the chapter, which takes place on the first day of third grade. Forgive me if I get the technology wrong, or the whole concept of third grade wrong. I was not in third grade in 2003, and it has been a while since I was in third grade, period.
Happy reading! Enjoy!
Hortense Mitchell mutters to himself nervously as he walks into the classroom, shouldering his small blue backpack. He sets it on the floor next to his desk, the desk that has a little name strip sticker that looks like notebook paper. In capital letters, carefully written in black Sharpie: HORTENSE.
It's too harsh, he thinks. Written in capital letters like that. He doesn't like his name much, but at least it looks better when his mom writes it in loopy cursive on the notes she leaves around the house. They're notes usually telling him that she's sleeping, napping, resting her eyes. He doesn't like that very much, but he does like the loopy cursive.
They're supposed to learn cursive this year! And fractions, and long division, and the three states of matter. But he knows nothing would impress his mom more than writing in cursive. His mom isn't very good at math, anyway. Hortense doubts he'll be able to write the loopy letters as well as his mom, but he's excited to try. Maybe he'll write her notes around the house too. He can't use her real first name though. Joanna. The only time he called her Joanna, it was because he was practicing his reading. He was reading off an envelope, which she had taken out of his hands and opened in secret.
Hortense glances at the other two desks beside him. The name strip sticker on the desk to his left says JENNY. But, no fair! Jenny got her name written in loopy letters. On the desk to his right, there's a name strip sticker with the name KENDALL. Kendall doesn't get loopy letters. Kendall gets capital letters just like Hortense. Maybe only the girls get loopy letters.
That would make sense. Hortense might be the only boy in the world who likes cursive.
—
By snack time, it's very clear that no one is going to talk to him. He is eating his healthy snack first, the carrots, which he packed for himself reluctantly, knowing his mother was too sleepy to care. But he also knew that if his mother somehow did get out of bed and come down the stairs, she would not be happy to see him packing only chocolate chip cookies for snack time. Hortense finishes the carrots off as quietly as possible. He's well aware of how loud the crunching of the carrot sticks sound. He digs around in the bottom of his lunchbox, coming up with nothing. He must have forgotten them. Maybe his mom will think it's a treat for her and eat them. The cookies won't go to waste. Hortense frowns. But he sure wished he hadn't forgotten the cookies anyway.
After snack, the teacher allows the boys and girls to buddy up in order to use the bathroom. There are three other boys going to the bathroom, and it's once again, very clear, that no one wants to buddy up with him.
"Kendall, isn't that mean?" one of the boys in the group of three asks. He's wearing a helmet, securely strapped to his head. "Papi says if you do that to a police officer, you go to jail."
"Relax, Carlos," this blonde boy that must be Kendall, answers him. "It's just a dare, just for fun. And Hortense isn't a police officer."
At the mention of his name, Hortense stiffens, biting his lip.
"Hi," one of the guys from the group says. Not Kendall or Carlos. He has brown hair that's sort of wavy. It's longer than Hortense's, for sure. Down to his shoulders. "I'm James," the long haired guy says. "Bathroom buddy?"
"Hi, James," he replies, stuttering slightly. Kendall and Carlos and James are planning some dare that involves him. It scares him. "I'm Hortense."
"What kind of name is Hortense?" James asks, laughing.
"It's, um, a French girl's name, meaning 'of the garden'" Hortense blurts out, automatically reciting what he had read in some name-dictionary, when he had been curious about his name. He wasn't curious anymore. It takes him a second to realize what he's actually told James, who, understandably, laughs harder.
James relays this newly acquired information to Kendall first, who smirks at Hortense and completely cracks up. Soo, Carlos knows too, and all three are laughing their heads off as they walk to the bathroom. They're still laughing and whispering about it as they walk back to the classroom.
It takes one minute. James was lagging behind a bit, and then Hortense sees Kendall make a sort of flicking hand motion. Carlos is standing in front of Hortense, a toothy grin spreading wide across his face. And James pantsed him. Right in front of the whole class.
Hortense blinks, his face already ablaze with embarrassment. He quickly tugs his pants back up, turns, and runs back to the bathroom. He can hear the three boys laughing at him, even as he locks himself into a stall and then unlocks it, sitting against the wall instead. He hugs his knees tightly, biting his lip as he tries to remember how long the school day is.
They had snack at around ten-thirty, and school ended at 3:45. Only five hours and fifteen minutes left.
Hortense starts pulsing his feet back and forth, flexing and unflexing, in an attempt to calm down. It is not working, but now he can't stop, so he doesn't. He counts each minute as it goes by, slower and slower. The pulsing helps him keep a steady counting pace while he counts out loud, but it doesn't do much else. Still, he can't stop. He can't get up and go back out there to the classroom, where everyone saw him in his underwear. He can stay in a bathroom for five hours and ten minutes more, right? He could maybe request to be placed in a different class? Report Kendall and James and Carlos to the principal for bullying? No, not for bullying. This has only been one instance. It's only been the first day of school. No one would believe him.
It's been ten minutes.
Five hours left.
—
There are four hours and fifty-seven minutes left of the school day when someone else walks into the bathroom. It's James, the long haired boy from earlier. He doesn't actually go to the bathroom, Hortense notices. He goes up to the sink to look in the mirror to fix his hair. He doesn't even see Hortense sitting there. Not at first.
James hears the counting eventually, because he turns and looks at Hortense carefully, studying him. "Crying is bad for your skin," he says. "My mom says it dries out your face, and that's why she makes revitalizing facial cream."
Hortense shakes his head. Mentally, he's telling James to go away, but physically, he's still pulsing his feet back and forth and rocking against the wall. He's counting quietly to himself, but loses his place, and consequently his rhythm, when James keeps talking.
"Hortense? I think I should go and get the nurse."
Hortense makes the most distressed sound he can manage. Which is quite distressed. He can't have his mom find out about this. James wasn't supposed to find him in the bathroom unable to control himself and calm down. None of this was supposed to happen. Hortense and his mother weren't even supposed to move from Texas to begin with.
James does not go and get the nurse. He stares at Hortense longer, then sits down across from him. "I think if you cry more, you're going to turn your whole face red."
Without warning, James grabs Hortense's feet. Hortense twitches, flinching away.
"Hortense, you're going to hit your head against the wall if you keep rocking back and forth."
This does not sound terrible. But James continues. "And–And then you'll get a big purple bruise or some gross welt on your head like in cartoons."
Hortense thinks about this. He wouldn't have a welt that looked like the ones in cartoons, because cartoons were unrealistic. But still, his mom would worry. He doesn't want his mom to worry.
James smiles shyly when Hortense stands up from the wall. "I'm sorry, Hortense."
"I—"
"It was Kendall's idea, just because one of the last times we had a new kid, they kept making fun of Carlos, and Kendall wanted to make sure you weren't like that. He thinks you aren't, he's trying to scare you."
"You—you pulled my pants down. Not Kendall."
"Well, yeah, because Carlos wasn't going to. He thinks we'll go to jail now. And Kendall wasn't going to do it either, because he's the one who gives all the signals."
"You might go to a juvenile detention center,' Hortense joked, but James couldn't tell. "I'm joking. You can moon a police officer, but that's a bit different, so Carlos is kinda right."
James's eyes widened. "Carlos was right?"
Hortense nodded.
"Hortense, do you want to sit with us at lunch?"
He shook his head. "Kendall might do something else."
"Don't worry, he's done. He'll like you, especially if you like hockey. Do you play?"
"Hockey?"
James gasped. "You don't play? I bet you'd be fast. Come on, we have to teach you. Now."
Hortense lets James drag him out of the bathroom back to class. As promised, at lunch, they sit together, talking about hockey, or, more importantly, how Hortense doesn't have a clue how to play. This issue, like James predicted, needs to be resolved immediately. The four boys are in agreement: all their moms are going to call each other, everyone is going to drive to Kendall's, and they're going to start off with some basic floor hockey, since the pond hasn't frozen over for winter yet.
Hortense can't wait until the pond freezes over.