Chapter 2: People Watching

27th June 1935, London

"Do you think Tom's acting strange?" Cordelia questioned while watching the other children run around the garden. Robbie along with some of the older children had cleaned the garden up, the downpour earlier certainly helped. "Lucy?"

Lucy Henwood stirred and the book covering her face fell to the side as she sat up, rubbing her eyes before she let out a sneeze. "Spring is not for people like me, Delia." She moaned, moving her ash blonde hair out of her eyes, revealing her green eyes that Cordelia envied a little. Even though summer had come, Lucy like her typical self mistook the seasons. It was a silly habit she had, never knowing what season it was until it was too late; she only knew winter and that was it.

"That's not what I asked." Cordelia pouted and Lucy giggled. She poked Cordelia's cheek with Cordelia turning to glare at her. "Lucy. Lu, stop it." Swatting Lucy's hand away from her face, Cordelia ducked her head down once she spotted him in the distance.

Tom was standing near the back door. His eyes scanned the children playing but he paid them no mind. Cordelia wasn't in her room or anywhere inside. He didn't find Lucy either, it meant one thing; Lucy and Cordelia were outside together.

Lucy curiously glanced between her friend and Tom but made no move to hide herself. She waited for a moment before Tom moved out of her vision to call out to Cordelia. "He's gone." Only then did Cordelia come out of her hiding spot. "Why are you hiding from him?" Curiously she eyed her friend and the retreating form of Tom.

For a moment, Cordelia didn't speak, she was watching Tom go back inside before she got up. "Did you say something, Lu?" Honestly, Cordelia could either be the most attentive person or the most absent-minded person. "Oh, right." She clicked her fingers suddenly remembering what Lucy had said. "Tom. Right. This is about him…I'm not hiding from him…I'm just really busy." Her answer was slow and drawn out and anyone with half a brain could tell she wasn't being completely honest.

Lucky for her, Lucy knew when not to press people for answers. She accepted the poor excuse and said nothing more about Tom. Clearly something had happened in the span of a day or two while Riddle was knocked out.

"He is acting strange." Muttered Lucy, answering Cordelia's question from before. She glanced at Cordelia who's attention was on her. "But he's not the only one." She added, getting up and dusting her skirt and then passing her book to Cordelia.

Cordelia let out a nervous laugh. "What's that supposed to mean?" She clearly knew what Lucy meant but she thought she had hid it well.

If she had to be completely honest, she'd tell her what was truly bothering her. It wasn't Mrs Cole's numerous requests or the mere presence of Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop or even Tom—no, it was the strange dreams she had been having since March.

"Nothing." Lucy held out her hand to Cordelia to help her get up. She ignored it but Lucy wasn't the one to give up. "We should get back, we need to set up the table for supper."

Though Cordelia had agreed with her, she didn't budge. Her mind was starting to wander again and she aimlessly looked around the yard when a group of people caught her eyes. Abruptly she stood up and Lucy jumped back in surprise.

"Why's everyone gathering over there?" Cordelia looked at Lucy who scrunched up her face in confusion.

It took her a minute to find what Cordelia was looking at before she realised what was happening. "Dunno, I do see Amy and Dennis—there's Eric there as well. Who knows what they're up to this time. We better get out of here before they do something to get us all in trouble."

"Coward." Cordelia said with a grin and Lucy rolled her eyes, grabbing onto her friend's arm to stop her. "What do you think they're up to?"

"I don't know but I know it's not good; they've never been on their best behaviour."

"True. I don't know why Amy even sticks around with Dennis, he's so…vile. I can't even stand to look at him."

"That's why you ought to stay away from them. Let's go back inside."

Cordelia wasn't the type to look for trouble, in fact, she was the type to avoid it but would always do her best to help when needed. "You can let go, Lu, I'm not stupid enough to go into that…" She stopped when she finally spotted a familiar head in the middle of the small crowd. "Lu, am I going blind or does that look like Tom in the middle of that?" Pointing at the head of dark hair, she looked at Lucy for confirmation.

There was no way it could be Tom. He wasn't confrontational nor did he like talking to people. It didn't exactly help that most were weary of him even the older children like Robbie and Margaret. It couldn't be him.

"Eh…Delia."

"Cor-de-lia." Cordelia was getting sick of correcting people on her name. She didn't like nicknames very much and found it a waste of time, though she'd never admit, she did like 'Cora' out of all her nicknames. Lately, however, it was different. "Honestly, Lu, you know I prefer my actual name to any pet names."

"Forget that. Look!" Lucy grabbed her friend and forced her to look at the crowd. "That is Tom; what's he doing there?"

"Just because he speaks more than two words to me—oh no." Abruptly Cordelia cut herself off and covered her mouth with her hands as a sickening crunch echoed against the yard. Her eyes widened in horror when she noticed Peter, the new child at Wool's had punched Tom without a single warning.

The yard was silent and everyone stood still as if time had stopped. All the laughter was sucked out in an instant before the younger children started crying even though they weren't the ones hurt. Tom, despite being injured, didn't cry. He looked annoyed but not pained or upset.

Before she could stop herself, Cordelia was running across the garden to get the crowd. She pushed her way through the crowd and made it to the centre. Naturally, Amy and Dennis's eyes found her. They had a silly grin on their face and that's when she knew; it was them, they provoked poor Peter to attack Tom.

Cordelia scanned the scene in front of her and that's when she understood. Tom wasn't injured. Though his face was a little beaten up, he was still fine. It was Peter who was actually injured. The poor boy held his bloodied knuckles close to his chest as he sobbed silently. One of his fingers looked oddly out of shape.

The crunching sound was the sound of Peter hurting his hand.

Cordelia sighed in relief. Tom was fine, here she was worrying over nothing. When she looked up, Tom was looking straight at her, ignoring Peter's cries. 'Found you.' He mouthed to her and she froze. She was meant to be avoiding him yet she ran to him. Oh, she was a fool for showing a little concern to him, she really was.

Tom found her. After searching and turning Wool's upside down he found her and he wasn't happy. Lucy shied away, acting as if she was never there and attempted to take her leave. He didn't even move to look at her.

"What on earth is going on here!" Mrs Cole's shrill voice broke the dome of silence in the garden as she stomped towards the crowd. All the children attempted to disperse and get away but no one made it far when Mrs Cole glared at each and everyone of them with the exception being Tom. "Wha—did you two have a fight?"

Amy, all smug and smiling with Dennis mirroring her expression, stepped forward. The two were up to no good again and Cordelia could sense it from a mile away. She tried to understand what the two were going to say before they spoke but she just couldn't read them. "Peter just wanted to talk to Tom—y'know 'cause he's new and all but Tom just started having a go at him."

"That's not what happened." Cordelia spoke without thinking and everyone snapped their heads to look at her. Instantly, she felt self conscious and tried to shy away from their gazes. She hated attention very much. "...I…we all know Tom would never do something like that and I–we all would've heard if there was an argument going on…" She tried to speak while looking around the circle for anyone to back her up.

Tom let out a loud audible breath, reminding everyone he was still there and was the one being accused. "I didn't do anything." He sharply said while glaring down at Amy and Dennis, surprising everyone. It wasn't like him to do something like that. Usually, he'd ignore everyone and walk straight past the crowd and go back up to his room.

"You heard him." Cordelia added. "He didn't do anything." She didn't bat an eye, nearly used to his strange behaviour. He was odd but so was she and she could hardly ask him anything without his own barrage of questions she was desperately trying to avoid.

Dennis let out a laugh. "Oh right. So we should believe him and you, you weren't even 'ere when it all happened."

"I was. I was just over there." Pointing to the willow tree across the garden, she looked back at Dennis. "Like I said, if there was an argument, I'd see it. I know I'm not the only one."

"She's right." A quiet voice agreed with Cordelia. The circle parted and a tall girl with a slightly tanned and freckled face appeared. Her auburn hair was up in a bun and she had a book in her hand. "I was sitting by the fountain, quite close by and I never heard Tom say a word to Peter. Maybe we should ask Peter what exactly happened, not Amy or Dennis."

"Beatrice…" Amy tried to speak but one look from Mrs Cole shut her up.

Taking that as a sign, Beatrice motioned to Peter to tell his side. Cordelia took one look at Peter and the boy cowered away from her gaze. She didn't even do anything. If he was such a coward why did he punch Tom.

Everyone stared at Peter who kept looking back at Dennis and Amy; when those two avoided his gaze, he turned to Eric Whalley. Again, he was ignored. Poor Peter, he was set up by those three. It didn't take Cordelia long to figure it out and she thought Tom didn't know but looking at him then, he knew.

"...I…I…I was the one who said something T-Tom." Stuttered out Peter and Mrs Cole let out an exasperated sigh while motioning to carry on. "I-I didn't mean to. I swear!"

Mrs Cole nodded. Momentarily she was distracted and looked back at the home before turning back to Peter. Cordelia noted, she was still avoiding looking at Tom. "Alright, what did you say to him and be honest or there will be consequences."

Peter became silent and his eyes found Cordelia's. "I'm sorry." He suddenly apologised to Cordelia who was taken aback by the sudden apology. She had no idea how she came into this. "I didn't m-mean to say what I did."

"And what did you say?"

The boy started to tremble and tears started to fall down his face. "...I said to T-Tom that his mum k-killed herself t-than raise him."

A silent hush fell over the entire garden and a few gasps ran through the circle between the silence. Everyone stared at Peter in horror. No one, no one would ever dare to say something like that, let alone to Tom.

Cordelia looked for the sadness in Tom's face but her strange friend looked bored and he was bored. He didn't really care about his mother much. His mother was just a woman who gave birth to him and died, that was it. If anything he loathed her for making him exist because of her selfish desire but Cordelia didn't know anything about that so he pretended to be a little upset when he caught her looking.

Unbeknown to Tom, Cordelia did notice his sudden shift in composure. He was pretending to be upset. She knew that, she saw him watch her before changing himself to react the way she wanted him to. Though she didn't understand why he would do such a thing. It was all so confusing.

Mrs Cole snarled with anger. Her face turned fiery red. "WHO TAUGHT YOU THAT?" She yelled at Peter and the boy started to sob even more. "WHO?" She asked again, looking around the circle. Peter kept shaking his head in denial.

"That's not all he said." Tom's voice was calm but there was a burning anger in his eyes that scared all in the circle when they took their attention off Peter and Mrs Cole and looked at Tom. He was so unfazed by the insult towards his mother and the chilling smile on his face made it all the worse. "Go on, tell them Peter. Tell Mrs Cole what you sai—" He caught himself when he remembered Cordelia was still there. "Nevermind, I think Cordelia should go inside for this—right after you apologise."

"Tom?" Mrs Cole nervously called out to the boy. Tom didn't acknowledge her. He kept his gaze on Cordelia. "Tom?" Mrs Cole called out again to check if it was really Tom in front of her. The boy who was typically detached and calm had just talked back and not only so, he tried to goad another. It wasn't like him.

The old matron trembled a little while muttering something incoherent under her breath. She was ignored by the children but not Tom. Only when she started her muttering did he give her his attention.

Cordelia glanced between the two boys. She brushed off Tom and looked straight at cowering Peter. If what Peter's words to Tom were this cruel, she could already imagine just how cruel he could be to her. She should've listened to Tom and went back inside but she didn't want to. "What did you say about me?"

"Cora, go inside." Tom grabbed her hand and tried to drag her away. Mrs Cole pretended like she didn't see any of that and kept her gaze on the shaking snot-covered and tear stained Peter. "Cordelia."

Pulling her hand out of his grasp, she marched up to Peter. "What did you say about me?" She repeated, staring up at him. "Go on, say it. You were right brave saying it then to Tom, can't you say it now?"

Tom stared at his empty hand that Cordelia left behind and went after her to drag her back. "Cora, go inside and don't argue."

"Cordelia," Mrs Cole called out to her. "Unless you want to be sent to bed without supper and dinner, I suggest you calm down."

Lucy forced herself into the crowd and pulled her back. Cordelia grinded her teeth and pulled herself together to follow her friend.

For once Tom was grateful for her, if only Lucy would take Cordelia inside but he knew she wouldn't or couldn't. "Now then, what did you say about Cordelia, Peter?" Mrs Cole sounded more calmer than before but she looked anything but calm.

Looking around the growing circle, Peter swallowed back his tears. "I-I-I said her parents died because of her and t-that's why her and Tom get along well."

Cordelia paled. Her parents' death haunted her. She still remembered the day all too well. Her kind and smart older sister chattering happily with her, making her laugh one moment and the next, a bright sickly green light blinded her, knocking her out.

When she woke up, she was under her sister's cold body shielded from the outside world. She had to be pulled out of the wreckage. Her parents along with her sister were unmoving, their eyes open in shock. She blamed herself for what happened, if only she didn't ask to go to the Fair that day.

Now she was the one trembling and tears started to fall from her face as she let out loud sobs. Tom took one look at her face and attempted to grab Peter but Robbie quickly jumped in and pulled him back. He instead narrowed his dark eyes towards Peter's cowering form and he swore something terrible

"THAT'S IT!" Mrs Cole howled. "No supper and dinner for either of you boys. GO!"

"I-I didn't mean it." Peter tried to argue but Mrs Cole glared at him. She raised her hand, balled up into fists and quickly put it down when she noticed Peter shrinking away from her.

Mrs Cole breathed in and out, trying to calm herself. She couldn't believe she'd do such a thing as strike a child and she almost did. Carefully, she looked around the crowd before she spotted those two. "Amy and Dennis." Those two looked at each other and then at Mrs Cole. "No supper and dinner for either of you as well."

"But we didn't do anything!" The two attempted to protest.

"Stop lying." Lucy cut them off, she cowered when they looked at her. Cordelia moved to shield her even though she was still crying, she didn't hesitate to protect her friend. "...Everyone can tell you two were up to no good. I even heard you two snickering about earlier in the day."

"Is that true, Lucile?" Mrs Cole ignored the protesting voices and focused her attention on Lucy who nodded. "Well, that changes things. You two ought to be ashamed of yourself. Pushing Peter to do something so…vile while snickering behind his back as he injured and humiliated himself! That doesn't even cover what you made him say to Cordelia and Tom. Apologise to them at this instant."

Amy and Dennis looked at each other and sucked in the humiliation they felt. The two were already plotting. It wasn't like them to go after Tom but after Tom's sudden bout of illness, they thought him to be a target. The two mumbled out an apology that they didn't really mean.

Mrs Cole wasn't satisfied by their behaviour and she quickly ordered them to go back inside where she promised them she would discuss their punishment. The two tried to protest but they quickly shut up.

It wasn't fair. Their punishment was more lax than Peter's. Cordelia scowled and wished Amy and Dennis would get what they deserved. Those two always got little punishment for all the mean things they did to the other children at Wool's.

"Mrs Cole." Beatrice pointed to Tom and Peter. "Should I take them to Martha to get them fixed up?"

"That'll be nice dear."

Beatrice led the two boys inside as the small circle began to disperse. Though Mrs Cole didn't move, she kept her gaze on Tom who was now glaring openly at poor Peter. She had to separate those two soon or something bad would happen soon to Peter.

Without looking back, Cordelia and Lucy hurried to the dining room hand-in-hand. The table was almost set as two of the older girls, Margaret and Fran hurried to set the table. They paused when they noticed the gazes of the two younger children.

"Where are the others?" Margaret asked, looking around. "That Amy, she's skipping her chores again."

"Peggy, Amy's not having supper." Cordelia answered, taking two plates from her. "She and Dennis were punished by Mrs Cole for forcing Peter to say some nasty words to me and Tom."

Margaret nodded, she like the others were unfazed by what happened. After all, it was a usual occurrence at Wool's for Amy, Dennis and sometimes Eric to cause trouble.

What was unusual was that Tom was included as a victim. It was an unspoken rule at Wool's to avoid Tom. Cordelia knew it well too, she herself would stay clear of Tom's sights, occasionally helping him or making small talk but that was the extent of their relationship.

The two weren't exactly friends but they weren't strangers either which made his recent clinginess to her even stranger.

"Can I have an extra serving since Tom, Amy, Peter and Dennis aren't eating?"

Slowing down, Margaret put down the last dish she was carrying and turned to look at Cordelia. She scrunched up her brows and looked down at Cordelia. "My, it's not like you to eat that much." She went back to the kitchen and Cordelia followed her. "You also tend to waste food, remember? Robbie and I had to force you to finish your meals."

Cordelia frowned and cursed Margaret's ability to remember things well. It was true she didn't like eating much and only ate what was needed but she didn't expect Margaret to remember, Martha and Mrs Cole didn't. "Yes, I know but you see I'm really upset and when I'm upset I like to eat…more than usual." She did not. She preferred not to eat at all when she was upset.

"Because of Peter?" Margaret guessed.

"Yes, because of Peter and Amy—I swear she doesn't like me."

Margaret considered her for a second before nodding. "Alright but don't tell Mrs Cole, she might think you're sneaking food to someone."

"I would never." Was what she said; Cordelia was in fact sneaking lunch to Tom. She smiled at Margaret as she loaded up two servings of lunch onto her plate. "Oh and can you tell Mrs Cole and Martha, I'm eating in my room. You see I'm really upset so I don't think I can face everyone later."

"What exactly did Peter say for you to be so upset?"

"He talked about my parents."

Margaret's face fell and she patted Cordelia's head sympathetically. "Go on then, I'll tell Mrs Cole about you—that Peter, can't believe he'd let himself be swayed that easily."

"He's new, you know—he just wants to fit in."

"Yes, I know but still, he can't be that naïve."

But he was.

He was so desperate to fit in that he went ahead and made himself an enemy in Tom. That wasn't Cordelia's business, she would avoid them both after this.

"That for Tom?" Lucy asked in hushed whispers when she noticed her friend coming out from the kitchen carrying extra food on her plate.

Cordelia looked around before making a face to tell Lucy to quieten down. "Are you trying to tell the whole house?" Lucy shrugged. "And no, it's for me. I'm eating in my room, might skip dinner too, not sure."

"Oh." Remembering Peter's words, Lucy nodded. Cordelia was obviously still hurt.

She was but she had already moved past it within minutes. Letting her emotions run down as tears really did help. Being upset at her family's passing wasn't going to bring them back. Though she trusted Lucy, she didn't bother to tell her the truth and instead went up the stairs.

She could hear the quiet chatters of the other children as they all came back inside and rushed to clean themselves up before supper. The muffled sounds of shouting could also be heard through the loud stomping of the children. Mrs Cole was still lecturing Amy, Dennis and Peter. She didn't stick around and went past the second floor where her room was to the third floor.

The third floor was much quieter than the second and it was home to only three: Tom, Robbie and Lucy. Before Jane was sharing a room with Lucy but after she was picked up by a family, Lucy was all alone, much like Cordelia when Katie Brown, another one of her friends, was picked up by a wealthy couple from Cornwell, leaving her all alone.

Unlike Lucy, Cordelia welcomed being left alone. Her room was already tiny as it was and though she missed Katie, she was happy being able to move around a little in her room without Katie's massive trunk of clothes blocking the door from opening completely.

Cordelia stopped outside a lone door at the end of the corridor. Tom's room. It was eerily silent, no laughter, chattering or stomping of feet could be heard from here. She shuddered thinking how quiet it was and she didn't know he wasn't scared by the overwhelming silence.

Sucking in a deep breath, she knocked twice. No one answered. She didn't want to speak. Hesitating for a minute, she wetted her lips and knocked again. "...Tom?" Carefully, she called out. "It's me, Cordelia."

The door was thrown open within seconds of her speaking and she was pulled inside with the door being shut behind her. Tom was standing in front of her with a quiet angry look, somehow it scared her. She swallowed her fear and held up the plate with the food and the spare plate along with the spare cutlery she 'borrowed' when Margaret wasn't looking.