Hey y'all. New chapter! In this one, the boys are going to their middle school orientation. They are fourth graders still, but they will be going into the fifth grade the next school year. It's gonna be fun. Happy reading! Enjoy!

The middle school was at least ten times bigger than the elementary school, Logan guessed. That was just from the outside, not even accounting for the line of buses behind theirs, kids filing out by the dozen. He remained firmly planted in his seat. There was absolutely no way he would go through with this whole orientation thing. Not when there were so many other kids, not when the school was so big.

"Come on, Logan," Kendall urged him, pulling him up out of the seat by the wrist.

They had sat together. Carlos and James sat behind them. Maybe their teacher had told them explicitly not to, since apparently, the four boys together was too much chaos. But they sat together anyway, because Logan couldn't sit alone with strangers on a crowded bus without getting all panicky, and it's not like they wanted to sit anywhere else.

"Are we in the same group?" Logan asked, letting Kendall pull him along, since it would be no use if he resisted. James and Carlos were right behind him, in case he needed to literally be pushed into this.

"I think so."

Logan stopped suddenly. He told himself not to, he told himself that he would be fine. But he did it, he pulled away from Kendall, evaded James and Carlos, and shrank in his seat. He buckled the seatbelt around himself, pulling the strap tightly.

"Logie, what's wrong?' Carlos asked, sitting back down with him.

"There's a l-lot of people."

He hated his stutter. And he only ever stuttered over his Ls, which was rather ironic and embarrassing, since his name started with L. He could never say his name when he was nervous.

L-l-l-ogan.

Sometimes he stuttered over the other consonants if he was tired. But he wasn't tired. He was awake, fidgety and nervous. He pulled on the seatbelt strap tighter, wrapping it around his hand, unraveling it, over and over.

"Everybody off!" the bus driver yelled.

Logan jumped. James and Kendall grabbed his arms, dragging him out of the seat. Carlos was knocked to the floor in the process, but managed to stand up again with no assistance.

Kendall and James both flashed smiles at the bus driver, who didn't return them. They were tripping over everyone else's feet. It was quite a challenge to walk down the narrow bus steps when two people were holding a third, and a fourth lagging behind. The four boys collapsed into a heap on the sidewalk as a result.

When they were back on their feet, Logan's worrying became more extreme. They were so close to the school, and so many people were looking at them. Some of the kids were from his school, but the others, the ones looking in the windows, gawking at them, were the middle schoolers.

Logan stared down at the walkway, covered in bird poop. He didn't realize he hadn't moved until James and Carlos, as promised, came up and pushed him up next to Kendall.

"There's a l-l-lot of people," he murmured again, still staring at the ground below him.

"Yeah," Kendall agreed. "Logan, look up."

He did.

Kendall pointed to a few feet ahead of them. "Look, Logan. There's Jenny Tinkler. You know her, she's been in our class for years."

Jenny waved when she saw them, then promptly crashed into a nearby garbage can.

"And," James added from behind him. "You do know us."

Logan nodded. "Yeah, okay."

—

Except, it wasn't okay. Because they had lined up outside the gym, where all the group leaders were. Each group had two leaders, a boy and a girl, who were both in eighth grade. Each group had anywhere from twenty to thirty kids. There was a short woman with red hair reading off each of their names. Another lady, tall with dark hair, directed each kid to their group.

"Kendall Knight?" the woman with red hair asked Kendall, who nodded. "Group C."

He nodded again, smiled at Logan, and walked away.

"Logan Mitchell?" the red haired woman asked him.

He nodded.

"Group D."

"Okay," he whispered.

The lady with the dark hair started to lead him to his group. There were maybe thirty other kids sitting down in a circle. The two group leaders sat in the middle of the circle, telling them to make some more space for Logan. They complied. Logan sat down.

There wasn't any reason to worry yet. Kendall wasn't in his group, but James and Carlos still could be. He glanced around the circle. Not even Jenny Tinkler was in the circle with him. He didn't recognize anybody.

The girl leading the group was making everyone go around and say their names. Logan wasn't listening, he was facing outward, watching James walk to the Group A circle, and Carlos walk to the Group B circle. He was a little bit worried now. What if nobody he knew came?

And Kendall had promised they would be in the same group, but obviously they were not.

"What's your name?" the guy leading the group asked.

"L-l-l-ogan."

He wanted to punch himself. That stupid stutter. And now all the other kids were laughing, and even the group leaders were holding back their laughter.

"Well, L-l-l-ogan, would you mind l-l-leading us to the l-l-lab?" the guy leader asked, smirking.

"There's a l-l-l-ab?

This stutter was pointless.

"Yeah, there's a l-l-l-ab, just down the hall," the girl added. "We're going to stop there l-l-l-ater. For now, we're going to the l-l-l-avatories."

The other kids around him looked confused. Was he the only one who knew what lavatories meant? It wasn't a very difficult word.

The girl laughed harder, and so did the guy. All the other kids were too. Logan wondered how the two leaders got chosen if all they did was laugh at who they took on this tour. It didn't seem very professional. And they weren't even stopping the other kids from being mean. They just weren't good leaders.

He made the executive decision to find his friends as soon as possible.

—

Instead of carrying out his executive decision plan, Logan got a very thorough tour of the boy's bathroom. The white paint on the walls was chipping off. Two of the sinks didn't work at all, one didn't have hot water, one didn't have cold water, and the other one just sprayed out. Logan figured this out the hard way, while using the spray sink. Of course, no one, not even the leader, told him that he was going to get sprayed in the face.

With water in his eyes, he was practically blind. He squinted, trying to blink, but he just felt the same uncomfortable feeling akin to eyedrops from an eyedropper.

Someone pushed him. All the kids were running out of the bathroom, knocking into him. He, consequently, knocked into a nearby urinal, his head slamming against the wall next to it. Now with a pounding headache, his lip wound open, bleeding again, and a wet shirt that clung to him, he wanted to go home.

He just wanted to go home, but he couldn't because his group, Group D, had left him there, holding his head in his hands. His hands were covered in blood, but it's not like he could use the sinks to wash it off because those were all broken.

This was one of the worst headaches he had ever experienced, like his skull was shrinking and his brain was bursting due to increased pressure from the cranium area.

He felt like his head was exploding.

—

Group C, Kendall's group, found him later. The leader of that group had looked at him, then at the list of names in his hand, then counted up everyone in the bathroom. He had asked Logan if he knew which group he was in. Logan had said he did know, he was supposed to be in Group D, but Group D made fun of his stutter and smashed his head against a urinal.

Kendall whirled around before the leader could answer. "What?"

The leader guy tried to make Kendall go back outside, saying he had it handled. But Kendall pushed him aside, claiming that, no, you don't have it handled, I have it handled.

Soon, he could make out Kendall kneeling down in front of him. "Logan, are you going to tell me what happened?"

He groaned out in pain, holding his head. He could feel his face heating up. "I did."

"Don't bite your lip, Logan, it's bleeding again," Kendall said.

Logan didn't even realize it.

He could feel a rough paper towel running over his mouth.

He coughed, gagging, as the blood continued to bleed, and Kendall shoved the paper towels farther into his mouth. Was his whole mouth bleeding? Maybe.

"That's all that happened?"

Logan made a sound of acknowledgement, of agreement, before leaning his head back against the wall again. He feels himself turning, and then Kendall is helping him stand up. He pushes away, but Kendall doesn't allow that, telling him that they're going to the teacher, and then home.

"We can't go home in the m-middle of the orientation," Logan argues.

"Yeah, I think we can."

As it turns out, they couldn't. Kendall's plans usually worked, but this one only halfway.

Logan got to go home immediately after an evaluation from the nurse and a call to his mother. Kendall, however, did not.

It took even more convincing, but James and Carlos too got roped into this situation. Kendall even used their teacher's argument against her: We're causing too much chaos, and I honestly don't think we are mature enough to continue on this trip. And Logan got hurt, so he can sue for mal—

"Malpractice," Logan answered. "No, I can't, this wasn't even—"

But Kendall interrupted him. "See? He doesn't even remember how to sue! His memory loss must be really bad."

It didn't seem like the plan was working.

Kendall kept trying, pulling random bits of words out of the air, words that didn't make sense together. He really wanted to go home, and he really wanted Loganto go home.

Luckily, Logan's mother was watching the whole exchange.

She was the one, and not Kendall, to convince their teacher to let them go home early. Kendall was initially very upset about this, rolling his eyes, muttering things like I could've thought of that.

But really, Kendall couldn't be so mad when he got to spend the rest of the day playing video games at his house with all his friends.

Well, with the exception of Logan, who incriminated himself but saying he could have a concussion, so he couldn't look at screens.

But it was still fun watching Carlos tackle James over the couch. It was especially fun to watch when he knew he wasn't in the line of fire.

Unfortunately for Kendall, his face happened to be.

"Kendall has a concussion!" Carlos yelled, taking a temporary break from pulverizing James.

Kendall did not have a concussion. At most, a minor bruise.

"Kendall, you can't play anymore," Carlos continued. "Since Logan says it's bad to look at screens when you have a concussion."

"I don't have a concussion, you punched me in the face."

And yet, Kendall ended up sitting next to Logan in the corner. The blonde looked mad about it, but immediately forgot about his own predicament to question Logan about his.

It was better than being at that orientation, definitely.

Even if Kendall was being extremely annoying.

Hey y'all. Hope you enjoyed! Sorry the ending might have been bad, I suck at endings! Also, I have literally four different chapters I want to write (two for Minnesota Memoir, two for Sick Logan and Other Oneshots) but my update schedule is going to suck because my schedule is nuts, so I think maybe Sunday will be my update day from now on? Okay, great. Thanks for reading the PSA.

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Have a lovely day!