Panda Pants

Chapter 2

"Good morning Ephram." Andy said brightly as his son walked into the kitchen groggily. Ephram didn't say anything as he sat on the stool and poured himself some breakfast. Andy waited for a response, but gave up when Ephram started chewing the Frosted Flakes.

"Gigi asked me if you could pick up her homework for her from one of her friends."

"She has friends? Why isn't she staying with one of them then?"

"Because I invited her here." Andy said quietly, hoping that Gigi wasn't listening to their conversation. "Do you want a ride to school, Ephram?"

"No. I'll ride my bike." He said stubbornly, pushing the stool back and walking into the living room.

"G'morning." Gigi greeted, barely awake. "How are you?"

"Fine." Ephram picked up his bag and through it over his shoulder.

"Oh…so I'm guessing your dad already asked you about getting my stuff."

"Yes he did." He said with a sarcastic tone before storming to the front door and slamming it closed behind him. Gigi just stared after him.

"And I thought I was a moody person in the morning." She said under her breath.

~*~

"Good Mornin' Doctor Brown." Edna greeted when he walked into the office.

"Hello." He smiled setting his briefcase onto her desk. "Edna, I might have to check on Gigi a couple times today, make sure she's going well."

"Oh, you mean Franky?"

"I guess so. Is that what people call her?"

"Yup, Franky, Ditz, Gevige." She counted off on her fingers. "Tons of stuff."

"Is she popular?"

"Depends on how you're looking at it. If you mean popular as the clique in school, then no, she's one of the outcast artist types. But if you mean popular as everyone knows her then of course. She's in the newspaper every other week for something, part of the Cross Country team, always doing some community service project, or protesting about something, and she's president of the school's art club." Edna looked down at her hands and shook her head. "Sad thing is, her parents don't seem very proud of her. Most of the time it's 'You could've done better.' They expect too much of the poor girl. Last year was a big downfall for her with the controversy her mural brought."

"What happened there?"

"It featured witchcraft in it, so the school board took paint thinner to it and let another student cover it up with some school spirit thing."

"That's terrible. What was so bad about it?"

"She painted some scene from those Lord of the Rings books, with the Balrog. They thought it looked too much like a devil. And there was some wizard casting a spell. It was magnificent, but there weren't enough supporters of it, just her friends and the art club wanted it to stay. Not many adults cared for it, so the school board didn't care."

~*~

            Ephram walked to his locker and opened it up. Usually Amy was there standing next to it, talking about something that he really didn't care about, but now that Colin was back, she was scarce and wanted to pretend she didn't know him.

            "Ephram! Ephram!" He turned his head to see a girl running down the hall, waving at him. He stood still, too shocked to say or do anything. She came up to him and took a deep breath.

            "You're Ephram Brown, right?" She asked.

            "Yeah…why?"

            "Thank god! When Franky told me to find a purple haired punk, I wanted to slap her. She's one of the most un-talkative people I've ever known." He looked at her confused. "Oh, I'm Tara. Sorry, I usually forget to introduce myself to people." She held her hand out grinning. "Franky called me this morning and asked if I could bring something for her, to give to you. But I can't give it to you know because it's in my locker, and I highly doubt you'd like to carry it around with you all day." She stopped talking and took a breath. "I have to go now though and meet Tri and Trekki. You have lunch the same period as us to just come over and I'll give it to you then. Nice to meet you Ephram and I'll see you later." She shook his hand again and took off walked away, before he could say anything.

            "Okay then…" He said, closing his locker and heading to his first period class.

~*~*~*~

 AN:// There we go. The second chapter is now done. Thanks for the reviews, and to the girl that invited me onto her website! THANKS! I'll update soon, because I have it already written into my notebook. Now only if I could find that notebook.  I own Tri, Trekki, Gigi and Tara, I wish I owned Gregory Smith but sadly his parents have the rights to him. WB owns Everwood, and Tolkien owns Lord of the Rings. Please review and I'll get the next chapter out as soon as possible.