A/N: Just to tell you, Niner Freshman.
--- ---
Two large, slightly hairy feet belonging to a very tired 15-year-old boy came thumping down the stairs. It was 7:15 a.m. and he was forced out of his soft, comfortable bed for his breakfast.
"Freddie!" A woman's voice screeched from the kitchen. "Hurry up! You don't want to be late for the first day of school!"
"I know," he mumbled. He rubbed his eyes, which were usually big and blue when he was properly awake, and ran his fingers through his curly hair. "What's for breakfast?"
As Freddie Burgins ate his eggs and toast, he thought of what could be in store for him in his second year of high school. Almost immediately, an answer came to him from the back of his mind. He knew he would still get picked on by the bullies and jocks because he was such an easy target. Sure, he wasn't a niner anymore, but being 15 years old and not even reaching close to five feet tall tended to make him a liable target. This and many of his other unique attributes.
Just as he was starting on his glass of milk, a news report came onto the radio, which his mother always turns on in the morning.
"Many reports have been made in the countryside of an unusual phenomenon," the reporter broadcasted. "There have been several eyewitness accounts of 'moving trees'. Strangely enough, people have been saying that some of their trees move from place to place. Because there have been no videotapes or digital recordings of these walking trees, officials are dismissing this spectacle as a result of impaired perception.
"On a similar note, one Dr. Gabriel Lewis reports that she has uncovered evidence of a culture dating back to before or when recorded history began. She believes that this ancient culture had lived in the trees, but was not simians. Again, no hard evidence has been produced and this too is regarded in harsh criticism..."
Freddie laughed. "Walking trees and ancient humans that live in them. Man, the news today..."
"Freddie..." His mother stared at him over her coffee mug.
"I'm going, I'm going."
He dressed himself with some new clothes, grabbed his bag and his keys, said good-bye to his mom and ran out the door. He met up with his best friend, Samuel Gamlin. They first met each other when they were children at the local day care center and have been close friends ever since. In their high school life, they often got shoved into adjacent lockers together. Their friendship strengthened when they both stopped growing at around 4'9" and when they became close friends with Martin Bridgewater and Peter Townsend, who were also vertically challenged. The two other boys were cousins of Freddie, so he had already know them since they were born. In school, they rarely saw each other because their classes were usually far apart. Freddie hoped that this year would be different.
"Took you long enough, Fred," Sam greeted him as they started to walk to school. Their high school, S. J. Carnil School was within their walking distance. "I've been waiting here for half an hour, you know."
"Bullshit," retaliated Freddie. "I'll bet you weren't even waiting for five minutes."
"That seems like half an hour when you're waiting for someone to get his ass out the door so you don't get into trouble with Topping for being late." Samuel, commonly known as Sam, was usually a nice guy to the majority of the student body. But, Freddie always had the honour of hanging out with his smart-ass side as well. In addition, Freddie was the only person he would be obnoxious to. He was careful with his words and gentle to all kinds of life. That's probably why he was constantly stuffed into his locker during his lunch period.
Once they got to their high school, they were directed into the Upper Gym to find their homerooms. They looked through the various homeroom papers taped to the walls until they found their names.
"Look at that," Freddie remarked. "We're in the same homeroom. History class."
"What about Marty and Pete?"
"I don't see them on the list," he answered dejectedly. "Oh, well. Hopefully, we'll have some classes with them."
"Yeah, we'll need all the help we can get if we want to survive this year," Sam said. "Who the hell is Mr. Whitergray?"
"He's new here," a voice came from behind them. It was Aaron Strickland. Freddie and Sam knew him because he often helped to the two boys out of their lockers. They suspected that he had memorized their locker combinations by now. They were two of the few people who would talk to Aaron without thinking there was something seriously wrong with him. Nobody knew why, but Aaron was constantly surrounded by controversy because of his unseen, but sensed, abnormality. But, to Freddie and Sam, he was a perfectly nice guy. Aaron added, "I'm in his homeroom, too. So's Leo."
Leo, who's full name is Leonardo Grayfield, was another odd one. Although he was exceptionally good at athletics, he also had something weird about him. He wasn't a bad student, but his mind often wandered in class. He was very well known around the school for his handsome face and his long platinum blond hair. He and Aaron were most likely the two boys that the girls secretly had a crush on in the entire school. But, because of their lack of popularity, they were often uninvited to parties. Leo had a cousin the their school named Aiden.
Freddie looked around the gym. "Where is he, anyway?"
Aaron shrugged and grinned. This caused many girls nearby to drool and many guys to scowl. "I'm not completely sure, but I think I know why. I called him last night to remind him about school and he told me that his parents made him do something that he really didn't want to do."
"Oh?" Sam's eyebrows went up. "What'd he do?"
Aaron merely smirked and said nothing.
It was almost 8:45a.m. so the three boys went to class together. When they got to the classroom, they expected to see a young man fresh from teacher's college. Instead, Mr. Whitergray was an old man, well into his seventies, but was surprisingly as healthy as any one of the students. Under his wrinkles and silvered beard, the students could tell that he was a kind man. However, the stacks of books and papers on his desk told them that they should expect a lot of work from him.
"Whoa," Freddie said after sitting down in a desk next to Sam's.
"What?"
"Déjà vu. I know I haven't met Mr. Whitergray before, but I feel like we have."
"You got that feeling too?" Aaron asked. He sat behind Sam. "Good. I'm not the only one who's crazy, then."
"I would've said both of you were going nuts if I didn't get déjà vu, too," added Sam.
They pondered over this for a few minutes, until the bell rang, signalling the start of the school day. The class was filled, all except for the seat behind Freddie, which now belonged to Leo.
"Good morning, class," the wizened teacher began the day. "My name is Mr. Whitergray, and yes, I am new here at S. J. Carnil. Before I start class, I would like to take attendance. Lewis Anderson?"
"Here," a boy answered.
"Jose Araujo?"
"Here."
"Frederick Burgins?"
"Here, sir. But, I'd prefer if you'd call me Freddie, though."
Mr. Whitergray looked at him for a moment, as if he reminded the man of a forgotten memory. However, the look disappeared as quickly as it came and he continued with the roll call. The same expression showed up when he called Sam's name. Again, he continued as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Leonardo Grayfield?"
As if on cue, Leo burst into the classroom, out of breath and came to a stop by Whitergray's desk.
"I'm here," he panted as a bead of sweat rolled down from his temple. "I-- whew. I accidentally slept in. Sorry."
The class laughed at the exhausted teenage boy. Freddie couldn't help but wonder why Leo had a hat on. He simply couldn't remember when the last time Leo actually wore a hat.
"Since it's the first day of school, Mr. Grayfield, I'll overlook it. But, I'll have to ask you to take off the hat."
"M-my hat, sir?" Leo stammered as he sat down behind Freddie.
"Yes, your hat. It's against school regulations."
Leo bit his lip and immediately put on his puppy-eyes. "Please, sir? Can't I leave it on just for today? It's only a half day, anyway."
Aaron rolled his eyes in disbelief. He muttered, "it's only the first day of school and he's already begging the teachers..."
Mr. Whitergray gave in and continued the roll call once more. When he got to Aaron's name, he stopped completely. Something in his eyes lit up, like something in his mind awakened after being dormant for an extremely long time. His brow furrowed as something else came to mind. "Grayfield and Strickland...you two don't happen to be related to the big law firm downtown with your names, do you?"
At this, the two boys flushed and nodded. Leo spoke up, "Our dads founded and own the company."
"Yeah, those two are pretty loaded," interrupted Lewis. "A pretty good chunk of the town don't really like their families. And, no one here does anything 'cause everyone's afraid that they'll go off crying to their daddies. That's probably why Leo here wins all those archery competitions; everyone's afraid that they'll get sued for winning."
He laughed nastily with the rest of the class and poked Leo at the back of his head. Leo blushed even harder and clenched his fists.
Amid peals of laughter, Freddie distinctly heard Aaron say something that definitely wasn't English. He listened more carefully to his words.
"Nostasiidh, meldir," he said. "Nostasiidh."
Leo relaxed his fists and the colour of his face returned to normal. He muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "Hennaid, Aaron."
After the laughter died, class resumed as normal as the first day of school could be. The locker numbers and schedules were handed out, the usual first day pep talk was made and, pretty soon, the bell rang at noon to let the school out. Mr. Whitergray had already given them their history textbooks, so Freddie went to his locker to drop it and some notebooks off and put on his lock.
As he threw his history textbook onto the shelf, he felt a small hand on his back and it shoved him into his own locker. He heard the lock click outside as someone leaned onto the door.
"Comfy, Fred?"
"Marty, you better let me out," he threatened.
"Or what?" Marty laughed. "You'll sic Sam on me?"
"No, I'll tell your mom about your little escapade with Pete in the park with your brand-new pair of rollerblades. I don't think she'll like to hear about that."
Marty opened the locker and glowered at Freddie. "You're evil, you know that, right?"
Freddie stepped out of his locker. "Yeah, of course. You just noticed that now?"
Marty grinned and turned to walk away, but he came into contact with something very solid.
"Watch it, fucker! Oh, it's one of YOU, isn't it?" Marty's eyes widened as he recognized the wall he had bumped into as Jack Saunders, the school's elected asshole of their grade. His football player build was very useful in harassing those he felt like harassing. Coincidentally, he usually chose Freddie's little group.
"Why don't you ever watch where you're going, shrimp?" Jack raised his voice so everybody would know what was happening. He pushed poor Marty so hard that he fell onto the floor. "Aw, did the little baby fall down?"
He grabbed Freddie, who was helping Marty get up, and he grabbed Marty by the collar and proceeded to toss them into Freddie's open locker. But, before he could, a voice rang out through the hallway.
"Hey! Lay off, man. Pick on somebody your own size." Leo had just turned the corner and stopped Jack out of the goodness of his heart.
"You mean somebody like you?" Jack's eyes narrowed with menace.
Leo grinned. "I doubt we're close to the same size, but yeah, somebody like me."
"You're asking for it now, buddy." He dropped his two hostages and rolled up his sleeves. He swung his fist to hit Leo, but a hand shot out from nowhere to stop it.
"It's the first fucking day of school," the hand's owner said to him. "You WANT to get suspended this fast?"
Boris Donnolly was a close friend of Jack's and sometimes participated in bullying others. But, whenever Freddie saw him without his gang, he always had a sad, almost ashamed, expression on his face. When he was with his gang, however, his icy eyes were hard and stoic. At times, Freddie couldn't help but pity him.
At Boris' words, Jack put his fists down and unrolled his sleeves. He scowled at Leo and jabbed a finger at him.
"This isn't over, Grayfield," he snarled. "I don't care if I get slapped by a lawsuit; one day I'll shove one of those shafts so far up your butt you'll be seeing your own feathers." With that, he stormed down the hall with Boris following closely.
"I'll be waiting," Leo said coolly, unaffected by the threat. He made sure that Freddie and Marty were okay as the hallway resumed its usual chatter and movement. Once he was satisfied that they were fine, he said good-bye and went to find Aaron. "Bye, Marty. See ya, Frodo!"
Freddie whipped his head around to ask him what he had just called him. But, Leo was already swallowed by the sea of students.
"Did he just call you...Frodo?" Marty asked.
"Yeah, I think he did," he answered. "Weird thing is, it felt right..."
--- ---
"Nostasiidh, meldir" "Be at peace/calm down, friend."
"Hennaid, Aaron." "Thanks, Aaron."