VII.

Every year at Harkness, the classes are reshuffled and resorted again. He's eight this year and in Primary 6 (he'd skipped a year on his scholarship) and Tabitha-May Grant is back in his class again but sat on the opposite side of the classroom this time.

His new seat partner is a boy, with glasses and with a bright shock of blond hair that he keeps puffing out of his eyes. "P-philip Wesley." he introduces himself quietly, in the middle of Silent Reading, fidgeting in his seat.

Percy smiles back easily and answers just as quietly, "Percy Lopez."

"Oh," the freckled boy says, and smiles back cautiously.

He makes eye contact with Tabby across the room. She's leaning on her left hand, the other shuffling lazily through the pages of the book on her desk with a thunderous look on her face that says she's just about done with the chattering girl next to her – who doesn't seem to be noticing the teacher approaching behind her. Tabby rolls her eyes at him when he grins at her predicament, though she looks scarily like a cross between Thalia and Clarisse about to explode on the pigtailed blonde beside her.

Percy huffs a laugh and goes back to his book.

.

Tabitha-May Grant had first appeared in his life on his first day at Harkness. She had wire-tight ringlets askew on her head in an attempt at a ponytail that looked more like an explosion of red than anything else, to be honest. They hadn't really noticed each other that day though, what with all the colours of their new environment and the other twenty-eight people in their class.

Mr Anderson had then gathered everyone in a circle on the ladybug carpet in the centre of the classroom and made them introduce themselves to the rest of the class, one by one, according to who was holding a small cat plushie, named Mr Cat.

Mr Cat made his way slowly round the circle whilst everyone listed their name, their favourite colour and one interesting fact about themselves.

"I'm Tabitha-May Grant." She said, in a loud voice, brushing her curls out of her face, looking not at all nervous by the amount of curious faces gazing back at her. "My favourite colour is green and my interesting fact is that I'm going to be the Prime Minister when I'm older."

"B-but green is a BOY'S colour!" Someone gasped.

Immediately, she whipped around, hair flaying behind her. "Why do colours have to belong to anyone? Are you going to stop colouring in trees green, just because?"

And Mr Anderson had smiled placatingly at her, hand up in the air for silence. "Miss Grant is right, colours don't belong to anyone and it doesn't matter if you're a girl who likes green or a boy who likes pink, we can all share, right?"

There were giggles and nods around the circle and Tabitha-May sniffed, imperiously, "Of course, I'm right!" She muttered.

There were a few more people to go, and Percy was in fact the last one to introduce himself.

"Erm," He patted Mr Cat on the head and then smiled toothily. "I'm Percy Lopez, and I like all the colours!" He hums, trying to think up of an interesting fact. "Erm…" This is hard! He wants to say something different, there's already been lots of people saying when they growing they want to be this, or that, or what their favourite food is… "Oh!" He breathes and sits up. "My best friend's called Dippy and she's a rainbow dinosaur Iguanodon!"

The class makes awed noises, and Mr Anderson smiles at him kindly. "Is Dippy a nice dinosaur? Or a mean one?"

"A nice one, obviously!"

Later, at recess, he grins when the boys at his table all crowd around his green penguin backpack, crowing about how cool it is.

"This is Dippy!" He says, exuberantly and brings her out of his bag. Dippy is fairly big for a toy. Her head is the size of a tennis ball, and made of soft, stretchy, stripy-rainbow nylon and has soft fur on her underbelly – even though he knows iguanodons were never really rainbow coloured or had furry bellies, but Dippy is special clearly. She has two wooden buttons for eyes and her curved tail hangs to his knee, her body is nearly half as big as his torso and really, she's the perfect size for a cuddle.

"That's not a REAL dinosaur." A voice calls from the back.

As one, the whole group seem to turn. Percy scowls. "She is too! Just because she's a rainbow one, doesn't mean-"

"It's not even got sharp teeth!" A boy pushes forward, sweeping brown hair out of his eyes. "I'm Alexander Charles Archibald Gabriel Watson, the third! And everyone knows dinosaurs have to have sharp teeth, anyways, that's a baby's toy!"

"She is not!" He shouts back, hugging Dippy close. "She's a herbivore, so she eats vegetables only anyways! She doesn't need canines! You're mean!"

"No, I'm not!" The boy yells back, taking a step forward. "You're just stupid!"

"I am not!"

"Are too! And you're a baby! A whiny baby!"

Involuntarily, Percy feels his eyes begin to sting. Because, whilst he might have faced monsters before in another life and plenty of mean things happened, Percy is only four and everyone here is bigger than him and probably already six! "I'm not a baby!" He warbles back, feeling the blush rise in his face, "I'm not!"

"Yes, you - !"

Mr Anderson is standing in the middle of the group suddenly, and the whole room has gone silent. Percy sniffs, trying to hold back tears, and it sounds scarily loud in the big classroom. "What is going on here? Mr Watson, we do not call each other names at Harkness Hall!" The teacher says sharply, and eyes them both. "Would someone like to tell me what is going on here?"

Nobody moves.

"I see," says Mr Anderson. "This is the first day of class, so this is your first warning." Around him, the class seems to wilt in relief. "If this happens a second time, I will be calling home to your parents."

Both boys nod seriously.

"Right, recess is over so everyone else head back to your seats, Mr Lopez please put that away and then go sit down."

The group scatters.

"Now, Mr Lopez, I know its your first day at Harkness Academy." Mr Anderson kneels down to his level to help him put Dippy back into his bag. "But do try to get along with everyone."

Percy pouts. "But, Mr Anderson, he said Dippy wasn't a real dinosaur because she was herbivorous! That's just silly!"

The teacher hummed, and helped him zip up the bag. "Well, not everyone knows as much about dinosaurs as you do, so you might have to forgive them for that."

They have tests after recess, mixtures of maths and spelling and reading, to find out their groups for lessons. Percy finds himself thrust into the Purple Group, alongside Tabitha-May Grant and Gregory Chen and Anvi Singh who all look surprised to find him there. Watson is in the orange group.

Anvi smiles and shyly says, "Dippy has all the right proportions for an iguanodon, I think."

"You were right about the herbivore bit!" Gregory grins at him.

"Everyone knows Watson is stupid," Tabitha-May scowls and rolls her eyes, "Besides, it was rainbow and fluffy, so it's appearance was inaccurate anyways."

"Ignore her," Gregory laughs, "She's just bitter we have new person in the Purple Group."

"And he's tiny!" Tabitha-May crosses her arms, "How old are you anyways?"

"Uhm," Percy bites his lip, hoping Mr Anderson will make it back to their group soon. They all seem nice, even if Tabitha's a bit bossy. "Nearly five? Tabi-" And bites his tongue in his haste.

"TABBY!" She hisses, "I am NOT a cat! My name is Tabitha-May, say it after me you tiny midget!"

When Mr Anderson does get back it's to his advance placement Purple Group being more rambunctious than he's ever seen them, and promptly debates switching to part-time work.